Champion of the World

Dieter Van der Eyken writes his name into the history books after being crowned the 2015 PWA Freestyle World Champion

What a year it has been for Dieter Van der Eyken (Starboard / Severne), the young Belgian maestro came into the season by focusing on having fun while competing again and hopefully achieving a podium finish. In the end he managed to do all of that and more as he not only won his maiden event in Fuerteventura with an amazing display — where he sailed better than ever — but he also walks away from 2015 as the PWA Freestyle World Champion. Van der Eyken becomes only the second Belgian ever to win the world crown — following in the footsteps of Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP / NeilPryde), who reigned supreme in 2011 — and proved again that it is possible for the European’s to compete with the Venezuelan’s and Bonairean’s at the very top of the game. After an amazing year we caught up with Dieter for an interview:

PWA: How does it feel to officially be champion of the world?

Dieter: “It feels unbelievable to be world champion, but I think that I still need a couple of weeks to let it settle in.” 

PWA: Just had to sit through 10 days of now wind… how stressful was that for you?

Dieter: “It’s been my longest and most stressful 10 days of my life. At least if there’s a proper forecast you can completely prepare yourself for the contest, whereas with a marginal forecast you are never quite sure if you are going or not, so you are on the edge the entire time.”

PWA: Coming into the event were you hoping for wind or secretly hoping for no wind?

Dieter: “I was hoping for wind. Of course we want to compete that’s why we spend the whole year travelling. Of course the no wind situation guaranteed me the title, but I was ready to compete. The only thing that I did say is that I was hoping we wouldn’t have easterly winds again — besides that I knew that I could win the title if it was windy.”

PWA: What else would you like to accomplish in the windsurfing world? (Speaking to you earlier in the year in France I know that you were thinking of only competing for a couple more years unless you were world champion… and now you’ve achieved that…)

Dieter: “Yeah, the world title came a little bit earlier than expected, but I plan to keep competing in freestyle for at least two more years and keep trying to expand my wave sailing. I’d like to start getting really good results in the waves too to prove that I’m a really good all round sailor.”

“Hopefully the world title will open some new doors to travel to new spots and make more movies — as well as potentially attracting an outside sponsor to really step it up and do some different things.”

PWA: Will freestyle remain your main focus or will waves play a bigger part of your training from now on?

Dieter: “I think I will just do exactly the same as I did this winter, which is when I’m in Oz I’ll focus more on waves than freestyle and then when I go to Bonaire I’ll just fully prepare for the season there. I already achieved one of my life goals by winning this world title, but I’d still like to achieve a few more podiums and event victories. We’ll see another world title in the future would be great, but at least I already have one under my belt.”

“I’d like to try and keep pushing and evolving freestyle into the double air moves over the double popping moves, which is personally something I enjoy more.”

PWA: Where you made your debut on the tour did you always have aspirations of becoming world champion or were you aiming to be a top 10 sailor?

Dieter: “When I first started on the tour becoming world champion was a goal to achieve someday, but at the start it seemed a million miles away. When Steven [Van Broeckhoven] won the world championship in 2011 that made me see and believe that it was possible.” 

“In the beginning I just tried to set myself mini targets, so in my first year I aimed for the top 16 and finished 12th, then in my second year I aimed for the top 10 and finished 8th and then the year after I was just aiming to be higher than that. The last couple of years I managed to work my way into the top 5 and then this year I just set my mind on having fun again whilst competing rather than aiming for specific positions — and I was just hoping for a podium. In the end I won my first event in Fuerte, which ultimately led me to the world title, which is just unbelievable!”

PWA: What are your plans for the rest of the year?

Dieter: “I’ll be heading to France for the next PWA Wave event in Crozon — where I have a place in the main event and I’ll probably go to Maui as well, so it’s pretty action packed still, the year doesn’t end here. Then I’ll head back to Western Australia from the 1st December.”

PWA: How are you going to celebrate?

Dieter: “At home I want to celebrate with my friends and family, but I’m still quite busy so I don’t have a lot of time. I’ll probably also have a bit of a party in Brouwersdam next week as I’ll compete in the EFPT there and it’s also the spot where I grew up and learnt everything I know about freestyle. When things have cooled down a bit I’ll hopefully have a bigger party back home.”

PWA: Great, Thanks Dieter and a huge congratulations once again.

To stay up to date with all of Dieter Van der Eyken’s latest news and adventures be sure to follow him via his Social Media Networks:

Instagram: @dieterb35

Twitter: @DieterB35