Women’s sailing festival ‘Steering the Course’ |08 October 2021
Endra Ha-Tiff-Fred
Endra Ha-Tiff, a former Seychelles’ female windsurfing great
Endra Ha-Tiff was introduced to watersports by Englishwoman Van Goulding who at that time was going round schools to recruit athletes and she was only 14 years old when she started.
At that time, Ha-Tiff was the only girl who stuck to the sport after two other girls called it quit very early.
The highlight of Ha-Tiff’s career was winning the windsurfing gold medal at the Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) in Reunion in 1998. That same year, she also won the gold medal in a competition in Singapore.
Her performances propelled her to a third place finish in the race for the Sportswoman of the Year title in 1998.
Prior to that, Ha-Tiff had taken part in the Youth World Championship in Milan, Italy in 1993 and the Fourth IOIG in Seychelles in 1993 where she claimed the silver medal.
Married and mother of three sons and a daughter, the 45-year-old Ha-Tiff-Fred trained with French coach Jacques Le Floc'h in Concarneau, France and in Scotland in 1999 ahead of taking part in the Windsurfing World Championship in Nouméa that same year and the 2000 Olympic Summer Games in Sydney, Australia. She competed in the women's Mistral class and finished last in the event that consisted of eleven races
While in Australia, Ha-Tiff-Fred also took part in the Oceania Championship and had a close shave when she was almost hit by a ferry as there was no ‘exclusion zone’.
In fact, 1998 and 1999 proved to be her best years as she also attempted the Mahé-Praslin windsurfing race and completed it in a time of 1 hour 36 minutes (1h236).
She had two more attempts but was not successful as each time the organisers called it a day due to light wind condition.
Ha-Tiff-Fred’s last outing for Seychelles was at the IOIG in Mauritius in 2003 where she came out third to win the bronze medal.
According to experts, windsurfing is the most physically demanding class in sailing as trying to steer a 3.7-metre board weighing 15 kilograms and almost eight square metres of sail for 40 minutes is not a task for the faint-hearted.
Her final words: “I would like to encourage young girls to take up watersports. It is fun and I am sure they will enjoy it. I look forward to one day see a group of girls take the challenge of attempting the Mahé-Praslin crossing. And why not break the record?”
As for Van Goulding who was instrumental in getting young girls and boys to learn how to swim and sail, she had this to say: “Endra was the most determined watersports person after Barbara (Habayeb) that I have met. As a school girl she came to the Sail Training Scheme (STS) after school, trained until it was too late to catch the bus home and had to face walking up the mountain of upper Mont Buxton (Dan Lenn) in the dark. All the boys admired her strength and determination. She was tough!!”
Compiled by Gerard Govinden