It’s off-season and time to introduce you to another member of our team. The EFPT family has been currently growing over the past years and we are proud to have been able to convince Emilio Galindo Barquin, a full-time PWA judge and Spanish Champion in freestyle and wave, to join our judging board. What we already do know is, that Emilio is great at his job – what we didn’t know is that the funniest tour memory involves a certain team-mate jumping a pier for money and that he considers himself ‘the bad cop’. Read about the best and worst things about working for the EFPT, special skill-sets and what causes him nightmares – apart from having to watch epic conditions all day long without being able to join on the water.
Age: 35
Nationality: Spanish
Special Skills: Fish skills! Being in the water for the whole day if there’s wind and/or waves.
Famous for: I’m not sure, the highest number of muscle ups in a row…maybe? 😛
Connection to freestyle windsurfing: Well, I spent half of my life freestyling, as my home spot is as flat as a pancake (editors note: Sancti Petri, Cadiz). I was always super motivated to go training and competing, ending up winning the national Spanish tour. I always wanted to do all the incredible moves that I saw in all the videos, no matter what. I guess it’s difficult and rewarding at the same time, all that pain and suffering and when you finally land it, it’s almost the happiest day of your life! We are all hooked up to freestyle because of that.
How did you become a team member? I was already working full time for PWA, so it came kind of naturally to start doing some EFPT events as well.
Role in the team: Being the bad cop of all the judges.
Describe your job in 3 words: Passion, fun, commitment.
Favorite EFPT event: Lanzarote, everything is perfect there: warm weather, wind and amazing wave conditions sometimes. The guys can show all the potential of the sport, doing epic tricks on the way in and massive jumps with double rotations on the way out. And the crew can sneak some quality sailing after work, hahaha!
Best Tour Memory: Road tripping with the guys every year from Sylt, Germany, to Brouwersdam, Holland. I love it, driving for so many hours with six people in the car, making stops in “coffee houses” all day long. It’s my kind of thing, can’t wait till it’s happening next year again.
Funniest Tour Memory: Watching a distinguished media crew-member jumping into a dirty harbor at 2 am. (editors note: Adam Sims got offered € 20,- by the EFPT crew to jump into the harbor of Costa Teguise. He didn’t think twice.)
Personal best trick: If it’s about freestyle I would say burner-funnell or skopu.
Personal competition experience: I used to do the Spanish wave tour, freestyle and slalom. I won the waves and the freestyle overall ones, but never reached the top three in slalom! I love competition so much, it’s a thrill, the intensity goes to the roof, nothing compared with just going free sailing.
Other projects: I compose music. Wintertime at home is going to be good for it when there is no wind or waves. I’m happy to have ended the judging season and being stuck at home with all my instruments around.
Other sports: Surfing, SUPing, basketball, gymnastics… every sport is good for me, I like all of them!
Best thing about the EFPT: Get to travel the world with friends! We’re an amazing team, and we love each other quite a lot.
Worst thing about the EFPT: When it’s firing and we’re working the whole day, nonstop fully focusing our eyes onto the water 100% of the time, at the end of the day your brain is completely drained!
What’s in your coffee? A lot of milk and a little bit of sugar… well… and some dinosaur cookies swimming around… Hahahaha.
Tell us something we don’t know: I simply can’t watch horror movies or play horror videogames. Nightmares will chase me day and night for years!!