Half a decade since he quit the UK for forward-thinking Scandinavia on a mission to reduce the nautical world’s carbon footprint, and 18 months after dwindling money reserves prompted him to move the entire contents of his life into the back of his van, Sam Sills found himself shivering by a lake in rural Switzerland. At an altitude close to 2,000m above sea level, Silvaplana is a popular tourist destination for skiers throughout much of the winter. Even during the peak summer months, temperatures barely trouble the mercury with nights ranging on a scale from chilly to glacial.
For participants at the 2021 iQFoil World Championships – the headline event for a new windsurfing discipline that had been confirmed for inclusion at the Paris 2024 Olympics – not even the picturesque backdrop could generate much desire to hang around any longer than competition demanded. Those fortunate enough to be part of national teams – as Sills had been once upon a time – found solace in the warmth of nearby hotels to rest and recuperate between races, somewhere to eat, sleep, shower, go to the toilet: the type of basic necessities required to compete in elite sport or go about a conventionally functional life. Sills had no such luxuries.
Having failed to qualify for the Tokyo Games in the previous RS:X windsurfing class, the Cornwall native had been determined to try again using the new iQFoil equipment that had always better suited him. The only trouble was he “didn’t have many o.