Leader in the DWC: Jonne Heimann on title chances, equipment and turning away from iQFoil

Another successful graduate from Vincent Langer's talent factory. Jonne Heimann's path into regatta sport led from Epplesee near Karlsruhe via Vincent's kids camps to the iQFoiL state squad in Baden-Württemberg. However, her hopes of competing in the Olympic Games in the new foil class were quickly dashed. The road there proved to be too rocky and costly. That is why the 21-year-old mechanical engineering student is now looking for new goals that are no less ambitious. This year, he wants to win the foil and overall rankings in the German Windsurf Cup - against his teacher Vincent Langer.

Jonne, please introduce yourself briefly.

I'm originally from near Karlsruhe and also did my A-levels there. I did a windsurfing course with my parents in the south of France and we went out on the water every day on holiday. This went on for three years and I also went windsurfing a few times with my grandma in Sankt Peter-Ording, where there is always a lot of wind. I bought a freewave board with a volume of 115 litres from my confirmation money when I was 14 years old, which was quite suitable for surfing on the Epplesee, virtually the only lake for surfing in Baden-Württemberg. So I did a lot of windsurfing even before I left school. In my A-level year, five years ago, iQFoiling came up and I quickly joined the Baden-Württemberg squad and then the DSV squad.

How did you decide to take part in regattas?

I took part in the Vincent Langer Kids Camps in Grönwohld on the Baltic Sea a few times and that's how I got into regattas. My first regatta was at the Dam-X-Festival in Brouwersdam, which was a fun slalom, and I came fourth in my age group. So that went well straight away and was a boost for me.

That was still on fin?

Yes, I only started foiling in 2020. Foiling also worked well at the Racer of the Sea. I was also much better at foiling on the Epplesee.

And yet it is still quite a long way from fun slalom on fins to the Olympic iQFOiL class.

I soon joined the Baden-Württemberg state squad and the Württemberg Yacht Club provided me with the iQFOiL equipment so I could start training.

You need about four sails per year in the iQFoil because new sails are faster."

Which was great support in the first place!

Yes, absolutely. A set like this costs around 10,000 euros, and from a certain level you need a new sail every few regattas because it "wears out", i.e. slows down. So you have about four sails a year, i.e. a new sail for the important regattas, because new sails are faster.

After leaving school, you went to Kiel to study. It was probably the proximity to the water that brought you to the windsurfing capital, right?

Exactly, if you want to study in Germany and surf as much as possible, there's no way around Kiel! I had a lot of training days with the German Sailing Team in 2023, so in addition to the team members Fabi Wolf and Basti Kördel, I also had a coach, the Englishman Dom Tidey. The whole year was packed with training camps and regattas with these guys, so around 100 training days on the iQFOiL on the water. I didn't train much in slalom last year, so it was "only" maybe 40 or 50 days at the regattas. And in total, I was on the water for about 180 days last year. From winter training from mid-January to October, it was mainly windsurfing.

How can we imagine that? So the three of you had your training camps together in Kiel?

There wasn't a single training day in Kiel, but Basti has the opportunity to train with the best people in the world, so he wasn't in Kiel at all. If you're Basti, then that's good, but it was hardly feasible for me with university.

You didn't even start in the iQFOiL class this year.

Yes, I competed in the World Championships in Lanzarote at the beginning of the year, but that was my last regatta on iQ equipment. In addition, I no longer met the squad criteria for 2023 and therefore dropped out of the national squad. It also didn't work out with the university in Kiel and all the training days abroad.

What does this kind of "squad support" look like? You've already told us about the iQFOiL equipment provided.

The material was provided by the Württemberg Yacht Club. I didn't receive any support for this from the state squad. When I was in the NK1 squad of the German Sailing Team, I received some money from Sporthilfe every month, and they also paid for my travelling expenses to training events and regattas.

How many training days were there?

Some, about 60 days with Basti and Fabi, because we were in Lanzarote in the winter, and then the days before and during the regattas. All days were accompanied by the coach.

What did you take away from the training sessions?

I have been able to get to know very different water conditions and people in many different places.

Fabi Wolf once said that the many IQ training and regatta days had taught him "not to make any more mistakes".

Yes, imagine the high standard at the training sessions and regattas. Everyone has the same foil, board and rig, and if you make a mistake, you're almost immediately last! The IQ fields are at such a high level that even a single mistake has such an impact. And 60 days with Basti and Fabi is a lot, but with the guys who do this full-time, it's so little that they're sailing at a higher level! It was great to ride training races with other nations, but on a national level Basti was on a different level. I was always first in my age group in Germany.

Wasn't it great to be able to train and compete at such a high level?

That was difficult for us. Basti gives me tips, but I don't get any tables with settings from him. The training was geared towards Basti because he was the Olympic candidate. So I rode with people who were usually faster than me. You can gain a lot of experience, but you also get hit in the face a lot, which means they often just ride past me.

Okay, close battles are better for you.

Exactly. This year I'm not racing iQ, but I'm competing successfully in the slalom in the German Windsurf Cup, which is easier to combine with my studies. In the iQFOiL, I can't just make it into the top ten at a World Championship alongside my studies.

The iQFoil material came to a standstill a few years ago in terms of development."

Completely independent of the "face-fighting" and the results: What do you enjoy more?

Slalom! Because that's the faster material. You do get new sails in the iQ class, but they are not newly designed sails. The iQ material practically came to a standstill in terms of development a few years ago and was "frozen".

How big are the differences compared to the slalom?

The iQ material is mainly designed for course racing. There it is the 9mm sail in combination with a 900mm front wing, and even with 15 knots of wind speed you depower more and more. On the other hand, the foil slalom material is around six to seven knots faster on half-wind courses with more wind!

That's a huge difference! What are the differences between your slalom foils and the freeride foils that hobby foil windsurfers usually have under their feet?

What we use in foil slalom is already frighteningly fast, and if you are then ready to accelerate in gusts, it can be quite difficult because you are then "on your last groove" - and therefore on the verge of a catapult. It's also not so easy to keep the board flying in gybes, because you need a lot of speed to keep the foil up. My front wings are 475 and 560 square centimetres in size, which is not even half of what a freeride foil usually screws under the board. What's more, the dedicated regatta windsurfers usually have everything set up much better and we also have other sails, i.e. foil slalom sails.

What are your goals in the Windsurf Cup now?

This year I would like to organise the annual foil slalom and overall rankings (two rated disciplines from the choice of wave, fin, foil - the ed.) win.

You have to beat guys like Fabi Wolf, Vincent Langer and others!

Yes, that's the goal! Because I no longer ride iQFOiL, and only if there was an iQ training group that trained here in Kiel would there be a return to the Olympic class. But now it's just slalom!