A Comeback for the Ages; Say Hello to Part 2 of Fiona Wylde’s Professional Career
This is a new chapter in my sports career. This year marks 10 years of racing and competing professionally, so in a way, I see this as ‘Part 2’ of my sports career. Things have changed, I had an injury, I had surgery, and I started a new organization to build a future. There are new players in the game now, new young talent that is more eager than ever, there are people who are coming up with new ways to paddle, compete, and train in better, smarter ways. The sport is in such a positive position right now and I am happier than ever to still be a part of it. After spending a year and a half away from competition, I have a new perspective of the sport. Before we dive into what happened this weekend, let’s take a step back and have a look at what happened over the last year and a half, allowing me to come back and enter sports competition with a win at one of the biggest SUP Races of the year.
2021.
I was on the high of life and winning in 2021 when I won two SUP World Titles at the ICF World Championship in Hungary in September of 2021 and the Euro Tour. The entire 2021 season was incredible. I won every single SUP race I entered that year, except one, where I placed second.
After ICF Worlds, I took the last few months of 2021 to have fun and focus on Wing Foiling and IQ Foiling. I was dabbling with the potential of beginning an Olympic Campaign for the 2024 Paris Olympics with IQ Windsurfing Foiling. I won the U.S. National Championships in November 2021, which was a very positive first step towards this goal. I also competed in two Wing Foil World Tour Events, where I won my first debut in both wing foil wave sailing and in wing foil racing. Everything was marching along in such an upward direction at such a fast pace, at least in terms of career and my place in sport. I was learning so much from each event and building momentum.
By the time Christmas rolled around in 2021, I had competed in 19 competitions between three sports and my body was exhausted. I spent the early months of 2022 recovering from the previous season and building my base strength for the upcoming season where I was planning to compete in Stand Up Paddling, Wing Foiling, and IQ Foiling.
2022. Injury & life changes.
I love the winter months. I am typically in Los Barriles, Mexico at this time of year which is where I grew up and went to school. Los Barriles is just as much home as Hood River is. So, in early 2022, I was training everyday on the water, doing my university studies, (I am working towards my undergraduate degree in Geography and Geospatial Science at Oregon State University E-Campus) and started to create the idea of Wylde Wind & Water. Even though I still had a lot on my plate at that moment, this was a time to exhale, focus, and be physically in one place for a few months, without having to jump on an airplane every other week. This is the time to build strength, recovery, and re-set. I knew the 2022 season was going to be hectic, and in all honesty, I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to do everything… SUP Race, Wing Foil, IQ Foil, University, and Wylde Wind & Water? I was probably out of my mind and that was not a reality. Little did I know, my decisions would be pretty easy to make in a few short months.
My first race of the 2022 season was the GWA Wing Foil World Tour in Leucate, France. Wing Foil competitions are different from SUP races because you have a ‘waiting period’ of about a week, where you wait for conditions to compete. You will typically compete for 4 days in a row and the days are long. It’s typical to have 7-10 races per day for wing foil racing, and up to 5 freestyle heats in one day for Freestyle competitions. For the racing, each race counts towards points. The higher you place, the lower points you receive. The sailor with the lowest point total at the end of the competition wins the event. I won the first race of the event. I was pretty excited. This is a brand-new sport, and since I am competing in so many different sports, I had no idea how I would stack up against the other women who were competing full time in wing foiling.
On the second race, I crashed about 40 meters in front of the finish line. A strong gust caught me off guard and I went flying into the water at full-speed. My body twisted backwards, placing my shoulder above my head at the same time the wing pulled my arm backwards. I tore my labrum, but I didn’t know it at that moment. I didn’t realize I had done anything to my body until the race was over and I went back to the beach. My shoulder felt quite stiff. But, there was more racing to be done and I could still wing. That first day of competition, I had five more races after the crash. My shoulder was so sore when I woke up the next morning, but we were supposed to compete in Freestyle that day. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to participate. I went for a warm-up and my shoulder felt better on the water than when I was sitting on the beach. So, I went for it in the FreeStyle Competition. That day, I had four heats and ended up finishing fourth in the freestyle. The third and final day of competition, I raced another 5 races. I still was not sure what I had done to my shoulder, but I was starting to think that something really wasn’t right with my shoulder. With each race I was getting a bit more sore. I finished the competition with a second place overall for the races, a fantastic start to my wing foil racing season!
