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WINDSURFING FANATICS – THE REALITY OF A PHOTOSHOOT
Words & Photos JOHN CARTER
‘’Wanted: Photographer to shoot a team of windsurfing die hard Fanatics! -you’ll need to be prepared to spend fifteen days on the sun drenched beaches of Hawaii, pretend to be taking shots whilst ogling at hot bikini clad chicks windsurfing, endure several joy rides hanging out of helicopters, rattle off a few snaps whilst swimming in the pacific and sip a few icy cold beers while editing in the evenings’’. Sound like your dream job? John Carter exposes the reality of a photo shoot for two of the world’s biggest brands.
DREAM LIFE? On paper the photo shoot for the 2016 Fanatic/ North catalogue is the sort of assignment that most photographers would cut off their trigger finger for. Same goes for all the riders involved; being part of a major photo shoot is surely one of the major lures of turning pro. A free ticket to the world’s Mecca of windsurfing, blasting around on the brand’s latest kit right behind the likes of Alice Arutkin in her skimpy swim suit, shredding the waves at Ho’okipa while a chopper is buzzing overhead and by the end of the shoot be issued with a shed load of awesome pics of yourself to nurse your already inflated ego!
So where exactly is the catch here? Bikinis, sun, beer, waves and windsurfing surely this is almost too good to be true? For sure there is that occasional moment of pleasure when the likes of Alice and Eva seductively smile for the camera while blasting underneath you from the helicopter; but as for the rest of a product shoot, there can be many moments of stress, panic and logistical nightmares that makes it one of those jobs that can make or break you!
So what is the exact goal of a shoot? Karin Gertenbach head of marketing for Fanatic explains what the brand is hoping to achieve:
“We organize the Maui shoot to gather all of our product shots for the upcoming season so we can work with the images for our marketing campaign which includes the brochure, adverts, pictures for websites, magazines, ‘PR’ and dealer promotions. It is important to have the majority of the material together and sorted before the season kicks in and therefore it is essential to work with experienced photographers and riders here! Besides working extremely hard from early morning till late evening, the photo shoot is also a nice get together of all our main riders and internal team. This year we also had our main SUP riders on the Maui shoot, which made the team complete as a ‘Boarder´s Company’, it felt like there was a good team spirit!”
LOGISTICS Let’s take it from the start here; this whole operation kicks off at least a year prior to the shoot. Dates and tickets have to be booked, cameramen hired, accommodation and transport organized, graphics finalized, rider availability checked and boards and sails delivered to and stored on location. Talking numbers – for the 2015 shoot there were fifty windsurf boards, sixty sups and paddles, twenty triple board bags, sixty five sails, sixteen booms and twenty five masts. All that mountain of equipment has to be shot from a variety of angles and often with different combos of rider. Not to mention we are photographing Fanatic Boards and North sails so essentially there are two totally different shoots happening at the same time! Yep there is an enormous amount of gear and once we are on location and everything is being rigged on the very first morning of the shoot you suddenly realize what a daunting task you are facing. At this moment there is certainly an element of pressure for the organizers, the team and in particular yours truly! Obviously shipping all this gear to Hawaii is not a cheap exercise; renting a house, vans and hiring photographers and a video cameraman is a huge investment so there is little room for error here. Mess up your shots on any given day and that may have been your only possible chance to shoot that particular piece of equipment. So yes, looking from the balcony on the opening morning at all this enormous amount of shiny new equipment being rigged, it suddenly hits you how important, how much money and how much work has gone into this whole operation. Pressure? – you bet – on the first day until we have nailed a few decent shots and the ball is rolling I am definitely feeling it! I suppose the riders have to deliver the goods too, but all they have to do is windsurf; surely that part can’t be too hard can it?
MY QUIVER! For any camera buffs out there, here is roughly the equipment I normally take when I head out to Maui. My main bodies are a couple of Canon 1DX’s, plus I carry a 5D mark 3 and Panasonic GX1 which is for my pole camera. The 1 DX’s are my main workhorses and can shoot up to ten frames a second with 18 million megapixels quality in RAW format. As for glass, I have an 8-15mm fisheye, 16-35 zoom, 24-70 zoom, 24-105 zoom, 70-200 zoom plus 15mm fisheye, 100mm macro, 85 1.2, 45mm tilt shift and 500mm prime lenses. Then there is my carbon tripod, computer, hard drives, memory cards, a couple of flashes, bags, cases and chargers plus my liquid eye water housing for the 1DX and all the ports that go with it. Just packing for Maui alone is quite an operation making sure I have all the tools necessary to do the job, and backups for certain essentials if needed.
“We rent a house on the beach at Sprecks which has a lot of advantages, the most important being to have a complete overview of conditions without wasting time driving from house to beach then back again to load up gear. On top of that, there are very few places where you can store as much equipment as we have, without owners and other residents getting nervous; never mind the 15-20 cars and vans in the driveway and just generally having loads of people stopping by every day. Also for JC and our organisation, there is little time wasted as we can work on many different themes if there is no wind or between shoots. Maui in general is also a very productive location to work from, as you have mostly ideal and dependable conditions, many team riders already on the island for spring time training, qualified helicopter pilots for the tricky and windy shoots, as well as the infrastructure needed for getting the gear shipped in and out, plus the office facilities. Many other locations offer some of those points, but none can offer all, especially regarding the logistics”
A TYPICAL DAY So how does a typical day work on the Fanatic/North shoot? Well it actually starts the night before when we check the weather for the upcoming days.
Myself, Craig and Klaas Voget sit around a computer and check what wind, waves and sunshine are coming our way and try and take it from there. Obviously if there is a decent swell coming then waves are the priority or if it’s howling windy we may opt for jumping and if it’s flat and moderate trades then freeride or race might be the call. With SUP shots thrown into the equation as well, there is pretty much something going on every moment from dawn ‘til dusk. When you have an awesome forecast it is fairly straightforward to make plans but Maui is often a victim of gusty, showery trades which can easily throw a spanner in the works and totally washout any plans you have made for the day. So once we have a rough plan in mind, an email goes out to all the riders informing them where and when to be on location and what we intend to be shooting and how. Sounds simple enough but like I said the weather often has its own ideas and doesn’t always play ball with the plan. Most locations on Maui, you are not allowed to windsurf before eleven so it usually means we will meet somewhere by ten am to start rigging and making sure everything is ready to so we can be out on the water right on the dot. It is easily possible that we might start the day with a dawn sup shoot and then go straight into the windsurfing, possibly right through the whole day and even into an evening flash gun session after sunset. That sort of schedule may sound ridiculous but believe me it happens!
Craig Gertenbach explains his typical day – “Of course, given the size of our operations, it´s not like the office work is simply left “on-hold” while we are on Maui, so before or during breakfast I try to sift through the email slew which has arrived from the working day in Europe overnight. Then we are off to the beach, with some nice equipment loading before hand to help us wake up and work up a solid sweat! Once we reach the location, we have to unload all the gear and try to get setup as quickly as possible to maximise conditions. Then shooting starts, the staff on the beach is then constantly on hand to make sure we have everyone on the right gear and of course usually rotating gear, sometimes as often as every 5-10 minutes, depending on the type of shoot. Broken gear needs to be taken for repairs immediately, riders off to hospital here and there, lunch for over twenty people needs to be bought and so the day goes on and on.
The more tricky part comes when it´s time to change locations. This year we really pushed for a lot of different backgrounds for SUP especially, with a couple of really long days of 4.30am to 10pm of shooting. Not only long days but it´s a big logistical nightmare to reload and unload the vans every day! Sometimes three times a day for the various different location shoots, whilst trying to keep the boards and sails clean and undamaged. There were three or four people working in the organisation and this was barely enough for all the behind the scenes work, setting up locations and preparing the gear. But luckily the team is like a big family, so everyone chips in to help and generally a good time is had by all – that´s the key to a good shoot, to keep everyone in a good mood, even if it´s hard work. As for JC, just clicking a button every now and then, boy he has it easy compared to us!
When we occasionally have a “shorter” day, then maybe I can squeeze in a quick sail in the late evening, followed by a mandatory beer with whoever is around at the house followed by a quick dinner! Then it´s back to the keyboard to work on the next round of emails.
Finally before bed we check the forecast, making a decision for the next 2/3 days and then sending out a mail to everyone where we´ll meet and if necessary preparing all the gear too for an early start. It all sounds easy enough perhaps but with jetlag, intense sun and coming directly from colder climates; it´s quite a punishment both physically and mentally. I always have a good chuckle when people say “You lucky guy, Maui photoshoot, what a life!” Maui yes, anytime please, but for a photoshoot, hmm that is slightly different!’’
