Freestyle King

Born in 1989 in Porlamar, the largest city on Isla Margarita, Venezuela, “Gollito“ Jose Estredo grew up in the windsurfing playground of El Yaque, home to fellow PWA freestyle champion, Ricardo Campello. At the tender age of 13 he entered his first professional competition and won his first PWA freestyle world title in 2006, his ninth world title in 2018 and the smart money is on number 10 for 2019! In the ever-changing world of freestyle, one thing remains constant, Gollito winning! So what is the secret of his success, we ask his peers and the man himself.

- John Carter, Adrien Bosson, Phil Soltysiak, Craig Gertenbach, Yentel Caers, Dieter van der Eyken, Balz Müller, Amado Vrieswijk, Francesco Cappuzzo & Gollito Estredo.

ADRIEN BOSSON

First he started windsurfing really young and got an insane technical level really fast. He is super talented and his talent comes with a motivation to windsurf and train hard, desire to win, professional approach to windsurfing and a competitive mind. I think that’s why he is the best. He is strong in competition because he has the skills, the competition spirit, a lot of experience, a lot of confidence in his abilities and now, with not much to prove, maybe it helps to release any pressure. But I think he actually likes the pressure and in the last year his level is even better than before! He is also able to sail in every kind of condition and adapt his training to the competition’s spot. He trains specifically for each event. He is almost unbeatable in Fuerteventura because his home spot looks pretty much the same with wind from the left with choppy to small waves. Nine world titles, still the best after all these years, and with all these different opponents he has had to face over that time, that says a lot! He has pushed the evolution of freestyle windsurfing so much, yet he is still learning and still has the motivation, so impressive! To beat him you simply need to pull out your best tricks. There’s no room for mistakes against Gollito. For the last 3/4 years, the general level in freestyle is getting closer and Gollito knows it, right now he doesn’t give any chance to the other riders. It is not easy to beat someone like that, especially when you only meet him once or twice a year. In freestyle we have two events and the PWA tour has been pretty much the same for the last 10 years, I think Gollito would be as hard to beat anywhere else, but maybe with more events and different places, it would give an extra chance.

HE IS STILL LEARNING AND STILL HAS THE MOTIVATION.

PHIL SOLTYSIAK