On the 1st of Augsut, I went down to the Canarian Islands. The second worldcup of the season 2014 was held in Tenerife. Since I did quite ok in Tenerife in 2013, I decided to go back and give it another try. My jumping skills did not improve much during the last year, but I felt quite confident on the waves. Additionally, my fitness training during the last month had payed off. Having lost a couple of kilos and gained some confidence, I booked my tickets and appartment.
I hoped to score some nice sessions at El Cabezo prior to the event, which started on the 4th of August. Nevertheless, I just got the opportunity to struggel around with 4.8 looking for waves. Well, I also like these kind of windsurfing a lot. But I went a little bit nervous, since the forecast was so great for the event and I still needed a good wave session to get into the mood. Well, during this week, the forecast changed so much, that I ended up on 4.4 or 4.8 most of the time. On Monday, they started directly with the girls. I had to sail against Sara Sommer, who is a great waverider. I had no power at all in my 4.8 and lost a lot of height in the beginning of the heat. So, Sara was the deserved winner, since her waves were so much better than mine. The next days, I had some time to windsurf on my own and to watch and cheer for the others. The atmosphere was really nice among all surfers. On Wednesday evening, the double was started. I had a quiet good heat against Nicole Baldini with some solid waves. So, I found myself against Maeli Cherel the next day. I just enjoyed the 14min of the heat against Meali, as I thought this might be the last heat for me, since I have seen Maeli windsurfing before. Well, I won...by the closest decision ever. I was really surprised...wow.. This Thursday turned out into one of these crazy days in life time. I also won against Olya Raskina... Crazy!! 7th place!! Even though I crashed with my back on a stone in the end of this heat I went into my next heat against Alice Arutkin. There, I noticed that something must be wrong. I kept on fighting until the end of the heat, went straight to the beach knowing that I lost. When putting off my wetsuite I realized that something happened to my back. Inbetween minutes it was swollen. I was brought to hospital to clarify if i suffered a fracture of the lower back. The Xray was ok and on the next morning I was told, that the CT looked ok,too. So, they could not find anything but a big broise, which was quite painful. Steffi was there all Thursday night keeping care of me even though she had to windsurf Friday morning in the double elimination. That was just great and so nice! Thank you so much!!! On Saturday, Eva picked me up to bring me back to El Medano and on Monday, I flew back home. Thanks to Andreas, it was a quite nice trip, since he helped me a lot with my gear.
Thanks again to Steffi Wahl, Andreas Erbe, Dani Bruch, Luis, José, Sara Sommer, Eva Oude Ophuis, Caterina Stenta, Valter Scotto and all the others who helped me, send messages, called me and were happy seeing me back in El Medano on "my own feet".
After Tenerife, I went back home to Bad-Wildungen to get a proper check of my back at the Werner-Wicker-Klinik in Reinhardshausen: a hospital, which is specialized in vertebral column injuries. They verified, that I had no fractures. I only suffered a big trauma of the soft tissue, which will heal in the next couple of weeks. So, I might be fit again for the PWA event in Sylt. I was very happy with this diagnosis especially as it was verified by very good medical specilists. This really helped me a lot. I am very happy and thankful, that nothing severe happened. I definitively will enjoy the upcoming windsurf sessions much more than I already did. And I am happy to know that so many people care about me....puuh...makes me really emotional...haha.. :)