HELICOPTER Usually during the photoshoot we try and make sure we score at least two or three helicopter sessions to cover all the wave, race and freeride equipment. For a 1 hour shoot, the going rate is around a thousand dollars, so making sure you choose the right moment to take off is critical. In the chopper I normally take both of my 1Dx bodies, one loaded with the 70-200 F2.8 zoom and the other armed with my 24-70 2.8 for wider shots.
The freeride heli shoot, normally involves all the riders and lots of boards and rigs so it is an enormous amount of preparation to organize everybody to the beach, rig twenty or more sails and set up all the boards. So the last thing you want is for it to cloud over right before the helicopter is about to take off. Of course this year this is exactly what happened and the whole team had to wait on standby for five hours on the beach while we waited for it to clear, which it didn’t! You have to keep your thought process rational in this sort of situation and not jump into any hasty decisions which could cost a lot of money and still have to be reshot again if the weather turns cloudy anyways.
Myself and Craig are normally, backwards and forwards on the cell phones making last minutes checks that everything is in place including the sunshine before we give the green light for the pilot to fire up the chopper. Once air born, the next hour truly is a mad frenzy of action. We have a running list of who should sail on which piece of kit and if we are lucky the operation can run smoothly and you can work your way through the list without a hitch. A few years back the plan somehow went out of the window and of course from up in the helicopter you can’t really talk to anyone to regroup and you just have to improvise. But everything went horribly wrong and I ended up with Bjorn Dunkerbeck, Jimmy Diaz and Cyril Moussilmani all clenching their fists at me from the water. It was a terrible moment and when I came back down everyone was shouting and screaming that it was all my fault! Yes it is far more fun shooting the likes of Eva and Alice blasting on Geckos in their G string bikinis I can tell you that for nothing!
But the whole helicopter shoot is really a great buzz for the camera guys, especially when you are up over the water at Ho’okipa the waves are firing and you have some of the best riders in the world going off from this awesome viewpoint. Quite often I have come down from helicopter shoots totally buzzing; it really is a huge rush especially when you are confident that it has all gone to plan and you have pulled it off!
KLAAS VOGET “There was this massive lip growling at me and I knew if I hit it I was going to get worked real bad but it was the photo shoot so I just hit it anyway! I came down hard in an avalanche of white water and just about survived!”
ADAM LEWIS “The Freeride shoot is an absolute ball, I always have such a laugh, it is normally too windy and you are trying to sail around in 4.5m weather on a 7.2m and make it look easy! There is normally some good crashing and the whole team is involved so it is always good fun trying to sail close to one another flat out under the chopper. I always try and get my hands on the Gecko; that board is such fun to ride!”
VICTOR FERNANDEZ “I try to not have pressure as I sail better without it but sometimes in that one hour of the helicopter photoshoot I feel I need to land at least some good moves, especially for the video. I try to sail as if I am free sailing but sometimes it almost feels like a competition where I have to push myself as the other team riders are also going for it under the helicopter! I love watching everyone trying crazy stuff, I really like that!”
EVA OUDE OPHIUS “There was pressure on me to stay in one piece! Last year on the shoot I crooked my front teeth, got a stitch under my foot and had nasty reef cuts on my upper leg! During the helicopter shoot I took a huge wave and it gave me so much adrenaline, I wasn’t scared at all anymore, the waves maintain my addiction to windsurfing and give me positive energy! A bit later I went back up to the top of the wave again but I was too late. The lip fully hit me and I can remember getting pounded so hard. I was lucky my gear was still in one piece and I only got a big bruise on my upper leg!”
WATER SHOTS Swimming around at Hookipa or Spreckelsville to take water shots is without doubt the most enjoyable and exciting part of the shoot for me, plus it helps keep you fit which is always a bonus. I often think back to a time when I asked a fisherman in Tobago if there were sharks in the water when we were out on his boat. He dipped his finger in the water, licked it and pronounced with a glisten in his eye “If the water is salty, then there are sharks in it” I always remembered that statement for some reason! Maui has plenty of salty water and naturally plenty of sharks to go with it. In the last two years there have been thirteen incidents involving sharks on the island, quite a few fatal. Luckily I don’t think I have ever heard of one at Hookipa but there have been a few at Kanaha which is only a few miles downwind of Sprecks so sometimes when you are out there swimming the thought does cross your mind! Shooting at Hookipa is always a major challenge because there are often thirty or forty guys out on the water, plus a few other photographers to boot. So once again being out on the water is all important not just for the light but also to help beat the crowds. Lining up with a sailor at Hookipa is hard enough on its own but throw in thirty other guys on the same peak and you’ll be lucky to score a handful of shots in a two hour session.Water shooting at Hookipa is not easy, especially when the waves are over logo high. You need to be fit, be able to duck dive avalanches of powerful white water, keep the water off the port of your lens and somehow be in the right place at the right time and line up the shots. It takes a bit of experience to get to know the way the rip works and where the best bowls are for the shots. Don’t forget to dodge the out of control amateurs and hopefully your guys will be doing everything to line up for you and not sailing the less crowded peak a hundred metres upwind while you are flogging your guts out in the impact zone.
I am pretty much in the water everyday of the shoot and this year have been using my Canon 1DX in my Liquid Eye housing with a 24-105 zoom lens. It is an awesome set up and I always take meticulous care as I enter the water to give the camera a little test dunk to check for leaks, a couple of times in the past I failed to do this and lost a couple of cameras in the process. Working with top pros like Victor Fernandez, Klaas Voget, Gollito Estredo, Max Rowe and Adam Lewis in the water is always a pleasure and we are often hooting and hollering in the water when one of them has pulled of a sick move right in front of the camera. When it is a jump session at Sprecks, Victor is a real machine in the water; somehow he always finds the right gust and always goes huge when he hits a steep ramp. I have had plenty of close shaves when he has flown right over the top of me but always trust him to bail if it all goes wrong! Gollito is the king of looking at the camera while throwing moves perilously close to the lens, while at Hookipa you can always rely on the likes of Klaas and Adam to go for the biggest waves and smack the gnarliest lips!. You need that mix of styles and strengths in the sailors to be sure of nailing the variety of shots required.
ADAM LEWIS “I love the water angle; I think those shots can be the hardest to nail but a good one looks amazing!”
EVA OUDE OPHIUS “A photoshoot does influence my sailing. I am more relaxed during free sailing and I never have to focus on a certain point in the water. During one evening session, I saw two sharks, one of them straight in front of me. I had to sail straight over it and then I catapulted. The sharks were a few meters from the shore. I jumped off of my gear as close to the beach as I could and ran out of the water! It was a pretty crazy experience; no flashlight sessions for me anymore!”
ODDS AND ENDS Just when you think you are on top of the task in hand, a quick glance at the shot list the team is issued with a few weeks before kick-off reveals there is so much more to a making a catalogue than action pictures alone. Detail shots of the boards and sails, wet suits, portraits in various styles and attire, the list seems never ending. When you are dealing with twenty or so riders and staff in total, then that is a hell of a lot of different portraits and lifestyle pictures to nail down especially when you are busy preparing for the action shots.
END OF THE DAY So come the end of the day, when all the riders are heading out to dinner or relaxing at home, that is when the real work starts for me and Manu the Video cameraman. First up all the compact flash cards have to be loaded onto a hard drive, all files renamed, and then the editing starts. During a busy shooting day you can easily be shooting several thousand shots so if you don’t keep on top of the editing process, the workload can easily build into a ridiculous mountain and it can be almost impossible to catch up. During the shoot there really is no time for me to go out for food, so if I am lucky Craig will bring me something back from town while I crack on with the computer work. Otherwise just grab something out of the fridge and keep on trucking on the computer until I start falling asleep on the job. Yep a fifteen hour day is about the normal during the shoot, so it’s a full on job and flat out for over two weeks straight. Oh yes and before I forget, then there is the all-important back up of all the work you have done so far on the shoot; what sort of idiot would have done all that work, involving all that money and not have everything backed up at least once or even twice? Err well I must be honest here, I have had hard drives crash on me and it’s a nerve wrecking couple of days while you are waiting to see if all the files can be recovered. All I can say is never again! – back up, back up, back up is my mantra!
