Sylt PWA Super Grand Slam - Weather halts action on day 3

Youp spray - 2014 PWA Bonaire World Cup Carter/pwaworldtour.com http://www.pwaworldtour.com/

Naish draws the crowds - Davidoff Cool Water World Cup Sylt 2014 © Carter/pwaworldtour.com http://www.pwaworldtour.com/

Many people have been wondering why freestyle hotshot - Youp Schmit (JP / Avanti) - is absent from the final freestyle event of the year, so we caught up him to find out:

PWA: Hey Youp, you've sadly had to withdraw from the rest of the season. What exactly has happened to you?

YS: 'Indeed, sadly I will have to withdraw from this year’s tour. As some of you might already know I have been fighting with my knee over the whole season this year. On my last event in the Canaries, on Fuerteventura my knee just couldn’t hold on anymore. I was limping to my heats and I couldn’t push it any further, that’s when I knew my body is giving me a sign to stop.'

PWA: Where have you been recovering and what’s the diagnosis with your knee and have you started rehabilitation yet?

YS: 'I was in Holland over the last nine weeks, but now I am happy to say that I am back on my island. The help I had gotten over the last two months there was just great, I got help from some of the best sport-doctors in Holland to get me on my way of recovery.'

'The problems I had in my knee was my patella ligament was extremely inflamed and annoyed, besides that they had also found a small piece of bone broken off of my upper leg bone. Further they saw that I had small tears in my meniscuses on both knees, but luckily I still didn’t need any operation. I just needed 100% rest and they used shock-wave therapy on the Patella ligament several times. After these weeks I am now able to start doing some exercises on the legs to strengthen up the knees.'

'Right now I am following a training schedule from the physio therapist (Joost Adams from Adams physiotherapy) I was working with in Holland. His help has also been just perfect! I keep in touch with him by Skype weekly to see how things are going. He is not just helping me with all my exercises, he also hooked me up with personal coach Annet Brons, she is helping me with food and nutrition plans that are needed to help the recovery and my training.'

PWA: Will you be staying in Holland while you recover or heading back home to Bonaire?

YS: 'Bonaire, yeah! It’s so good to be back home! I am able to keep on going with all the exercises given to me in the gym here, and will get coordinated by Skype and video by the physio trainer back in Holland. So far we got to try it out twice now and it’s working out great!'

PWA: Over the winter you also injured your knee with a pushloop landed flat. Is this the same knee causing you problems?

YS: 'Damn right! I am still messing around with that same (right) knee. Actually that’s when the injury all started for me. Landing that pushloop with my legs fully stretched out I seemed to have ripped my abductor muscle a little which also affected the knee, I had taken the time to recover from that but I could have had some better guidance for that recovery. After recovering from February until April as I returned to the water I started to feel pain again after a couple of sessions but competition season was starting so I didn’t want to stop… But as there was two months’ time between Austria and the world cup coming up on Bonaire last June I had taken those months to try and be ready for the PWA Bonaire but the sadly the pain returned when I was competed during the contest on Bonaire. With Bonaire going so well for me, giving up was the last thing on my mind. Sure, that wasn’t too smart for the knee but in the end it was a great experience.'

PWA: How long is your recovery going to take?

YS: 'My recovery will take about another two months and I’ve already been recovering for two months before that, so fourth months in total. But I know after these months that I will come back on the water stronger than ever!'

PWA: We know you hate being off the water, so what are you going to be doing to keep yourself busy whilst waiting to be able to windsurf again?

YS: 'True that! It was very, very hard for me, especially in those first weeks, but nevertheless I keep myself active in the gym, working on upper body balance as I still need to build up strength in my legs strength with specific physiotherapy exercises. I also hope to start cycling and running in the next month.'

PWA: Will we see you back fighting fit for 2015?

YS: 'Full power!'

PWA: Thanks, Youp and best of luck with your recovery. We look forward to seeing you back on the water in 2015.

After a long day on hold the sailors were eventually released at 4:30pm. The forecast for tomorrow doesn’t look too promising as high pressure continues to dominate much of Europe, unfortunately meaning very light PWA World tour