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---INTERVIEW WITH BJORN'S MOM---
If behind every great man there is a great woman, then why has no young beach bunny nailed down 8 time World Champ, Bjorn Dunkerbeck? For some insight into the history of the 26 year old, we decided to talk to the real woman behind the man. It's Bjorn's Mom, Ulla Dunkerbeck with the real story....
AW: Tell me, what's it like being Bjorn's mother?
MRS. D: Busy, I think is the first word. Hmm, I just have to think of the word in English... Hmm. Busy and exciting are the right words I guess.
AW: So, I understand that you taught him how to windsurf.
MRS. D: No, No, he taught himself.
AW: But he claims that you taught him!
MRS. D:He didn't used to claim that. I was teaching courses for the beginners in those days, but he didn't want to attend the course. But he was always looking at what I was doing.
AW: So he went out by himself?
 MRS. D: Yes, he was doing it on his own. He was always looking at what I was doing but he didn't want to go to classes because he went to classes all day, and he didn't want to go to class in the afternoon as well, I suppose.
AW: So, describe to me, through the years, what you went through with Bjorn, and how did you help him get to where he is today?
MRS. D: Well, when we saw that he was interested in windsurfing, we let him do what he wanted and just kept an eye on him. And, we did a lot of competition. There was a lot of competition in those days, so each second weekend or something like that.
AW: Every second weekend?
MRS. D: Every second weekend we made a race, you know for just for fun, here. Then we took him, and brought him to some other the races that were outside of the harbor in Las Palmas in the open sea. It wasn't in the surf. We took them [Bjorn and Britt] and put them in the jury boat outside on the sea, so they could watch the event and I knew where they were while we were racing. So, they got a pretty good idea what it was all about and when Bjorn was eleven years old he said he wanted to race also, it was too boring to have to stay in the jury boat. And I said, well okay.
AW: But he started windsurfing at what age?
MRS. D: Nine. He started to race at eleven. But, it was mostly light wind then, we didn't go to places where there was a lot of wind. We went out to the more quiet places with our big boards. It was a big advantage for him to race with a big board those days because he was so light. So, he soon started win.
AW: He started winning?
MRS. D: Yes.
AW: And he didn't stop.
MRS. D: No, then he didn't stop. No.
AW: Where does he get his hard work ethic? He trains very very hard, did you put that in him, or did it just come natural to him?
 MRS. D: It came natural to him. Nobody told him what to do. So, I think he does well by his own decision. What we did was always to share with Bjorn and Britt all of the different sports that you can do here on the island. You can go swimming, play tennis, go horse riding, or whatever. We always let them have a chance. Let them try- if they like it, go ahead! Go learn how to horse ride, to do tennis, and whatever they want. Britt kept with the horse riding at the beginning, and Bjorn continued to windsurf. Let the children choose whatever they want when they're nine.
AW: You guys were quite into the sport, you changed your whole lifestyle because of windsurfing?
MRS. D: Yes, we liked it quite a lot.
AW: Can you describe a little bit how you and Eugene got into the sport?
MRS. D: Eugene happened to see a windsurfing magazine in Germany, and he was very interested in trying this out. He thought it might be a good idea because then he might go with all of us to the beach more often.
AW: He didn't like going to the beach before?
MRS. D: No, he didn't like going to the beach. He didn't like the sun, water or sand. He hated that, and he never ever wanted to go with us to the beach. So, now I've got him.
AW: So you tried windsurfing, and it was immediate?
MRS. D: He liked it so much, yeah, and he still doesn't like water, sand, and sun, but he likes to windsurf and now he has to go to the beach to windsurf!
AW: And then you moved to the Canary Islands to windsurf and started a school...