That was the end of April 2022. I flew home and went for a paddle to see how my shoulder felt paddling. It was my left shoulder that was hurting. I could paddle on my left side just fine and I thought, ‘This is great! Maybe I am just a bit sore.’ Then, I switched my paddle to the right side, having my left arm up in the air, reached out to put the paddle in the water and my shoulder dropped like a stone into the water. I couldn’t hold my left arm up above my head. I knew something wasn’t right. That afternoon I called two physical therapists and an orthopedic surgeon to see if I could get a consultation. Thanks to the incredibly tight-knit watersports community, I was able to see the physical therapists and ortho within three days. After all, I only had three weeks until I was supposed to be back in Europe for the start of the Euro Tour, so I needed to figure out what was happening ASAP.
The appointment with the Orthopedic surgeon spelled everything out loud and clear. I tore about 3/4 of my Labrum. You can think of the Labrum as a gasket that helps hold your shoulder in the shoulder socket. With a torn labrum I was in an incredibly risky position for full dislocation or bone damage. The good thing was that I didn’t dislocate and I had no bone chips or fractures. I was presented with two options:
Try to fix my shoulder through Physical Therapy. I would have to do PT for about four months to know how the shoulder was responding, but during that time I couldn’t do sports. It was very unlikely PT was going to work to fix it properly due to the lack of blood flow in that part of my shoulder and if it didn’t fix it properly, I would have to have surgery.
Have surgery. The shoulder gets fixed properly from the beginning. I am in a sling for two and a half months, then lightly moving my arm for two more months, then two months of very light physical activity, and then start training again. I was looking at about a 7 month process from the day of surgery to when I could start properly training again.
I chose option #2. I wasn’t willing to wait four months to know if ‘maybe, possibly’ PT could fix my shoulder only to find out that I really did need surgery. If I chose option #1 and then needed surgery, I was looking at about a year and half before I could start training properly again and I didn’t want the process to go that long.
The only time I cried in this entire process (before this weekend, that is) was when I had to write an email to Svein Rasmussen, owner of Starboard, the Starboard Marketing Team, and Chris Freeman owner of Black Project SUP, informing them of my injury the decision to have surgery and that I would most likely not be able to compete this year. This was the first time in 10 years that I had to inform my sponsors that I would not be participating in events. I had never backed out of a single event before this injury. Even though it was a medical decision that made this decision, it still felt like such a let down. You have to remember, competing is my job.
My year that was going to be filled to the brim with an unimaginably difficult schedule of SUP Races, Wing Foil Competitions, and IQ Foil Regattas, all of a sudden got quiet. Crickets in terms of competition and travel. So, I turned all of my focus to the one thing that was already in motion and could continue whether or not I could physically be on the water; Wylde Wind & Water.
I learned to paddle when I was 14 years old thanks to the dedication, support and encouragement of the legendary late Steve Gates. Steve started Big Winds, one of the original Windsports shops in Hood River, Oregon, my home town. He always gave back to the community. He was the president of the Columbia Gorge Windsurfing Association, he coached every sport his daughters participated in and continued to coach long after his daughters graduated high school, he provided summer jobs for highschool students that opened up bigger careers, and he was the Mayor of Hood River at one point… just a small detail! Steve was a mentor and I was fortunate enough to be taken under his wing as a mentee.
In 2019, Steve’s health was failing and he asked me to become the Head Coach of the Big Winds JET Team. We got to work together the whole summer, and not a single day went by where I learned something new about paddling, business, management, and most of all, life. Steve had an infectious smile, one that balanced business and fun all at once. Steve passed away in the fall of 2019. It was a terribly challenging moment for his family and the community of Hood River because he was such an icon in our community.
The Big Winds JET Team changed my life and put me on the path I am on now, so I knew that I couldn’t let the Team fade away. I ran the JET Team with Big Winds in 2020 and 2021, until I made a proposal to Big Winds to create a non-profit organization to continue the Team and create more opportunities for the kids in our community. Big Winds was thrilled and fully supported the formation of Wylde Wind & Water.
I created Wylde Wind & Water to provide watersports opportunities and water safety education to the youth in our community. Everything came together so quickly. In March 2022, we received official 501(c)(3) status. When I injured myself in April, I knew this was a huge silver lining to the launch of Wylde Wind & Water. So, with my arm in a sling, we hit the ground running. My WW&W Team including my parents, volunteers, and employees, put together a 10 week summer long program that included the SUP Junior Elite Team, SUP DEVO (Development) Team, Wing Foil Youth Camps, Community Pop-Up Paddles, Fiona Friday Funday, Viento y Agua, School visits with Hood River County School District: Wy’East Middle School, Hood River Middle School, Hood River Options Academy, and an Internship with Hood River Migrant Education. Only three of these programs are entrance fee based, and through grants and donations, we were able to run 311 kids and 192 adults through our programs in year one! I am now the Executive Director of Wylde Wind & Water and work closely with our staff and board members to drive water safety education awareness and watersports opportunities for our community so we can all share something we love, the water!
