Lina Erpenstein (Severne / Severne Sails) is set to make her first appearance since injuring herself in Chile, but the German is being realistic about her chances of defending her event title and is focusing more on just being able to enjoy being on the water again. Before the start of the Tenerife PWA Grand Slam, which begins on August 1st, we caught up with Lina for a quick interview:
Hi Lina, unfortunately you suffered quite a major injury in Chile earlier this year with a Lisfranc torsion…how has your recovery gone and fitness wise what kind of percentage are you at?
Yes the last couple of months looked a bit different than planned. I was lucky enough to not need surgery and had had some good medical and physiotherapeutic support on the way. After wearing the moon boot for 6 weeks I could slowly start walking again and I guess like a month ago I could start light training again.
I’d say I’m like 70-80%, so it’s a good base.
Last year you won the event here - being injured in the lead up probably isn’t the way you’d want to be defending your title, but what are your expectations for the event?
Honestly, right now I’m just happy to be back on the water and being able to compete at one of my favourite spots on tour. I will not concentrate on any results, but just have fun, enjoy my time here, hopefully stay healthy and have as little pain as possible while sailing.
When did you have your first session again and overall how is your foot feeling when you are sailing?
I only started sailing again last week. Footstraps are torturing tools for feet to be honest haha. Turning puts quite some pressure on the back foot, which is the injured one and I feel like I can not press as hard. Still, I have doctor’s approval that the foot is stable and also with sailing several consecutive days the pain doesn’t get worse and worse. I’m trying to take it easy and have shorter sessions and enjoy every minute that I can be on the water.
And also mentally how are you feeling with your foot?
This is quite a thing that I wasn’t aware of, having never been injured before. It’s quite a balance of being conscious of how the foot feels and at the same time letting go a bit and not overthinking and over feeling the whole time. I realised that having fun while sailing helps me here as I can find a bit of a flow and mentally trust my foot that it will hold.
If you have to try and pick an event top three in the men’s - who would you pick and why?
That’s a tough one, as I feel like a lot have the potential to win. Hmmm maybe:
1st Marc Paré (Simmer / Simmer Sails / MFC)
2nd Julian Salmonn (Naish / Naish Sails)
3rd Marcilio Browne (Goya Windsurfing / MFC)
Thanks, Lina. Good luck for the event.