She’s a world champion, a world record holder, and an osteopath. Proudly sporting a Synergy logo on her windsurfing sail, she is also Synergy’s newest sponsored athlete who not only uses Synergy products, but shares them with her patients at her medical practice in England.
Zara Davis learned the art of windsurfing when she was 13, but took a hiatus from the sport from the time she was 15 until she was 27. Her employer at the time refueled her love for windsurfing and she hasn’t stopped since. She picked the sport back up quickly and even met her husband while lake windsurfing.
In May 2016, at almost 50 years old, Zara snagged her first-ever world championship title in women’s speed windsurfing while competing at the Dunkerbeck GPS Speed Challenge in Fuerteventura. She not only beat out all of the other women in the competition, but recorded a better time than more than half of the men. Zara is also a six-time Europe speed windsurfing champion and is known by many as “the fastest woman on water” with the world records in the speed windsurfing mile at 34.74 knots and held the 500m world record at 45.83 knots (53mph).“I love the challenge and I love being at sea,” Zara said. “For whatever reason, I found that I have a natural talent for the sport. It takes years to be good at it, but when you’re good at something, you obviously hone in on that skill. I’m using my talent to inspire youngsters, especially young girls, to take up sports and try windsurfing.”
Windsurfing relies heavily on the quality and structure of a windsurfer’s board and sail. Both structures are built and paired to get the most out of the wind current. A speed windsurfer’s sail is about double the size of a recreational windsurfing sail because it needs to harness as much wind as possible. Zara said the physics of a windsurfing sail can be compared to the physics of an airplane wing. The sail needs to be precisely angled to catch and utilize wind for movement.
Don’t be fooled, though. Not everyone with the right gear can speed windsurf. The more wind a windsurfer harnesses, the more difficult it becomes to hang onto the sail. Successfully controlling a speed windsurfing sail and board requires an incredible amount of strength. Zara stands at 6 feet tall with plenty of lean muscle that she must maintain to be successful at her sport. Her stature is a major advantage in the speed windsurfing world.
There is a level of bravery that speed windsurfing requires, Zara said. Imagine traveling at 50 miles per hour on water, losing balance, and suddenly smacking down on top of the water. That can’t feel good.
“Everything to do with windsurfing is physically demanding,” Zara said. “The hardest thing is balance and stability. You use every muscle in the body all the time. For this reason, it’s demanding on the cardiovascular system.”
To train on water, Zara travels about four hours from her home on Bristol’s coast to the West Kirby Marine Lake. In addition to working full-time, Zara spends up to 15 hours per week swimming, cycling, running, doing Pilates, and doing suspension training. She maintains a nutritious diet, drinks plenty of water, and makes sure high-quality nutritional supplements are always part of her daily routine. Now, that supplement routine includes ProArgi-9+, e9, Phytolife and Mistify. She is a walking example of health to all of her osteopathy patients.
“I work with a lot of elite athletes and I would be very uncomfortable putting anything in my practice that I knew wasn’t pure,” Zara said.
And as an elite athlete herself, Zara knows a good product when she sees one. The in-depth quality testing and strict production standards that Synergy requires in its manufacturing facility make Zara confident that the company’s products will make a difference in her athletic performance and in the lives of her patients.
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