Discover team duotone - Jordy Vonk

Your big goal is to become PWA Slalom World Champion. How did you deal with the cancelled PWA season and the uncertainty about when the chase of the title can be continued?

I became 4^th twice in the world tour, I think once you achieved that the only goal you can have left is to become world champion and step up that podium. Not having a season in 2020 gave the opportunity to train a lot for the new rules having foiling and slalom combined, whenever we start racing again I’m aiming to be ready and get that world title as soon as possible!
 

Looking at your travelling schedule – Tenerife, Lake Garda, Lake Traun, Cape Town - it looks like you are making the best out of the current situation. How did you experience the “additional” time with no World Cup events on the schedule?

Despite the covid situation I’ve been travelling quite a lot, especially Cape Town was a proper trip, but also lakes around me in Austria or Garda. The travel was always for a reason, which mostly made it happen, for example photoshoot/development or training. So I didn’t have to be too stuck in one place, feeling pretty lucky about that. But the schedule was a lot different without world cups, a lot less stress for the events. Good thing for me it gave me the opportunity to spend a lot of time with my son which is born in July.

Are there any new activities or places you have discovered? Or anything else where you put your energy

Since February 2020 I moved to Salzburg/Austria which made me discover a new place as I never windsurfed in Austria before. Since closely after that the lockdowns started I was not able to get out of Austria for a bit of time which made me discover about 6 lakes close to my new home. In terms of energy with the baby definitely some energy went to him, but in terms of windsurfing more energy moved to foiling as it seems like in the future it will play a bigger and bigger role in our racing.

You also became a father of a little boy. What are the mayor changes for you as a professional windsurfer and as a private person

Mentioning him in my answers before shows he takes a big part in my life now ;-) But it’s been amazing, I can’t say it influenced my life too much, as I’m still doing what I was doing before, going to the gym, to the water and training as much as I’d like to do as an professional athlete. I’m lucky with Maria who’s supporting me a lot and taking care of Levy. In the end we’re as a family in Tenerife now and before in Cape Town, places I was travelling before without baby too. Sure it has changed my life in some ways but we enjoy it a lot.

Spending more time in Austria with your family, you have your teammate and Duotone Chief Tester Marco Lang next door. How do you train or work together?

I think to test products, new products (sails/masts/boards) but also the current gear we use, it takes two people. To have someone like Marco living less than an hour away from me makes it very easy to get things done. When for example new proto’s arrive he can call me and as soon as conditions are there we can go testing. When I’m in Holland I won’t have someone fast like him around me, and the other way around when I’m not in Austria for Marco. So I think it’s great that we can help each other out, which is not only good for us as riders, but also for the brand.

Being involved into the development of our new Warp_Fin 20.21, how happy are you with the result? Is that the racing machine you need to finally win the PWA title?

I haven’t tried the new sails much, but I arrived here in Tenerife and straight took them from the box onto the race course and I managed to win some races. So the first impressions are very very good so I look forward to bring them on the real race course this year!

How do you keep yourself in shape, motivated and ready, when the World Cup will continue?

Being here in Tenerife is one of the ways to get ready for whenever the World Cup will start. I have a new personal training which helps me out a lot to get fitter than I was before, so not just keeping the shape. I think I’m not the strongest and fittest yet, so to work to that point keeps me motivated. Looking to other sports I believe in windsurfing we can still improve on the physical side, so to aim for that brings motivation and will bring good things in the future for sure.

Even, if it is difficult to say, what are your plans for the upcoming season? Any interesting projects you are working on at the moment?

First of all I hope that we will have an awesome World Cup season. Both for the people to watch/follow and for us to compete again. Beside that I will do clinics in several countries, invested in some new camera gear for more content, some informative videos and with some more things that come along the way I’m sure I’ll stay busy and entertained.

Where do you want to be in 5 years?

In 5 years I hope I reached my goal to become World Champion, that’s for sure one of the things. And now since the covid situation I hope live is back to normal again, we can travel, we have an amazing world tour with maybe some new places and great action. I still like to be on the top of my game, pushing myself, pushing others and for in 5 years I guess that’s a nice goal!

Any further motto or statement you want to share with us?

Let’s stay positive in these days, we can’t do what we’d like to do, some guys like me are lucky to be here in Tenerife. We can windsurf here while some might be stuck at home. But let’s make it a great season, enjoy it as much as you can with friends. This period will end at one point and life will go back to normal, until than just stay positive and push our amazing sport.

Pictures: Ronny Kiaulehn, Carter, Max Matissek