Monitoring social media over the past weeks, Team Erzen definitely stood out by posting first landed tricks by Lina and Val every couple of days. The improvement by the two siblings has been so obvious we felt it was time to chat a litte bit with the windsurf family from Slovenia: see where the drive comes from, where they see themselves in five years from now and how the father, Igor Erzen, manages and trains his own little windsurfing team.

EFPT: Igor, what is your personal connection to windsurfing?
Igor Erzen: I started windsurfing for fun in Croatia – in my time all the ski jumpers did windsurfing in summer time when there was no snow.

EFPT: You support and train your kids Lina and Val – do you have experience from other sports?
Igor: I was doing ski jumping for more than 15 years. I even made it into the national team.

EFPT: Who is more competitive? Lina or Val?
Igor: Lina

EFPT: Who supports ‚Team Erzen‘ and how do you personally make it possible to chase the wind with your children?
Igor: I support ‘Team Erzen’.  I make it possible with help of my friends around me.

EFPT: Lina you have been training a lot this summer. Can you tell us a bit about it?
Lina: Yes I’ve been training a lot with my friends.  Because of this Coronavirus I wasn’t able to windsurf that much as usual so I decided I want to go full power in the summer. We decided to go to Naxos. And when I realised that so many other freestyle windsurf girls gonna come, I was even more motivated to train full power and show off landing my new tricks 😉

 

EFPT: You landed a lot of new moves in a very short time now. What’s the secret?
Lina: Yes,I did. There is no big secret. I always get motivated to do new tricks so I can show them in competition. I want to get better every year and follow my dreams.

 

EFPT: You have been 2019 EFPT Youth Champion U16 in the girls division and also won the PWA Youth category. Where do you want to take your competitive windsurfing? 
Lina: I want to be the best female windsurfer in the world.

EFPT: Val, you and Lina seem to be on the water all day long. How do you keep so motivated?
Val: We always look forward to the competitions and think about all the new tricks we can show there.

 

EFPT: Which moves are you training at the moment and what are your best tricks?
Val: At the moment I am training culo and burner. My best tricks are kabikuchi, skopu and willy skipper.

 

EFPT: Do you make fun competitions to train for contests? If yes, how does it work?
Val: Yes we do. Usually our dad calls out a little competition towards the end of a session between my sister and me – so like one to two heats (7-10min duration). 

EFPT: Lina and Val, who are your favorite people to sail with?
Lina: I don’t have a lot of chances to sail with the girls so I am always super happy to sail with any girl. 
Val: Balz Müller because he likes to do freestyle, foiling and winging like me.

EFPT: Lina and Val, are there any other sports in which you participate?
Lina: Besides windsurfing I also like climbing.
Val: When there is no wind I like to go skating or biking.

EFPT: What are your dream destinations for windsurfing?
Lina & Val: Bonaire and Capetown – or Australia. When we’re older and have a driving licence for a van.

EFPT: Lina, Val and Igor – where do you see team Erzen in five years from now?
Team Erzen: Being on tour together – it’s gonna be team Erzen and friends.