Alexandra Torres dreamt, more than once, of becoming one of those kitesurf athletes taking part in Sotavento events appearing in thousands of pictures and videos during the windsurfing and kitesurfing world championships in Fuerteventura. Last July she could make it happen. She and her kite got to the semi-final in free-style female category. That day, Alejandra wrote a new chapter in her personal history. So did she in the sport history of Fuerteventura.
Text: Eloy Vera
The young athlete is 16 now, although her relationship with kitesurf started five years ago. Alexandra Torres, majorera, from Puerto del Rosario, moved to La Pared with her family one day. At school she had an Italian boy as schoolmate. Through him and his family Alexandra felt the call of kitesurf. «His mother, Roberta, was an instructor and one day they suggested that I should practise kite», she remembers.
In 2011, Roberta and her husband, Roberto Caruso, decided, together with their children, to move their home from Turing to Costa Calma. Soon, the sea became their new ally. The couple decided to start asking for help to train young people from Fuerteventura in any water sport discipline.
From that dream, Hijos del Mar came up, an association teaching water sports to young people, and they also educate them in values. The icon of this group was a wave standing for windsurf, surf and kite, and all of them riding the same wave.
Alexandra was one of those daughters of the sea. She remembers how hard the start was. The hard conditions of the Sotavento didn’t help a group of children struggling to stand on the board at all!!!! «There were many of us and we were taking turns» she remembers. Sometimes they went near the beach of La Barca to watch their idols from the sand.
Alexandra Torres very often thinks about her visit to the championship. That year it was the last time that freestyle kitesurf had an event in this Fuerteventura championship until in the current 2019 the team of René Egli by Meliá has recovered this competition. The young woman tells how that day she dreamt, from the shore, of playing any of those tricks and «getting to that level of competition».
In 2016 she and other youngsters of «Hijos del Mar» met Javier Jiménez, a renowned kitersurfer in this trade because of his success. The athlete told them about a championship in France and «as we could play a couple of tricks we joined it».
«There were 10 of us. As compared to other children we could do nothing, but it did as an experience to meet quite a lot of people and familiarize with championships», she points out.
The young girl tested the pleasure of competing and, from then onwards, she has kept doing it. After France, the Junior World Cup of Barcelona and the Junior championship of Spain followed.
The record book of Alexandra shows a third position in Spain in the junior category in 2016; also, a third position in the French World Cup last year and in the current 2019, and a second position in the Spanish league in the general ranking. Also, a first position in free style in the Spanish league 2019 and in the Spain and Canary Islands Jumping Cup.
This year she made her debut in the world circuit and she did it in her island, Fuerteventura. She arrived as a «majorera» in the competition, but she ended up as the surprise of the day when she got to the semifinals together with renowned kitesurfers like Bruna Kajiya, Mikaili Sol, Pippa Van lersen and Paula Novotna. The deed by Torres was received with joy by her family and the audience, who were following the competition from the grandstand.
This Summer, she’ll take part in the last stage of the Spanish League and she’s trying to go to the next to last stop of the world circuit of GKA in the area of Dajla, in Morocco.
Among her duties, Alexandra places education at the top of the list. When she has no exams she goes for an hour or hour and a half to the beach after class, and then she studies. That way she combines the two great dedications of her life.
When she grows up she would like to become a professional competitor, but she also wants to study physiotherapy. She’ll study in La Península and she’ll try to get away to Fuerteventura or any beach nearby every time she can manage.
«Kite brings me relax in my studies. I go for a ride and when I come back, already relaxed, I devote to my studies and I concentrate much better». This sport has also allowed her to get to know the world, other cultures that has helped her to understand people.
In her trips to the championships and competitions she is accompanied by her sponsors, Hijos del Mar, Lavanderia El Cardón, Escuela de Matas Day y Airush España, and Esencia preparación Física. Another promise of Kitesurf in Fuerteventura, Julia Castro, has been her trainer for some time now.
