| Jimmy Diaz and Philip Koster join Starboard |
| Tuesday, 02 September 2008 10:06 |
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As the PWA embarks on the final event of the season, there’s more big transfer news as Starboard add to their wave and race team with two new talented riders. The PWA’s President and long time slalom racer, Jimmy Diaz will be joining the Starboard racing fraternity. Here’s Jimmy on how it all came about: “It all started as a result of F2 going into bankruptcy protection. This left me without a board sponsor and allowed me to step aside and look at the windsurfing scenario and see where I could best pursue my options. I had never approached Starboard in the past because they already had such a great team and I did not see how I could contribute to it. However, after the situation with F2 I looked at companies from a very critical standpoint in deciding whom to approach. What I saw in Starboard was, first and foremost, a company who is year after year producing the most competitive boards on the market. I wanted to race on the best boards and seeing the success Antoine and Kevin were having, I knew the boards were working very well. The second thing I looked at was the strength of the company and the reasons behind it. I have known Svein for quite a few years now and have developed a very strong respect for him. I really like the way he thinks and views the sport and his philosophy is a very healthy one not only for the growth and promotion of Starboard, but also for windsurfing in general. Knowing the success of Starboard, I knew Svein had developed a very strong team around him to push the company and sport forward. This was very appealing to me. So after factoring these things in my mind, I decided to try my chances and approach Svein to see if there was any room in the team for me. Fortunately, Svein, Tiesda, and Joe were able to find a place for me on the team and now I look very much forward to contributing as much as possible to its success.” And secondly, after a brief spell on F2, Philip Koster has signed back with Starboard. Svein Rasmussen, president of Starboard International, was so impressed by Philip’s performance in Gran Canaria he flew to the Canaries to personally congratulate and bring the 14 year old wonderkid back to the brand with the Tiki logo. At the Gran Canaria PWA Wave event last month, Philip Koster knocked out wavesailing superstars Levi Siver and Alex Mussolini, before losing closely to Victor Fernandez. Philip also won the airtime award with the biggest jump of the event at 4.08 seconds. And he’s only 14. Not since the time when Bjorn Dunkerbeck appeared on the scene have competitors seen such a impressive talent at such a young age – so definitely a space to watch out for. With young riders like Sarah–Quita, Kiri Thode, Jaeger Stone, Amado Wiesvijk, French darling Alice Arutkin, Connor Baxter, Zane Schweitzer and with the experienced Jimmy Diaz now the official Dream Team Coach for these youngsters, it certainly look like a second generation of Starboard Dream Team riders is about to storm the world.
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