LIVE Chat: Sarah-Quita Offringa Tonight 7pm
LIVE Chat with Sarah-Quita Offringa – Tuesday 18th September 7:00pm (UK time).
The chat with multiple freestyle, and 2011 slalom, world champion will take place right here this coming Tuesday. Simply type your questions for Sarah-Quita at the bottom of this post…
Sarah-Quita takes the win. Image credit PWA/JC.
Name: Sarah-Quita Offringa
Sail number: ARU91
Country: Aruba
Residence: Utrecht, Netherlands
Disciplines: freestyle, slalom
Results: 5x freestyle world champion 2008-2012. 1x slalom world champion 2011.
Sponsors: Starboard, Gaastra, Chris Benz, Maui Ultra Fins, Mystic.
Thanks for all the questions, and thank you very much to Sarah-Quita of course/ This live chat is now finished, look forward to seeing you all at the next one.
What do you think is more important at the top, good equipment or good racking skils?
In freestyle it’s definitely skills. You can still compete and win on 5 year old equipment… i think. In slalom the equipment plays a bigger role. But even so if you don’t have the technique or skills then even the best equipment wouldn’t be of use..
oh ! for the top guys in slalom for example.. I would say tuning the equipment is the most important though… they definitely have te skills and experience
Whats you favourite freestyle move to do and why?
Shaka’s are awesome ! because you float through the air. and kono’s are amazing because you completely lose your sens of gravity untill you land again.
I hear theres an EFPT event in the UK on the 3rd november, someone asked earlier if hou would enter one and you said maybe, if you couold with uni. Could we be seeing you in the UK for that event? It would be great to have you over!
I will look into that ! my last exam for this emester is on the 4th of november tho…
So, what´s about that special aura that surrounds you? Where that comes from? What inspires you? Any people to look up to? You´re always smiling…Are there any global problem that affects you in particular? We know you´re a “windsurfing machine” but also a great Human Being…Thanks for bringing the Magic back to the Beach!!!
Oh ! Thanks for the nice comments !
I think the main thing is just that I have a lot of love for the sport and the people in it. I can definitely say that being on tour and windsurfing has brought me a lot of things to be happy about and i wouldn’t trade all of those experiences for anything in the world….You automatically smile all day then hahaha
10 more minutes in the chat guys, last opportunity to get questions in for Sarah
Are you happy with all your gear? Anything you would change? What sails do you use?
Happy !? I LOVE my freestyle sails. I think the pure’s are hands down the best sails for freestyle sails. And the slalom sails are clearly working well after winning in Turkey
You said you play tennis too, do you compete in this? Are we going to lose you to tennis now you are in holland and now by the sea?
Nooo.. I don’t compete in tennis… but it’s definitely one of my favorite pass times.
Who are the toughest competition in the slalom? You seem to have really great board speed comepared to the other girls? Any secrets?
KArin jaggi and valeri have the most experience and are therefore the toughest competitors! but the french girls and the turkish ladies like lena and cagla are pushing as well… Slalom is very technical so tuning your equipment is very important and helps speedwise.. besides that.. I think it’s technique
How did you celebrate winning the world title this year?
I have not… yet. I am planning on celebrating it soon tho !!
Are you nervous before you race or have a heat? How do you keep calm?
Yes I do get nervous… but it’s more like being excited to get on the water and do what I do best! I talk to myself a lot during competion to motivate myself( guess it looks like I’m mumbling when I’m walking on the beach)
Where would you love there to be more freesle stops on the tour?
hmmmm…… in the caribbean for sure
OR DAHAB !!
Every time i try spock540 i always fall at the last bit, any tips?
I think you need to lean on your back foot… so towards the direction you’re supposed to go in the end
Aruba and bonaire always seems to have awesome young kids coming up, why do you think there are so many? And who is ripping over there now?
it’s warm, windy pretty much all year long and the water is shallow. In Bonaire windsurfing is pretty much the national sport and guys like taty, tonky and kiri are hero’sthere so it attracts a lot of kids.. In Aruba we have some youngster doing really well in both slalom and freestyle, ethan westera, mathias verploeg, mack ennick van den eermebeemt etc. in bonaire, amado, youp, chepi and more ! keep looking out for them !
oohhh and steven max offcourse!
