Spanish teenager Nia Suardiaz landed the back-to-back Surf-Freestyle and FreeFly-Slalom world titles and added the Big Air crown to her haul. Still 17, Suardiaz says she would like a complete set and has her eyes on the Wave title after a world cup win in Ibiraquera, Brazil. But in Jericoacoara, just ahead of clinching the FreeFly-Slalom crown, she tells Ian MacKinnon she will redouble her training as she knows the growing number of women are out to knock her off the top spot.
Ian MacKinnon: This year [2024] you’re world champion in Surf-Freestyle and Big Air. That’s back-to-back world championships in Surf-Freestyle. How does that feel?
Nia Suardiaz: It feels amazing. I’m super happy to come here and already have my Freestyle title. It’s super nice for me. Also, it makes it a bit more chilled here; enjoying just going out on the water. It’s just really nice, coming here and knowing you’re already world champion two years in a row. That’s just amazing.
IM: You come here obviously hoping to win again, so you’re not coming here to relax?
NS: For sure I’m coming to win. But anything can happen; the girls are training really hard. I’ve seen them getting some really good new tricks. So, I have to I really want to win. So I’ll try to win it.
IM: Let’s like look back at the year that led you to here. You got lots of first places?
NS: So, starting the year we were in Leucate [France]. That was for me an amazing competition. I got Backflip 360 that was one of the highlights of the competition. I really, really enjoyed it though it was really cold there.
The next comp was in Tarifa. It’s my hometown. So that was really really nice: all the local support there and just enjoying it with my whole family. It was an amazing comp. We didn’t have the best conditions, but I won there too, so it was just really nice.
‘Really want Wave title’
From there we moved on to Fuerteventura. I just love this spot. We’ve been there now two years in a row. It’s just really cool. A lot of people come to watch there, it’s just really nice. I won on the last trick of the competition, so that’s incredible.
IM: Let’s talk about Wave. Is that a discipline you enjoy? That’s obviously the title that you haven’t got. Are you going to get it?
NS: I’m really gonna train for waves. I really want to get that world title.I really enjoyed it this year. It’s a shame. Two competitions were backside for me and one frontside. But I’m gonna push as much as I can. I’m really excited for the first contest, which is going to be in [March]. I really want to win that world title.
IM: It’s been a long year. Do you spend your whole time travelling? How much time do you get to spend at home in Tarifa?
NS: This year I started at home at the beginning of the year. I was a little bit more in Tarifa. I was training there, before I went to Hawaii for a little bit. Then we were in France. So I haven’t been much in Tarifa. That’s a little bit of a shame as I really love my hometown.
IM: How do you feel about all the travelling? Do you enjoy it? Do you feel privileged, or is it hard?
‘Ups and downs’
NS: For me, travelling so much, I feel the privilege. Not everybody can do this. Not everybody has a chance. So I’m really happy that I have sponsors that are paying for all of this and I can travel the world and see it. It’s just amazing but it has things that are not so nice. There’s not that much time at home and I have to study online. It’s been really hard for me. I’m in my last year of high school. Everything has a cost, and ups and downs. But really enjoy it.
IM: Where do you see the sport and the various disciplines going?
NS: I think this sport can go really high. We see it already in racing. It’s I think it’s getting very popular. A lot of people are enjoying it. People who didn’t know the sport are trying it out. Or you see so many people trying out wingfoiling and how the equipment is selling. So that’s amazing. I think you can go pretty far this sport.
IM: You you mentioned that there are more girls coming into it. Many of them see you, at 17, as an inspiration. How does that make you feel?
NS: Obviously that feels really nice. I have some girls that I’ve known from really little from Tarifa. Now I’m their inspiration, so it’s super-cool to see that and how I can inspire the girls to do wingfoil—to push it. I’m super-happy that so many girls, new girls, are joining the sport, so we grow it and we make it better.
For sure I’m going to train really hard for next year. I see all the girls are coming for me. I’m really excited to see what next year brings.
images: Svetlana Romantsova
