Alex Morales journeyed from
Cuba to America… by windsurfer. This is the story of his brave journey
across the ocean and to becoming a respected board shaper.
Images and words by Timothy Venn.
Like
many of Miami’s population, Alex Morales’s life started in the
Communist dictatorship of Cuba – but his journey since has been unlike
any other. Fascinated by his first sight of a windsurfer as an eight
year-old boy, he knew he was bitten by the windsurfing bug that was
sweeping the world. However, with no windsurfing opportunities for kids,
he had to make do with sailing dinghies and begging the local
windsurfers for a try on their boards.
This is when young Alex showed the first signs of his
improvisational, ‘get-it-done’ attitude when he started to build his own
kid’s windsurfer. “I started building Styrofoam boards and bamboo masts
and booms. It was jury-rigged gear like a typical third-world kid – but
it was the only gear I could get for my size.” Finally, a few years
later, he was able graduate to real boards, and his dedication and
persistence paid off when he won the 1987 Youth Event and was selected
to be in the Cuban Olympic windsurfing team in 1989.
For many windsurfers and Cubans alike, this might have been a dream
come true – being paid (albeit a modest stipend) to windsurf. However,
the life of a state sponsored windsurfer had limited appeal to Alex, who
was acutely aware of the artificial bubble he was living in – limited
to state events with other communist countries. “You might be in the
best shape – but if you don’t compete internationally, you can never be
your best technically.” Word was flooding in from the US and Europe
through windsurfing magazines, TV and radio of the exciting developments
in equipment and competitions. “My biggest influence back then was the
windsurfing magazines that made windsurfing look so colorful and
hardcore.”
Alex knew what he had to do – but leaving Cuba freely was not an
option, so he plotted his departure with the only option left – as a
‘Balsero’, making the 90 mile journey to Florida and freedom by raft.
Even as an expert windsurfer, he realized that windsurfing to Florida
would be physically exhausting and dangerous, so he tried leaving twice
with home-made rafts powered by outboard engines. After both attempts
failed, he finally turned to his last and least favored option – by
windsurfer. “The windsurfing option was always in the back of my mind,
but I knew that it would be exhausting – perhaps beyond my limits.”
In order for this highly risky enterprise to succeed he knew it would
take some luck and careful planning, so over the next 18 months he
studied the weather, the ocean conditions and currents to figure out the
optimal time of year to make his attempt. April 25th 1994 was picked
for the consistent east winds, ocean current and moderate weather.
Making precise calculations of the wind speed and currents, they set
their heading to hit the Florida peninsula precisely in the center of
the Florida Keys – avoiding the potentially fatal mistake of going out
too far east out into the Atlantic Ocean or west into the Gulf of
Mexico. Failing to make landfall in South Florida would have meant that
there would have been little chance of completing the journey before
exhaustion and dehydration would have taken its toll. He also carefully
selected his board – the relatively wide and floaty Bic Reggae with a
retractable dagger-board that allowed him to also easily sail upwind in
light winds. Added to that, a custom sail that he made out of a 7.0 and
smaller wave sail gave him low end power – but would still be manageable
in the gusts.
Alex and two fellow windsurfers sailed from Cuba, avoiding the Cuban
Coast Guard – taking over eighteen hours to reach US coastal waters
where they were picked up by the Governor of Florida’s boat that was
coming back from a fishing trip. Exhausted but elated on successfully
making the trip, Alex got a call from Eugene (Eugenio Roman, who
windsurfed out of Cuba on a last minute whim) to go windsurfing with him
in Miami that same day. Alex couldn’t believe it! “I said like “!@#$
you, that’s the last thing I want to do right now! We did actually go
windsurfing with him a couple of days later.”
“Windsurfing in Miami was like coming home” says Alex, “Maybe because
I had so many friends and family here – I felt like Cuba had become a
foreign country and Miami was where I was meant to be all my life.”
However, beyond getting to Florida, Alex had no specific plans. Just
being free was enough for him for that moment – but that did not mean he
stayed idle and he worked hard to assimilate himself into the American
culture, as well as becoming a licensed electrical contractor.
Alex’s involvement for the remainder of the 1990’s was minimal. “The
US windsurfing media and industry became focused on wave sailing in the
late 1990’s – which was something we cannot do here in South Florida, so
I was not involved in windsurfing then. It was only when Formula
windsurfing became big in the 2003 onwards did I get more involved
again. I saw pros like Micah Buzianis and Antoine Albeau on Formula
boards – and realized that it allowed windsurfing events to happen in
all conditions – giving windsurfing a new life”
Local
competitions started up again and Alex got back into competing at event
after event. “Everything came back when I realized that the events were
not so wind dependent on Formula and I was fired up – this is amazing –
this is what I was made to do. Then I thought, let’s make so more
events and took the ball and started running with it.” Soon he had some
big names like Micah Buzianis and Jimmy Diaz putting Miami on the
windsurfing competition map. Getting sponsorship was tough – so Alex was
forced to front most of the costs himself in the hope that the event
generated enough revenue to cover them. “If I had to put the money out
of my pocket and possibly lose or win, I still did it – the most
important thing is that windsurfing is still alive and Miami is on the
map.”
Alex then branched out into spreading the word by creating websites,
Windsurfingtour.com and Miamiwindsurfing.com. “Facebook and social media
websites have become the go-to platform now for this, replacing
websites. Nowadays you have 15 seconds to catch someone’s attention and
social media does that” Undeterred with his inability to get sponsorship
for his events, Alex launched into a new venture – becoming a board and
fin manufacturer himself. And thus, the Tillo International brand
(http://tillo-international.com) was born. Alex has created a line of
custom Formula, Slalom and SUP boards – hand shaped in his own workshop.
Drawing customers from South Florida windsurfing community and his
website, Alex’s brand is working on building a significant fan base.
With
many industry players decrying the demise of windsurfing, Alex is not
ready to give up the fight. Even when windsurfing as an Olympic event
was threatened in favor of kiteboarding, Alex joined a grass-roots
effort to have it re-established, resulting in a surprising 180-degree
turnaround by the ISAF committee to overturn their original decision.
“It’s all about participation, whether it is at the international level
or by the local communities. It’s hard at the local level, as amateurs
feel insecure about their ability to compete – but keeping these events
going keeps the incentive for the amateur windsurfer to get involved and
keep windsurfing and buying gear. Windsurfing dies when people don’t
put their time and resources into it. The water sports industry’s
attention has shifted to kite boarding and SUP – but that will decline
in the future too, if the long-term focus is not there.”
“Miami is one of the best cities in the US for these kinds of events
right now. Our Slalom event had 53 competitors, including Micah Buzanis
which is amazing – considering a PWA event can only have 40+
participants.” Building on this success, Alex has organized his next
Slalom Event on November 4th 2014 in Virginia Key in Miami. He is also
confident about the future. “Another exciting development is the new
generation of kids with the Bic Techno Class having the biggest sailing
fleet ever (with more participation than any sailing class) of over 400
kids in the last World Championship. These kids will go onto RSX and
Slalom and carry on the flag of windsurfing. Also, new developments with
boards and gear have made the sport faster and more exciting, which can
now also be captured by low cost technology such as GoPro and drones –
so there is no reason why more people cannot be turned on to this
incredible sport.”
Read more at http://boards.mpora.com/features/alex-morales-escaping-cuba-on-a-windsurfer.html#vvyZLIjBMcS1Ficc.99
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