CAPE TOWN CAMP

The Fanatic team headquartered in Cape Town this winter for an extensive training and product development camp for their riders. With its huge range of wind and water states, Cape Town is a natural windsurfing R&D lab and a perfect training base for the diverse conditions encountered on the PWA tour. The seasoned squad give us the lowdown on what techniques and equipment tweaks they worked on, an insight into their product development processes and their Cape Town lifestyle.

Words Victor Fernandez, Alessio Stillrich, Adam Lewis, Klaas Voget & Craig Gertenbach. //

Photos Samuel Tomé & Klaas Voget

VICTOR FERNANDEZ
It was great to meet the Fanatic team in Cape Town this winter and score amazing conditions with them. This year was my 4th time in Cape Town, I love that it has so many different spots so almost everyday you can choose where to sail and there is always waves. I brought some of my Fanatic prototypes to Cape Town, most of them were boards I competed with on the PWA Wave Tour in 2016 in Pozo Izquierdo, El Medano, Sylt & Maui. The objective was to compare them to some of the other team riders’ boards. The good thing about Cape Town is that we can try small to big size boards in all kinds of conditions – choppy, windy, side-on or side-off and there are similar spots to the ones we have on the PWA World Tour; we even scored some starboard tack down the line! Scarborough is my favourite spot in Cape Town as the waves are very powerful, most of the time it’s windy and the place itself is beautiful and relaxed compared to other spots in the north. For food I like to hang out at ‘Willoughby & Co’ in the city, it’s one of the best sushi restaurants I´ve been to or ‘Melissa’s’ for coffee. A typical Cape Town day for me is running in the morning followed by a nice bowl of fruits & oats for breakfast with a coffee, then driving south to Witsands, Scarborough or Cape Point for a windsurf session, then lunch, another session and finally dinner at home. Gear wise I bring 3.4 to 5.0 sails, 3 x 400 masts, 2 x 370 & 1 x 340 and 75, 82 & 90 litre wave boards. We did a lot of filming on this trip. Manu Grafenauer filmed for the Fanatic team on the best days at Scarborough and Witsands and my wife filmed me almost everyday and this footage helped me a lot to see all my moves so I could analyse better what I was doing wrong and where I could improve to make moves higher, faster or better in general. Video also helps to see how my gear works in various conditions. Analysing the video I learnt that I could be more aggressive on my jumps. I need to train stalled doubles and tweak my body more on back loop combinations. Also I need to better my combo tricks on the wave – 360´s, takas and goiters. Getting my boards tuned up with faster fins I think can help me to achieve that. Our new 2018 wave boards are also really fast as we made a board combining the Quad/Thruster, a great wave board for all kind of conditions so I think I can improve those aspects of my sailing that I want to with help from the new designs as well. I think that we have amazing boards in our current range but the 2018 designs will be even better.

ADAM LEWIS
One of the more unique things about the Fanatic team is that it really is a team. The start of the year with everyone over in Cape Town is just another example of that. A lot of the guys have been going there for a long time, the last time I was there was 8 years ago so I was really looking forward to getting over there and getting stuck in! It’s really interesting to sail with the rest of the team, especially the wave sailors. I think we all have quite individual approaches, so it’s cool to sail with the other guys and see how they tackle the various places to sail in Cape Town as they are all so different. Klaas is always looking for the biggest waves he can find, Victor and Alessio are so so good when it’s real performance sailing. As a team they really push you as personally I want to be competitive at both those things! Alessio’s getting really good at doubles now and Klaas always pushes you to hit something solid! Victor definitely manages to always find some waves that run and gets a lot done on them. He has a lot of flow, style and speed throughout the wave, turn to turn or straight into a manoeuvre. It’s really something I want to improve on. Not sure if I’m quite there yet, I seem to wait for one good bowl and try and whack it as hard as I can and see if I make it ha ha! It doesn’t add up to the most flowing style, it’s sort of the way I’ve grown up sailing so it’s quite hard to change. You could say it’s still a work in progress.
I guess from a brand point of view it also offers a pretty incredible chance to test and develop or at least refine boards with the whole team there. With those different approaches and with Dan and Craig’s ideas or thoughts thrown in the mix too, you have such a good range of age (sorry Craig ha ha!), style and skill. It makes for really good testing. We can all bring over the prototypes and customs that we’ve been using and mix them in with some of the new proto’s. For testing, having all the team there means the feedback for Klaas and Sebastian is instant. You get the immediate feelings as well as the more thought out feedback which I think is quite important. I’ve definitely changed a few fins and prototype orders off the back of it!

I have two favourite Cape Town spots, one would have to be Melkbos, it’s never insanely epic but it’s always good fun. I really like the vibe in the evenings there. I love Scarborough also, the water colour is gorgeous and the little town is super nice, great food and the sailing and surfing is really good. The shore break can be so much fun and then if there is some proper swell the point is sick.

