Waterworld Magazine Nov '03 - Windsurfing Windsurfing is not a sport! It is opium, obsession and enslavement to wind and speed. A healthy addiction that marries the soul and ocean to a life sentence, a windsurfer experiences ultimate freedom. An antithesis maybe, but there is something about dancing on the ocean, skipping over waves and heading into the twilight. Some say it’s magic, others say it’s stress-relieving. Yet others claim it builds up muscles. Windsurfing is all of these and much more. It is what you want it to be, what you want to be, and allows you to be what you want to become. It is about being oneself. Many new and radical sports offer adrenalin of all sorts, thrills and spills and fellowship with nature. Windsurfing represents the past, present and future in every way. It was said to be invented in 1968 by Jim Drake (a sailor) and Hoyle Schweitzer (a surfer). They received the very first patent for a sailboard which they named ‘Windsurfer’. Today, windsurfing is a multi-million dollar industry and is featured in the Olympics, Asian Games, Southeast Asian Games and other major continental competition. Windsurfing in Singapore Most of the action takes place in the seafront off the East Coast park, and windsurfers can be found at PA East Coast Sea Sports Club and Pasta Fresca Sea Sports Centre. PA ECSSC boasts of the biggest windsurfing club facility in Singapore, hosting the largest windsurfing membership as well. Organizing races do not come cheap, requiring boats, manpower, tons of logistics, skilled windsurfers and yes, wind. Throw in prizes to enthrall people to race, the cost begins at $10,000 for a simple local race. Several windsurfers are fortunate to be ‘team riders’ for some of the equipment brands, raising the commercial value of gear and publicity competition. Windsurfing is about variety, flexibility and universal. Disciplines include the Formula, slalom, wave, freestyle, Olympic, raceboard, Super X to name a few. Much depends on the local wind and water conditions that determine the type of windsurfing one engages in. In Singapore, local windsurfers do Formula, shortboard, Mistral One Design Olympic class and freestyle. Our waves rarely go higher than a ripple, hence windsurfers are typically bound by the largely-tame conditions. Travelling is a must for the wind/wave-starved windsurfers. Some make annual pilgrimages to popular windy havens like Maui, Bintan, San Francisco, Vietnam, secluded parts of Malaysia such as Jason’s Bay, Kuantan, Penghu island in Taiwan and even Boracay island in Philippines. Women in windsurfing – winners or widows? Too tough, too hot, too dangerous, too scary and too expensive…these are the reasons ladies often use to explain why they should not windsurf and why they should engage in more friendly sports like aerobics, jogging, badminton and tennis. Their reasons are valid as windsurfing in its purity is indeed tough, dangerous, scary, expensive and yes, you come back with a glowing tan. In my full-time windsurfing days and racing experience almost over 10 years, the hardcore women windsurfers are usually winners, not widows. Women windsurfers who are winners in major competitions, such as Olympics, Professional Windsurfing circuit, Asian tour, US/UK tours and Formula circuit are rarely widows. Women windsurfers – read ‘hardcore’, are a rare breed, exclusive only to the hardcore male brood who spend all their time in the water, and the rest of the time also in the water. They understand freedom, fanaticism, adrenalin, athleticism, strength, creativity and technology. They sometimes have no time for shopping and their nails are frequently chipped from tinkling with rough equipment and terrains. Their skin is deeply tanned, they own calluses on their palms and have moisturizers, sun-block lotions and DIY masks as constant companions. Sexy bikini lines decorate their backs and they have more board shorts than evening dresses. Women windsurfers are a capable lot, gutsy, brave and independent beyond the average marking. We know how to enjoy life, race, travel, pursue our dreams and win! Women windsurfers do not survive non-windsurfing partners, as it bears too much on their egos and esteems. They’d rather be windsurfing widows and continue in their search…for wind and waves. More often than not, the male to female ratio can be almost 20:1, leaving the ‘widows’ up for grabs, first-come-first-served basis. As windsurfing is a finesse and tactical sport, few women windsurfers are too-muscular nor tempted to take performance-enhancement drugs. The hardcore women are drawn to the lifestyle, the adrenalin, the dream and the utopia. Same reason the men are drawn to them…few widows remain. Winners galore, on and off the water. Sponsorship is hard to come by…for men and more so for women. With my SEA Games Silver medal success and later on, Asian Windsurfing Tour Ladies Champion titles, Local Overall 2nd Ranking and others, I became the team rider for The Windsurfing Shop, Timex, Oakley, Cobian & Dakine. There are hardly more than 5 ladies who race regularly in Singapore, not least to say that it is common for women windsurfers to find sponsors, as there are just too few around. More often than not, they windsurf recreationally, cruising on the sea, enjoying the sun. Ask them to race and they will say ‘too tough, too difficult, I’m not good enough’. As a result of the few women racers, we race with the men in Open categories, same starts and same course. Usually, I am the only woman windsurfer in the Open fleet. There is just not enough women to form a fleet. Thank God for the strong foundation in my earlier days, I could earn top 3 positions in most, if not all the races, giving me a 2nd position ranking in the Formula Open class for this year. The rest are men. And no, I am not a windsurfing widow…I’ll be marrying a windsurfer 2 months from now. The Road Less Travelled In my full-time windsurfing days a couple of years ago, I lived a dream of windsurfing everyday, travelling and racing. Then it was the 2001 SEA Games and windsurfing has been a regular feature in major games (Olympics, Asian Games and SEA Games). Short of training in Hawaii, we travelled to the most unlikely places to windsurf and race, such as China. I had also raced in Pakistan, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Certainly not the most ‘commercial’ of windsurfing havens one would read in windsurfing magazines but we had great winds and big waves. Daily trainings under my China coach then include runnning at 6:30am, breakfast at 8am, Gym training or windsurfing training 9am-12pm. We’ll have lunch and another windsurfing session from 2-5pm. It was pure pain, hard work and numbness to adrenalin. Nonetheless, the dream one holds of perfecting the moves, achieving superhuman physical fitness and the satisfaction of winning races enslaves one to the cause. Strangely and almost bizarre, I was enjoying the mundane routine and looking forward each morning to push myself beyond my limits. Each day when tough training knocked me out, I would lie in bed blissfully fulfilled, aching from head to toe, happy that I had given of myself, done my very best and spent every ounce of my strength into a God-given calling. I relish the idea of pursuing a dream, aware that some go through life not having a dream. The scariest thing is not about leaving one’s dreams unfulfilled, but in not having one. I was training with a fierce Passion-the kind that causes some to excel beyond anyone else – dulls one’s sense of fatigue, pain, and the need for pleasure or even physical well-being. There is no greater honour, no greater pleasure than to represent your country.

Last few days have been a flurry of emotions…not least feeling the extremes of emotions, great joy for a wedded couple-friend and immense sadness for a friend killed by a speeding powerboat on a lake. As if there is not enough going around the world to remind us to cherish our loved ones, to cherish what we have and thank God for all that is in this world, I have to be robbed of a friend to be struck with that slap. Vangie Palacios, is a dynamic and inspiring travel-journalist, and responsible for organizing most windsurfing and surfing competitions in the Philippines. She passed away on Friday, 3 May, 2003 on Lake Caliraya, Manila, when she was hit by a speedboat while swimming alone. She was killed instantly. The backbone of the Philippines’ windsurfing scene, much doubt remains now if our fellow Filippino windsurfers would be able to continue windsurfing without thinking of her. I can’t, for sure. Her mobile phone no. stays in my mobile phone, no, I’m not deleting her number. I wore black today, and if I have enough black clothes, I will do so for the week. It’s my way of saying ‘Vangie, I miss you and I wish your spirit peace’. It was a brief one week spent in fleeting moments of her company, during the Asian Windsurfing Tour in Boracay, Philippines. I remember her as dynamic, well-educated, spontaneous and warm. I read about her travel journals, and one of them, of her 30-day travel to U.S. with her husband, Art. They were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. The camera, which she so fondly called Juliana, captured the finest moments of her life. Aptly so, they were vibrant, varied and vivacious, and very Vangie! She was a travel-journalist, photographer, windsurfer, surfer, fine friend and all the vocabulary in the world will fail to describe her. It all seemed so surreal. I was just emailing her 4 days ago, when she informed me about an almost-sponsored windsurfing race in Jeju, Korea. She told me she was taking a weekend break, to go windsurfing at Caliraya Lake. She was supposed to reply me about certain details, and wrote off in her last email, that she'll be back! Well, she didn't keep to that promise. Many will mourn for a loss of a dear friend, many others will mourn for the loss of an inspiration which we can so easily overlook. Rest In Peace, Vangie! God bless your family.