AND WHEN IT IS ALL OVER For most of the crew and riders, when the shoot is over they are pretty much free to stay on in Hawaii or move on to their next port of call. As for the likes of Karin, Klaas, Alex and Craig, the shoot is just the beginning of the next major logistical task of looking at all the shots and then selecting images for adverts, magazines and the all-important catalogue. Yep back in the office in Germany after all that slogging away in Hawaii there is still a massive amount of work to be done while at the same time it’s time to start planning for 2017 as well!
Karin Gertenbach explains the final step in the process:
“First we make a best shot selection, tag the shots with rider names, board model and photographer so we can easily find them. Our agency receives the very best shots to re touch and from there we see which pictures fit best for all the different projects. This whole process takes a couple of months after the shoot and for us it is another huge job to make the best selections”
CONCLUSION So yes a massive photo shoot like the Fanatic/North gig is a shed load of very hard work and aside from the fun part of actually taking the shots there are countless number of hours on the dreaded computer editing. But everything said and done, the shoot can be a major adrenaline buzz, amazing fun, and a privilege to be working with world class athletes and of course you are being paid for it! The Fanatic/ North Team are really a great bunch of girls and guys and over the years we have all become close friends which makes the whole work side of things far more enjoyable. There are always a few beers floating around at the end of the day and some moments you just have to stop and laugh even when a plan does not work out. When it is all over and a brand seems happy with the results you can heave a huge sigh of relief but also look back on where improvements can be made and hopefully do an even better job the following year. I don’t like to ever say, that was my best; there is always room for new ideas, angles and better quality; photography is one of those mediums where perfection is impossible! – a bit like windsurfing but it’s that same sense of challenge that fuels the passion for my work.
ADAM LEWIS “I’m going to put it out there straight away; I think the North/Fanatic photo shoot is the best one to take part in! We have an amazing team, everyone loves windsurfing, there are no egos and what at times could be a drag is normally actually a lot of fun. The photo shoot is not as glamourous as you think, the day before the photoshoot Victor, Klaas and I were sweating away packing and unpacking and then re-packing and organising all the boards for the shoot at the back of a baking hot parking lot.
In fairness to the guys, whenever you put in the effort there is normally a cold Corona waiting under the palm fringed beach/garden overlooking beautiful water where the photo-shoot is based and they buy us lunches! The initial year I did the shoot I was so nervous, it was my first time in Maui and I was really terrible at starboard tack. I felt a lot of pressure to deliver the shots, especially for the wave shoot. At the end of the day I am a wave sailor and I guess that is where the pressure is to get the most radical photo’s you can and show off the gear.
I think the best part of the whole shoot is at the end when you get to go through and see all the shots. We normally have a team BBQ and look at what we’ve been up to. Sometimes you are so busy running around you totally forget what it is all about. I don’t know if I could really say there is a worst part! I kind of love all of it, maybe folding up all the cardboard boxes the 50 odd boards and the 65 sails come in, but it’s all part of the job and I still love it!”
ALICE ARUTKIN “To be a rider involved in the shoot means that your sponsor appreciates you as an athlete and the image you portray. Riders are part of the process that help the customers choose one brand instead of another. Our communal goal is to show that our brand is the best and make it efficient. I think the riders and the brand both need each other. I’m proud to be part of the shoot with such amazing sailors next to me! I don’t mind at all to be the “bikini girl” for some of the pictures. I’m the girl, I have to take advantage of what I have and make the pictures that others cannot! We actually have a lot of fun, two weeks in Maui who wouldn’t! Beautiful pictures and nice moves are what the camera guys want. We are not on holidays and it is a different way of windsurfing when you are shooting. You constantly have to smile, make sure the sun is on your face and repeat until you get the right shot with the correct light which is not that easy! At least it is only a few days, for a few hours to score beautiful pictures for the whole year!”
CHRIS MURRAY • TIMO MULLEN • ADAM LEWIS • JOHN CARTER
Words &Photos JOHN CARTER
“Harlem Shuffle’’ is an R&B song covered by The Rolling Stones. Remixed for 2015 by DJ John ‘Flashgun’ Carter in the badly titled word document ‘Harlyn Shuffle’, it’s a tale of a motley crew of windsurfers taking on a hitherto unheralded wavesailing break in Cornwall. With a complete lack of knowledge, back of a box of Jaffa cake planning and a few pasties for luck, the group that could put the miss into the Misfits managed to score some crazy Kernow kegs on a thumping beach break that also pirated a heavy Cornish bounty of masts and egos.
SOLID AS A ROCK For once, the plan was all mapped out, pure and simple, a jump session at Mazza (Marazion). Timings were critical to catch the best tide, wind and swell so the Motley Crew had left Poole bang on 8am to arrive for the prime session of the day. You could say everything was ‘set in stone’, there would be no mincing around looking for new spots, this day had Mazza written all over it and I was content with Timo’s prognosis of the forecast. Yep we were 100% committed, no curveballs, no deviations and no stress. Mazza was locked in, good and proper. All best laid plans often go astray and naturally ours did of course. One random text sent to Muzza telling him we’d be at Mazza, yep correct we wanted ‘Muzza at Mazza’ started off this whole Harlyn Shuffle sojourn. Muzza wasn’t into Mazza and was headed elsewhere for cross off and not cross on. So all of a sudden Muzza had thrown a ‘spanner in the works’ for Mazza and our day was thrown into complete disarray. Here is kind of how it went:
One hour from arrival time for perfect tide and wind at Marizion, JC and Timo are driving along happily in the van.
JC text to Muzza: ‘Muzza, fancy joining us at Mazza?’
MUZZA: ‘Err Mazza, we are headed to Harlyn Bay, Adam (Lewis) reckons it will be fun’
JC: ‘Oh ok, let us know how it is?’
JC and Timo now slightly uneasy as they continue towards Mazza.
Ten minutes later, Muzza text to JC: ‘Hi JC, it’s sunny windy and over head high’
JC: ‘Are you sure Muzza, we are headed to Mazza and if we come and join you and it’s not happening our day could be ruined!’
MUZZA: ‘Er I don’t know, Adam says it looks decent; 4.7 and cross off’
The issue here was timing; it was critical. We were already past the turn off for Newquay, meaning we would have to back track on ourselves by half an hour to go check it out. The shuffle to head to Harlyn would potentially mean we would most likely miss the prime window at Mazza. Oh Muzza, why did you have to throw this bone to us at the last minute, for once in my life I had settled on a plan and was quite relaxed up until this text exchange. But it was quite a tasty sounding bone Muzza had thrown our way, a new spot, which was potentially a reeling cross off beach break plus a decent crew already on hand to shred it to pieces, it did indeed sound tempting. The big question though; was their ‘intel’ good? Could we have faith in this call from Muzza and Adam Lewis or would this detour blow the whole day and we’d go home devastated?. Well to cut a long story short, we decided to roll the dice and yeah, yeah, yeah we were going to do the Harlyn Shuffle! All I knew was that Muzza and Lewis would have hell to pay for if we rolled up to 2 foot cross shore slop.
Heads would roll, Muzza would never be trusted again and poor Lewis would be sent back to Tenerife with a one way ticket and his Windsurf subscription cancelled for life.
Finally after a frustrating drive through countless road works, being stuck behind slow rolling tractors and a hitting a couple of dead ends we managed to find the elusive Harlyn Beach. On the bright side, the clouds were literally breaking up on our arrival and down across the pearly white sand of the Bay, four sailors were blasting in and out through turquoise water with the place to themselves. A moment later the purple North sail of Adam Lewis dropped down onto a wave, screamed down the line and hucked into a huge aerial over a dredging shore dump. Wow! – Muzza and Adam had actually called it, we’d stuck gold, call it luck or superb judgement but it was epic conditions and UK wavesailing at its finest!
Now it was time for Timo to shuffle into action, and in no time he was rigged and scurrying across the beach to tune into the session. As it turned out, the quartet on the water, Adam, Muzza, George Shillito and Jamie Gibbs were all staying in in a house overlooking Daymer Bay with their respective girlfriends and had all been given the green light to go for a quick afternoon windsurf
session. Harlyn was the closest beach that looked like it might have side shore winds in a westerly and hey presto all the pieces clicked into place including the completely random timing of myself and Timo passing the Newquay turn off and sending an impulsive text to Muzza.
THE HARLYN SHUFFLE The waves at Harlyn were only head to half-mast high, but whatever they lacked in size they certainly made up for with raw power. Within five minutes of my arrival on the shoreline with the camera, Adam Lewis was crawling out of the surf with his mast in pieces after a gnarly wipe out in the impact zone. A few minutes later I spotted poor George Shillito amidst a tangle of sail and broken mast, also trying to drag himself out of the surf; the guys were getting decimated.
