The slightly different windsurfing holiday

Recently Sarah Quita, one of our windsurf team rider girls posted a hilarious video showcasing herself and Oda Johanne. They enacted two coffee drinking ladies, that would “try” windsurfing, and as both girls are in their real lives two top windsurf freestylers, you can already imagine how the story goes… well, we do not want to take too much away up front, as you can watch the video later.

Instead, we have taken the opportunity and interviewed Sarah to understand what initiated this slightly different take on a windsurf video, which we found very refreshing.

Read below what came out from the interview.

Photos @Emanuela Cauli 

 

NeilPryde: Hi Sarah, we watched the video you recently posted with quite some enthusiasm, can you let us know what was the idea behind the short clip named “Lovely holiday”?

Sarah: Oda posted the first video sailing in a dress and hat a couple of days before I arrived in Jeri.  Before I got there, she already planned for a part 2. So it was just a bit of a continuation of her first clip. For the first clip of “tourist sailing in brasil”, Oda was just wondering how it’s possible that so many tourists come to Jeri, Brazil, but none of them actually try windsurfing while there. So she was just acting out the idea of one of those tourists actually trying windsurfing. We made a 3 day trip to Maceio as well. Jeri is super busy, whereas Maceio is really quiet and you can really only windsurf. And there would only be max 10 people out. So that trip felt like a lovely holiday and the sailing was epic!

NeilPryde: We found that the video truly took a completely different approach to windsurfing videos, being more fun and humorous in its tone of voice, did you guys feel it was about time that something new was needed, and what was the message you wanted to tell? 

Sarah: I think we were mostly just having fun. When we hang out we are hardly ever serious and if we discuss anything serious it’s usually in a British accent. And as we both love coffee a lot, we thought it would be funny to create a sketch around that, with a bit of exaggeration, but back it up with some good action on the water.Oda started it for fun, but personally I think the contrast of us sailing in dresses and then busting out these big moves is pretty badass. But in the end, we truly just wanted to spread the fun we have on the trips with the rest of the windsurfing world, and beyond.

NeilPryde: We were pretty impressed that you sailed the first action part without harnesses, really speaking for you strong ladies! How was that for you?

Sarah: {joking} Well, we didn’t put on a harness because we didn’t want to ruin our outfit of course! I think we did 50 minutes without harness going back and forth trying to coordinate our jumps, it was so much fun. Everyone else on the water was laughing with us as well. In the beginning we were quite serious trying to get it together and perfect, but in the end you can see in the clip that we’re always a bit off, that’s just because the waves would line up sideways so in the end we just had to laugh about the fact that we couldn’t time it right. Also, it actually was a little less hard than I thought it would be. Maybe I’ll incorporate some no-harness sailing in my freestyle training schedule. It’s definitely a good work out!

NeilPryde: Be honest, how much fun did you have while filming? 

Sarah: All the filming we did was a lot of fun. I can’t keep a straight face, so you can tell every now and then I’m laughing during the sketch. Oda stayed in character perfectly! Filming in our dresses and trying to coordinate our jumps was the funniest. It was so hard because we had to keep our distance during the forwards, but the waves were coming a bit sideways, so one person almost every time jumps before the other one. But it was a fun challenge. Then we had some waves in Jeri and we alternated for filming, and it was great fun! Loved the mix of party, wave windsurfing and of course motivating each other – me motivating Oda for her pushies and her motivating me for my doubles. 

NeilPryde: Is Jeri, Brazil, one of your favorite spots?                                          

Sarah: Living in Aruba, I never had to travel to train. But after high school I took one year off, and Jeri was the first place I travelled to for training. It was amazing then and it still is now. Apart from it being windy every day, I love it for the friendliness of the local people and all-round relaxed atmosphere. The main spot is very crowded during high season, but then I like to sail up at Malhada, or grab a buggy to the lagoon. There’s plenty of options for sailing there. And those sunsets are just amazing every time.

 

We think, that after all not taking windsurfing at all times serious can be very refreshing, and we truly loved the direction Sarah and Oda took with their video, which you can watch here below. 

We hope you will love it as much as we do, and of course, hope to see your fun take on the water.