Leading The Way

Dieter Van der Eyken on top of the world with just one event to go

Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard / Severne) has been a prominent figure in the world’s top ten since he made his debut on the PWA Freestyle World Tour in 2010. The past two years the Belgian maestro has finished in an excellent fifth place overall, but this year has taken his performance to another level. The twenty-three year old made a terrific start to the 2015 campaign by achieving his best result yet - 4th in France - but things got substantially better for Van der Eyken in Fuerteventura - where he not only achieved his first ever podium finish, but also his maiden victory with an explosive display. Success in Fuerte takes the Belgian to the top of the overall rankings with just one event to go in Sylt, which runs between the 24th September until the 4th October. After a massive breakthrough performance we caught up with Dieter for an interview, which you can read below:

PWA: You not only won your first event, but you are also leading the 2015 PWA Freestyle World Tour with one event to go? How do you feel about that? Under Pressure?

Dieter: “Yeah it is a mixture of feelings, but lets say winning tastes for more and there is not a day I don’t think about the possibility to become world champion this year. Even though no matter what happens in Sylt I already proved myself this season I really want to grab this chance with both hands to take the title as it would be a dream come true! So yes a bit of pressure but like I said before I can comfortably say already I have my best season ever!!”

PWA: What do you think made the difference for you this year? You followed up your then best result — 4th in France — by not only breaking into the top three for the first time but also winning…

Dieter: “I think the difference for me this year is that I do more events, not Freestyle but also competing on the Wave tour helps me to stay more into the competitive mood I guess. I also sailed a lot more this winter and just came with one goal into this season: Have fun again while competing and get stoked about Freestyle again cause at the end of last year I was just a bit over it after - I didn’t sail a single event up to my potential last year. So best thing to do is just to sail a lot and it doesn’t matter what you train as you will learn from every session without even noticing it necessarily.”

PWA: Sylt is the last event of the year… it’s somewhere you usually perform well, do you think the fact that it can be freezing cold in Sylt can also be an advantage for European sailors? And do your previous results in Sylt give you confidence coming into the final event?

Dieter: “Yeah Sylt does show to be a pretty good place for me, however I did have some missed opportunities there as well in the past, but the most confidence I have is in my consistency and the fact I’m a bit more used to the cold conditions than others. I just hope we get normal winds again and don’t have to compete 1km out to see again like the past 2 years cause this isn’t really the best way to compete.” 

PWA: You’ve also started competing in the waves… have you considered trying to land air moves like either paskos, air skopus/kabikuchis in a heat? Or would you if you knew it would be rewarded?


Dieter: “To be honest I haven’t really thought about it actually, I look at a wave heat quite a bit different than towards a Freestyle heat and usually forget about these moves as soon as I enter a wave contest. Maybe I could give it a try moves like paskos but I think moves like Airskopus are a different story on a wave board and I personally wouldn’t really like to see those moves myself in the wave. But I’m sure the shifty could help in the future for developing new jumps in waves as well.”

PWA: Finally, what are you doing before Sylt?

Dieter: “The past week I have been traveling through Portugal doing some sailing, surfing and quite some sight seeing before heading to Galicia very soon to score probably some pretty good conditions looking at the forecast!! After that I have 10 days at home before going to Denmark a bit early and compete on the PWA Wave event there, what better place can you think of to get ready for the rough Nordsea?”

PWA: Thanks, Dieter and congratulations again.

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