So, my dream of the Olympics with IQ Foiling may have been thrown out the window when I got injured, but something else and in my mind, something bigger, flourished. I knew that I would return to SUP Racing and Wing Foiling competitions at some point, but Wylde Wind & Water is a dream that I have had since I first learned to paddle on the JET Team as a 14 year old kid. 2023 is our second year running WW&W, and we already have about 500 kids signed up for our programs.
Now I have SUP Racing, Wing Foil Competition, Wylde Wind & Water, and University on my plate of life and I am absolutely loving it. But, I still needed to get back into competition. I needed to see how my shoulder really was doing in competition, and how I would be able to handle the stress of paddling at the highest level.
2023.
I was cleared to start training for both SUP and Wing Foil in January 2023, about 7 months after surgery, 8 months since I injured myself. I was in Mexico at this time and slowly started to work up a tolerance to distance, strength, and hours on the water. After eight months off the water and not doing sports, it was challenging. Mentally it was hard. Some days I could only paddle or wing for 20 minutes before my body was fatigued. I told myself that any minute was an improvement on the previous day. I made one rule for myself, if I felt pain in any way, I would stop. It took me all of January to build up enough strength to be able to paddle or wing foil for an entire hour. I learned not to take my time on the water for granted and to be happy and satisfied with what I could do on that particular day.
I had two wing foil events planned in the early months of this year, the GWA in New Zealand in February and the GWA in Leucate, France at the end of March. I decided early on that I was not going to be strong enough for those events and I wasn't ready to compete in Wing Foiling yet. I wanted to do a SUP Race before I did anything with the wing. So, my attention focused on the World SUP Festival in Santa Pola, Spain. This race was a big race because it was a double header, with the Euro Tour hosting the Distance Race on Saturday and the APP World Tour hosting the sprints on Sunday. I think this is a fantastic move forward for our sport. This is the first time in the sport where the Euro Tour and the APP share a weekend of racing and each host a respective race at the same location. I think it’s a great idea, because it allows athletes to compete in both events without having to break the bank and travel to two entirely different locations.
Saturday. Euro Tour Distance Race.
I was focused on the distance race. Distance Racing has been my strength in the past, but it was also going to take so much time training to be ready physically and with my shoulder. I didn’t put too much effort into the Sprint Racing, because I wasn’t sure if I was physically going to be able to race two days in a row at my first race back. The distance race started on an island called Tabarca and the course paddled one lap around the island and then back to the mainland of Santa Pola. The course was shortened due to the wind direction. The wind was from the south, making the traditional downwind course a side winder for roughly 10km. I had a good start, but struggled to find my rhythm. I stayed positive and was sitting in the top four. I lost contact with Espe, Melanie, and Alba, but I told myself it was ok, I could make it back. I started to surge when we hit the side wind. The wind was coming across from the left side meaning all of the paddling had to happen on the right. This meant that my left arm, the one I had surgery on, was up in the air paddling at a quartering angle for about 10km without a break.. I couldn’t push into my paddle strokes like I normally do. My back was cramping up because I couldn’t keep my shoulder up above my head that well. At one point I stopped, stood up straight and told myself, you’re doing great, keep going.
It was then that I realized I was doing my best. My best on that day was not what I had expected my best to be, but at that moment, I was paddling as fast as I could with the challenges I had. I just had to keep that positive attitude going. At this moment, I had slid back to seventh. I put my head down and started to find my rhythm. The water was slow, everything was moving in a different direction and it was very challenging to keep your momentum going forwards, towards the finish line. Somehow, I was able to catch up to Juliette, who was about 250 meters ahead of me. By passing Juliette, I slipped into sixth place. That final push for 6th place took every ounce of energy left in my body. When I crossed the finish line, a wave of confusing emotions washed over my body. Everything was cramped, and I felt relief, disappointment, and happiness all in one instant. Was it even possible to feel so many emotions all at once? On top of the pain, it was too much. I plopped down in the sand, breathing, and a few tears slid down my cheeks. When my legs were strong enough to get up, I wiped the tears from my eyes and smiled. I had done it. I had done my first race back, and I was more rather than less, in one piece. This was a massive achievement.
