Mikhail Ershov

I started with sports back in the day when I was still a kid, and just never stopped! First there was windsurfing, then I changed over to aquabiking. You get sick and tired of doing one and the same thing. And my motto is “as long as it’s fun!”

Just like any other kid in the USSR, I dreamt of becoming a pilot, or a cosmonaut, or a sailor. I was thinking more towards sailors. But after I’d graduated from the maritime school, determined that I wanted to sail overseas, I soon realized that it’s not for me.

I’ve got a lot of patience! I’m a calm person, but, as the saying goes, don’t trouble the trouble before the trouble troubles you.

Of course one needs money! Those, who say that money doesn’t really matter much, are wrong. They are just trying to escape the reality by lying to themselves! Money is important. It gives more freedom, more opportunities, more comfortable life. But it’s not all about that, is it? Money can’t give you things that aren’t measured in it. However much you pay your friend, it won’t make your friendship any better.

I don’t believe in free rides. I believe in luck!

Lying to yourself is one thing to stay away from, even though there are things that are extremely hard to admit.

I’m not the type of guy every woman dreams of — I can disappear for two weeks, go away. I’m here today, and elsewhere — tomorrow. For me that’s normal.

Modern women are the same as premodern ones. The only difference is that they used to bake bread in the oven, whereas nowadays she can do it with a toaster!

The most nerve-racking problem people struggle with is that they like someone who doesn’t like them, or vice versa, they don’t like someone who likes them.

I definitely won’t go to the Maldives alone. When you go there without company, it’s terribly boring. You’ve got to go with a crowd. If you stay there alone, it’s not long before you’ll start feeling like slitting your wrists open!

People go to nightclubs, because nobody has yet invented a better way of spending evenings. I’m not too fond of them, but where else do you go? So, at the end of the day, people apparently go clubbing out of sheer desperation.

I’m a water person, so I stay away from the air! I just don’t see the fascination of the air sports. I’ve never really had a thing for the skies. And it’s perfectly normal — guys who do flying don’t go anywhere near water!

I don’t get along with computers. I don’t know beans about them.

The greatest way to watch football is on the big screen, because then you see replays that give you a chance to concentrate on tactics and technique, whereas a stadium doesn’t offer you such an opportunity.

I want to live in Russia, and Russia only, to be able to travel and do my own thing. I’ve even won a Green Card before, but didn’t want to become a US citizen. I just realized that I could get a visa any time, but just wasn’t really interested in staying!

I can’t stomach shopping. When I have to go buy something, it’s like a sheer nightmare! And it’s especially bad nowadays, when the variety is enormous. I remember back in the day, you would walk into a shop and see a jacket from the “Bolshevichka” factory, and think to yourself that if you don’t buy it now, you might get no jacket at all!

I don’t strive for power, but at the same time, I do realize that if you consider yourself to be a sane person, and you don’t really strive for power, does this mean that people who wind up there are all insane?

I prefer to avoid making long-term plans. About a week or so is pretty much enough. Besides, didn’t they warn us that the world is going to come to an end in 2012? So we’ve got to make the most of all life’s pleasures before it happens! I mean normal healthy pleasures.

A friend of mine once said that happiness is the moment when his wishes come true. Sounds like quite a nice way of putting this into words to me.

I believe that there’s nothing wrong with a man giving way to his tears. I also used to cry during training sessions, because the pain was unbearable, but I had to get ready for the world championship that was supposed to start in five days’ time! I turned my face away to make sure nobody saw it, but couldn’t hold the tears of pain.