Both experience and youthful exuberance were on display earlier today at the SIM 31st Singapore Open Asian Windsurfing Championship held at the National Service Resort & Country Club.
The annual event organised by Windsurfing Association Singapore and sponsored by Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) Global Education saw about 100 competitors from seven countries compete from the 11th to the 15th of January. This year proved to be a year of many firsts for the event.
The event will be hosting seven different classes of races including the Formula Class category which was competed in for the first time at this event. This initiative prompted active participation of many experienced international windsurfers.
One such veteran is multiple-time Formula Windsurfing Oceanic Champion, Sean O’Brien. The Australian competed at the Singapore Open today as a warm-up for this year’s National Championships in Australia. “Singapore has warmer waters, tropical weather and is much closer to home for me. So I really wanted to try surfing in Singapore,” said O’Brien. He added that he enjoyed the tricky conditions that the Singapore waters presented.
These very conditions and the competition’s aim of promoting windsurfing in Singapore, especially amongst the youth, have also brought in many local competition. One of these local athletes is SIM’s very own Sheereen Teo Su-Lin, who is competing in her very first windsurfing competition today.
The business management undergraduate started off as a sailor when she was in polytechnic but switched to windsurfing at SIM. The switch was not without hardship says Sheereen. “The learning curve for windsurfing is really steep and at the start I had many doubts about whether this was my thing. After you get the hang of it, you really attain nirvana,” said Sheereen.
Sheeren added that since this being her first competition, she was eager to learn from more experienced competitors and figure out how she can improve herself as an athlete. “My main goal is to go in, survive and come back and live to tell the tale” explained Sheeren.
The cheery windsurfer also felt that though big competitions like these are good, there should also be more smaller races in the future in order for new blood to enter the Singapore windsurfing scene.
When asked about what she would like to tell newcomers to windsurfing, she said, “Three simple words: Don’t give up.”
