Rick, you had a really good season in 2012. Your results got better and better towards the end of the year, what are your best 2 highlights?



Yea that’s right, in the beginning of the year I didn’t have a really good start. But after Fuerteventura I got the Freeks and I started to sail better.
In the end of the year I had my best results of my career till now.

That was: 17th Place in Sylt on the PWA and my 4th Place by the EFPT in England!

What are you windsurfing goals for 2013?



In windsurfing for this year I have a lot of goals but the most important ones is to get fun again this year and working on my windsurf dream! Train hard and learn a lot of new moves, making new friends and see some new places in the world!

What are your competition goals for 2013?

I always have high goals but I think that’s good, otherwise it’s to easy ;)
My goals for this year Is a result in top 10 of PWA and an overall place in the top 15. I think this is possible but it’s not easy! In the EFPT I want to go to the Top 3 and Top 5 overall!



Where did you train this winter and how are you going to prepare for the 2013 competition season?

I stared with a trip to Brazil, Sao Miguel do Gostoso! I went there with Severne team rider Dieter Van der Eyken! There I learned some real pure freestyle! After this I went to Cape Town for some jumping and wave riding, I also did some freestyling in the waves. It’s good to go to some different spots to learn sailing everywhere. Now I go to Lanzarote for a week of sport training with the Dutch sailing team. That will be my last trip for this winter.  After that I start with training on the Brouwersdam in Holland again!



There will be a new event on the PWA World Tour this year, Brouwersdam. The place where you live and sail most of the time. Are you looking forward to this and how closely are you involved with the organisation?



I really cannot wait till this event starts! I want to rock on my home spot and show al the other people how good the Brouwersdam is to sail and train! Yea right this is my home spot I live here so I’m really into this spot! I’m quit far involved in this project, the surfcentre there (zeil-& Surfcentrum Brouwersdam) is from my parents and it’s one of the biggest in Europe. They are organizing it together with other partners and I help them ;)! The DAM7 Festival / PWA World tour Netherlands was also my internship for school, so I had to work a half year just on this event!

And last question. Why should people buy the new FREEK instead of another freestyle sail?

For me the Freek is just the new concept of freestyle sails, it’s different than the other freestyle sails. That’s also what Severne is, they are different! And it works good! Really good! With this sail you can do all the latest moves and you can learn really fast! For me it’s cool that the sail is so light and still strong, I have a lot of lift and more control on the power and air moves. Also it’s not so expensive… just a tip!



Thank you for your time and good luck in the 2013 season!