Early December, when the snow started falling in Denmark, I didn’t saw my windsurfseason over yet, and I decided I wanted to go back to Bonaire. I packed up my freestyle kit, and went off with a 3 months ticket, all alone. I loved to be back right away, though travelling alone can cause some unexpected problems, but with help from my friends over there I had a great trip. The conditions were amazing the first month when I was there, and I got to be a lot on the water, even with my smallest sails. Just when I arrived I was filming a bit with Sofamovielab.com who’ve made the new online movie “The Island Boys” in which Mauisails rider Taty has a significant part. I had a lot of good sessions every day, and I think there was only a very few days with no wind in January. Really amazing, and the wind statesty reminded me about Jeri or somewhere else really stable. February was payback though, and we had a tough period without a lot of wind, but luckily I received my new Loco 5.2 just in this periode, so then I had a nice, new and fresh, big sail. This one took me planning very easily as it is a super light sail, even in the bigger sizes. Really nice, there is nothing as new equipment!

No-wind February, and when you least expect it….This morning I was awake at 6am. In Denmark I would probably had thrown my alarmclock far away if it tried to wake me up at this time. But not here, because I was awaken by the best possible alarm I could wish for these days: It was windy! I looked out over Sorobon beach where the spinkle palm trees were shaking. The sun hadn’t rised yet, so actually the tropical picture looked a little bit more tough and colder, and reminded me of home. I woke up my friend Sine, with whom I was living the last two months, and we grabbed our bikinis and ran to the beach. It’s so crazy how happy it can make you, if it is suddenly windy after a long period without wind! Yea, I know it sounds stupid, but I’m sure you windsurfers understand. Our sails were already rigged at JibeCity, so I just pulled out my Loco and attached it to my board, strapped the harness, and off to the mangrooven with fullpower we went. Nice! We were only a few people on the water in the sunrise, and we had a great time. I think we surfed like 1½-2 hours, trying a lot of moves, and flowing those we already got, before we both ended up in the water in front of Sorobon Beach Resort in one of our crashes, just laughing about something I don’t remember.  We decided to go for breakfast, before continuing the session. The wind was finally back! It wasn’t like January with great wind every day, but at least we could go out most of the days enjoying the conditions, and practice. And practice I wanted a lot, because coming up was a competition on the neighbour island Curacao in which I decided to take part in, in last moment. I checked the forecast just before I took off with my friend Arrianne, so we could bring as less gear as possible, and thereby put down the kilos in the airport. We managed to get the equipment with us in the tiny island planes, and it all arrived on time for the competition together with us, perfect! I’d never surfed Curacao before, actually I’d never been there at all before. Coming from a small island of Bonaire, it didn’t take much to impress me and my friend. The place seemed huge compared to what we already were used to from Bonaire. But I liked the place a lot. I was super excited to see the freestyle spot, which was in some kind of a small harbor, with flat to choppy water, and some gusty winds coming through. I was positive about the spot, because it felt a bit like a mix of Aruba and Bonaire with the gusts and the water conditions, and I looked forward to the comps to start the day after our arrival. Though the light conditions were pretty tough, I had a good competition, where I won all my heats and I thereby finished 1st. It felt good to be back in the competition-mode after 2,5 months of freesailing and training. After the competitions I went back to Bonaire, sailed as much as the wind allowed before I had to return to Denmark. 3 months had already blown away, and a few days after I were doing my new tricks in 30degrees celcius less on my homespots on the other side of the planet. I’m back in Denmark for some time, before I head to Lanzarote where the first PWA Freestyle event for the women are going to be held. Yeeeaaa, I look much forward to go :) See you on the water!

Xenia Kessler D-211
Pictures by Sofamovielab.com, Caesar Finies, Steve Hotchkiss, Curacaochallenge.com and Sine Lysdahl