In this new interview Maciek Rutkowski talks with Svein Rasmussen, who started his brand Starboard with 10.000 $ back in 1994, about his career in windsurfing and success in business. He is without doubt one of the most influential persons in windsurfing, SUP and nowadays foilboarding. Editor Josh Sampiero published two articles with the title “Madman or Messiah. Svein Rasmussen is a madman & Svein is a Messiah.” He describes very well the character of the Norwegian, who has an endless drive for innovation and development. Based in Thailand he realized what windsport people need for lighter winds. “Windsurfing is the mother sport and it has many characters (styles) today”, Svein explains. “I get upset to see people working in windsurfing without passion.” And he adds in the interview with Maciek Rutkowski: “I’m trying hard to get a better guy out there.” “We are living on a planet with a lot of zombies. We don’t realize where we are. 6 or 7 years ago I realized the fakeness of everything.”
Svein works everyday like it’s the first one. Everything starts again avery day. And if he’s passionate about something he continues and works really hard in that direction. At the moment his focus is on environmental programs (reducing plastic, planting mangroves, cleaning beaches, CO2 neutral). Additionally he’s fascinated by wing foiling and the IQ Foil class, the new Olympic Windsurfing class from 2024 on.
If you listen well to the very interesting interview with Svein Rasmussen you will get a deep view inside windsurfing and its industry. And he has a goal: “We wanna focus on Junior’s windsurfing, that’s our task.”
And the big boss of Starboard finds critical words about himself: “I’m a lousy manager. I’m the secretary of the company. If I would be a good manager it would be different.”
More interviews with Svein
- interview with Svein Rasmussen about the Covid crisis
- interview with Svein Rasmussen about the ECOBOARD project
The Windsurfing Podcast with Svein Rasmussen Episode #18 – Interview by Maciek Rutkowski for Windsurfing TV