‘The success of Children of the Wind is something great, that words can not explain. I am super stoked and happy about this. I guess, that Tonky and I paved the way to the new generation of windsurfers on Bonaire including Kiri, Bjorn, Jürgen, Amado, Youp, my brother Choco and Chepi and many more that will follow.
I think the success doesn’t come from just sitting around doing nothing. If Tonky and I didn’t push the sport of windsurfing on Bonaire, maybe now there would have been not so many talents. But we grew the sport and we created an image and the new generation followed us.
What people have to understand and know is, that Elvis Martinus and Patun Saragoza helped us a liitle in the beginning, but the main love for the sport and the hunger to be good at it came from ourself.’
“A dream came true not all because of the movie but because we made it from nothing to something and the movie explains it all.” (Taty Frans, NB-9)
C7: For how long did you film for the Children of the Wind (COTW) movie and did you see the final version already?
Taty Frans: I believe that the filming didn’t take that much of a time as it did with the editing and finding the fund to make the documentary.
As I can remember if we put everything together, it was about 6months, but it maybe took longer because Bob and Daphne and their crew went to all over America to film with Tinho Dornellas, the organizer of the Calema event and Nevin Sayre the friend, a good person from the heart who helped us to get Tonky and myself our first contract and who believed in our talent, and they went to so many places to visit people, who had something to say about windsurfers from Bonaire, so I guess it really took a lot of work and time.
Yes, I saw the final version during the ARUBA FILM FESTIVAL, where COTW won the audience awards. It’s a great documentary! That’s what I can promise.
The COTW filmstars from Bonaire. Taty and Tonky Frans, Kiri Thodeand Björn Saragoza.
C7: How many days did you film on the water?
Taty Frans: Children of the Wind is not all about action on the water, it is more about how we, the Bonaire kids Björn, Amado, Choco, Kiri grew up and how Erwin Muller, Elvis Martinus, Patun Saragoza, were the first windsurfers on Bonaire and how Tonky and I grew up and changed the windsurf sport on Bonaire and put it to the next next level.
Taty got famous over the years. Here on a poster of MauiSails, his sailsponsor (Source: MauiSails).
C7: Do you remember any specific moment during the filming work?
Taty Frans: The whole movie is just inspiring. Even I had tears in my eyes at certain points in the movie. There is a moment where my grandma and grandpa talk and it touches me. They say: the first year when Tonky and Taty went on tour for 2-3 months and we didn’t hear from them and we ask ourself why they never call home, we think are they okay, are they eating good. We get sad not hearing from them. The thing is we never knew they were so worried about us until we saw this movie.
Kiri, Taty and Björn with their trophy at the Aruba Film Festival in July 2012.
C7: Did you enjoy participating in this project?
Taty Frans: It’s not that I didn’t enjoy, it’s just that I never knew where this project would be at or if Daphne and Bob were really serious about this project, until they made us all a paper with some really serious sentences and at that moment I said myself now this becomes really serious. In my head I said to myself, I will just give them what I have been thru and so did Tonky and Kiri and Choco, and as the filming was moving forward step by step we were all giving and expressing to them our lives from the past till now.
Taty has fun at his homespot Lac Bay at Bonaire.
C7: What is the movie about?
Taty Frans: The “Children of the Wind” movie is all about the people. Viewers will see that life they probably did not see of each of us yet. We have also struggled, but we had a dream, a goal and we fought for it to be where we wanted to be. Nothing in my life changed. I would really like to have Andre Paskowski making a full windsurf movie with Tonky, Taty, Kiri, Choco and Gollito. This would be a cool movie to make, because we all “5” have been through kinda the same things growing up and it will be the hunger for succeed that made us who we are. So hopefull god will give Andre strength and health that one day we can make this movie.
C7: Did you follow a strict story board?
Taty Frans: No, I didn’t. It was just about the truth been told.
Taty made it in to the PWA final at Podersdorf 2012 (Pic: PWA/Carter).
C7: What’s the feedback of your friends and the other riders?
Taty Frans: My friends are excited to see it as most of them didn’t see it yet. Until now the COTW have won so many prizes in all the festivals. Winning all the prizes at all the festivals is something that keeps me speechless. I didn’t get any feedback from my sponsors, but I don’t really care so much about that. What I care for is that the COTW keeps doing great and that it keeps inspiring everyone that sees it and that’s what is more important to me.
C7: Who will like the movie most? The extreme freestyler, the holiday windsurfer…?
Taty Frans: It’s not just a movie documentary about windsurfing only, it’s an inspiring documentary and it will make you laugh, think, cry and it will inspire everyone. Like I mentioned already it’s not about windsurfing only, it’s about true life and how anything is possible if you follow your dreams. It can be any sport.
Taty loves to rotate through Spinloops on his Slaom gear (Pic: Susi Timm).
C7: What are you doing at the moment?
Taty Frans: Well I was in Thailand for the development of the new Flare Boards 2014 and also help Remi with testing the new Formula board for the light weight sailors. I was testing the new Phantom 295 boards. We had some great results on this board.
I as well tested the prototypes f the 2014 Freestyle Flare at Vietnam. And I also was testing the prototype Kode 2014 wave/freestyle with Tiesda You. Everything seems to be going at the good path. For the new Flare 2014 I found some amazing new ideas and they are working very well. I am happy about the results.
The new Kode is just amazing. I can’t believe we find room for improvement year by year. In Vietnam I had excellent 4.8m conditions for 4 days straight, just perfect to test the boards.
At the moment I am back on Bonaire enjoying the Christmas days!
thanks to my sponsors: MYSTIC, MAUISAILS, STARBOARD, Bonaire Windsurf Place, Maui Ultra fin & Lionel montiere
© continentseven.com 2012
