A Windsurfer’s World

By Lorena Abreu

Poyraz Akay started his windsurfing career in his hometown of Alacati, Turkey.

Alacati is known for its historic windmills and its consistent trade winds, which blow 330 days out of the year. Growing up, Akay tried many sports, like soccer, basketball and tennis. But he was a kid who would always push the limits and do the extreme. “I was always very hyper,” he said. “Neither basketball or soccer was enough for all the energy I had running through my body.”

It was when he was introduced to windsurfing at the age of 10 that Akay’s life began. When he first learned how to windsurf, he was one of the quickest people to learn in the bay. He was highly skilled, which made him get better day after day.

Windsurfing is a very expensive sport. It’s nothing like purchasing a skateboard and going to the skate park; it’s all based on high technology material, it costs a fortune to buy a full set of windsurfing gear and Akay’s family never had the budget to make such a sacrifice. For those reasons, he always had cheap gear to go out on the water for training and to do what he loved.

At the end of 2006, he competed in his first competition and managed to get third place in the “Junior” category. “I never felt so happy in my life, getting on top of the podium in my first ever competition was life changing,” he said.

After a few years of competing, Akay begin to obtain more abilities and started getting people’s attention around the bay. The windsurfing community started to talk about him, saying he had the potential to shine like a star someday.

After several years of competing in small races, a former windsurfing champion decided to sponsor him. Following this accomplishment, Akay finally got a chance to do the National Windsurfing Tour. All of his equipment was covered, as well as all of his racing budget, such as accommodations, food and travel expenses. Akay was “unofficially” sponsored.

In 2013, he took home the overall “National Youth Title” at the National Tour. “As soon as I got the national title, I told myself that this was just the beginning,” Akay said. That same year, he was lucky enough to compete in the Youth World Championship that was held in his hometown.

The event was held a couple of weeks after he won the Turkish Youth title, so his training days weren’t over just yet. “It was probably the windiest days that I have ever seen in that place,” he said.

There were a total of 55 competitors from all around the world and the racing lasted for six days. After many ups and downs, Akay managed to win the whole thing with an outstanding racing performance on the last day. “I knew that I could windsurf good, but I didn’t know that I was that good,” he laughed.

After winning the world championship, he was on the rise. He was featured in the national newspapers and he even started giving autographs to people.

His accomplishments were not over yet. After all of those events, Akay got an email regarding a sponsorship from Oakley. So, in 2014, he started racing for Oakley. “Who would have thought that I would one day receive an email from Oakley and get supported by them,” he said.

In 2014, Akay started his first year racing internationally and also started following the biggest windsurfing tour, the PWA (Professional Windsurfers Association). He traveled to many places, such as Spain, Italy, Germany and France. “I knew that I was a professional windsurfer now and it felt amazing,” he said. “Not many people my age get to travel the world like me and do what they love, its simply unbelievable.”

After a great year of windsurfing in 2014, he decided to pursue his education at UH Maui College, as Maui is one of the windiest places on the planet with its consistent trade winds throughout the year.

Now Akay is on a mission to become one of the greatest windsurfers of all time. “Every time I go out in the water, it’s like doing something for the first time in my life,” he said. “I have that ambition… that excitement that never gets old.”