MRS. D: Before we started windsurfing, we always went skiing in Austria during the wintertime. We lived in Denmark, and some friends of ours were always going down to Grand Canaria in the wintertime to take sun and go swimming. And they had always been trying to get us to go with them. I had been there when I was very young, once to Tenerife, and [I vowed that] I would never go down there anymore. It was really funny because when I was there and I hated it, I thought "never, never again". I was working there, I think I was eighteen years old, in Tenerife, on the north coast. And it was such beautiful weather. But it was impossible to get anywhere near the water, because it was only rocks. You only had a swimming pool close to the waterfront. I tried for a hundred days to find a way to get into the water and to the open sea, but I never found any way. And I thought, I am never ever going down there again.
AW: So, you found windsurfing and that opened up a whole new adventure for you?
MRS. D: Yes, we came down here and took a board with us. The shores here have beaches, you can get in the water on Grand Canaria, that's not a problem. And we came down here, and it was really fantastic to be here. And just, some strange situation happened in Denmark, just happened like that. It was a coincidence for sure. We went down to stay one year, down here. This year still goes on.
AW: How many years now?
MRS. D: Seventeen. Sixteen, seventeen.
AW: So you were quite a racer yourself, I understand?
MRS. D: Yeah. Now, okay down here they made races, the race was just spare time, it was just for fun, it wasn't any professional thing because I had my job and I had my children and my household, and you couldn't just race. It was just for fun like a vacation.
AW: So, when Bjorn and Brit started sailing, racing somebody had to kind of take care of them right? Did you guys sort of manage their affairs, to go to races and all that?
MRS. D: Yes, of course. I had to go when they were young. Sometimes I had to go because of course he couldn't go anywhere on his own, because he didn't have any driver's license!
AW: You must be so proud of both your kids for their achievements in sports.
MRS. D: Oh, it's very exciting. Looking back, I think it was, for us, a very nice time to do a sport together with our children. It was really exciting. And then Britt started also, and it was very funny to race against her also.
AW: You raced against her?
MRS. D: Yeah, sure. I've always raced against Bjorn. I remember once in Las Palmas, down here in a local one, he was in the lead. There was not too much wind, so he was in front. I was second and we were a very very long way ahead of everybody else since we were both so light. I think there was only men in that race, except for me. Then Bjorn got bored and he came back and started taking my wind away from me and I was really angry him.
AW: He came back toward you?
 MRS. D: Yeah, he came back. He was getting bored, so he came back and started to take my wind away there, and making me a handicap. I was really jealous to get to the line and the third place one is getting closer. Bjorn managed to get over the line, but I didn't and I got third. He promised never to do that again. That was really funny. And Britt, when we started, she started with a slalom competition actually. She wasn't racing a long time before she was taking me, actually.
AW: How old was she when she started?
MRS. D: She started to compete when I think she was fourteen or fifteen, something like that. But she knew how to windsurf for a long time. When you ask her, she thinks she started at fourteen, but I remember when she was ten years old she went together with me from here to St. Augustine on the water, I remember that.
AW: So, as a mother, how would you describe your kids?
MRS. D: I don't know. Today or earlier?
AW: Well, start from earlier.
MRS. D: Bjorn is very sporty. He is always very fun and very good in any sport, it didn't matter which one, actually. He always liked to move. I think he has a very sharp intuition, seeing things very clearly how they are and he is very good at expressing himself. He's very disciplined and he has a very strong character. That's maybe sometimes difficult, but as long as you have the same opinion, it's okay. But if you don't have the same opinion, he's really hard to deal with, that's for sure.
AW: Where does he get that from?
MRS. D: I don't know. Maybe a little from both of us, I guess.
AW: So, is it tough being a parent?
