The Swiss freestyle lady from Lausanne Laure Treboux is one of the best freestyle windsurfers in the world. But she is not only competing, she dedicated her life to windsurfing, she is organizing camps and is campaigning for more women in windsurfing. Windsurfing is a big part of her life. She spends many months far away from home to train freestyle and waves. 2011 was so far an excellent season for the Swiss lady, who will compete at the PWA Worldcup on Sylt in waves as well. We interviewed Laure and asked here, what she thinks about a men dominated sport.
Laure at the PWA Worldcup on Bonaire (Pic: PWA/Carter 2011).
C7: Recently we had this nice double Spock 540° online. Was it the first double Spock 540 ° you landed that nicely?
Laure Treboux: Yes, I landed some before but this was probably the cleanest I landed so far.
Have a look on the move here!
C7: Are there any other monster moves you are close to land or you landed already?
Laure Treboux: Well… Not sure they’re monster moves haha, but I’m working on combination and double moves a lot at the moment, and the other moves like Culos and so on. Will send you the clips when I get them on videos!
Looks like there are no limits for Laure at the moment. This is a shot from her latest Egypt trip in September.
C7: You were ranked with a clear 10 on continentseven. More than 50 users decided to give you really high points! How do you like that?
Laure Treboux: It’s awesome! Thanks to those, who gave me a 10! Just saw that it’s not quite a 10 anymore though, someone obviously didn’t think it was worth that much… But I don’t care, I’m just happy to learn new moves.
Nobody rotates better through Grubbies than Laure (Pic: PWA/Carter 2011).
C7: We would say windsurfing is a men dominated sport. 80 % to 20 % or perhaps 90 % to 10%. But looks like you impressed the men this time very much. Surprised about that?
Laure Treboux: It’s awesome to see the positive reaction from the guys. And it’s good – and important – to show what the girls can do out there, show that we’re ripping too. Personally I reckon there’s way more than 10% of girls on the water. On the PWA tour it’s just about 10-20%, but in the windsurfing world in general it’s more towards the 30%. People tempt to forget about all the girls, who are just sailing for fun and doing their thing out there. I see so many girls on the water every day and loving it, whether just getting into it or ripping in the waves. Same when teaching, I see so many girls join in the courses.Â
There’s a lot more of them into windsurfing than we think. In my opinion it’s just that they have a different approach to windsurfing. They love windsurfing for what it is, the sport, the feeling, being on the water, traveling around the world to windsurfing spots, but they’re less “gigs” than guys (I don’t mean gig in a negative way, don’t get me wrong) – they just don’t spend as much time talking about gear, checking out what’s going on in the windsurfing world on the internet, magazines, and so on, and therefore have less presence on this side of the windsurfing. They’re more shy and less interested in competing too, which means we see less of them on tour for example. Sorry for going a bit off topic here but as much as I love the fact that we’re constantly surrounded by so many nice guys, I feel it’s important to realize that girls are out there and that we need to keep pushing it, bring more girls to the tour and promote woman’s windsurfing much more.Â
Laure could win the supersession at Sotavento this season with a perfect Grubby Diablo (Pic: PWA/Carter 2011).
C7: You had a brilliant season in 2011 on tour finishing 2nd! Is there a chance to beat Sarah-Quita Offringa in the upcoming season?
Laure Treboux: Thanks, yes I’m stoked about this season. I finally managed to bring what I can do when freesailing into my heats and enjoyed it all a lot more.Â
I would definitely love to win an event one day. Sarah-Quita is ripping though and it will always be super hard to beat her – but nothing is impossible. We had some very close finals at Bonaire. I’m gonna train hard this winter, that’s for sure and do my best, then we’ll see what happens.Â
Laure and Sarah-Quita at Bonaire after a close final (Pic: PWA/Carter 2011).
C7: Next stop is Sylt, right? You will compete in the Wave discipline! You will compete with 14 other girls. What do you expect?
Laure Treboux: Yes, going to Sylt for the PWA wave event straight after Egypt. It’s good to see that quite a few girls are coming, and to see a couple of new names too! The conditions can be anything over there so I don’t really expect anything. If it’s port tack I hope to do well. I finished 5th in Tenerife, so hopefully I can do it again – or better. If it’s starboard tack it’s a different story! I never sail starboard tack so then I wouldn’t expect too much, I’ll just go out there and have fun. And I really hope it’s not too cold this year!
Finest waveriding action at EL Cabezo, Tenerife (Pic: PWA/Carter 2011).
 Check out Laure´s website here, if you would like to know more about the Swiss freestyler!
© continentseven.com 2011
yeah definitely 30% girls when the conditions are enjoyable e.g. warmish and not insane winds.
probably not when its 30+ knots and freezing cold…
Happily I agree that the % of girls in the sport is growing!!! I have been spending alot of time in Western Australia and In Tenerife, I see so many new girls getting into the sport and progressing really fast, love it!
Just got back from Dahab. There if you sit in the lagoon for 10 minutes and count how many are on the water you’ll see there’s a good 30%.
I was there with a mate who was doing a clinic, 50% of the participants were girls…
The school at my home spot has more than 50% of girls windsurfing…
When it’s freezing and super tough you don’t see as many, for sure, but if you look at the whole picture I reckon 30& isn’t that far off.
Yeah I highly doubt it’s 30%, it be nice though…
what be amazing if 30 percent of windsurfers were female… but honestly, i have never sailed a spot with around a third girls around. should be in reality something around 5…
honestly, windsurfing is a freaking difficult sport! many will remember the scary first waterstarts in cold water. too scary for many men and hardly any girl makes it through this stage.