Hello!
Do you know the Wind Voyager Triple S Invitational?
It is the most prestigious competition in the world of kitesurfing and the most anticipated of the year. It has been going on for 12 years and, to a large extent, has influenced our sport to be what it is today. It can only be accessed by invitation and the 22 best men and 8 best women in the world are invited every year.
This year I was invited.
Pre-competition
Over time I have learned that I do much better in competitions when I have time to go in advance to the competition spot. All said and done, 1 month earlier I arrived in Cape Hatteras to train. The competition is organised by Real Watersports,a school and kite shop. Sharing my day to day with the people who form this company is simply a pleasure. The kite teachers are always super motivated to go sailing with you after leaving work, the girls in the store always have a smile for you (and some bikini that just arrived at the store to show you) and, in the
restaurant,
always have some better dish than the previous one to offer you.
In addition, having a little routine and not being traveling all day is very good for me. My days here are basically getting up as early as my body allows (sometimes I’m so physically blown up that I don’t give much), yogasession, breakfast, looking at the wind. If there is, go browse, if there is not, make emails and look for sponsors for next season (the one who does not drown anything!).
The truth is that I have been lucky and there has been wind almost every day… So I’ve had a lot of time to train.
The competition
Normally, in the week before the competition I get hysterical lost (understood as hysterical due to the inability and / or difficulty sleeping, difficulty eating food and the constant tremor of the limbs). But it wasn’t until the day before the competition, the day of the inauguration, that nerves began to appear.
Even so, I always felt super sheltered by all my American friends, the
real
folks, with whom I had spent the last month of my life. The competition started and… I was competing well. It seems that I was able to channel all the nerves and all the adrenaline. After competing the whole day… We had to postpone the “finals” of the qualifications to the next day.
The moment of truth
We started super early, at 8am the girls were in the water competing. That is, get up at 6, arrive around 7 am to the spot, ride flying all the kites and, to the water. 
This is where the little moment that changed everything came. After hitting the kicker twice, I sit on the grass again with my kite waiting for my last try and… Plas, my boot laces break (…)
What a mess!, And now what do I do?! Well, time has taught me that panicking is useless so I tried to roll out the laces as I could to go make my last attempt at kicker. Shit*!! In the rush I had left the stick of the chicken loop entered and I threw away my last attempt. So everything was at the mercy of John Wayne; the most difficult obstacle of the competition.
I came out of the water thinking that I had had the best score of all the girls in that obstacle (I had landed a trick that no girl had atterized before!) but that, even so, if I went to the final it would be for very little because of having messed it up in the kicker. It seems that the judges did not think so. They gave me a horrible score and… I was 1 point away from reaching the final.
Life goes on
As soon as I heard the final scores, I congratulated the other
competitors
and went as hidden as I could to drop some crocodile tears.
I took a few days off after the competition and, I went back to continue training (and having fun, do not forget that life is also fun). The truth is that I was quite “broken”… So much 
time and money invested in this competition… So much sacrifice, so many hours… I’ve always been convinced that if you work very something, there’s no way you won’t get it. What we learned in school, in philosophy of “
if you study you will pass
” is not entirely true in terms of sport. This sport is not athletics or sailing or basketball… Where the fastest or the one with the best equipment wins. In this sport we depend on the conditions, our equipment, the subjective gaze of some judges… There are so many things that come into play! In the end, over time I have learned that hard work is not going to lead me to the results I want, it is going to bring me closer to them! But it’s not the key that opens that door. Over time, I have learned to enjoy the road a little more, since in the end, it is what gives you the experience, the friendships, the good times … I didn’t make it to the Triple S final, but I took home countless other trophies!
The first time in history
Well, it should be noted that I was given a small recognition called: “Slicktyle Attitude Award”. While presenting the award they said that this award was aimed at that person who spreads positive energy to others, to that person who enters the water the first and leaves the last, to that person who always walks with a smile on his face (both in and out of the water) and some more things that I do not remember …
In addition, I was told that this award had never, in 12 years of competition, been given to a woman. So I’m proud to be able to make a little bit of history in this regard, I’m proud to have finished 5th in my first competition, I’m proud that people consider me someone with that kind of energy.
See you in the water,
