Our rising Starboard talent, John John Vanderick from Belgium, celebrates an extraordinary achievement at the young age of 13. He secured victory in the 2023 Dunkerbeck Speed Challenge within his age category. John John was riding the new Starboard iSonic Speed 45, showing exceptional skills and hitting an impressive speed of 38.75 knots in VMax. He was mainly trying to conquer his personal record and in the end, he managed to win all three periods of the Dunkerbeck Speed Challenge. This marks a significant milestone in his windsurfing journey, underlining his potential as a rising star in the sport.
The new Starboard iSonic Speed played an important role in John John’s success, reflecting the brand’s commitment to providing top-tier equipment for riders at all levels. As John John continues to work on his skills and set new benchmarks, the windsurfing community is eager to see his future accomplishments. Congratulations to John John on this exceptional victory! Check out the video below from John John’s record.
A short part from John John’s Interview for Windmag magazine about his record session:
“I really wanted to win because we arrived at the end of the 3rd period of the Dunkerbeck Speed Challenge. My dream was to win all 3 periods this year. It started well after winning the first 2 periods. So I had to, after seeing the forecasts on Windguru, manage to motivate my “old” dad (smile) to get up early and make the 2-hour drive to get to the spot. When I arrived, it was already windy. Brendan and Vincent were ready to hit the water already. There were 25-32 knots, cold and rain. After 30 minutes I was ready!
I was equipped with my brand new Starboard iSonic Speed 45 and 4.9 sail. The wind peaked 2 hours later around 40-45 knots. The game was to catch a gust not too strong before it becomes pure survival! Vincent, a little stronger than me was on a 5.3 sail. After 2 hours I came back with 36.5 knots in VMax. My old record was 37.3 knots made last May on the Palme spot, which is flatter. I felt very tired because the wind was picking up at that time but I was relatively happy with my results for the circumstances.
But my thoughts were: “Grrr I can do better”. I thought the session was over. At that moment my “old” Dad (smile) told me: “Go change, eat your sandwich and warm up for 30-40 minutes. We’ll see if the wind stays or if it drops a little.” And Bam! 40 minutes later we are back on the water Straight in the second run, I achieved 38.79 knots in VMax and also new personal records in 1sec, 2sec, 10sec, 100m, 250m (for the Dunky) and also the 500 (for the Thierry!) I did 2 more runs and then I went out because of the nightfall.
Result: Cold, exhausted but so happy!!!”
You can read the whole interview for Windmag with John John here.
Photo Credit: Ben Vanderick
Quoted text: Windmag interview with John John