Despite this heavy beach break seemingly being able to snap masts like match sticks, Timo wasn’t going to let this minor deterrent hold him back from joining the gig. On his very first wave, his first riff was to launch into a huge aerial over an ugly section and nail it right into the flats. The show went on for the next hour and a half with the boys trading waves in this pristine paradise. Adam wasted no time returning to the stage with a new axe, and with Timo pounding out the beat, Muzza thumping down the bass line and George and Jamie providing the rhythm section, this band was rocking the place and putting the Stones to shame. With barely a cloud in the sky and stunning Cornish scenery on both sides of the bay, I could not believe how this gig had just played into our hands. Yep nothing like breaking a plan and doing the Harlyn Shuffle!
ADAM LEWIS “Sailing in the UK can be just about as frustrating as it gets but just when you least expect it total gold can be waiting unexpectedly just around the corner. It was George Shillito’s birthday and he had a cottage booked for a long time in advance down in Daymer Bay. As the time drew nearer and nearer we all started to see this promising forecast. We finally made it to the cottage overlooking the infamous Doom Bar and it was the first time we’d all had a chance to catch up so quite a lot of beers were sank in the all the excitement.
When Wednesday morning dawned there were a few ripples breaking over the doom bar but it was nothing special, so we came up with the idea to go look at Haryln just around the corner. After hurrying everyone up and a quick bit of rally driving, we pulled up to the sight of wall to wall sunshine and it was pumping! There were head to logo sets peeling in and it was perfect cross off with beautiful blue water. It was going off! We rigged up as fast as possible and frantically let JC know that it was looking decent and we headed straight out there. I think Jamie Gibbs was in such a rush to rig he had the wrong mast in the sail and just tried to blag it; it looked terrible. The RNLI guys were really cool and wandered over to tell us we could use all the break we wanted and they would move the surf/swimming flags to where ever we weren’t going to sail; epic! It was just getting better and better! My first run and it was 4.5 perfection with a glassy bowl; just perfect for a good old smack!
It wasn’t long before Timo and JC rocked up, the tide was still dropping and the wave was getting hollower and starting to double up in some parts, it was pretty gnarly on the end bowl! I had one hit just too late and came up with a face full of sand and broken mast just as I saw JC coming down the beach. It was a flat out sprint back for another mast and round two – I needed to get back in the ring! The tide had dropped even more and it was quite tricky; with the wind swinging less and less cross off there was some decent beatings to be had but if you got it right, it was magic! We totally scored it!, two or three hours of side off perfection and some of the best sailing I’ve ever had in the UK!’’
MUZZA “Myself, Adam, Jamie and George were down in Padstow for a weekend with the girlfriends wandering around shops and stuff like that. The whole trip was supposed to be spending ‘quality time’ with the girlfriends so we didn’t want to big the sailing up too much. It was just a sneaky session away from the ladies and a chance for the boys to have some fun! When we arrived at Harlyn it looked epic; over head high and down the line. It was a sick session and it is always cool to score a cheeky sail when on a weekend trip with the girlfriends. We sailed until the tide came up; it was a pretty brutal shore break by the end. It was George’s birthday so we had an epic BBQ to round the day off, you can’t beat that in the UK!’’
Windsurfing by Drone – AWT Aloha Classic 2015 Hookipa
The best windsurfers on the planet gathered on Maui, Hawaii for the 2015 Aloha Classic of the American Windsurfing Tour.
Windsurfing is an incredibly dynamic and difficult sport. Being that it takes place often in windy wavy conditions, it can be difficult to photograph. A couple of the toughest photographers go out in the water to search for different angles, navigating through waves and trusting the windsurfers not to land on their heads. I took to the skies with a quadrocopter drone. It is by far the most difficult thing to film aerials of, that I have encountered. With high winds and massive waves, the scene is constantly shifting and changing. The windsurfer changes speed, and I discovered while shooting, that the wave slows down when it hits the reef. You must avoid salt water ocean spray coming off the waves. Battery time is cut in half, down to 6 or 8 minutes while battling the wind. With each battery swap I had to clean salt water off the drone’s camera. Sometimes the drone is not fast enough to keep up with the windsurfer, and so I would have to turn the drone, and tilt the camera to keep them in the shot. It was a balance. The closer I got to the windsurfer, the more chance I had of messing up the shot. I also almost had a near mid-air collision with Ricardo Campello’s drone. The screws in my drone are rusted, but it’s still holding up. As challenging is it was filming this, it was also the most exciting subject to film.
Thanks to Andres Martinez for narrating anticipatory jumps during the final free sailing heat, and Erika Myszynski and Michael Restrepo for giving me editing feedback, and to all the windsurfers who did an incredible job and were stoked to have a drone buzzing around them while competing.
Becarefull what you wish for, we asked for wind and got in abundance in #Rhosneigr, had an amazing day. Though is I learnt anything its never take it easy. Being my first day back in real waves since I did my achilies, though I should take it easy onthe jumping, sitting here with my wrist all puffed up I shouldn’t have bothered, go hard all the time, if its going to happen it going to happen anyway …. guess there’s always a plus side, got some shots of everyone else.
For those of you that don’t know Philip Koester, I would describe him as laid back, funny, humble and a young man who just loves to windsurf. There’s a quiet determination about him, nothing is in your face with Philip, he’s just like any other surf loving kid down the beach, except he’s extremely talented and gifted at what he does – which just happens to be the most extreme windsurfing jumps in the world. He’s way more than a one trick pony though; on a photo shoot with him in Western Oz a few years ago, it was cross off beach break perfection, Koester was putting on a wave riding show that would leave any pro blushing, when I asked how often he got to sail in these sort of conditions, he said never!. Yes he is that freakishly, naturally talented! After an emphatic victory at Pozo, JC and I sat down with the young champion for a must read interview. “Two recorders?” Koester questions. “Is it that important?” Minutes tick by while I fumble with my phone to find the voice recorder as JC shakes his head in embarrassment. “Ok Koester; are you ready?”
(This feature originally appeared in the September 2015 issue of Windsurf Magazine. To read more features like this first, Print and Digital subscriptions are available. Prices include delivery globally for 10 x issues a year!)
Words FINN MULLEN // Photos JOHN CARTER
FM: So Philip, what’s your favourite magazine? (everyone laughs) JC: Did you see our Wild West story in Windsurf magazine? PK: Yeah that was very funny. FM: Do you read any sports or windsurfing magazines? PK: Yeah but I never really get them. FM: Sounds like you are fishing for a free subscription? PK: That would be nice! If I am at the airport I’ll buy a magazine, snowboarding, skateboarding any radical action sports. FM: Football? PK: Football! (said with a voice of distain) nah not really!
FM: A lot of sailors have training partners like Swifty and Brawzinho for example, but you mostly sail alone, is that because you are at such a high level there is nobody around to push you? PK: I am self-motivating but the only guy I really sail with is Skyeboy (John Skye) at Vargas! JC: He must pull your level way down, I bet you have to sail worse just to make him not sack it all in! PK: (Laughs) Nah I just like sailing with good friends. I always sail with Skye, that is where he sails. JC: Every time you sail, do you go balls to the wall? Like jump as high as you can possibly go? PK: Yes that is just the way I sail. After the competition obviously I will take it a bit easy before Tenerife and I won’t do as many doubles. Of course when I compete again I will do doubles but I don’t need to do them free sailing. JC: So what jumps do you normally do when you are free sailing on your own at Vargas? PK: Well I jump, like push loop forwards and big back loops, just normal jumps! I just really like wave riding so I stick to that mostly. When I do jump I go as high as I can! (later Ben Severne tells us about a free sailing session he had with Philip at Vargas during the week, it was an average day but Ben said Philip was doing stuff that he had never seen before, yet alone could begin to describe or name!) JC: You are not worried about breaking boards? PK: No, no, no. I don’t think about that. If I would think about breaking equipment when I sail, it would be very bad for me. I would not improve that much I don’t think. I would care too much about the gear. Every time I sail it is flat out! FM: Do you still get the same buzz as the first time you made a planning double forward? PK: There is almost no emotion anymore! It is almost robotic! It is not that I land every double perfect but after training twenty or thirty everyday it just kills the emotions. I don’t know how many I have done; hundreds. When I land a very good one I am still happy and if I land one in a heat it is even better. If I land a planning one straight off the bat in a final I can say to myself now I have a decent jump and that allows me to focus on the waves. It helps boost my confidence! FM: Do you have a heat plan? PK: Normally all I do is try to nail my jumps at the beginning and then just focus on wave riding but in the last final I did my second jump right at the end of the heat. Sometimes the ramps don’t come or you feel you could have gone higher. It was fine because Duncan gives us plenty of time in the heats. FM: Rumour has it you landed a push double forward in Margaret River? PK: Did Ben Severne tell you that? FM: I can’t disclose that information! PK: (Laughing) Yes I did a push double forward but it is like nothing really happened because no camera was there. It does not count without evidence! If it is not on tape or camera it does not count. Nobody will believe it so I did not post anything about it. JC: Did you go for it? PK: No I just wanted to do a push forward but I was too high so I did a double!
