16 x World Champion Sarah-Quita Offringa, known as the Queen of Windsurfing, sent us a short summary from her last months on the road. Test yourself and see if you can keep up with all the traveling.
Words by Sarah-Quita:
The past 5 months have been so exciting and fun!
Here’s a quick recap. See if you can keep up:
Last time I wrote I was off to Corsica for the Neilpryde photo shoot.
Since then I have competed in Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Tenerife, flew back to Gran Canaria to catch an awesome swell, travelled to London for Notting Hill Carnival, drove up to Norway the next day with my cousin for Oda Johanne’s windsurf festival, competed in slalom in Denmark, visited Hanstholm (North Denmark), went back up to Norway for some outdoor fun, before coming back down to Sylt to compete in waves, did a flash visit at Brouwersdam for DamX and then flew to Aruba for 4 days. And as I’m writing this I’m at the gate in San Francisco waiting for my flight to Maui for the last event of the year.
Did you get that? No? That’s okay, it’s been a blur to me too.
Let me break it down below:
CANARY ISLANDS
So, after Corsica I spent a lot of time in Gran Canaria to train and ultimately I finished third at the contest. I was okay with my sailing but that third place left me hungry for more. Having said that, the weeks leading up to Gran Canaria were epic having a training partner in Oda Johanne and later also Maaike Huvermann.
Our evening sessions were the BOMB. As well as our CrossFit sessions at Exit 23.
So, in the end, I felt like I really enjoyed the process of training and enjoying my time in GC. It was a blast with the right people around.
After GC I took the ferry to Fuerte with Oda and Alexa, I think we stacked 6 board bags on that car by pure willpower. I had one really memorable session at center 2, it was lit! Then I won my 12th World Title in freestyle there, grabbed the ferry back to Pozo with Oda, again we made it there by pure will power. 5 bags on the roof, pulled over twice by the cops, but we made it. No fines. Then straight to Tenerife where I finished third. Again. Not where I wanted to be, but happy with my sailing, before getting Ricardo Campello to transport me and all my excess baggage (I’m not sure I’ll ever learn to travel light) to Pozo for probably the 3 most awesome days of waves of the whole summer. Finally, after 3,5 months of Canarian madness, I flew back to Europe.
EUROPE
Then I treated myself to the Notting Hill Carnival in London with Thali and an awesome group of happy and energetic Arubans. Was I even in London?! What an awesome Caribbean vibe.
A day later from Holland I drove up to Norway with my cousin Sandy to Join Oda and Håkon for the 3rd edition of Oda’s windsurf festival. We had awesome weather and about 90 participants!
After that, we did pretty much every outdoor thing Norway has on offer (except the weird skiing on asphalt thing… Hahaha). What an adventure place. Hiking, mountain biking, indoor skydiving, electric biking. Fun cyan’t done!
Then, team Oda & SQ grabbed the ferry back to Denmark to compete in slalom at Hvide Sande, which was an absolute blast. I didn’t expect it to go as well as it did, so I’m chuffed having won that contest. We had such different conditions every day and there were a couple of intense races. My sails and boards were a dream to sail on! My favorite combo was, as usual, the 7,8 and medium board; iSonic 72. BUT I also loved the stormy day when I was stacked on 5,6 and iSonic 63.
Slalom is really the ultimate adrenaline rush!
Finally, I drove further down to Sylt.
I competed, survived and even thrived in the shore break. I won the contest and all of a sudden I find my self leading the overall wave rankings. HOW EPIC.
The 2019 Wave World Title will be decided in Maui end of October! I’m thrilled to be in this position.
END OF SEASON (almost).
Then after 5,5 months, I flew home to Aruba for 4 days, and right now I’m in San Francisco at the gate waiting for my flight to Maui. I’ve just handled an 8-hour layover quite well if I do say so myself.
Wait, come again ? The flight’s delayed ?
……..AAAAAHHHH!!!
Photos by: John Carter/PWA World Tour.
