He spends 180 days a year on the water, surfing contests and travelling from spot to spot for months every year. Sometimes a local TV crew comes by and films a TV programme about him.
Nevertheless, the story of Wolfgang "Woife" Strasser is not that of a windsurfing pro. On the contrary: Woife Strasser is 51, Bavarian and seriously ill. He has been battling bone cancer since childhood and has had almost as many operations as years of life. But instead of complaining, Woife took his fate into his own hands early on, lives the simple life and enjoys every day - even in a snowstorm on Lake Chiemsee if necessary. The story of a fighter:
I grew up in Grabenstätt on Lake Chiemsee and thank goodness I had a childhood without iPhones, Facebook and the like. In the early 1970s, you wouldn't have had time for that because you were out and about after school and had idols like the Little Rascals or Huckleberry Finn. My parents were building at the time and at the beginning we didn't have a telephone, TV or heating, but that wasn't a problem because I had friends, did sport, had food and lots of fun and experiences.
Although I only got straight A's in primary school at the time, I didn't want to go to the grammar school in Traunstein, ten kilometres away, because there were children there who I wouldn't have been able to do anything with. My plan was never to go to university, but I always wanted to live in the south by the sea because I was so fascinated by water.
Dark times
Between the ages of 12 and 14, the dark side of life caught up with me in the form of a serious illness - in hindsight, I realise that this changed my life and that I live the way I do now as a result. In the first year I had open, ulcerated toes on both feet and at first nobody knew where it was coming from. The end joints of the toes were shortened because the infection had attacked the bones. The doctors wanted to amputate my big toes until my GP discovered that the cause was lymph node TB, transmitted by cow dung.
I was then hospitalised in Munich for about nine months and underwent several operations on my groin and toes. The groin was open for six months and had to be cleaned every day. In the end, the nurses had to restrain me because I couldn't keep still due to the pain. Because of the infection, I was in a single room and hardly had any visitors due to the distance from home. After this time, everything was over so far, but it didn't really get any easier at first because I couldn't put on shoes, walked with crutches and was teased a lot. Today you would say I was bullied.
Back then, you just had to assert yourself. My luck only lasted a few months: I wanted to get up in the morning to go to school and couldn't because I couldn't feel my left foot. I panicked and called for help. My parents took me to the nearest hospital, from there back to Munich, where the doctors diagnosed a bone tumour in my left ankle. Another six months in hospital with short interruptions and several operations. This brought my total number of operations to 30 in two years.
New direction
Somehow, the time I spent staring at the white walls of the hospital room changed me. My motto became: My life is now!
From then on, freedom was all that mattered to me. I then did an apprenticeship, practised sport intensively and then got into windsurfing. It was the first sport that I wasn't good at right from the start, but that's what made it so appealing. You need a lot of stamina, patience and the conditions are always different. You can't fight against nature, you have to become one with the wind and the waves. I then worked abroad in the water sports sector for over 15 years, where I also set up my own business. In 1996, I met my wife on the Greek island of Samos, where I was working as a centre manager. As she was studying in Dortmund at the time and we wanted to pursue a life together, I resigned at the end of the season and moved to the Ruhr region. Me as a Bavarian! Mountains, lakes, the south, the sea and then the "Pott", that was hard and couldn't go well. When I went to the residents' registration office to change my address, the lady asked me if I was really sure and that I must be very much in love.
I felt like a stranger in Germany, I didn't really want to go back there and the situation inevitably led to relationship problems. Then we decided to buy a water sports centre on Crete and everything happened very quickly. My wife became self-employed and became pregnant. She was still giving surfing lessons on the board when she was eight months pregnant. This was followed by the birth of our daughter and another three years on Crete - a wonderful time for us: every day by the sea, in the pool, always outside.
In 2000, I had constant pain in my ankle again. I realised that something was wrong. I was again diagnosed with a bone tumour, followed by more months of pain and an operation in which my ankle was artificially broken nineteen times. The whole thing shook everything up again. For me, it's always the worst thing when I can't move, when I can't do any sport that gives me a healthy mind.
Windsurfing therapy
Since then, hardly a day goes by without me being in pain. But strangely enough, the "windsurfing addiction" and my goal of learning new freestyle manoeuvres helps me.
For some years now, I have been certain that there are also tumours in other parts of my body. The biggest problem is in the spine, where a tumour is pressing on a nerve. An operation is difficult because of the risk of nerve injury. At times like these, you develop a different perception of pain. This is also linked to the state of the psyche: If I'm feeling well, then a lot of things can be put away. Complaining doesn't help anyone either!
What really excites me and keeps me positive is discovering new spots, which still exist today, and travelling - it takes my mind off my pain. When we're travelling, it's easy in our little Fiat Ducato. We shower with a water bottle and are always outdoors.
Because our daughter was about to start school, we went back home to Bavaria in 2002. So I ended up back where I didn't want to go at first, back home in Bavaria. I still remember the first day of surfing on Lake Chiemsee and realising that I didn't have a long suit or surf shoes. I made do with my wife's wetsuit, which I couldn't zip up because it was actually far too small, and squeezed myself into her surf boots. But it was still a great experience.
In 2005, I overcame my fear because of my broken ankle and started practising the air jibe at the age of 39 - with a 115-litre freemove board and a 7.2 sail. After six months it worked and I realised that if you practise and spend a lot of time on the water, you can learn new moves even as an older person. In the meantime, I've learnt almost 60 different windsurfing manoeuvres and I've set my sights on the burner for this year.
With my wife, I am lucky to have someone who had to go through a similar ordeal in childhood - she had a serious road accident at the age of twelve and a stroke in mid-life - and therefore has the same attitude to life. I am proud to say that my wife is also my best friend - values that you can't buy.
We can arrange it so that we can both travel a lot and be on the water. She works in an emergency room in Germany, while I try to earn enough money as a qualified businessman and water sports instructor to finance the trips. What surfer doesn't dream of being on the water 180 days a year, whatever the season, even when it's stormy and snowing?
Paradoxically, this means that there are also a lot of envious people, but they usually have a great car, a Macbook, the latest equipment and five-star accommodation - things that we are happy to do without. Freedom and experiences don't have a price tag.
But that reflects the windsurfing of recent years. Today, there are almost only windsurfing kids sponsored by their parents, travelling to the famous spots with the fattest cars and the latest equipment. Who still travels with a tent or sleeps in a board bag and explores the world? It's the same for young worldcuppers, travelling without parental sponsorship is not an option.
I can't do without sponsors either, and I have great support from Sailloft Hamburg, Wark Boards from Lake Constance, Tim Köpke from Maui Ultra Fins and the Windsurfing Chiemsee Sport Mayer surf shop in Chieming. If you handle your equipment well and look after it, you can get by plus/minus zero. As is so often the case in life, it's a give and take.
Some time ago, I found a partner in Martin Ziegler from Prien am Chiemsee and his vegan soft drink "Eine Dose Sonnenschein" (A Can of Sunshine), who would like to realise social projects with me in the future if we generate income from sales of the drink. Under the motto: Sunshine for all!
