Thinking at Venezuela in those days, inevitably the images of left orientated president Hugo Chavez in the daily news will pass your brain. Venezuela is right in the middle of a political and social change, where President Chavez seems to play the central roll. His political opinions polarise the lower and middle class in his own country as well as internationally.

Tourism boom at the Caribbean beaches

Since the reports in the international press are concentrated mostly on president Chavez and his political interests, connected with more and more international conflicts, positive developments almost fade into the background. The Country with around 2800 km coastline and more than 50 islands in the Caribbean Sea also has a great touristic potential. More and more formerly poor regions develop into touristic destinations with international flair. A large influence on this progress came through the windsurfing sport.

Windsurfing in Venezuela

Tropical beaches with warm, blue green water and constant winds attracted already years ago windsurf-tourists to the Venezuelan coasts. Nowadays the windsurf sport in Venezuela is above all concentrated in the spots like the Olympic trainings centre in Lara, the wave spot in Adicora and the small village of El Yaque at the Island of Margarita, which is known as one of the best freestyle spots worldwide.

In Baseball-fanatic Venezuela, windsurfing wasn´t known at all and it was not really attractive respectively for a long time. But then the first European and American windsurf-tourists arrived at the today already 20 years old windsurfing village El Yaque.  They started to build the small hotels and windsurfing centers and attracted sports tour operators to send their customers; the touristic and the windsurfing boom had started. Not only hobby windsurfers, but also countless professionals appreciate the Caribbean ambience, rely on the great wind statistics and love the whirlpool like water temperatures. Though, they return constantly.

A training location of the world´s elite

The fact, that some Top-Windsurfers like the US-Americans Kevin Pritchard, Micah Buzianis or Josh Stone chose El Yaque as their destination for training sessions, made the level on the water rise immensely and windsurfing became more attractive also for the village kids. Especially the new discipline freestyle became the most favourite one, no matter if for the fishermen son or kid of the rich families. Very rapidly it became clear, that some of those kids had great talent. Some of them even seemed to be capable of managing a professional windsurfing career on the international tour.   

The Step into the international Spotlight

The first who tried a step into the professional windsurfing world was Diony Guadagnino in the year 2002. Supported by one of the various windsurfing centers alongside the El Yaque beach and with his first sponsoring pre contract in his pocket, Guadagnino travelled to the famous and important Freestyle Event „King of the Lake“ at the Italian Lake Garda … he didn´t only win this event, he managed to set a new level in this discipline.

Idol for an entire generation

Fast Guadagnino became the idol for all El Yaque windsurf kids. And pretty soon also Guadagnino’s sister Colette, who became Freestyle World Champion in the professional ladies’ fleet, Ricardo Campello, Douglas „Cheo“ Diaz, Alexis Zabala and also Jose „Gollito“ Estredo were seen at the events of the international tour of the Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA). They impressed with their smooth but powerful style and invented new moves at an amazing pace; though they are to a great amount the source for an increasing interest in freestyle windsurfing. The freestyle-level still is continuously rising into the air and the World Cup trophies could also be sent per standing order to the South of the Island of Margarita.

Consecutive World Champion titles  

Three times in a row Ricardo Campello won the freestyle World Title (2003, 2004, 2005), followed by the youngest World Champion in the history of windsurfing, Jose „Gollito“ Estredo (2006). In 2005 all three places on the podium of the PWA overall ranking went to El Yaque windsurfers with Ricardo Campello, Douglas „Cheo“ Diaz and Jose „Gollito“ Estredo. But solely freestyle is not enough for the talented El Yaque-guys, the attack to the top places in the discipline waveriding has already started.

Industrial support

Some support for organizational issues, the training, the travelling and the promotion receive those top athletes only from international companies and groups out of the windsurfing business. The biggest companies with the strongest international teams didn´t hesitate to offer the Venezuelan wonder kids professional contracts; these were above all brands like North-Sails, Fanatic, NeilPryde, JP-Australia and Mistral. But what about the Venezuelan government? Ricardo, Cheo and Gollito are representing their country with impressive results not only on the international windsurfing stage; they also managed to drawe the touristic attention onto their home spots and helped to increase the economical recovery.

A country in change

Since the election of President Hugo Chavez Venezuela finds itself in a continuous change, towards a „socialist democracy“. The international industry has already started to leave the country, after financial transactions to and from Venezuela are being made impossible and with buildings and grounds being nationalized. Doors stand open for corruption, money for Venezuelan top sportsmen gets lost in the authorities and the chances of some sponsoring by Venezuelan companies went down to zero.

Travel limitations are daily business

Not only the reduced chance to get some financial support makes life harder for those athletes. Also travelling to competitions, photo shootings and more events is getting harder and harder. Venezuela´s radical political course means also confrontation with many other countries, above all the United States and Western Europe. Owning a passport doesn´t mean free travelling for the Windsurfers though. In more and more countries where a visa is mandatory, the Venezuelans don’t get it any more, like in the USA for example.