At only 7 years old, Ali is already flying over the Alaçati waters.

Ali Gunem started windsurfing with his father at the age of 4. Two years later, he had his own board - a Kode Tufskin 122 - and was holding on to a 1.5m² sail, which he quickly swapped for a Futura 111 and a 2.0m².
After just a few weeks, Ali switched again to a ProKids S-Type 72 on which he mounted a 2.5m² sail. And the miniature super-hero got planing on his first outing! Thanks to the smaller and more maneuverable board, within weeks Ali nailed his first jibes and was definitely hooked. A typical summer day for him now involves 3 to 4 hours on the water.

Now 7 years old and weighting in at 26 kilos, the Turkish phenomenon rides an iSonic 97 with a 34cm fin on the small days and goes back to his ProKids S-Type 72 when the wind picks up. His sails range from 2.5 to 4.0m² although he feels confident that he could handle bigger ones! Unfortunately, on bigger sails the luff opening for the boom is too high for Ali and it looks like he will have to drink soup and wait for the bones to grow.
His favorite setup remains the iSonic 97 on which he mounts a 4.0m². The deep deck-concave on the iSonics helps to lower the boom and adjust it to Ali's height.

His windsurfing idols are Björn Dunkerbeck and Jimmy Diaz. The latter nicknames the little star "Champion" whenever they meet at the Cagla Kubat Windsurf Academy. He had the chance to meet Björn and shake his hand at the Alaçati Slalom PWA events, which he attends every year.
Ali's immediate plans involve drinking milk to hold on to his new 5m² cambered sail and keep practicing in order to race on the PWA one day... We wish the best of luck!

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