It will take me a while to decompress from the Euro Tour Distance Race. What were the good moments, where could I improve, what do I need to work on? What was I proud of? Why did I have a small inkling of disappointment? The last time I had placed outside of the top three in SUP Racing was in 2019 at the Carolina Cup, before that it was 2017 ISA Worlds in Denmark, both where I placed fourth. I know in my heart that this sense of disappointment is most likely about the result, but I also know in my heart that I don’t have anything to be disappointed about. Life in the big picture is so freaking beautiful. I am strong, I am healthy, and I am returning to a sport that has given me the opportunities of a lifetime. That night, before falling asleep, I thought about that. I thought about all of the incredible things that SUP has given me, and allowed me to create in my life and I was thankful. That’s when it crossed my mind, ‘wow, I’ve been racing professionally for 10 years now, and somehow everything new. I have entered a new realm of my career. It’s new, it’s uncomfortable, but I am here for it, however I can do this, because this is my dream.’
Sunday. The APP World Tour Sprints.
I hadn’t even opened my eyes yet and I knew that my body was in so much pain. My first thought was, “How in the world am I going to race today?!”. I crawled out of bed, made a coffee, stretched and made my way to the event site. I had no nerves that day. When I left my apartment, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to participate in the APP World Tour Sprints because my back was so tight. I needed to warm up properly to try to loosen my body up. I went for a run and then a paddle. If I was racing, I was the first women's heat. I told myself to just give it a go and see how the body felt. If my body hurt too much, then I didn’t have to continue. I am in this new space of wanting to push it, but having to listen to my body to make sure that I don’t push it too far. For an athlete, that is a very challenging place to be. It’s like you have two mental states that are auguring at each other. I was so sore that bending over to pick up my board was a struggle. But, nonetheless, I went to the start line for my first heat.
I flew off the start line and paddled cleanly in the front from start to finish. I qualified for the semi-finals. Wow! In the past, sprint races have always been challenging for me because you race, then you have a break, then you race again, and that stop-go rhythm is really hard to manage because I have Type 1 Diabetes. Controlling blood glucose levels is super challenging on a normal day, but throw in the emotional and physical ups and downs of a competition, and it quickly becomes a nightmare. I had to stay super focused on my glucose levels, manage my food and insulin intake very carefully.
I wasn’t nervous for the first heat, so I told myself not to be nervous for the next few heats. In the semi final, I did the same thing. Flew off the start line and lead from start to finish, qualifying first for the final. Wow again. I continued to surprise myself. This whole day I had nothing to lose and now that I was in the final, I really had nothing to lose. I took a deep breath on the start line, smiled, and told myself, ‘go for it’. When the start whistle blew, I flew off the start line. It wasn’t my cleanest start of the day, but I got to my feet quickly and pushed as hard as I could. I was out in front at the first mark, and continued to push. I found my rhythm, rounded the first buoy, caught a few bumps to make a tiny gap, came into the second buoy with room and rounded it cleanly. One buoy left and then I would win! I didn’t look back or sideways. I didn’t focus on anybody other than me. I put my head down, dug deep and pushed it to my max. I rounded the last buoy and the crowd was cheering so loud I could hear it. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and there was absolutely no way in this world that I was going to let anybody pass me. I came into the finish and the crowd was ecstatic! 595 days after my last SUP Race, I won. Crossing the finish line, I saw Espe, Rocio, Susak, Anna, Iona, Alba, and Iballa, all standing there ready to give me a huge hug and congratulations. That was magic. These women are my biggest competitors, but also my closest friends. Women supporting women. I just won the race, but to see so many people genuinely happy was the best, most magical moment of the entire weekend.
Stand Up Paddling is an individual sport and yet to me, it feels like it is the tightest-knit team sport there is. The sport wouldn’t be where it is today without the friendships and personalities that make it what SUP Racing is. My comeback represents something bigger than me running across the finish line in first place. For me, this is an opportunity to say thank you to every single person, near and far, who has supported me, believed in me, and not given up on me despite having gone through a big surgery. And most of all, this gives me the courage and confidence to continue to believe in myself too. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Part 2 of my career has just started. I am not exactly sure how it will unfold or what it will look like, but I can tell you that this is different and I am excited for every new moment. Let’s share it, have some fun, and most all, do what we love.
Thank you!
~Fiona
(Photos by Euro Tour, APP World Tour, West Media, Georgia Scofield, Brent Bielmann, IQ Foil Class, Salty Shot, and GWA Wing Foil World Tour)