(Everyone laughing)
FM: As you do! PK: I was just surprised, I did not really claim it or clench my fist, I don’t really do that! But I did do it and it was at South Point, Margaret River. FM: Did you think about going for one in Pozo? PK: Nah, not really. I was very high on the one in the first final, I could have done a double but I played it safe with the single. It might have ruined the jump and at that moment my focus was on winning. I wanted to have a safe score. FM: Do you enjoy doing expression sessions? PK: When the conditions are firing they are fun. I don’t like it when it is light wind and not that much waves. Then I have to go for no handed back loops or no handed one footed back loops, moves like that. JC: No handed, one footed back loops? PK: Yes, I have done them! FM: How do you train to make new moves? PK: I have not done many new moves! I just think about them in my head a lot and then just go for it. FM: What about slalom, do you ever think about competing in that? PK: Yes I will do slalom but when I’m older (laughing)..when I’m done with the doubles and jumping. I have slalom gear and sometimes I go for a slalom session but to compete there’s so much testing, rigging right, fins..but in the future yes I would like to race maybe. FM: Are you fast?..you are certainly fast on your wave gear! PK: Well I’m fat so yes (everyone laughs)..sometimes yes I’m fast..I’m not afraid to go fast.
“ During the double I was in control but when I passed beyond that I just did not know where I was ”
TRIPLE LOOP
JC: Did you plan to do the triple in the final or was it spontaneous? PK: I was just doing the final and playing it safe! But I knew everyone wanted to see the triple and it had been talked about for years now. I just wanted to get it over with. I knew there were cameras on the beach so it was the right time. I just said to myself why not try it. I already knew I had great scores with the jumps, I had a perfect double and a huge push loop so my scores were safe. I was feeling confident, even my wave riding was in the bag so I was feeling in the right mood for it. I had two minutes left in the heat to try one, so I spent the time looking for the right ramp and making my way a bit more upwind. The moment came ten seconds from the end of the heat. It was not a big ramp, definitely not the perfect one. I just wanted to try it and it was then or never. I had great power in the sail on my 4m with my 82 litre board so I just tried it to see what would happen. FM: Did you know it was 10 seconds to the buzzer? PK: Yeah, I’d looked at my watch and saw time was running out. I had to go over a wave to get to the ramp so I lost a little bit of speed but it was fine. JC: When you hit that ramp what went through your mind? PK: During the double I was in control but when I passed beyond that I just did not know where I was. It was a totally new feeling! It was like starting a normal forward when you are a beginner. I just had that feeling that I did not know where I was or what to do even! Coming down it did not feel like I had that much wind in the sail as I was coming down behind the wave.
JC: How was the impact when you landed? PK: The impact was terrible. It was horrible, I hit the water very, very hard. I was not wearing any vest or helmet. I still can’t remember things clearly, it made me dizzy. When I came back to the beach I knew I had won because everyone was cheering but that was also for the triple! When I made it back to the beach I still wasn’t sure if I had done a triple. I had hit my head really hard! JC: Have you tried them before? PK: I tried them a little bit but more just perfecting planning doubles to get them ready
Esea rider at margz – ”Some early season joy that makes it feel that summer is already here.” says Scott Mckercher and the Ozzie ripper makes a pretty strong case for life down under in this sweet clip fresh from early season Maragret river and some mast high bombs – late hits, grinding gouges and a stomping 360 right in the throat show the sun shinning on the world champ’s sailing right now – with a classic bit of ozzie humour and metal soundtrack – we like !!
Words John Carter & Finn Mullen //Photos Chris Carey/Red Bull Content Pool
Pedra Branca is one of the world’s gnarliest waves. It’s big, remote and never been windsurfed before, until now. We caught up with Alastair McLeod, the windsurfer who became the first to drop down this infamous wave to hear how his pioneering mission went down.
WS – Describe Pedra Branca AM – Pedra Branca is about 30km from the last bit of land in Australia off Tasmania’s South Coast. The next stop is Antarctica. There are two giant rocks – Pedra Branca and Eddystone that stick out of the ocean. Looking at nautical charts you can see that basically there is an underwater mountain range out on the edge of the continental shelf. The wave breaks off Eddystone Rock on a bit of shallow reef that comes up out of deep water. The whole place is notorious for shipwrecks and wild weather. To put it simply it is not a really friendly feeling place.
WS – How did this mission come about? AM – Pedra has always been on my radar since the first guys surfed it. It looked like an amazing wave and I’ve always had a taste for adventure. I’m much more interested in hunting down some empty waves in some far flung location than jumping on a plane to Maui and sailing Ho’okipa with 50 other people.
One day I got a phone call out of the blue from a production house that work with Red Bull. They wanted to make it happen and I said that I was very interested. It was probably about eight or nine months between that initial conversation and actually doing it. I was training really hard to get physically prepared but then I badly injured my foot in February. I couldn’t really walk, let alone windsurf so I was back at square one, which delayed things for a few months. That pushed the whole thing back into the middle of winter, which was something I was trying to avoid. It gets freezing down there. The cold was one extra element of risk I did not really want to deal with if I could have avoided it.
WS – What were the logistical difficulties you faced sailing the wave? AM – Pedra Branca is so remote. It is quite hard to imagine until you actually go out in a boat to look at it. Organising a boat and the support necessary was very complex – thankfully local Tassie charger Marti Paradisis was keen to help and basically sorted all of that out for me.
Figuring out the right winds and swell was a bit of a nightmare. I ended up getting out there on a calm day in a fishing boat, basically having to guess how the wave would break and what direction of wind would be ideal. Using my iPhone compass to get this crucial information was pretty funny but we got it right in the end.
WS – What sort of size swell were you looking for and wind direction? AM – Honestly, I’m not really going to give this information away. The surfers do not really want everyone to suddenly know all the secrets that make this spot work and I think that is fair enough. What I will say is that I think Pedra Branca is probably the most consistent big wave on the planet. The waves I was getting out there were maxing at around 10m faces, and that was only with an average swell of 4m. The week before the mission, there was a huge storm and the swell buoy recorded 18m waves. It is quite possible that the biggest waves ever ridden could happen down there. The whole place gets smashed by massive swells all year round; the only problem is the winds that normally come with those swells. The local surfers probably only ride it two or three times a year when the winds are very light.
WS – What sort of reef does the wave break on? AM – There is a giant rock shelf that sticks out underwater. On the calm day we fished right over where the wave breaks, it comes from about 50-60m up to maybe 6m at the shallowest point. It drops off pretty quick into the channel again so there is definitely a safe zone. The main issue is that the wave is so fast and quite unpredictable so if you are positioned badly it is pretty easy to get taken out.
WS – How nervous were you when you were heading out there to sail it? AM – It was pretty crazy. The night before we had a dinner with the safety crew and Marti and Sean who were on the ski to get me out of trouble were almost psyching me out. I had been getting heaps of mixed opinions on how big it would be, so the unknown element was killing me. Marti basically said – ‘look, it could be 40ft out there, it’s gonna be serious.’ I’ve ridden some pretty big waves, and I really enjoy that thrill but nothing I’ve done to date is like a 40ft slab in the middle of the ocean in the peak of winter. I was feeling like everything I did that night and the next morning could be the last time I ever would. You don’t know what can happen out there. I actually slept really well though, relinquishing myself to the weather gods I suppose. As I set off to actually do it, I was feeling pretty good, mostly excited about doing something new and feeding off the nervous energy. Not enough people challenge themselves; I try to work that into my life. This whole Pedra Branca thing was an extreme version of that.
