Frank Ervin: Flow3 Laser Surgery for Competitive Windsurfing

The Drive to Excel

It's inspiring to meet people who genuinely love what they do—and excel at it. Let us introduce Frank Ervin: a 20-year-old windsurfer who became world champion at just 15 and continues to collect medals across Estonia and internationally, in both his age group and the open rankings. What's daily life like for a competitive windsurfer? And how many pairs of glasses did Frank lose in the Baltic before turning to KSA Silmakeskus? Read on.

Frank trains and competes daily in iQFoil, the Olympic-class windsurfing format. Most people have no idea what that actually means, so we asked Frank to explain.

"iQFoil is essentially a standard windsurfing board, but instead of a traditional fin, it has an underwater hydrofoil—think aircraft wing and fuselage combined—that lifts the entire board out of the water. Alongside iQFoil, I also train and race in a slalom format that uses more conventional boards in windier conditions," he says.

Generations of Water

Turns out windsurfing and water sports run in Frank's family blood. "I started windsurfing under my grandmother's coaching—she was a windsurfing instructor—and she gave me a real love of the sea," he recalls. Frank's father Martin is also an accomplished windsurfer, and he's been Frank's coach since day one. "My father was a world-class competitor himself, so his race experience and technical knowledge have been invaluable to my development," Frank explains.

But why stick exclusively with windsurfing? Why not traditional sailing, kitesurfing, or wave riding? What's the magic for Frank?

"I started with my grandmother in the Optimist class—small sailing dinghies—but watching my father's sport from the sidelines, I saw how fast and radical it looked. I was hooked. At first, windsurfing doesn't feel fast at all, but the more you train, the more alive it becomes. That feeling of flying across Tallinn Bay on a board—it's incomparable to anything else. Windsurfing gives you speed and freedom that traditional sailing just can't match," Frank says, eyes lighting up. "I've tried wave riding, but Estonia only has decent swell a few times a year, which isn't practical. And honestly, I think the windsurfer in me is too strong to switch to kitesurfing—I've never even felt the pull to try."

World Champion at 15

Frank was just 15 when he won the Formula lightweight world championship at the senior World Championships in Portugal. Every time he competes—whether in Estonia or abroad—he's almost always on the podium.