DANIELE BENEDETTI: BURNING AMBITION
DANIELE BENEDETTI: BURNING AMBITION
DANIELE BENEDETTI: BURNING AMBITION
With his new partnership with Duotone set to fuel his ambitions, PWA foil slalom vice World Champion Daniele Benedetti is poised to take his performance to new heights. In this exclusive insight, he shares his thoughts on his racing background, equipment, training, and the road ahead.
Photos: The7Pixels.
THE PARTNERSHIP
I have received most of my equipment already. I have started training with the new equipment. I am already adapting to the new sails and boards which are completely different to what I was riding before. The past days at home were very windy days where I could put the equipment to the test properly. I tested the small gear and was feeling extremely fast and am already getting close to 40 knots!
So, it is going great so far and that gives me the energy to train more and more. Everything is new and I have a positive feeling to be with this brand. The managers have been fantastic Raoul Joa and Alex Hasch. Also, the shaper Danny Aeberli, Marco Lang and fellow racer Jordy Vonk. It is amazing, I have never been surrounded by such a helpful team. To be a teammate of Jordy is going to be awesome. Everything just feels professional and I feel really involved. I am in a positive place and I will focus on going for the title after I just missed out last year.
TUNING AND TESTING
It is not so difficult to change equipment if you are really into it. Every time you sail, you can understand easily what you need from the sail, it may be power, stability or more acceleration. Then you start working towards those goals. I would say within one month you can really work on the gear and get a solid understanding how to tune it and receive the best performance from it. The rest of the time you can focus on your windsurfing. I will be heading to the TWS to start training soon. During the winter preparation I can focus on the gear and then start the season where I can just focus on the racing.
TRAINING PLANS
I will be in the Canary Islands in January. I will be in Lanzarote for the first two weeks and then I will move to Tenerife from the 3rd to the 12th of February. I will be doing a little bit of testing and some photo shooting. Then I will come back to my home spot. I live close to Rome in, Civitavecchia and I will be training here for the rest of the winter. I will focus on my training and also be involved in a bit of other coaching that I do. I am involved in some coaching for the Turkish Team. At the moment I am combining this work as well as being a professional rider on the PWA tour. A lot of the coaching is in two-week blocks and then I have two weeks off, so I can concentrate on 100% my own training. It is not easy to combine both, but the professional scene is not like it was. Years ago, there were more sponsors and windsurfing was a bigger sport than it is now. These days it is a bit more difficult just to live off being a professional windsurfer. But for sure that is my dream and I hope I can arrive at that point one day. I am working for it now. I mostly train on the water, but I also spend a fair amount of time in the gym. That side is important also.
RACING BACKGROUND
I started windsurfing when I was six years old! My first races were in the Techno 293 and I went to the world championship in this class and I had a lot of good results, mostly top ten and top five in the world. Then I started to do the Olympic campaign for Rio and Tokyo in RSX. I had some very solid results but unluckily I never made it to the Olympics. We had a very high-level guy in Italy and my light wind skills on the RSX were not quite there. The RSX was mostly in light winds, so it was difficult for me. I was struggling a bit there. I also had some great results when it was windy on the fin. After that I did two years of iQFOiL and then I switched to the PWA slalom racing. I felt the PWA was a more professional organization. That is the way my career direction has gone so far!
FIN OR FOIL
For sure once I started racing on the foil, I felt this was really exciting. I was always watching the PWA fin races when I was a kid. So, I would like to try the Slalom X also this year, If I can.
I started racing iQFOiL which is more upwind, which is slower than PWA slalom. Now with the PWA slalom foil we have really high speeds and it is even more exciting as a racer. The gear is getting better and better and easier to ride. Everything is getting faster and we are getting close to the Americas Cup, I think. I feel like I am more of a foil specialist right now. I have mostly been competing on foil in the PWA rather than on the fin. I think I can also be a successful fin racer one day, at the moment, I am a foil racer! Most of my training is on the foil. So far, I feel I have achieved a lot of solid results, so I feel more involved in the foil side of things.