WS – What did it feel like when you dropped in on your first wave? AM – When I finally got out there the wind actually died. I was sinking on my board up to my knees, there was pretty much no chance of catching the waves. I couldn’t even get upwind to the peak. Everyone was freaking out that we were getting skunked and after a while I started getting really frustrated. Thankfully though in the last hour of light the wind came up just enough for me to pump onto the wave and drop in last second. The first wave I got was relatively small and I had to fade left into the pit to get into the right spot. It was a pretty amazing view looking into this big round barrel right next to you. The next few waves I got were much bigger and it was a bit easier to figure out where to be. Ideally though with a bit more wind you could set up earlier and much deeper, bottom turning around the first slab section and get some nice turns in the pocket of the second bit.
WS – How big were the sets on the day you sailed it and how much bigger do you think the wave can hold? AM – The last wave I got was the biggest wave I’ve caught. Looking at the photos it is probably about a 10m face. Double mast high and a bit. I’ve ridden double mast high stuff before but nothing that throws anywhere near that hard. The first section at Pedra is pretty much a cold water, mirrored Teahupo’o. It is quite amazing seeing that sort of energy exploding like a bomb. You just do not want to end up under that thing – it could just snap you like a twig. If you did go down on a big wave in that first section, you are 100% definitely going to get hurt best case scenario.
I think the waves could get twice the size of what we had at least. It wasn’t an especially big swell that was producing waves in the 10m range. It would be scary to imagine how big and heavy it is with an actual 10m swell.
WS – How intimidating was it being out on the ocean with that rock and the massive hollow waves? AM – Sailing out there in the middle of the ocean was a great experience. It is a reality check about how insignificant you are in overall the scheme of things. Being scared is only natural but I think it brings you this strange sense of focus. Capitalising on your fear is good, it stops you making stupid mistakes by
being indecisive.
WS – What were the high and low points of the mission? AM – There were so many low points – nothing went to plan! I’m amazed that it actually ended up pulling itself together at the last minute. There were two standout highlights for me, one was kicking off the biggest wave right at the end and the second one was when I fell on my second wave. I got bucked off by some backwash as I was racing to catch the wave and got tangled in the lip. I ate it and thought I was gone for, luckily I slipped out through the back of the wave. There was another monster right behind it, so I had to swim wide into the pocket of the wave as it rolled through. The adrenalin was absolutely firing as the ski came to rescue me. I was just laughing on this weird high, that feeling got me psyched to go score some bombs.
WS – How did you feel once you were back in the boat safe and sound after the mission? AM – As I came off the last wave, I was just lying in the water so stoked that it worked out. Jumping back on the boat was cool, everyone was feeling as relieved as I was. Everyone was making calls, putting the word out that it was a success; a lot of family were freaking out back on land waiting to know what had happened.
WS – Did you feel an element of pressure that you had to do it with all the cameras and film crews being on hand to capture the action? AM – For sure there was pressure, this whole documentary project was hinging on that day. There was a lot of people’s time and money at stake, so when the wind did not play ball and died off mid morning I could not believe it. The forecasts all looked like 20-25 knots and it was more like 12 knots. I honestly thought the wind was going to be the most reliable element for the day.
WS – Do you feel comfortable in massive surf? AM – I like big waves, but I don’t get to ride them that often. When it is big around home I’ll spend time hunting it down. This year I was barely getting any windsurfing time between work and uni, especially with my foot injury. I wasn’t feeling 100% confident, especially for waves like Pedra. I spent a lot of time working on cardio and breath holding. I knew I could hold my breath for a long time if I had to but I did not know what to expect on a wipeout out there. Just that it would be really, really bad.
WS – What kit did you use? AM – I used a Neil Pryde Fly 4.8 and JP Radical Thruster Quad 69 as a quad. That is my normal equipment that I ride in typical conditions. I just changed the fin set up, 2cm bigger K4 flex fins in the back and two degree toed in K4 Ezzy side fins. For normal sized waves I use three degree fins for more vertical turns with less effort. The board was a bit light dropping down the face so late and was getting held up by the apparent wind. Once I actually got to the bottom though everything held in and felt really nice. Tweaking the fins for more drawn out turns made the board almost feel like it was especially designed for really big stuff. I didn’t have to worry about anything which is what you want as you are bottom turning.
WS – What safety preparations and equipment did you use? AM – I had an inflatable vest from Patagonia and a NP impact vest on underneath so if the canisters malfunctioned I would still have some buoyancy. Marti and Sean were on the jet ski to pick me up if I needed it. They are used to massive waves so I trusted that they could get me out of trouble. The preparation was mostly mental, psyching myself up to do it and the only way I could feel confident in that was really working on breath holding.
WS – Would you like to go back and sail it with more wind and an even bigger swell? AM – Definitely I would like to go back, a bit more wind would make a lot of difference. I would like to go spend more time dedicated to big waves. Get smashed a bit and work on my fitness, then I think I would be more confident for next time. I would also be interested in getting a heavier board specifically for big stuff. Production boards are light, you don’t see big wave surfers riding light weight performance stuff. Marti’s normal Pedra board weighs an absolute tonne to keep the momentum and cut through the chop at speed.
WS – Finally did Pozza have any words of advice and do you reckon he is frothing to get out there? AM – No I didn’t talk to Jason about it. There was some back and forth with the JP crew, trying to sort out the boards. I thought about getting some lead weights to put on the deck of the board – I remember seeing Jason and Robby Swift doing this at Jaws a few years ago. Apparently it wasn’t great so they don’t bother anymore.
Honestly I thought Jason would have ridden Pedra years ago and yes I’m sure he will be keen to get out there once he’s back on the water. I think you could probably sail it fairly regularly if you had the resources to get the boats and safety skis out there.
2XS The Shop – The School – The Club
If you imaged a place where you can windsurf, kitesurf or sup, join a club, have changing rooms and showers and rescue on standby? A place where you can call up and get your kit rigged up and waiting for you on a perfect sandy beach? Kit you can change when the wind picks up or change to sup when it drops then the 2XS® hire package is for you. We have flat water lagoons and waves at high tide and a choice of hire package memberships or memberships if you have your own gear with day ticket options.
Pic: Dave White
We have brought tons of latest 2016 gear; EZZY sails, RRD, GOYA, Fanatic Sups, Quatro, Patrik – DaKine harness, Chinook booms and 100% carbon Ezzy masts. If you don’t want to rent it you can try before you buy and order through our beach centre or online store. If want to learn we have huge range of lessons including courses with Sam Ross And Pete Hart. We start our windsurf lessons from 5 years old. We are absolutely committed to windsurfing so to find out more about prices, weather check, look at our website
BRANDON BAY 2015
Short video from a two week windsurfing trip to Brandon Bay in Ireland this october. We didn’t get as much wind as we wished for, but Kerry’s stunning nature and all the nice people we met made the visit a great experience anyhow. And when the wind and waves finally arrived we had some of the best windsurfing days ever.
The place comes highly recommended for anyone who enjoys water activites or hiking in beatiful surroundings. Or just whish to have a perfect pint of Guinness in the famous Spillane’s bar.
Shot in 4K on Panasonic DMC-LX100 and DJI Phantom 3 Professional, and in 1080P on Canon EOS 550D.
Music in order of appearance: Teardrop by Massive Attack and Everloving by Moby.
“Not only does a journey transport us over enormous distances, it also causes us to move a few degrees up or down in the social scale. It displaces us physically and also — for better or for worse — takes us out of our class context, so that the colour and flavour of certain places cannot be dissociated from the always unexpected social level on which we find ourselves in experiencing them”. Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1955.
Words & Photos Franz Orsi
(This feature originally appeared in the August 2015 issue of Windsurf Magazine. To read more features like this first, Print and Digital subscriptions are available. Prices include delivery globally for 10 x issues a year!)
I remember it clearly. That night as we were dining on a little wooden terrace by the beach somewhere close to Taiba, I saw something that I then later labelled as the most stunning scene from my whole experience in Brazil. We had just finished our dinner and were enjoying our last sips of caipirinha before heading to our lonely pousada when I spotted some microscopic coloured dots out at sea. It was already pretty late by our Brazilian standards as we had to wait a long time for our food. The problem seemed to be that we had ordered fish. We were alone in the little restaurant. The owner – and cook probably – was just going back and forth from the kitchen not bringing any food to us. We then asked what was the problem “quale é o problema? Porque está a demorar assim tanto tempo?”, he never answered clearly; he kept on saying for an hour or more “just five more minutes”.
