We met the Danish top wave rider and port tack specialist Kenneth Danielsen (D-38) at Pozo and had a chat with him about his status quo. The 31 year-old athlete, who studies sport science in Denmark, announced his change from F2 to a new board sponsor from Slovenia. He joins the team of Flikka, a small custom brand from Ljubljana in Slovenia. “Kenneth is one of the best riders out there and when Andreas Olandersson convinced him to join our team we were just proud that he will cooperate with our small custom brand. With his great feeling for shape details he’ll help to develop our wave line and we already made some improvements on our shapes fallowing his comments. But what’s even more important for us, he’s a nice and friendly guy!” (Luka Jures, Flikka Boards)
Continentseven: Hi Kenneth, how are you doing? Ready for the upcoming PWA Gran Canaria Wind & Waves Festival?
Kenneth Danielsen: Yeah, I feel good. I completely recovered from my shoulder-and knee injury from last year and trained 6 weeks in Cape Town during the winter. Denmark was really good, too during the winter and the spring was just amazing. We had the best spring I can remember. Even now it’s stormy, it’s howling. It was the best decision to stay at home.
Continentseven: At which spots do you windsurf most of the time in Denmark?
Kenneth Danielsen: At Hanstholm and Klitmoeller, depending on the wind direction. There are no secret spots anymore. If we have a big day, there are 200 people up there, from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands or even Poland.
Continentseven: Why is Denmark so popular?
Kenneth Danielsen: The wind hits the country so often, especially during spring. During a week you make it on 3 to 4 days on the water. Sometimes it’s just windy in Denmark and no wind in most of the other European countries. And we get waves, head high to logo high. The waves are fun waves, not really heavy waves. It’s just fun sailing in that waves and most of the time we have side to side onshore wind directions.
Continentseven: With whom do you sail at home?
Kenneth Danielsen: There are a bunch of friends I sail with. I really like to sail with Robert Sand. He was a pro back then and he actually pushed me to get better and helped me to start my career. And I also love to sail with Andreas Olandersson in Cape Town.
Continentseven: Did you train any specific moves during the winter and spring?
Kenneth Danielsen: I worked hard on my Backside 360s. I was training for years on that move. And I was working on my Frontside 360s as well. This move looks so easy, but in reality it’s so hard.
Continentseven: You have news concerning your board sponsor. You left F2 after several years of good collaboration.
Kenneth Danielsen: Yeah, I actually made a deal with F2 during the winter that I needed new boards, special boards for me. I am quite tall (187cm) and therefore heavy for a wave rider with 94 kg. They were keen on doing that and shape boards for me, but nothing really happened. And then I was not really sure what’s going on.
Continentseven: It looks like F2 more and more disappears from windsurfing, same as Mistral.
Kenneth Danielsen: Yeah, it’s a shame.
Continentseven: And then you decided to look for a new board sponsor or did you get picked up by a brand?
Kenneth Danielsen: Yeah, I changed to Flikka Boards. My friend Andreas Olandersson has been on this brand for years. Andreas, who is in charge of the whole Scandinavian market for Flikka asked me as they were looking for another rider. The problem is that they aren’t paying for the PWA board membership. So I thought that’s gonna be a problem. I just tried out a few boards from Andreas down there at Cape Town and these boards were the best boards I have ever tried. But as already mentioned I was doing a deal with F2, but during the spring F2 never really came back to me. I ordered new boards for this event at Pozo, but nothing really happened. In the end I said I really need some boards, which fit my size and Flikka is a pure custom brand. All the boards you get are made just for you and in the end I decided to move on with Flikka.
Continentseven: Is it your first time using prototype wave boards in your career?
Kenneth Danielsen: I had a few prototypes from F2, but was on production boards most of the time.
Continentseven: How many new boards do you have now?
Kenneth Danielsen: I have four boards now, from 82 to 105 liters. All boards are Quadfin models, but Flikka added a fifth fin box and I can use them with a thruster setup, too or as a single fin board. I use Quad most of the time. I have bigger boards now, which suit my body. The boards are wider with bigger rails. The cool thing is that the owner of the brand came all the way from Slovenia to Denmark to bring me the boards.
Continentseven: And how will you handle it with the PWA membership fee?
Kenneth Danielsen: Yeah, that’s one of the biggest issues. We tried to find out how to do it and Flikka doesn’t really push for competition. They just want to have really well built boards for the customer. It’s a custom brand. In the end we found the solution. My boards will be just white, no branding at all. Just plain white. There is a sticker I can pull off when competing.
Continentseven: Will you do all events in 2015 or will you just focus on specific events?
Kenneth Danielsen: This year I will try to do all events, probably not Maui as I am not an epic starboard tack sailor. It doesn’t make sense to go there. It would take all my budget away anyway. But I will do all events in Europe and see how it goes.
Continentseven: What are your expectations for the first event here at Pozo?
Kenneth Danielsen: I am qualified for the event. I had my worst overall result in 2014 with a 25th place overall. I was injured at the end of the season and decided to skip La Torche, what made my ranking worse. In the past I was in the top 20 most of the time. (e.n. Kenneth was 14th in 2010, 11th in 2011, 18th in 2012 and 12th in 2013). For 2015 it’s much about the first event here at Pozo to secure a good place to be qualified for Tenerife. I hope for a top 13 to top 17, at least I would like to be in the top 20.
©continentseven.com 2015
TOP!! way to go Flikka and Kenneth.