Are you crazy for windsurfing, or curious how it is to be a pro female athlete? Marine Hunter is a French pro windsurfer, who has grown from first taking lessons at 16, struggling with bulima, and dropping out of university, to relocating to the coast, fundraising for her first competitions, and now travelling and sharing her passion. Marine’s story is inspiring for everyone who has passed through difficult moments, persevered and not given up, and come out the other side stronger and even more badass!

We talked with Marine about the natural adrenaline and emotions that you feel when windsurfing, how she’s learnt to choose the advice she listens to, what she hopes for more equality in windsurfing (prize money, and visibility), and the power of getting to know your own learning style.

You first discovered the sea on a family holiday, and started windsurfing at 16 years old. Could you tell us about those early years learning to windsurf?

My brother who was an instructor agreed to teach me the basics and I was instantly hooked! I did a few group courses afterwards, and I started going to the sea on weekends to rent gear and practice.

I decided to switch from prep class to university to lighten the studying load, and to also get closer to the seaside. Study-wise, it wasn’t a successful move as the workload was the same without anyone whipping motivation into me, but at least I was windsurfing whenever I could. I had found the perfect location, with a shared house 20m away from the spot that hosted the historical windsurf club, the Aytré Funboard association. The association was an active and warm community of passionate people that offered gear storage – very useful when you don’t have a car! The bay never was too wavy or dangerous, it was ideal for progression, freeride, slalom and bump n’ jump.

What made you decide to dedicate your life to the sport?

It wasn’t ever a conscious decision, nor anything planned. Windsurfing was the only thing that motivated me to move forward, it made me happy, it gave purpose to my life. I was struggling a lot with bulimia and I couldn’t focus on my studies; I dropped uni and went back to my parents’ place in Paris. It was hard, but luckily I found a group of windsurfers who organised car-sharing rides to the sea when the conditions were on. I bought a car with the money I made during the summer working as a windsurfing instructor, and I was super lucky to get a part-time job at Decathlon with a boss who used to be a sailing instructor as well, and things rolled from then on. When it was about windsurfing, I always found a way to make it work! ^^

The guys I was windsurfing with coaxed me into trying slalom competition on a national level, and another sailor I met also encouraged me to do the same with wave sailing. I quickly loved the feeling of having a goal, surpassing myself and seeing the progress.

Many people made it possible for me to sustain such a lifestyle that’s very expensive and demanding – my former boss who tweaked my schedules to make time for me to attend competitions, my sponsor Ka provided me with very good support early on, my sailing club organized a fundraising for my first season on the Professional World Tour, and my boyfriend at the time supported me a lot through all that. I couldn’t have gone as far without the help of others. Now I have to make the conscious choice of going further down that road, deciding that I’m worth it and finding the means by myself, which is not easy and I have a lot of work to do on my self-esteem!

What would you go back and tell yourself, when you were learning and improving your windsurfing in the early years? 

Great job girl! Don’t go small, and say yes sometimes when people offer help. It’s not as scary as it seems!

What qualities do you think make a great (female) windsurfer?

Doggedness and listening to oneself. People are more prone to giving you advice when you’re a woman that is not always the best because oftentimes we have a smaller build, less upper body strength and a different approach. I respond much more positively to encouragements than being yelled at or criticized for instance; hearing my inner self-critic is already enough! So it’s important to stay in touch with how you feel and what you feel like doing and trying. When I’m a bit daring some people hold me back a little for instance, whereas if it were a guy the reaction would be more on the « oh he’s got balls » side. Conversely, people will tell you that forward loops are « easier than a jibe » and you only need to « pull your back hand ». The technical side of things may be simple, but the mental side of jumps is my biggest challenge!

So believe in yourself, you’re not always the problem, sometimes it is the gear or you were given the wrong piece of advice for you. This applies to everyone of course, but I find it especially relevant when you’re a woman.

Women are often not given the primary media coverage during events/competitions, and don’t get as much visibility. What are your thoughts on this? 

On the commercial point of view, it makes sense to the brands because the women’s market is smaller. I would estimate them to represent approximately 10% of windsurfers.

To me, it used to feel normal because it is true that we are a smaller fleet, but the effect it has is that first of all with less visibility, the marketing potential decreases and so does our value as athletes, therefore we are less likely to get good contracts and live from the sport. Secondly, according to some studies, less visibility means less identification from other women who would like to launch a career or thrive in the sport. I understand where it comes from but the consequences are detrimental to the growth of the female side of windsurfing, and it takes only a reasonable effort and communication with media teams to close the gap in terms of media coverage.

From what I gathered, for sports in general, women participate less in competitions than men and raising their numbers demands voluntarist politics and to put in the effort with a specific marketing strategy. Sports were originally designed by men for men, so women’s sports is a field that would require another way of thinking.

Equal prize money for instance and equal media coverage would be an awesome goal to aim at. Prize money differences also affect the female riders, as women have the same expenses as the men for travel, training etc,. but very few have a salary and can be full-time professionals. Right now, only the top 8 women benefit from prize money whether we are 10 or 32 (32 being the maximum of competitors) while the top 16 men of the men’s fleet gets prize money. They have it hard too on many aspects but the opportunities they have are definitely not the same.

It’s hard to ask and fight for more, because I know I will always be confronted with the same argument – that we get what we represent, a lesser fleet with less skills, and less people than in the men’s fleet. Not everybody thinks like that of course, and more and more people express great support towards women as they fight for equality in windsurfing and other sports, and as they manage to be heard, which is amazing to see!

What do you hope to see in the next 10 years in windsurfing in general?

Windsurfing seems to be at a turning point with winging taking a bigger a place (but for how many years?). I’m not really optimistic because with climate change, the wind is becoming scarce, and travel more expensive, but I hope that it still grows and reaches people who are in bad need of irreplaceable sensations and adrenaline! Forget drugs, kids. We have something better for you! ^^

I also hope that it stays a simple way of having fun, that it becomes more affordable, and that people will keep on wanting to share these good moments. I feel that events, gatherings or doing things together in general are great ways to share the passion and keep the flame alive. Every windsurfer craves sharing their crazy sport with other crazy mates, and a good move feels 10 times better when you think someone else on the water saw it!

And then, what do you hope for the future of women’s windsurfing specifically?

Real equality and more acknowledgement of how badass and brilliant the windgirls are 🙂

Finally, what activities do you have coming up in 2022-23 – any projects we should follow?

I just came back from Tiree (Scotland) to attend the Tiree Wave Classic, the oldest and most feminist wave competition I’ve ever been to with the PWA in Pozo when it was organized by the Moreno sisters! Last but not least, the French wave championship will be the last event of my season in November.

I’m also crossing fingers so that Cabo Verde will happen for women this year. And if anyone has ideas on how to develop women’s windsurfing or give it more visibility, let me know in the comments 🙂