Gonzalo Costa Hoevel from Argentina has been in the racing game for many years. The last weeks he has been competing in the PWA World Cup in Japan and South Korea. He won the Foil World Cup in Japan, which got him closer to his dream of becoming Foil World Champion. Read the interview with our team rider Gonzalo.
How did you get introduced to windsurfing?
My father used to race sailing boats. On a windy day he saw some windsurfers blasting around the boat and decided to take lessons together with my oldest brother. We were very lucky that the instructors were involved with windsurf racing, so both my father and brother started competing straight away. Later my dad introduced it to the rest of our family. It became the weekend activity for us for the rest of our childhood.
We became part of the Argentinian youth teams and competed in the Youth World Championship every year. I became the Mistral Youth World Champion in 1997 in Sopot in Poland.
After that I went into formula and started competing internationally in 2000. With some good results I got payed mainly by Starboard to do some big events in Europe. That was the beginning of my international career.
How was your 2017 season and what are your plans and goals for 2018?
My 2017 season was super busy! Beside competing I’ve been very involved with the R&D of the boards and sails. In 2017 we had an even busier year with the whole introduction of foiling.
Regarding the events I had some good ones and some bad ones. The highlight of the year for me was when foiling became part of the international windsurfing circuit.
Winning the PWA foil event in New Caledonia was also great! For 2018 I will like to fight for the podium in all the PWA foil events.
Happy with the result of the race foil after all the hard work?
The last years were super exciting! When I learned to foil a couple years back, I was a bit worried that this new magical feeling of flying over the water was not really for everybody. It seemed to be super technical, and that your level of windsurfing had to be very high. But after some good and intensive R&D work with Starboard, we managed to launch not only a super fast and winning foil, but a super easy line too. To learn to foil is much easier now.
Regarding our racing program, I´m very happy indeed. We managed to finish 1st and 2nd on the overall podium last year. I was tied in points for 1st place with Antoine Questel.
It looks like formula windsurfing will have a great push by foiling too. A lot of formula lovers that disappeared from windsurfing, will come back because of foiling. I am looking forward to rest of the 2018 events!
How does a week of training look like?
During the off season I normally hit the gym three times a week. I focus on gaining strength and preparing my body for the long year ahead. These days there are many training camps around Spain, in the Canary Islands (Tenerife and Lanzarote) and a big one in Tarifa, where I live. I take part of that every time it happens. A lot of good riders are around, so it´s a great way to get ready for the PWA tour. When the season starts I focus more on the time I have on the water testing my gear.
Who is your biggest inspiration?
A lot of knowledge and inspiration was given to me by a lot of different people, so it´s hard to name just one. Most of my inspiration comes from the diversity of all the wonderful people I’ve met in my life.
I would say I had “two periods” of inspiration. From growing up it was my physical coach in Argentina (Daniel Bambicha) and many Argentinian Olympic sailors who won many medals (Santiago Lange, Camau Espinola, Juan de la Fuente). I have shared hours of gym sessions and adventures with them in my early days of sailing.
And from a “different time” I am inspired by many windsurfing riders, designers and owners of brands such as Svein Rasmussen and Phil McGain.
All of them are my daily inspiration.