What will be a good place for freestyling in the winter? christmas holidays and voorjaarvakantie(february)
and end of october/november
??
I think Maaike was asking where is good for holidays, and then Sarah had the same question but would also like to know good spots for october and november? Am I correct?
jericoacoara is windy everyday from august till december. ( kind of crowded though and sometimes hard to learn new moves..) Then from January on the caribbean starts getting good. To be very honest to learn new moves bonaire wouldbe the best. but Aruba and El yaque will be windy as well… I don’t know much about the spots in Europe
Hopefully it answers both your quetsions then !
Jericoacoara is windy everyday from august till december. ( kind of crowded though and sometimes hard to learn new moves..) Then from January on the caribbean starts getting good. To be very honest to learn new moves bonaire wouldbe the best. but Aruba and El yaque will be windy as well… I don’t know much about the spots in Europe
thank you
How long is it since you have been beaten in freestyle? Do you think one of the other girls could beat you soon? If so who?
It’s been 5 years now ! In competition..anybody can win.. you have a good day you win. bad day you lose… Laure is riipiin though, yoli has all the switch moves down and arrianne aukes is making so much progress. so I’m definitely lookin out for them
How do you think we get more girls to do freestyle competitions? And get the level of womens freestyle higher across the board?
pff…. I have the idea that women see freestyling as a huge obstacle or barrier…I think I’m lucky I grew up with it and learnt while having fun with my friends on the water…. that’s the way to go as well… go out and have fun. practice with somebody else. It’ll motivate you. Organizing womens camps or just events for women where we can motivate each other seems to me a good way to go ?
What up What up sista
. I don’t have any questions for you, just passing by to say HELLO!!!
Aw0o0o0o0ooraaaaaaaaa
Who did you learn how to slalom sail from? And how are you still sailing so well if you are rarely on the water?!?!
Slaaalom… Has been a lot of in put from sooo many people ! From rigging my sail to positioning my boom and footstraps, what fins to use to learning the proper slalom stance… and off course competing has accelerated the learning proces! I take all the info I can get and try it out. I have asked myself the same question…. Been windsurfing for 10 years now… so I guess the technique never leaves..
I am windsurfing a lot but have not tried freestyle, what should i do first? I can gybe at the moment but thats it. I want to try the vulcan but it looks like it hurts when it goes wrong!
Hi Sofia ! in my experience vulcan doesn’t hurt much… but I guess you should start with body drags and duckjibes ? if you reallyw ant to do the aerial moves though then first start learning to chop hop and then you’ll become more and more confident to try vulcans. Good luck
aerial jibes is also an option ! ( semi willyskipper)
Do you know why there was only fuerte on the womens tour this year? Will there be more next year? It is such a shame there is only one!
Yeah I think so too.. I think some events got cancelled due to lack of funding. We had a great tour last year! I’m hoping next year we;ll see some more events again
How hard did you find the Flaka to learn? I find it the most frustrating move ever! How long does it take you to learn a new move?
IT IS a hard move !! I remember using a 60l flare which made it so much easier to learn ( i was on 80l usually). I learnt it in 2 days with that board… but it was quite hard to get them consistently with the bigger board. KEEP PRACTICING! it’s worth it
Often learning the move isn’t hard… but landing them consistently takes a while
Do you think there should be an overall world title again? Who do you think could win it in the mens and womens fleets?
I wasn’t on tour yet when they had that…. but I could imagine it’s not feasible nowadays (money wise). Definitely good to promote all disciplines.. but I think it’s impossible for 1 rider to give 100% for all 3 disciplines.. the level is too high
Are you sailing in waves too? Have you thought about entering a wave competition?
I don’t practice in the waves much. But during the starboard photoshoot I would go wavesailing about 2 weeks every year in maui. and it’s soo much fun ! definitely looking into wavesailing… just need to get some more experience before I go and compete
Will you do more of the slalom tour next year?
It depends on when and where the events takes place. right now uni is a bit more important for me.
Hi, I saw a lot of people not making their moves in fuerte, where the conditions more difficult this year??
Nopes… Just a hard spot to sail ! I did have one terrible heat where I landed about 4 moves out of 10. I think that had to do with me being tired and nervous.. when you get used to fuete it’s an amazing spot !