I was hungry after a whole day spent in the water and the caipirinhas were already causing some effects on my brain. I was probably a little drunk when the food finally arrived. I ate my whole dish in a couple of minutes. It was good but quite different from what I expected. I ordered some grilled fish, while the guy served me some kind of fish filet with curry. Never mind. It was good anyhow, and I was hungry. But it was not fresh fish as I expected.
While I was still drinking my caipirinha on that small terrace I saw some little spots of colour contrasting on the black horizon. Suddenly they became distinguishable objects. That’s when I realized that they were sailboats out at sea in the complete darkness of the tropical night and approaching the shore. Some people then started to gather, in a seemingly spontaneous process from the backstreets of the little village to the beach. Like ants exchanging information with each other, they probably got the news of the arrival of the boats by some mute and inexplicable messages.
As the boats were getting closer to shore I started to recognize their shape and size. They were all small wooden jangadas out at sea by night without any light. Where were they coming from? How much time did they spend out at sea? I couldn’t help feeling intrigued by their story. Jangada is a special kind of hand-made traditional wooden boat used for fishing, or more frequently nowadays, for giving Brazilian tourists an ephemeral taste of the long-lost traditional Ceará way of life. In a way I thought that they were just a remnant of the past, kept alive to please tourists and foreigners alike. What I saw that night radically changed my perspective about jangadas.
The brave fishermen of Ceará
Imagine a small fleet of boats resembling what we would call a raft not more than three or four meters long, with cotton-fabric sails rigged on a mast consisting of a few bamboo sticks appearing from the darkness without any light, and approaching the shore like ghost boats.
I was mesmerized by this view. So I joined the group of men waiting for the boats ashore and as the first jangada arrived to the beach I also helped them carry it up on the dry sand. The boat was very simple. The fishermen who had been sailing on it were completely exhausted to say the least. There was not even a place to sit on that little craft and I imagined they had travelled a long time to get back to the shore. After those few boats landed, the fishermen started to distribute the fish to the crowd as a kind of improvised fish market. In the crowd I also spotted the owner of the restaurant reclaiming some fish for his restaurant. That’s when I realised that the whole delay with our dinner was due to him running out of fresh fish and he was waiting for the boats to come back with their catch.
After all the fish was sold, I found myself talking with some of the fishermen. They were curious to know what a guy like me – a gringo, as they initially called me – was doing there. I approached them in Portuguese and I apologized by not speaking like them. My Portuguese certainly sounded to them like a weird version of their Brazilian Portuguese, but I explained to them I was from Europe, I was there for windsurfing and stand up paddling and I learned my Portuguese in Lisbon, where I live at the moment. Anyhow they were happy to be able to communicate with me and so was I. Responding to my innumerable questions they explained to me how their fishing rituals were structured. And then I asked “how long do you stay out at sea when you fish?”, the answer was unexpected. They told me they were out at sea for at least two days. One almost-full day spent sailing out towards the horizon, then a few hours of
fishing, and then another day of sailing to come back to shore.
Without any lights, any navigation devices, any places to hide from the sun or from the rain, they were just fiercely braving the elements of the Brazilian sea without any modern-day comfort. That was the reason why I was there: more than the good windsurfing, the wind, the waves. I was finally feeling at home among those brave fishermen of Ceará.
“ Not only does a journey transport us over enormous distances, it also causes us to move a few degrees up or down in the social scale ” Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1955
The genesis I remember being fascinated about a trip to North-East Brazil when some years ago I read a book from 1955 by French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss called Tristes Tropiques (French for “Sad Tropics”).
The book documented his travels and anthropological work around Brazil and it is fair to say that was the first spark that fueled my interest for the country. I’ve always been interested in exotic cultures and tales of adventure. A trip to Brazil seemed to be the perfect background for such tales with its extensive rainforests, its huge rivers and never-ending beaches. However the idea of organizing a windsurf trip to Brazil remained pretty unattractive to me until this year due to one specific reason. I knew that if I embarked on the typical windsurf trip to Jericoacoara in search of strong trade winds and a relaxed lifestyle, as many windsurfers do, my image of Brazil as a land of adventure would be instantly shattered.
I wanted to get to know the real essence of Brazil’s North-East without getting distracted by its touristic flavor. I wanted to go there to experience the place, to meet the locals and to learn something new. After all, the best travel is the one that answers questions you didn’t think about at the beginning.
But what could I possibly do to be as much as possible in contact with the true essence of that region? I then remembered about the jangadas, the extensive river deltas, the mangrove forests, the fishermen and I decided to devote my travel to a slow approach to windsurfing, savour the place, the people, the moment. Something pretty new to me, but also something that felt very important to me too. I guess that growing up also means achieving somehow a wider perspective over things. And that’s what was happening to my windsurfing. Travelling to a place to enjoy its great windsurfing conditions didn’t seem quite enough to me anymore. I would rather slow down a bit to enjoy the journey.
I later realized that what was changing in my approach to windsurfing was the experience brought by stand up paddling. After a few seasons spent competing in slalom, travelling around the world to compete in some PWA events, I got in touch with SUP. Immediately this new sport brought to my life a totally different perspective on my relationship with the ocean. Suddenly I was finding myself enjoying the ocean everyday, no matter what the conditions looked like. Any body of water suddenly became a playground for my little adventures. Besides the radical action, I learned how to enjoy simple things such as exploring new places, new bodies of water, cruising around, enjoying the landscape and just being on the water. When planning a trip that could suit this new approach to windsurfing, two things immediately came to my mind. The inflatable Windsup that the guys at Starboard showed to me during one of our last meetings and the North-East of Brazil’s endless beaches. I thought about all the opportunities of getting lost there, either with a sail in my hands or with a paddle. And then also the flexibility and the mobility I would gain by using an inflatable board paired with a Starboard Compact sail.
So back to my question: what could I possibly do to be as much as possible in contact with the true essence of the Brazilian North-East? I just thought that I wanted to be as close as possible to the experience of those brave fishermen on their jangadas, to tune in with them and their environment as much as possible. And the inflatable windsurf board, with its Dacron sails seemed to be the best option to me.
The trip – a “slow” approach to windsurfing So in order to be true to my aim, to be able to experience first-hand the aquatic life of those ocean-bounded coastal communities, I planned the trip as a multisport exploration of the Brazilian North-East coast. My girlfriend, Julia, would enjoy some kiting and I would concentrate on windsurfing and stand up paddling. We started our trip from Fortaleza with the intention of heading up the coast through the states of Ceará, Piauí and Maranhão. Our plan was to drive along the coast, living on the road and having fun on the water with our windsup, kitesurf and paddleboard gear. In total we travelled non-stop for 23 days, having as the only rule the one of being flexible and enjoying what the ocean threw at us.
As we moved out of Fortaleza’s extensive outskirts, everything started to make sense. I found myself not worrying about forecasts or conditions, increasingly enjoying more what I had in the moment.
The rhythm of our lives started to melt into the local timeless rhythm made of never-changing collective rituals only affected by the cycles of nature. Of course, there’s a fast, hectic and emerging Brazil out there. But the one we experienced was rather different. We visited countless fishing villages during our trip. One street, a few shops, one church, one soccer field: this was the typical configuration, in most developed settlements of course – otherwise no soccer fields. I think it was the deep nature of our trip that actually allowed us to be in sync with these places and these cultures. There is something magical about sailing through the sunset in a place where only fishermen go sailing and later share a few words with them in their native language, commenting on the wind, the currents, the fishing and ultimately life.
“ Somehow having a rudimentary – yet innovative – Dacron sail in your hands and long inflatable board under your feet makes you naturally able to dial into the rhythms of the
local communities and their habits ” Franz Orsi
This is what I consider travelling. Not only physical displacement but an immersive experience – actually the most immersive of all – into others’ lives and habits. All this would have proven much more difficult on a “normal” windsurf trip where the car is overloaded with boardbags and the time and plans are dictated by the winds and swells. Somehow having a rudimentary – yet innovative – Dacron sail in your hands and long inflatable board under your feet makes you naturally able to dial into the rhythms of the local communities and their habits, making human to human encounters that give sense to the whole trip.
After a few weeks in Ceará all I can say is that we had the pleasure to live for a while outside of our usual comfort zone, as most people would say, certainly outside of our social class context – as Lévi-Strauss wrote. This feeling of being immersed in an unfamiliar environment just made our days so much more interesting and made for a great life experience, as only good travels can do. And as only a “slow”, rudimentary, uncomplicated approach to life and to windsurfing can do.