PWA RISE TO THE TOP
My first event was in Japan in 2022. I managed to borrow some equipment one week before the competition. So, I thought why not give it a try. It was off season for iQFOiL, and I grabbed the equipment and cam to Japan to enjoy the racing. I did not know what to expect and I finished in 23rd position, but I really enjoyed it. So, the next year I switched to the PWA. My first event of the second season was Fuerteventura in 2023 and I managed to finish in 8th place. That was a big improvement and not a bad result. Everything really started happening for me from there I would say. I was quite a new guy on the scene at this point. I knew a few of the racers from iQFOiL like Bruno Martini, Matteo Iachino and Amado Vrieswijk. I did not really know Pierre Mortefon or Maciek Rutkowski, so it was different scene for me. It felt different to the iQFOiL scene, where I knew everybody. The PWA just felt more professional. Most of the racers were quite friendly to me when I appeared on the scene. Now I feel more involved after a couple of seasons. We would like to see more and more racers on the PWA for the next seasons so the PWA can start to grow again. I still feel like one of the new guys on the tour though! But at least I have gone straight to the top!
FUERTEVENTURA 2023.
It would have been incredible if I had won the title on my first full year on tour, but I came extremely close. I was trying that was for sure. I won in Fuerteventura in the slalom foil and then I got two fourth places in Sylt and Japan. I went to Fuerteventura hoping for a good result.
I was having plenty of solid races and I was making most of the finals. After the first day I was in first place, so I just tried to keep this position until the end. Then I had a really close fight with Pierre Mortefon. Coming to the last elimination we had equal points. I managed to win the last final and I won the event. It was such an exciting moment. It really was a dream. To win in Fuerteventura was really special. For me it is the best place to race. It is like the Formula 1 of slalom foil racing. It is really flat and fast racing. I love that place.
AMBITIONS
I am thirty years old now, but I still feel young inside. My ambition is to bring the Duotone to the top again. They believe in me and are there to help me get to the top. I want to do my best for the next few years and then let’s see. One day maybe I get involved in other aspects of the brand.
Now my focus is on winning titles. I don’t really feel any pressure because I know I can race to the top level without stress. I feel like I am a top-level racer and I want to try and win. I don’t feel any pressure. It is great to have all this support from the Duotone Team. I think one of my strengths as a racer is that I am quite a calm person. If you get a bit nervous then the mistakes can start happening. I don’t want to say that they never happen with me, but I try to show the guys I am calm. I just try and focus on myself and my racing. I think this is the key; to keep the focus.
EVENTS
We don’t really know definitely which events are on this season. I heard something about Guadeloupe, the Canary Islands like normal, maybe Tenerife for the foil. Then Sylt, Japan and possibly China at the end of the season. That is what I heard.
THREATS
Johan Soe is obviously a major threat next season. He seems like the guy to beat in the world cups. Pierre Mortefon and Matteo Iachino are also very strong racers. I think there are only four or five major players who are a big threat. Let us see if Nico Goyard comes back to the PWA also. I hope so. Soe is also very calm inside. He is a machine and he is hungry to win. I don’t know in Fuerteventura he can get a win so easily. I think it will be a tough season for him. I think I am really fast in the high wind and now with the Duotone gear I am also faster in all conditions. I think I feel faster and ready for a big battle in the 2025 season.
STRENGTHS
I think I have been working on the right direction during the last winter. I travel a lot in Europe between Canaries, France, Spain and Italy to find the best spots to train.
With a solid preparation you can approach to the races more confident in yourself and then you can hit your potential! My advice is to work hard during the winter, which is the right time before the competitions to push your level higher. Naturally it’s also important to have a strong mental game if you are a top player! I like to stay calm and not stress because it’s easy to lose energy and focus.
IN SHORT
Full Name: Daniele Benedetti
Date of Birth: 30/09/1995
Height: 184
Weight: 94kg
Sponsor: Duotone Windsurfing!
Hometown: Civitavecchia, Italy
Fav Music: Trap (hip hop).
Fav Windsurf location: Fuerteventura, Sotevento and Majanicho.
Most respected other sailor: Antoine Albeau.
Windsurf Idol when you were young: Robby Naish
Dream Car or van? Man, 4×4 TGE!
Three words to live by? Never look back!
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