MRS. D:Well, sometimes it has been hard to get things through. That's the same with Britt. But all of us have a very strong character. She likes sports, but not in the same way as Bjorn, I guess. It's funny, when she really got the most into windsurfing, that was when she started competing. She liked the competition situation very much, to be faster. Whereby Bjorn, he just loves nature very much. I think that both of them like nature very much and Bjorn wanted to go into the mountains. I think both of them feel very close to nature and that may be because we spend so much time in the forest. I always like to move also. I don't like to sit in the sunlight. So we've always been moving, walking, swimming, whatever. And Britt has a very strong social side, maybe stronger than Bjorn, but Bjorn is also takes very much care about new kids starting to windsurf and helping people. They are both very alike in this way. Britt has a very strong character as well, and she can get upset if something is not right. She looks at everything as black and white.
AW: Do you find that some parents have instilled characters in their kids?
MRS. D: No, it is my opinion that if you try to place your children in their place where they don't belong, that it won't work. And I think it is very important to let children choose what they want to do, so that they can develop their own character when they wish, because if you don't do that, you will never be able to decide anything more. I think that it is very important that they decide themselves. And, they always make their own decisions in whatsoever.
AW: Everything since they were very young?
MRS. D: Everything since they were very young, both of them. I think it is very important if you have to live in this world we have today. It's not going to be easy if you can't make your own decisions, if you don't know what you want, if you can't present yourself, it is very hard to do anything at all. It is very important for children that they can see clearly for themselves what they want to do. If you put them places, and you tell them what to do, then I don't think that's good. But sometimes it's hard, because it makes their character very strong. So if Bjorn doesn't want to do something today, you have to move mountains to get him convinced. He is very strong in his opinions.
AW: So you were never this controlling parent that sort of fashioned your kids? You let them loose into their...
MRS. D: I guess. As long as they were not in danger, then we never said nothing.
AW: Some parents would say that if you brought up kids like that, they would be undisciplined.
MRS. D: I don't think so.
AW: So how do you explain the discipline that Bjorn has? How would you describe how it came about?
 MRS. D: He knows what he wants, and he knows if he wants something, he has to do something for it. We always told him, whatever you want to do, don't take a no for a no, and if you want to do something or get something, you have to go for it. And: You are the one who is responsible, not somebody else. We're you're parents, but we're not responsible for you. If you don't want to do your homework it's your problem, you have to take the consequences. So, that's how we did it.
AW: You never had to push on Bjorn to "go practice" or "Bjorn, do this or that"?
MRS. D: No. We had one time when there was a test in the school that he didn't prepare for and we said well that's your decision. Now, what are you going about it? After that, we never had any complaints any more.
AW: He learned from that?
MRS. D: He learned from that, I think it was important.
AW: How old was he?
MRS. D: Um, ten years.
AW: What do you see in the future for Bjorn and Britt? What do you hope for the future?
MRS. D: We have been asked this since they started. So have they. "What do you hope for the future?", "What are you going to do when you are not going to windsurf anymore?" It has been going like this for ten years and at the moment, you can't say what's going to happen and how it is going to be in the future for us. We just, Bjorn just has to live now. With what he is doing you cannot see how the future is going to be, or if there's going to be any future. But I think it is important that you know you like to do what you are doing now, because you can make plans now for the future, and if you don't know how you feel and how you are, because you are developing yourself, you don't know what you want in ten years.
AW: But do you worry for him?
MRS. D: Oh no. I don't worry. No. Not for Britt and not for Bjorn, no I don't.
AW: You never did?
MRS. D: Well, when they were small children, of course, that they don't hurt themselves. But not now, no.
AW: Tell me, what do you do for them?
MRS. D: Well Brit's stopped now, so she's now starting a new life, and what this is going to be, nobody knows. I don't think that she herself knows. Which is what she wanted to do, to get out of here. And for Bjorn, we take care of his paperwork, taking care of his you know his schedule and all his officework actually. And the coordination with his sponsors, also.
AW: When he's flying around?
MRS. D: Flying around, yeah. We help when he's transporting on planes and he needs something. It's no star to be Bjorn, in his meantime he books his own flights, finally he's started that.
AW: So now he's out of luck!
MRS. D: Yeah, it's a full time job for him now.
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