Father And Son Affair Set For Cloudbreak

Former world champion Björn Dunkerbeck and his son Liam will com­pete together for the first time at the International Windsurfing tournament in the inaugural Fiji Pro Invi­tational 2022 at Cloudbreak.

The duo are among the 20 athletes vying for the top prize.

Dunkerbeck is from the Gran Canaria Islands in Spain, also known as the Eu­ropean Hawaii. It has hosted a long tradition of windsurf­ing World Cups.

The professional windsurf­er has won the Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA) Overall World Cham­pionships a record 42 times.

He last competed in Fiji in 1997 when he took part at the Namotu Championships and finished fifth in the ranking.

“Now I’m back to compete with my son at the same competition 25 years later,” Dunkerbeck said.

“I feel very good because I was also seven-time world champion in wave sailing.”

He is very confident with bigger waves and dreamed of windsurfing at Cloudbreak,

“I’ve always dreamed of sailing, and windsurfing in Cloudbreak and so far have wind surfed in Namotu and Frigates Pass many times.

“I know the Fijian reefs and never actually wind surf in Cloudbreak, it is a great op­portunity for me to come and actually experience the power of Cloudbreak.

“With my son to compete with, it’s a great pleasure.”

Coming from a fam­ily of windsurfers, his fam­ily moved from Denmark to Gran Canaria, in 1978 and opened a centre, and organ­ised the Windsurfing World Cup in 1990.

His son Liam, 18, considers himself an all-round water­man and has won the Junior World Champion title since 2015. He is considered a ris­ing star.

Liam finished seventh in the last World Cup in Gran Canaria, which is its 33rd edition.

“I usually train a lot with my dad, always see better in the water than going togeth­er in the same competition,” he said.

“This is the first time we’ve been together.

“This is something really special for both of us and also it’s a competition. We are father and son outside, but rivals inside.”

“I have seen a lot of videos of Fiji. I love Fiji and I hope to also get some good waves.”

IWT event director Ian Mul­ler said the athletes are yet to compete due to unfavourable weather conditions.

“We anticipate starting next week on Monday as we expect the condition to be favourable, this was not the case a few days ago,” said Muller.

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