After the pkra tour stop in France I was invited by Spanish Cabrinha team rider Sergi Sureda to go to Ibiza! It was really an amazing trip full of great experiences!

Wait for the travel story coming out in the magazines soon!

Just finished the second tour stop of the year in Leucate! I have to say, it was really INSANE! It was over 50 knots in the gusts and you could not walk over the beach without getting sandblasted or almost blown of your feet! Luckily, after the men were struggling, flying, and crashing on 5m kites during the trials, I was very very glad that the judges and race director decided that the women did not have to compete on the first day. I have never been scared to kite, but that day I was, because I knew I would not have been able to hold on to my 5.5m!!!

On the second day, I went out for about 10 minutes in the morning to check out the spot. The wind was blasting and I was ok on my 5.5m Chaos. Not much later, it was time for my first heat against Manuela Jungo. The wind had picked up even more and the water was soo cold! haha. Sadly, I was struggling a lot with these tough conditions and did not make it to the next round.

The last day of competition was amazing! The conditions were super rough, the wind was strong, it was gusty like crazy and I had to start at the bottom of the ladder and work my way up. And I did! In my third heat of the day I was against Manuela Jungo again. This time, I had a really good heat and was suuuper stoked to find out that I won! Next, I was up against Bruna Kajiya. I knew it would be difficult, but I just did the best I could. I saw her landing handlepass after handlepass, while I was having quite a tough time. I tried a blind judge and an s-bend pass, but crashed on both. It doesn’t matter though, because I ended 4th in this competition!!!! I’m veryyyy very stoked about this result and am going to try to keep this up for my next competitions!

Thanks everyone for supporting me all the way through. Thanks Cabrinha and Saba Rock Resort for everything because if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t even be here! Thanks NP Surf for keeping me warm with your wetsuits here in France!

Last week was the first stop of the PKRA 2013 season. It was my very first time in Morocco which was a real experience! After almost two days of traveling I finally arrived in Dakhla, in the middle of the Western Sahara. Sadly, only one of my bags arrived, which obviously caused quite some stress! I didn’t have my boardbag with all my kites, boards, wetsuits, etc. so I had a problem. They started with the trials of the guys, so this gave me some time. Four days after my arrival, my bag finally arrived late at night, and I had the first heat that morning, lucky me!

In the singles, I did really well. I won the first two heats and then lost the second heat against Gisela Pulido by 2 points! In the doubles, I won the first heat again and sadly lost against Paula Novotna in the third round. Thinking the wind had picked up, I took a kite size smaller but ended up very underpowered in my heat. Moments to learn from! It was only a 0.3 point difference but enough for me to be done with this competition. I ended up 6th which I am happy with for the first stop of the year. Lots of opportunities to improve!

As I’m writing this, I’m packing at the same time to get ready for my next trip: MAUI! Yep, that is half way around the world, but it is worth it! I am very stoked to go there again and will obviously keep you updated on how it goes!

After getting two full weeks of checking out and training at The Sweet Spot in Grand Cayman, it was time for the Adventure Camp! Together with Damien LeRoy, we welcomed the guests who came from all over the world to get some new tricks in! From 9 years old to 57, we had it all, and everyone did great!
It was a real experience and memories were made, but we have this video to remind us of this amazing week!
Check it out!

This weekend it was the 10th time that this anual event was held in Jupiter, just two hours north of Miami. Next to all the locals, there were people from all over the US, Canada, and myself from Aruba that joined in! A good group of people that were all looking to have some fun on the water!

Sadly, we weren’t very lucky with the wind. It was definitely not enough to run all of the heats, but whenever possible, people went out on the water on their surfboards, raceboards, and foilboards! On saturday, some nice waves came rolling in so everyone had fun surfing and paddling! Even I was catching some nice ones on the SUP, so yess, I am really learning! We all had a blast and ended the day with a nice bbq at my friend Jon Modica’s house.

So the competition didn’t really work out, especially after the police came to get us off the beach and we had to move and take all the flags and tents down, but all together we had a lot of fun.

In two days I leave here again and my Cayman adventure will begin! I’ll keep you posted!

6 weeks of full time training in Brazil.
Wow, that pays off!!! A great experience I will always remember!
Special thanks to Cabrinha, Saba Rock, Pro Kite Brasil, Steven Akkersdijk, and Young Wonder!

I was honored to particpate and try out the new dream of Thierry Schmitter, who devoloped, together with Woody Cookie, a board for the disabled sporter. With this first concept it is already possible to kitesurf… I’ll keep you posted!

Check it out! I got an interview in the December issue of The Kiteboarder! In stores now!

I am very proud to announce that next to Cabrinha, the gorgeous little island of SABA ROCK is now also officially my sponsor! How lucky am I?! Two amazing sponsors that believe in me…!

Saba Rock Resort is located in the British Virgin Islands in the North of the Caribbean and is one of the best places for kiteboarding! Visit www.sabarock.com for more information and pictures of this dream destination!

Brazil… it’s the place every kiter knows. It’s the place of which every kiter wonders if its really as good as they say. I wondered too, and I just had to know! I would be in the little town of Uruau for six weeks, focusing on only one thing: training. The PKRA tour 2013 is set in my mind, but I’m not gonna get there without training. After six weeks, I was sure of it: Brazil is definitely as good as they say!

Get ready for a video coming soon!

Soon after I got home, it was already time for my next trip. Ohhh yes, to Maui again! I was super stoked to go back there and see everyone again. It was actually only three or four weeks ago that I was there for the last time so It felt like I never left.

The reason for my return was the Virgin Kite Jam. The event was a real success because we had wind every single day. I met lots of super nice people and I was proud to be there as a Cabrinha representative. The dinners, movie nights, and parties at night were really fun, and in the end I even won a Sony Xperia waterproof smart phone in the pro’s competition! All together a really fun week!

The following week I did lots of fun things like photoshoots, hikes, and barbeques making it a perfect week with good friends around me!

The only minor problems with this trip were the two shark attacks that happened. A guy on a paddle board was attacked and the beach was closed for 24 hours! A couple of days later a turtle was attacked which many people saw so they closed the beach again. First of all, it wasn’t fun that the beach was closed because the wind was still good. Second, it just really freaked me out that the sharks that were apparently below me where being very violent and aggressive, so falling was not one of my options any more…

After two weeks it was time to say goodbye again and return home. Now I’m getting ready for me next trip! Where is it going to be? You’ll hear soon enough!

FOR ALL DUTCH READERS:

I was in Access magazine in the September edition! It would be super awesome if you can check it out. Access asked me to do an interview with them when I was in Holland and of course my answer was yes! The interview turned out really nice with some great pictures and good text! Thank you Access Magazine for this!