About me

My name is Michiel De Cooman, I’m 14 years old and I became  really stoked about freestyle windsurfing!

This is my story:

I started windsurfing about 4 years ago at the age of 10. My first steps on the board were at a small lake at our hometown “Deinze”. My father took me there on a sunny evening  and put me on a board, next day I couldn’t wait to give it another try.

I subscribed to the summer camp that year, where I met other kids. We had lots of fun and made quite some progression. At that time I was using a big board and a very small sail I could use from the club. One year later, we decided to go to France to spend our summer holidays. We stayed at the border of a big lake “Lac de Monteynard” near Grenoble. I got my first board (a starboard pro kids 100) from my dad to take to our holiday destination.  It was a great experience, I learned how to heli tack and how to sail in the straps.

The board became quickly too big because I always tried to make freestyle moves and I wanted a smaller one. For my 12th birthday I got a Starboard flare 72 pro kids, a real freestyle board, at last.

This was the start for real freestyle fun. At the same time, my friends (Mattijs and Lode) got similar boards and we spent most of the time together on the water. We learned a lot from each other and from my dad. We bought a “tricktionary” book and watched loads of freestyle movies from top riders such as Steven Vanbroeckhoven, Gollito and many others.

A great move at that time was the gecko, during several months we tried to finish it. It wasn’t easy, but we made it at the end. Other members of our club Windsurfing Deinze were really impressed! They had never seen this before.

This gecko was the start for real new school freestyle. Airjibe was my first planning move, quickly followed by a spock and now it’s all about flaka’s, e-sliders, grubbies, puneta’s,…..

Hope you enjoy my website :-)