One of the reasons that moved me to devote myself to windsurfing with all my heart was the opportunity that it gives you to travel around the world- and this was something that I was very fond of! Looking back, the first thing that comes to my mind is the following picture: me, at the age of 18, sitting on my motorbike outside of the airport, watching the planes take off. The only thing I remember myself thinking then is “If only I could take off.” One year later, at the age of 19, I made it- my very first trip came true – I wouldn’t be able to foresee how many more would follow!
Fifteen were eventually the years that my travelling experience lasted- and each one of these trips has been a great lesson for me. Fifteen years of trips -either for windsurfing races or in preparation for a race- I was enriched: they brought me in touch with many different people and cultures, as well as, with windsurfing experiences that, until then, I thought were just stories in magazine pages.
Speaking of travelling experiences, one of the most stunning was a huge wave in Hookipa Hawaii- it must have been at least 5 meters tall! I don’t think I will ever forget the fear, as well as, the challenge I felt while watching it come towards me. Since then, I have, of course, faced many similar waves- most of which hit me so hard that I am still wondering how I have managed to survive without any serious injury. It took awhile to get used to such harsh training conditions: I remember entering the water with surfboards for that reason- to get acquainted with the unknown. But it taught me that everything needs its time and effort.
As it would seem though, waves are rather innocuous… compared to sharks. Some of them were really dangerous, others seemed so indifferent to human flesh that they were probably… vegetarian! The most impressive, as well as, funny thing about sharks is that nobody spoke of them- as if encountering one was the most normal thing in the world. After some time, I got used to this awkward normality- until I saw one just next to me while riding a wave. Needless to say I was shocked and changed beach at once!
Despite all the precious things all these trips taught me, from one point on they started mattering to me less and less. It was no longer of much importance which country I was in or what I would find there, but where my friends or my co-athletes were, as well as at which place my training would be more fruitful. At the same time, my fear of airplanes became more intense and departing Athens more difficult.
Suddenly I realized that those travels and the intensity with which I sought to leave my home, Greece, in the past, were the catalysts that made my love Greece so completely: for its simplicity, its beauty, its people – the good and the bad. In other words, I never wanted to leave again… and so it happened. If the waves were just a little bit bigger, then Greece would literally be my personal paradise!
Yours,
Tony
