Following the arrival of Matteo Iachino to the Starboard Team earlier this year, we are pleased to announce that Lena Erdil will also be joining our ranks for 2016. Lena has been a very consistent podium finisher over the last few years, including a Vice-World Champion title in 2014 and we're very excited to have her "on board".

Just earlier this week, Lena visited us at the Starboard headquarters to pick-up her boards and meet the team. We took this opportunity to ask her a couple of questions...

Starboard: Welcome to the Starboard Dream Team Lena! What influenced you to join our team?Lena Erdil: I’ve been following the success of the Starboard team and the way they work for a while now and I really like the importance they place on innovation! I love to see just how many prototypes get made every year while searching for the best possible improvements for the next board. Having a team full of amazing sailors definitely is also crucial to the development.

Starboard: Which Starboard slalom rider do you look up to the most and why?Lena: Oh my...! That's a difficult question to ask with so many great riders to choose from!! I think each rider has got different qualities that are admirable. Personally, I always like to see when riders do well in multiple disciplines so I guess even though she is one of my biggest competitors, I will have to go with Lady SQ! [Sarah-Quita Offringa]

Starboard: Which iSonic sizes have you chosen, and to match what sails?Lena: : I chose the iSonic 87 to pair with my 5.0m² and 5.6m² and maybe 6.3m². I also have the iSonic 97 for my 6.3m² and 7.2m². And lastly I have the iSonic 114 for my 7.9m² and 8.6m².

Starboard: Which iSonic size are you most excited about?Lena: Over the past years, the board I used the most has been the 97 liter so I guess that's the size I’m most excited about.

Starboard: A lot of riders are now choosing Point-7 and Starboard as a match (Matteo [Iachino], Gonzalo [Costa Hoevel], Kurosh [Kiani]). Why do you think this is?Lena: I think they have found that this is the fastest combination for them and I’m super excited that I will be able to sail on the same board/sail combo as them as it will permit to do more comparable trimming. And since they are the guys who will be doing a lot of the Point-7 development and testing, it's great to have the same boards as them.

Starboard: Delphine [Cousin], Sarah-Quita and yourself seem to be always on the podium, which one of the girls do you find to be a bigger threat and why?Lena: They are both equally threatening (at least on the race course) competitors with different strengths and weaknesses. I wouldn’t be able to pick either one of them... I mean results also speak for themselves in this matter: Delphine won in 2013 and 2014 and Sarah won 2015 and 2012 so they are both World Champions :)

Starboard: What’s your plan for 2016 ? And what goal have you set yourself?Lena: I will be doing all the PWA Slalom events and maybe a couple of wave events but not sure just yet. I’m super excited about the Indoor event in Paris as I really enjoyed the event in Poland in 2014 and of course I have a title to defend now! ;) Of course, my goal for 2016 is to be number one, and I hope my new boards will help me in this endeavor...

Starboard: Which event on the PWA do you look forward to most and which one the least, and why?Lena: I’m in the process of organizing an all-girls PWA Slalom event in my hometown of Bodrum. I’m still looking for some more sponsors for this event, but I’m confident we will make it happen. So obviously, this is the event I’m looking forwards to the most! Other than that, I don’t really have a least favorite but I prefer strong winds so any location with 25knots or more is great!

Starboard: Thanks Lena and best of luck for the season ahead.Lena: Thanks guys!

- Photo Credit: Tanavut Wattanasomwong / Starboard -