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LOCAL A13
Queen of the World:
10 World Titles and Counting for Lady Sarah-Quita Offringa
CHRIS YATES
ORANJESTAD - After com-
pleting her studies, 2015
saw Sarah-Quita Offringa
of Aruba (Starboard/ Neil-
Pryde/ Mystic/ Maui Ultra
Fins) return to competing
in all 3 disciplines full-time. been on tour for a while
Some may have thought
that this may be too taller
order to remain compet-
ing at the very top of her
game, but she emphati-
cally proved any doubt-
ers wrong as she claimed
world titles in the freestyle
and slalom, while breaking
into the overall top 3 for the
first time in the waves. After
a hugely successful year
we caught up with SQ, who
now holds 10 world titles to
her name — 8 freestyle and
2 slalom — for an interview.
CHRIS YATES: 2015 was a
pretty big year for you…
2 world titles and podium
in the waves for the first
time… how was the season
overall for you?
SARAH-QUITA: “Yeah!! I
don’t know where it start-
ed, but all of a sudden I felt
like competing in all disci-
plines and at the beginning
of 2015 I told myself that I
wanted to finish top 3 in ev-
erything.
To be more specific, I want-
ed the freestyle and slalom
title and finish 3rd in waves.
It was actually really tough
to keep up with all the dis-
ciplines and stay focused
and not panic because the
other girls were practicing
their disciplines while I was
competing in another. By
the end of the year I was
extremely exhausted but
achieving what I wanted
was really, really satisfying.
“
CY: Your latest world titles
take you to an extremely
impressive count of 10…
at the age of just 24… did
you ever imagine winning
so many world titles and
what else would you like to
achieve in windsurfing?
SQ: “Wauw ! To think about
it like that is a bit weird for the foreseeable future…
me, because it means I’ve
now hahaha.
No I never imagined win-
ning all these titles. To be
honest, that wasn’t even
my aspiration as a kid. I just
enjoyed the sport so much
and being able to travel
and compete was already
the bomb.
Other things I would like to
achieve in windsurfing is to
improve my wave sailing
much more. Basically I just
want to be an all around
windsurfer so I can enjoy all
types of conditions.
I don’t know other than
that. I just want to be an
ambassador for the sport
and hopefully see it grow
again. I keep hearing sto-
ries about how big it used
to be... I wasn’t around
then though to see it ha ha.
But maybe we can get that
back to a certain degree!”
CY: With the amount of
success you’ve achieved in
such a short space of time
do you ever find it hard to
motivate yourself to com-
pete? And do you plan on
continuing to compete in
or is there something else
you’d like to pursue?
SQ: “The thing is that my
motivation isn’t necessarily before and can’t wait to
winning, my motivation is
to improve. And I do that
through competing. The
Thursday 11 February 2016
stress of competition does other things I would like to
get to me sometimes, to do in the future, but for now
the point that I ask myself it’s still quite fun, so Ima be
why I’m even doing it, but around :).”
once a contest is over I am
so incredibly motivated CY: You recently premiered
to train and get better for Cabeibusha ‘The Curly
Gem’ in Aruba — how did
the next time that I forget that go to town in your
about all the nerves I had home country?
compete again. SQ:“Yes ! It was great to
Well, I have been compet- show my movie back home
ing for about ten years now in Aruba.
and there are definitely The support I get there is
amazing, and to finally be
able to show them what
this windsurfing life I have is
all about feels great.
Finally they could get an
insight about what we go
through as windsurfers,
travelling and competing
around the world.
I just want to show that al-
though I might be from a
small island, you can go as
far as you like, as long as
you work for it.
The response I’ve had from
everybody was really good
and I’m very very thankful
to the producer Julien Robi-
net and Broken bloke pro-
ductions for taking me on
this movie making journey.”
Continued on page 16