“Girls don’t have to be strong to windsurf, but it will help to make you strong!”: Interview with Jane Seman, windsurfer
We were super lucky to grab some time to speak with Jane Seman recently, a windsurfer from Australia who has some pretty cool achievements under her belt – including second place at the IWT wave tour 2022 and also being the 2022 Fiji Pro Women’s Champion.
In addition to her amazing windsurf tales, Jane’s story has some very relatable elements, including taking a break for a corporate job, to raise a family and recover from cancer. We spoke about Jane’s advice for new windsurfers, how to get back to sports after a break, the gender discrimination she’s witnessed when competing, and what exciting things she sees for the female windsurf scene in the next 5-10 years!
If you need a pick me up, some inspiration and a good read, grab a cup of tea or coffee and settle in. So let’s go!
Hello hello! Thank you so much for joining us today! Firstly could you tell us a bit about how you first started your windsurfing journey?
Hi, thanks for having me. I love that you’ve started something for ocean girls.
I started as a teenage girl and some family friends bought their windsurfer across and me, my dad and my brother all had a go. I found it hard at the start and didn’t love it straight away, but once I discovered wavesailing (windsurfing in the waves), I was hooked!
How do you see the women’s windsurfing scene now in 2023? Do you think it’s changed since you started?
No matter what era, you can always find women who love wavesailing and you relate to them because you share the same passion. Because I’ve come back to competing via the IWT wave tour side first, I’ve met some girls that are fantastic and just love waves and love travelling. They are super friendly too which is great. And I love being able to be around other women who are charging and wanting to push their level.
But at a competitive level and thinking about how women are treated, not as much has changed as I had hoped. For example, at the first 5 star competition of the unified IWT / PWA tour in 2023, the women still got put out in the worst conditions. There wasn’t a great forecast, so it was good we did finish the women’s event, but at the competitors briefing, they actually said “The conditions will be better later so we will put the women out first”.
They didn’t even run men’s heats in between ours because the conditions weren’t deemed good enough for the men. So it’s sad for women’s windsurfing that this is still happening. If we don’t have equal conditions as men to perform in, we are never going to look even vaguely similar to them performance wise. And it doesn’t give the girls opportunity to get good videos and photos for sponsorship or personal reward.
If we don’t have equal conditions as men to perform in, we are never going to look even vaguely similar to them performance wise.
We saw you recently went on tour to compete (alongside your son, which sounds so fun!) after taking a break. How did it feel to get back into competing after stopping for a while?
Actually it was great to get back into competing – I’m loving it right now! The new tour has so many incredible destinations like Fiji, Peru, Chile, Hawaii and Japan. It’s way better now than it was and I love going to these new places. I also feel there’s less pressure because I’m mainly having fun and just enjoying the experience.
The main reason I went back to competing internationally was to show my son Jake what travelling around on a tour could be like, but I ended up loving it myself as well.
After taking quite a long break where I had kids, thyroid cancer and a proper corporate job, I got back into windsurfing by just having fun again. I had to build my strength, skills and confidence at home for a few years. Then I started doing a few local Western Australian competitions. I had one or two losses which I wasn’t used to and made me feel like I’d really dropped a lot, but I just tried to turn it around and give me drive to get back to where I’d been and then try to get better. We’re lucky to have current and former professional female wave sailors living in WA so it’s much easier to tell where you sit on the international scale.
A real turning point though was getting a new custom Severne board (Scotty McKercher design). Both my son and I got a board each and it was easily the best board I’ve ever owned. It just lifted my performance and it finally felt like I had my first ever board that was actually designed for a girl. It has thinner rails at the back and a narrow tail so it’s so much easier for me to turn at high speeds. I really feel like I can do anything I want on this board. And now the tour has places like Fiji, Chile and Peru, which have big, long walls, I’m just so excited to take the opportunity to ride these waves.
So, if I had to sum up how to return to windsurfing after kids, it’s this:
- Take it easy, have fun and don’t put any pressure on yourself about how you used to sail
- Try to do it regularly (if and when you’re able) so you can really build your strength and confidence
- Get yourself some new gear that is designed for a girl because it’s just great to have that instant performance boost.
Who are your favourite female windsurfers that we should follow (apart from yourself of course!) who are breaking barriers out there?
Sarah Quita has so much sail control. She looks like she dances with the gear and just makes it all look so magical and beautiful. But then she’s got this full power, attack mode. She’s also just really friendly and down to earth.
Sarah Hauser is really charging in Hawaii – hitting good size lips and sailing jaws. I just love seeing girls go for it like that.
Iballa and Daida Ruano Moreno have always had a go for it attitude and lead the way for progression in women’s wavesailing.
I also just met Motoko Sato and she’s so humble but is the absolute queen of waves in Japan. She could actually do really well on tour if she wanted to compete. But like many top female sailors, she doesn’t have financial sponsorship and her daughter is on the WQS surfing tour, so they are working hard to support her on that.
I’m currently hanging out with Maria Andres and Pauline Katz right now and I just really like their approach and way to be. They are both really grounded, fun, independent girls who love wavesailing and travelling and want to push their own level.
And my tip for an upcoming girl is 14 year-old Sarah Kenyon from Geraldton. She’s only just started wavesailing but she has a great background of skating and surfing and she’s got a really good go for it attitude. if she sticks with it, I think she could be a really top rider.
What’s your advice for someone reading this who wants to start windsurfing?
Women are actually great at learning to windsurf because they often listen to the instruction really well and also follow it well.
Through doing a lot of work with the South West Junior Windsurf School, I can see that it’s really nice to try to learn with some sort of club or community. I watch people progress so much faster if they have a friend to sail with. And that friend can be a new one from the beach or an old one! I didn’t have a club when I learned, but there was a group of us that all met each other at the beach when we were younger and some of them are still some of my best friends today.
It’s also really important to be on the right gear. It can be very frustrating if you’re not and make you feel like you’re no good. But if you’re struggling, often it will be that you’re not on the right gear or not in the right conditions for your level. It won’t be because you’re just not good at the sport. And note that there is really small, easy gear available for women that doesn’t require huge amounts of strength. Girls do not have to be strong to do windsurfing, but it will help to make you fit and strong!
Also know that windsurfing does require some determination and you will have some moments of frustration. We’ve all had them. But just stop on that day and either try on different gear or on a different day. Frustration obviously isn’t enjoyable at the time, but when you overcome something that you were finding hard, it makes the reward so much better.
I watch people progress so much faster if they have a friend to sail with
What do you expect to see in the (female) windsurf scene in the next 5-10 years?
There’s so many young girls getting into the sport I think it could be really exciting. Some of them have surfed from a young age too so I hope we’ll see some real shredders coming through.
These days there so much in the way of filming, online instruction and personal coaching that girls can learn things so much faster. So I think we’ll see the level really rise fast in the next decade.
In the junior schools, I see just as many girls doing the sport as boys and I really hope they all keep going. I would love to see a more even male/female balance out there in the future.
I also think the gear is getting much better for women with all the kids learning now. I don’t think the industry really paid much attention to developing gear for women in the past, but now they are much more focused on developing gear for the growing youth market, and finally girls will benefit. A lot of girls are finding this kids gear is smaller and lighter, so it suits them better.
The new unified IWT/PWA tour also opens up so many new locations that are so incredible. I think we’ll see the focus shift from being so Europe centric to now being much more inclusive of people living outside of Europe. It also helps to better recognise and reward good wave riding rather than jumping being the primary focus.
