At the end of the 2018 season, Youri Zoon announced that it would be his last year competing on the full World Tour, after 15 years of competing in Freestyle Kiteboarding. Youri has had one of the most successful careers in the industry, and though he will no longer be 100% dedicated to competition, he will still be deeply involved with the kiteboarding industry and hopefull will attend at least one of the Freestyle competitions organized by the new GKA Kite World Tour.
So you announced at the end of last year that 2018 would be your last full year of competition… does that mean you are retiring from kiteboarding now, or what are you plans for 2019?
There is always a time from coming and going and i think for the it’s finally the right time to stop competing! I most likely will never fully retire from kiteboarding.I already have some events and demos lined up so I am pretty sure I won’t be sitting around at home! I will definitely be focusing more on the media side of kiteboarding for now.
You managed to do 15 years of competition, which is probably the longest anyone has ever done within kiteboarding. Tell us about your first events, and how you started.
Yes, I think that is one of the longest in Freestyle. Back in 2004, Brunotti planned a photoshoot in Brazil, Ceara beachpark, and the PKRA was held there as well. So I thought, why not give it a go? I was 14 at that time. Right now there loads of 14 year olds on the competition scene, but back then not so many, and with over 90 competitors, it was a long way already to make it into the main event which I did! Super stoked about that… and it all kind of went on from there.