WindsurfingUK Issue 6 March 2018 | Page 10

10 COLUMN ZARA & PETE DAVIS DAVIS LOWDOWN WINDSURFING ACCORDING TO PETE AND ZARA DAVIS Pete: Since last issue both Zara and myself have been to Luderitz in Namibia. Zara managed to win back her women’s 500m world speed record, which is fantastic. I just wanted to say how proud I am of her achievements, she works very hard and it’s fantastic she’s reaping the rewards. One of my very pleasurable responsibilities with the UKWA is organising the annual nominations and voting for the UKWA ‘Windsurfer of the Year’. We are extremely lucky to have a real depth of windsurfing talent here in the UK. This does make it tough to pick the nominees from slalom, speed, wave, freestyle and racing. Nomination alone is highly regarded. The award has been running for over 20 years and is highly desirable especially as you can only win it once! 2017/18’s quality line up that went on to the public vote to decide who lifts this prestigious trophy, was no exception. Ross Williams (slalom): without doubt our most successful slalom racer of all time. Jim Crossley (speed): the quiet speedster who is one of the fastest windsurfers in the world. Adam Lewis (wave): number five in the world and lifted the sword at Tiree this year. Nik Hibdige (freestyle): the rising star of British freestyle and this year’s winner Emma Wilson (racing): Youth RS:X World Champion for the third time and following in her mum’s (Penny Wilson) footsteps to Olympic success. The achievements of these guys and girls makes me so proud to be part of the vibrant and talented British windsurfing scene which produces such quality sailors who fly the flag for our small island around the world. With success in mind I believe we all need to keep windsurfing in the Olympics to safeguard the future of our sport. If you can find the time sign the partition on Change.org and help to keep windsurfing in the Olympics for 2024 then please do so. Zara: I am very humbled to have received so many compliments and congratulations on getting my women’s world record back. Achieving the record this time I certainly felt like I had uk WIND SURFING Zara Davis is the current Women’s Speed world record holder and sponsored by O’Shea, Simmer, Sonntag, AL360, Synergy Worldwide and Walnut Grove Clinic. Hubby Pete works tirelessly behind the scenes for the UKWA and organises the yearly Weymouth Speed Week as well as being an accomplished windsurfer himself really accomplished something. When I broke Karin Jaggi’s record for the first time in 2012 it was a great accomplishment and proved that my mile record back in 2006 was not a fluke. However, Karin was not there to defend her record and it was on the then, a newly constructed canal at this innovative spot in Luderitz. I knew there was more to come and I went back in 2013 to see if I could go faster but didn’t get the conditions and it was not to be. This event is not cheap, the cost is considerable and you have to commit at least a month to give yourself the best possible chance of getting the right conditions and there is always the risk to life and limb hurtling down a narrow canal at over 50 mph with no brakes. So I decided not to go back for a few years. In some ways Karin breaking my record and taking it back was the incentive I needed to try again. This record consequently feels much more of a result for me, as in lighter winds than Karin had, I managed to beat her. Not by a huge margin by any means, only 0.18 of a knot to be precise, but is this not what breaking records is all about? Not by huge advances but they are accomplished by pushing hard at tough existing records and at the same time leaving the door open for other women who are looking at this sport and thinking it’s possible and stepping up and having a go. Records are as they say, are there to be broken. I hope that my performance and the other girls who put it on the line this year at Luderitz and set new national records encourages more girls to have a go at speed sailing. Come on girls get yourself a GPS and get out there and lay down some speeds.