What board are you using now for freestyle? And what fins? Do you change your set up much?
Flare 91 and 16 cm taty style mauiultra fins. I don’t change my board set up much or at all actually. Whatever the conditions.. I’ll adapt to it
Where do you windsurf now that you are in Holland? Do you still get as much time on the water?
Most of the time I will go to “strand horst”.. but I’ve been to Wijk aan zee en Texel once for some wavesailing. No I barely sail. last year I sailed about once every six weeks..
What are you studying? What are your plans for the future after you finish your studies? Do you want to windsurf full time or will you do something else?
Science and innovation management ( i have a hard time explaining what the fancy name actually means !) going for that bachelor and then I’ll probably pursue a master…. we’ll see after that. I tend not to look to far in the future. I’m pretty sure windsurfing will be involved for quite some time tho
You are such a great sports woman, who do you look up to from female sport? Windsurfing or non windsurfing?
Thank you very much ! I appreciate it
uuuhhmm… If I have to be honest I can’t directly name a lady outside of windsurfing that I look up to. But take the olympics for example…all of the ladies there competing in swimming, track and field, gymnastics, sailing etc.. I have a sense of respect for all of those ladies out there training so hard to achieve their goals! in windsurfing I know most of the women personally and I must say I respect them all
What do you like more slalom or freestyle? Is is really hard to do both? Surely its weird to get back on a freestyle board after being on slalom?
It’s all windsurfing but you ge completely different feeling whether you’re on a freestyle or slalom set. For freesailing freestyle is my absolute favorite. slalom for me.. is no fun if you can’t compete against anybody. Competition wise…. slalom gives you the biggest rush ever ! and that I do like…
yeah stepping on a freestyle board is the worst thing ever after slalom…. takes time to get used to for sure
Hey SQ,
Hope all is good?
Two quick questions, now your spending a lot of time studying in Europe would you consider competing in the mens EFPT circuit if it was allowed (I don’t know the rules on that!?)?
Also do you think it is time for a EFPT Womens Tour or at least a championships, thoughts on that?
Well done in Turkey
Thaanks Adam !
Yeah I’ve been wanting to do the EFPT as an alternative to competing with the men in PWA… just haven’t found the time yet. I would love to join tho.
I think events in Europe ( besides the canaries) would attract more ladies, yes.
If uni allows I’d be more than happy t join in on the fun !
Road trip!!! UK event on the 3-6th November…
See you there
How old were you when you learnt to windsurf? and at what age did you start freestyling? What was the hardest move for you to learn?
I started when I was nine. and basically started freestyling as soon as I could plane. For sure the vulcan was hard… but later on the move I’ve had the most difficulty learning was the shaka. Definitely one of my favorite moves now though!!
What moves are you working on now? Would you enter the guys fleet like daida did before? Where do you think you could come in the guys fleet?
Practicing the big moves !!! been landing culo’s, burners and kono’s quite consistently now. Competing with the guys would be good to improve my competition sailing! uhmm… I would aim for a top 20 spot then I think…
Hey Steve ! yeah definitely! I’m more motivated than ever actually! not necessarily for competing, but more as in that I really want to raise my level ! Whatever the guys are doing now. I want to do too !
How do you manage to shuffle your time between windsurfing and your studies at University? And what do you consider the most important factor that enables you to do both so well…
That’s hard. I don’t shuffle. It’s been full time studies for me for 2 years now.
I think I’m lucky to have grown up in Aruba where I could windsurf so much… so that now I don’t completely fall behind when I haven’t practiced much. I think the study helps me mentally though which is good for competition. besides that I’mv ery motivated for both windsurfing and studies so I do my best in both
How do you stay focused during events, and do you have a routine that you follow at every event?
Hey Sarah.. well to be honest I don’t have a particular routine. It may sound weird… but I like competing.. so I just go out and have fun… most of the time
when I’m really focussing I just put in my music or go and sit by myself for a while
Hi Sarah! Congratulations on your win in the freestyle and slalom! Are you still motivated for freestyle now? After winning so many times?
Hi Guys, live chat will start in 2 minutes
Post your questions here when the chat goes live!