Family
I have 2 kids that are 7 and 3 now. The best thing about having a family is to know that someone loves you no matter what. Whatever happens at least your kids are going to love you forever. It’s a wonderful feeling. In the beginning, having a family was really hard. Mixing up sailing with the baby, but somehow I managed to make it work and thankfully my wife was a massive help. Many women don’t really understand how windsurfing works, but she helped me a lot, even when I was in my lowest point, losing heats or whatever. Competing after having a kid was amazing for me. I somehow had more focus on what I was doing, I was forced to sail when the conditions were not the best or the tides were wrong and in competition I had some amazing results. Maybe having a kid was what I needed at that point of my life.
Travel
I like to travel but now it’s harder as I really miss my kids. Now when I travel it’s for myself and for my windsurfing. I think if you don’t travel it’s hard to keep moving forward in windsurfing. It’s part of the job and it’s beautiful but at the same time when you have the family it’s not so nice. My favourite place to sail is probably Hawaii, because it’s so consistent. Maui has some amazing waves and perfect winds. When I had the chance to travel with Thomas and UMI productions we went to Chile. We had amazing waves, met amazing people and ate very good food. If I had to recommend somewhere to travel to for windsurfing I would say Chile. It’s a bit far away, but you get to sail in un-crowded spots with some amazing conditions.
UMI and Thomas
For a while we had a really nice team with UMI Productions and I really enjoyed every moment I had with Thomas Traversa and Brendan Pyatt. It’s a part of my life I will never forget. For me Thomas is an amazing sailor and I was really happy to see him become world champ 2 years ago. Above all I consider him as one of my best friends. He is very real, he tells you what he feels at every moment. If he is happy with you, he says it, if he is angry, he will never hold back, that’s probably what I like the most about him.
Money
Money is not a driving force for me, but it’s part of the job. I think that you have to make money. It’s not even a question. You have to pay your bills, electricity, phone, petrol or whatever. So I love windsurfing, but for sure it’s better when you get paid.
Biggest snap
My worst moment was losing to Angulo for the world title race with Brawzinho in 2014. It was so many things at the same time after so many years of fighting for one dream. That was a snapper to come so close and lose by less than a point. It really hurt, but there is nothing you can do. Burning your gear on the beach, shouting at the judges that it is unfair, there is nothing you can do. It helped that it was against Brawzinho, he is a worthy champion, but it still really hurt.
Least like to lose to
The person I least like to lose to is Ricardo Campello. Over the years we have had so many tight heats. If I win I don’t like to throw it in his face, but in the past he sometimes did it to me. It’s not that I don’t like the guy, but sometimes I see that he doesn’t know how to lose, but also he doesn’t know how to win either.
