Decisions, Decisions

Crunch time for Maciek Rutkowski

Maciek Rutkowski (Patrik / Point-7) broke into the world’s top sixteen for slalom this year at the age of just twenty-three. The Pole has built upon his earlier success of becoming the PWA Youth Slalom World Champion in 2012 and looks to have a bright future ahead of him. However, it is not only on the race course that you will find Rutkowski, as he also appeared in four of the wave events this year - Tenerife, France, Denmark and Germany - successfully negotiating his way through the trials on each occasion, with his best finishing coming in Tenerife - 17th. As one of only a few sailors who are competing in more than one discipline we caught up with Maciek to find out whether he continues to try to compete across both disciplines, or if it’s time to focus solely on one discipline, plus a whole lot more. Read the interview below:

PWA: Hi Maciek, in December you went to Cape Town for a few weeks, purely wave sailing... Was it nice to get away from slalom for a little while and do you think having a break is actually a good idea sometimes?

MR: “Yeah i think its great to kind of reset and enjoy a bit of freesailing of your favourite kind. Mine are the waves and although the trip was rather relaxed quite a few times i found myself competing with other guys out there, not to mention the video contest afterwards haha! But yeah a little break is always good I personally need it for my head as its very easy to go crazy with all that testing, tuning, and physical training thats part of everyday slalom sailor routine.”

PWA: Last year, you competed in slalom and waves, I read somewhere you were trying to decide whether to continue with both disciplines... Have you come to a decision? And if so what was your reasoning?

MR: “Yeah I never intended to do the wave tour, I just like Tenerife and in some conditions feel like I sail pretty well so I decided to apply for a spot. It got declined but somebody got injured and on the last day of the Fuerte contest Jamie (PWA events manager) told me I got the spot. I went and passed the trials so I thought to give it another try in Denmark. Passed again so entered Sylt. Same thing and also in La Torche. But in the main events I was drawing the high seeds in the single and obviously getting smoked. So now I'm like “there's no point in doing all those trials if you cant put up a fight in the main event". So I thought I'm gonna go to Cape Town and see how much I can progress. I did progress, but still not sure if it’s enough to do any damage in the main events… Long story short I really want to compete in the waves but now I want more than just the trials and for that I need to up my game - especially jumping. If I manage you'll see me out there!”

PWA: Going back to the past... What originally made you want to get into windsurfing?

MR: “Don’t really know I was to young to remember, but the first thing I always remember is trying to get to my brothers level which was hard as he was 5years older. After that - before I realised I was in the competition world - it became all about results. First in the junior’s, then youth and now PWA.”

PWA: Growing up who were you idols (windsurfing and non-windsurfing)?

MR: “Somehow I wanted to be a freestyler and its funny because till this day I can SOMETIMES land a spock and thats pretty much it unless you count upwind 360s haha! I had this VHS tape of Josh Stone and when internet came around I was downloading all the freshest freestyle moves by guys like Diony or Ricardo. Funny that the latter is now my teammate and friend.. Closer around I was looking up to the formula guys as thats all we did back then and Wojtek Brzozowski was on top so he was like a god in Poland and that’s how I met all the PWA racing guys too - I got pics of myself with Antoine, Arnon and KP from 13 years ago! Waves I discovered rather late but once I did the videos were just looped - Polakow's About Time is to this day my favourite. Apart from windsurfing I was always into basketball where Allen Iverson was my childhood hero - I even had braids! Luckily only for a few days haha! And then yeah I obviously chose number 23 after the G.O.A.T.”

PWA: If you weren't a professional windsurfer what do you think you would be doing instead?

MR: “I’d like to think pro basketball but don't think that’s realistic. Im into filming, editing and photography although I did a few commercial things and it kinda killed the feel so not sure if that would've been the best career. I don’t really know haha guess its good I got windsurfing then!”

PWA: Favourite quote?

MR: “I got my tattoo, but it’s a reeeaaally long story. Other than that I like "simplicity is the highest sophistication" by Picasso which is really how I look at the world-nothing beats simple but clever ideas and if something manages to be beautiful while being simple... I'll probably try to buy it or at least take a picture of it or memorise it or something!” 

PWA: How important do you consider diet when you are training and are you strict with yourself?

MR: “I think I'm getting old because I'm really starting to pay attention to what I eat, how much I eat, when I eat etc. My wallet hates me for it, specially that I don't know anybody who eats more than me, but I do feel a lot better when I’m eating properly. To understand how strict I am you'd have to know where I'm coming from. 2 years ago there was no way I could pass the candy alley without grabbing something. Nowadays I rarely do and spend more time in the fresh stuff department than the candy alley. The only thing thats missing is timing of the meals because we're so dependent on the weather - I'm not gonna miss a wavesailing session just to have my dinner at the correct time!”

PWA: Aside from windsurfing what other training do you do?

MR: “I work with Tomas Grundahl of the MTC here in Tenerife, who’s methodology is something like windsurfing-oriented crossfit. Besides I do tons of other activities like basketball, surfing, skating and a few others. Just love to be active and mix it up, but what Tomas gives me is kind of the base of the water.”

PWA: Seat harness or waist harness - why?

MR: “Waist all the way. It frees up your hips which gives you a lot more control. The gear became so powerful than we never sail underpowered or have to force the board on rail in which seat was king. Also for gybing waist is a lot more comfy and once you find one that doesn't slide up and learn to use it, you'll go fast too!”

PWA: Away from windsurfing… favourite film?

MR: “Too many to name one but maybe 51st State?”

PWA: Guilty pleasure?

MR: “Probably dirty jokes - not everybody likes me for those haha.”

PWA: Thanks Maciek, enjoy the rest of your winter.

If you haven’t already done so then be sure to check out Maciek Rutkowski’s latest video, which features him sailing in Cape Town - here.

Also be sure to ‘like’ his Facebook Fan page, which can be found here.