There is never a better feeling than attaining a personal goal. Some are set high and some are set low, but with each achievement it feels pretty dam good to conquer it. For me it was never about the winning that I loved so much, it was more about the pain of losing. I hated that so much that I always wanted to win. I don’t know why I was so good at competition, I guess it is just something that is ingrained into you, something you were born with, that drive to be better than the next person, the drive to succeed. I don’t think you can train that, or coach it, you either have it or you don’t.
I can still remember it like yesterday, the 2000 Aloha Classic on Maui. We had finished the waves for the contest and it was time for the slalom to happen. The 2000 Overall world title was on the line and it was Dunkerbeck versus me, a scrawny 24 year old from California living on Maui. My slalom gear was amazing. There was no one in the entire fleet that had gear like mine except my teammates, Scott Fenton, Phil McGain and my brother Matt, but he was out with injury from a push loop in Gran Canaria. The gear was a dream and we had to move the contest to Kanaha for some reason and this is where we trained 9 days a week. I know, there’s only 7 in a week but we trained all of them and then some. The wind was perfect, the course was amazing, and I remember it coming down to the finals. I always loved to start as low on the starting line as possible. Bjorn usually started from the top of the line but for this event he moved down to the bottom of the line I guess to try and slow me down. I remember hitting the line full speed and sheeting in as hard as possible, keeping the rig locked and loaded and looking through my sail and for the first time in my life, rolling over the top of Bjorn.
Yeah not really just a guy named Bjorn, Bjorn Dunkerbeck, the 12 time Overall World Champion, my childhood hero of windsurfing, the guy most people knew as The Terminator, 6’4”, 230 pounds of pure muscle, with all the confidence in the world that he was going to crush me. I ticked away down the first reach to the first mark, gaining the entire way. Once I got to the mark in first, I knew it was all over. All I had to do was dot my I’s and cross the T’s and make the rest of the 4 gybes left and the 2000 Overall World Title was mine! I remember that feeling; it was so strong that you can’t put words to it. When you are in it, you can’t even breath or really take it all in, it’s so emotional it’s crazy. The days following were like an emotional melt down with so much feelings and emotions that come with something you have worked your whole life towards. To finally get it, you just really can’t describe it. For winning the world title in 2000, I rewarded myself with a brand new Chevy truck, leather everything, a nice big lift on it and I liked it quite a bit. 26 years later, winning the 2016 Aloha Classic, I didn’t buy anything, and well nothing at all changed in my life. So I guess that is a pretty big contrast!
