– U.S.A. –

The weeks here have been so packed with adventures that it feels like a life time ago when I arrived at San Francisco airport, but in reality it is just a few weeks ago. Last year was the first time I flew to California to participate at the Rio Vista Grandslam – a freestyle and slalom competition which is part of the International Windsurfing Tour (IWT) and I was very excited to return to the States for this competition again.

I arrived a bit earlier this year and had time to organise a Ladies Windsurf Clinic the weekend before the competition. We had two days of good wind and it was great seeing all of them improving so much in just two days. It was a mixed group of women, from experienced sailors to young teenagers, but they were all stoked for windsurfing and I love teaching the new generation of women windsurfers!

In the days between the clinic I decided to do a little road trip up to Lake Tahoe, one of the most beautiful lakes of the US and I met up with some relatives I have there. Although it was middle of June it was still snowing and the road was icy driving through the mountains on the small and steep roads. The view was stunning though – it’s a huge lake surrounded by mountains and forrest. I drove around the whole day, doing some hikes up to beautiful waterfalls and just exploring. In the evening I drove up to my family who I shared a lovely dinner with and I got to see my cousin who arrived that same day.

Back to Rio Vista the weather had completely changed from my first week where I was cold all day long- blaming myself for not bringing warmer clothes than a summer jacket and a sweat shirt. It was over 30 degrees but sadly enough along with the heat the wind disappeared. The event was very well organised. I love the fact that the IWT has not only a pro fleet competing but combines it with a kids discipline and an amateur division. We couldn’t run the freestyle competition but got a great day of competing in slalom done. I was competing with the guys and had a blast. The wind was relatively light and I could have been on a bigger board, but still managed to get a 7th place overall in the pro men’s fleet, with my best heat being a fifth place.

The family Mertens are the organisers of this event and they did an amazing job. In the night they had a Mexican buffet and a nice band playing and I was dancing some forro with my Brazilian dance partner Tom Soltysiak. On Sunday we had skippers meeting at 8 am, but with the forecast looking very light they decided to do the price giving in the morning. This gave us the opportunity to drive down to San Francisco to get a session in at Crissie Field. This is a picknick area at the bay in the middle of the city, with a stunning view. You can see Alcatraz, the city center, the Golden Gate Bridge and all its other beautiful bridges while cruising through the biggest cargo ships I have ever seen in my life.

I was pretty terrified for the boats, so I didn’t even think about the sharks that are swimming around there too. We decided to sail up to the Golden Gate Bridge to try to sail below the beautiful bridge. Getting closer to the bridge I thought I saw something in the water but wasn’t sure what to think of it, until Phil screamed at me that it where Whales. We wanted to get closer and we were very lucky that they stay around us for over an hour. I was so overwhelmed and amazed that I didn’t even feel scared at all being so close to such gigantic creatures.

The day after we drove all the way up to the coast of California to Oregon where we stopped for a wave session at Pistol River; a famous starboard tack wave spot. Although the outside temperatures are high here, the water is actually freezing.. around 8 degrees celsius! Way colder than the Dutch waters around this time of the year. We scored a great day with some big swell and I was flying with my 3.4. I was very grateful that I could borrow a wave board from the American Fanatic team as my KLM flight only allowed me to bring my freestyle gear.

After this quick coast trip we continued our way to the Columbian River Gorge. The river is a natural border between Oregon and Washington and can get very windy with waves up to mast high. In the morning after our arrival we went to the Hatchery, a spot on the Washington side which can get very wavy. It was pretty intense sailing but we had a blast and I felt ready for the competition. Sadly enough the forecast looked very very bad for the four days of competition and we didn’t get any wind those days. There are so many incredible things to do around this area that secretly I didn’t mind to much not having any wind for a few days. On our first no wind day we hiked up to a stunning waterfall. You could walk all the way to the other side off the waterfall and I even managed to have a little shower under the fall.

The day after we went snowboarding. Felt pretty crazy to go snowboarding mid June! The snow was still super good and it was great to board down a mountain again for the first time in many years. Also pretty crazy to see a black bear running over the road while driving back at the middle of the day. This place is just incredible.

My little brother Alex and me on Mount Hood

With still no wind the playing around in Hood River continued and I also had my first ever go on a wake foil, went mountain biking in the forest for the first time in my life (and I loved it!), did some cliff diving and went floating down a wild river while enjoying the sunshine and the view. With a crazy forecast the day after the competition they decided to extend the competition for a day. We run the competition at the Hatchery and I was flying with my 3.4.

The competition was so much fun, although I did feel totally out of control. The wind was so strong, every Shaka I tried turned in to an unintentional Shifty attempt.

Managed to win the freestyle competition. Next up was slalom and it looked like it was going to be very windy as well but the wind dropped and I was good on my 6.3 WARP and 99 liter Falcon. Finished 5th in the men’s discipline on the first race but sadly enough the wind dropped even more after that and I dropped down a few places. Still manage to win in the women’s division and so happy that we still managed to run a competition due to the lack of wind the first days!

Thanks to IWT – organisers, Donna, family Mertens and all other people for these great events and amazing weeks. Next blog post will be about my extended stay here in Oregon and my PWA events coming up in the Canarian Islands, but for now it’s time to board for my flight back to Amsterdam.

Bye Bye AMERICA !