Of course I will continue enjoying my wavesailing sessions at home or somewhere else, but I now know that when I will be in search of a true life experience, I will pack my inflatable windsup and leave all my world behind to go sailing with the anonymous fishermen of the world.
A collection of high quality awe-inspiring images from JC, all shot on location at the world’s best windsurfing locations.
The 2016 Windsurf Calendar – Give your wall a treat or the perfect gift for the windsurfer in your life.
Calendar Specifics: Size: A3 (297mm x 420mm).
Format: landscape, ring-bound with hanging hook.
Sailors: Jamie Hancock, Matteo Iachino, Pierre Mortefon, Finn Mullen, Scott Mckercher, Adam Lewis, Max Rowe, Boujmaa Guilloul, Cyril Moussilmani, Ben Van Deer Steen, Sean O’Brien & Ross Williams
Locations: Cornwall & IOW – UK, Maui – USA, Margaret River – Australia, Essourira – Morocco, Tarifa – Spain and West Coast of Ireland
OVERVIEW We tested the 5.7m of the Elite back in the April issue this year and were impressed by its range, soft useable power delivery and handling … so would it still stand up to scrutiny in this smaller size? As before it is quite a high aspect sail, with a long luff length and relatively short boom. Rigging the sail is as fool-proof as it could possibly be, with numerous rigging guides on the sail and a torrent of information on the Ezzy website. It sets with lots of shape low down in the draft and little looseness in the leech. The build quality is exceptional as you’d expect with an Ezzy, although don’t be alarmed when it sets with a wrinkle in the luff panel at rest (as well as one just below the top batten); it does pull out as soon as the sail’s in use.
BRAND CLAIM David Ezzy is nothing if not passionate about sail design and his latest focus is to improve wave sail performance by minimizing the number of battens in the foil. So he has used this concept to refine the Ezzy range, replacing the 5-batten Panther with the 4-batten Elite as their premier wave sail and backbone of the Ezzy line-up. To quote the man himself, he believes the Elite is, “Our most versatile wave sail ever. It’s the perfect balance between speed, stability, handling and comfort.”
PERFORMANCE Not surprisingly, the 5.3m is very reminiscent of the 5.7m we tested earlier in the season. With its deep draft it provides constant power that has such a unique blend of balance and ease to it that it makes the Elite incredibly useable and effective. Even when set with minimal downhaul tension, you can rest assured that in the event of a sudden increase in wind, the sail can be out-hauled at a moment’s notice (in the water if necessary), to regain any stability lost. As in the larger size, the power is soft and subtle rather than sharp or instantaneous thanks to the elasticity in the panels, whilst the centre of effort is low and forward in the draft relative to others so as to not pull the rider to their toes. The Elite has certainly put paid to critics of previous Ezzys that their handling is ‘heavy’ or ‘dull’; this 5.3m is anything but. Encouraging a manoeuvre-oriented stance, it provides the horsepower across a massive range and the dependability that exudes confidence.
THE VERDICT A class act, the Elite combines balanced handling and easy useable power across such a wide tuneable range that it would be at home in any wave environment. Recommended by all who used it.
Test Editor Tris Best // Second Testers Maurin Rottenwalter, Joe North Photos Nick George // Test Location Southwest England
The 5.3m is quite often the largest sail in a wave-sailor’s quiver. For that, they want bottom end power to make the most of float and ride days, and the extra bit of sparkle if the wind does increase enough to resemble planing conditions. Yet for other coastal sailors, the 5.3m is so much more. We hand over to the OTC test team to try out the latest offerings for the 2016 season.
This test was originally published in the October 2015 issue.
You may be looking at the line up for this test and think it quite bare. And you’d be right! The truth is that at the time we conducted the test, there was a lack of sails of this size in the country… so we were lucky to get these! On the plus side, we were blessed with a fairly windy summer by UK standards, so had plenty of opportunity to try these five out … and in a variety of conditions. And it is often the ‘less than ideal’ day that you really get a good feel for the performance of the sail. From light cross-onshore conditions to overpowered cross-offshore winds, and everything in between.
FINDINGS
Today,most sailors tend to choose their quiver with the fewest sails possible that still enables them to cover the desired wind range. It simply makes financial and practical sense! So a real game changer that would significantly reduce cost would be the ability to dispense with a mast. And that is exactly what has happened here. The 430cm mast has been replaced with the softer 400cm option throughout these sails. It is a bold move, but a wise one, making riders more inclined to buy a new sail for 2016. The most impressive part of the change though is that there is little noticeable loss in bottom end power. With clever luff curve and shaping refinement, several of these sails have the bottom end drive to match their predecessors.
Another distinctly noticeable trend throughout wave sail design is the move towards the use of less battens. The theory being that with less battens in a sail, the lighter the handling and therefore the more responsive/free it is for use in transitions. There are also new sails on the market with ¾ length battens (Ezzy Taka 2 for example – see next month’s test); whilst GA Sails go one step further by providing the extra batten, so that you can configure it to suit your style or preference. The truth is that here in the UK, we are contending with gusty shifting ‘real world’ winds. One minute you’re dealing with a 30 knot squall heading you straight on; the next second you’re being lifted by a gust of the same size but from a 30 degree shift in direction. And then you head straight into a lull where the wind disappears to a 6 knot whimper! Sound familiar? So how can a sail with less battens, and therefore stability, possibly contend? And yet they do. To clarify that statement, the sail with the least top end stability in this group was a five-batten foil … and the one with the most tuneable range was the only four-batten sail on test.
In the past, a high centre of effort was used to create bottom end drive and response, whereas most of the sails here have quite a low centre of effort, relying on a deep profile and movement in the draft to make the most of marginal winds. The 400cm mast makes their response a little softer and easier in the hands, whilst a tighter mid-leech provides response, depending on twist through clever luff curve refinement to cope when the wind increases.
SUMMARY Although there are only five sails on review here, there are some very different directions in design concept. First off, the Ezzy is a case study in itself, providing constant dependable power, yet soft balanced handling over a staggering tuneable range. The feeling is not to everyone’s taste, but if you were once put off the brand by previous models, I challenge you to try their wave sails once more to understand how they have changed. There’s the North that has been revised significantly in this size to maximize its potential in light winds. If you want to make the most of light airs before changing down to your ‘go-to’ sail size when the wind picks up, the Volt may just be the ticket. The Neil Pryde has also been reworked for 2016 and has the most direct handling in the group, providing excellent bottom end drive, yet vastly improved handling over its previous incarnation. The Bionic by Sailloft uses a unique laminate to lock the structure low into the sail and has the stability and manners to be used as a high wind ‘freeride’ sail as much as in a wave break. So that leaves GA Sails with the Manic.
The kingpin of their wave sail range that has been made super-compact in dimension, combining smooth power with easy handling. But above all, it has reached into the past and pulled out a concept from history (the ¾ length batten) that, when used in conjunction with modern rig technology, is as relevant today for manoeuvre-oriented sailing as it was back in the sport’s heyday. It has brought a new tuning option into the mix without the need for the consumer to take an educated gamble. Now that can only be a good thing!
TEST LOCATION This test was conducted around the UK shores at more than 6 wave sailing locations. UK conditions can certainly be unpredictable at times, yet with a good summer of wind, we had time to test the boards and sails at a variety of locations and in a mixture of conditions, from cross-onshore to firing cross-off.
Today Gaastra Windsurfing launched a video promotion on their GA Gaastra Facebook page which will run for the month of December. They are giving someone the chance to win their dream sail from our 2016 range and will be announcing the winner in the first week in January.
Simply LIKE our page and in the comments section below state your dream GA Sail model and size from our 2016 range for a chance to win that sail!
*Promotion ends at midnight 31st December 2015 with the winner announced the following week.
Get the latest product brochure to your door for free!
It’s that time of year again when Tushingham Sails Ltd the UK distributor of Starboard Windsurfing and Stand Up Paddle Boards are offering you the opportunity to get your hands on the 2016 product brochures, for free, delivered to your door (if you live in the UK).
With the best team riders, truly unique imagery and all the product information you could need they are a great read for anyone dreaming of that next board to help you find the right board to meet your needs.
All you need to do is email your UK postal address to admin@tushingham.com and say if you want either the windsurf / SUP brochure (or both) and they will do the rest.
Check out Fanatic’s latest action clip, showing off some wild Freestyle action and stunning Wave moves on the latest 2016 Fanatic Wave and Freestyle boards with their top team riders. Great motivation for those going on a windsurf holiday over Christmas!
…. guess there’s always a plus side, got some shots of everyone else.