My must have gear for Cape Town would be an 81 Tri-wave and 4.5 down to 3.7 you can pretty much get away with it all then. It’s really interesting to see how the other guys are setting up their boards. I’m using a lot of thrusters right now and I think it’s easy to head down one direction with fins or boards or setups and it’s refreshing as a sailor to jump on someone else’s setup and see how it feels. You have to change your style a little sometimes to fit the gear and it really forces you to modify your technique. Even when I’m really struggling on a board I’m always surprised what it can teach you. With testing there are almost no bad experiences, you kind of learn from it all. It sounds really basic, but I found I ended up changing my rear thruster fin a lot dependant on conditions, going for an 18 in the smaller stuff and then up to 19 for the bigger stuff. That 1 cm makes a surprising amount of difference, that extra bit of hold is very reassuring in scarier situations.

ALESSIO STILLRICH
The beginning of every year is always a fun time because that means I meet the whole Fanatic wave team in Cape Town, plus I get to see and try out the new production boards. It’s an ideal place to sail and test boards as Cape Town has a huge variety of spots (from side off to side on, big and small waves, flat water, strong or light winds) and this is what makes it so perfect to try the boards and different fin setups in all kinds of conditions. The fact that all the team is there also makes things easier as we can discuss directly face to face our impressions about the boards while sailing in the same spot at the same time. Every year we try out the custom boards from each other and I think this is also a important step to get more sensations or impressions about the different shapes and what really works best to make next year’s designs even better, together with Klaas’s extensive knowledge about shapes and boards.

Of course, fin testing is also quite important. Already last year, also in Cape Town, I got to try out some fins with a new material that makes the fins a bit softer and flex better, this made me feel way better and more confortable while top turning. Since the moment I tried them I did not want to use the old G10 fins any more.

In the last two years all of us had 5 fin boxes in our customs and we found out that they where working good even on a different fin system than the board was made for. For example a shape that was made for quads also worked good on a tri fin setup and vice versa. We have also tried out a lot of R&D prototypes together with our custom boards and compared all the differences between them. Dani and Craig are also an important part of the team here as they can feel or imagine a bit better what normal customers are looking for and how the boards should feel for them. So all in all, after a lot of testing, I am happy to say that the new boards will be again better than before with some special and different shapes.

Cape Town is also about improving my technique as well as my equipment. I definitely learn a lot every year down there while wave riding. I learn to read the waves better and to get better timing on them. Also to get more vertical and powerful on my top turns. This year I found out after lots and lots of waves that head and sail movement is really influential. It’s important to look down to the section again during the top turn to make it more powerful. Same for the sail, push it a bit into the wind while finishing the turn to make it look better and have more control while sliding down the wave.
In jumping I feel that I have to be more controlled because of the frequent side-offshore winds in most of the beaches. To achieve that, I learnt it’s more important to keep more compact and small all the time as you feel every mistake you make quite a lot more than when jumping at onshore spots.

CRAIG GERTENBACH
Cape Town has long been a secret winter spot for testing products for many windsurfing brands. F2 began their testing here in the eighties with Werner Gnigler and Klaus Walther, working with our local shaper Jonathan Paarman, this is where I learnt how to develop products. Cape Town and its surrounding spots like Langebaan, Swartriet, Elands Bay, Brandvlei etc, all offer amazingly consistent winds and waves from October to March, which is the perfect training and testing time for riders and brands. We do a good portion of our Wave, Freeride and Slalom testing over winter in Cape Town/Langebaan, as well as some video and picture trips with our team riders. It´s ideal to combine both of these as conditions might often be better for shooting, other days better for testing. We try to have the core test team there for between 6-8 weeks over winter, split usually into 2 trips so we can keep getting prototypes sent down, allowing a progressive R&D to take place, instead of showing up with a ton of boards and just choosing the best one. This allows us to improve the products and also test with a little less pressure than trying to do everything in one trip. We also combine our Maui shoot with testing, do a Canaries test trip and riders keep testing during the year to make sure we have a 12 month development cycle, or even longer on some products, up to 36 months. On Freeride products we do regular trips to Lake Garda all summer, as it´s also perfect with the 2 prevailing winds, as well as normal customer input.

At the same time, Cape Town is quite different to many other spots. It has a prevailing SE wind that builds very quickly, especially in the warmer months. This can be very tricky when testing, as you generally do not want to be testing too many products in 35 knot+ winds. So you have to get the timing exactly right, being prepared and knowing which spots work with what conditions = a lot of time checking forecasts, driving and basically being 100% prepared. We´ll drive to Langebaan for example early if we see a good SW wind forecasted for the day, meaning no wind in Cape Town, but Langebaan will deliver a good thermical SW, maybe even switching to SE. It means unloading all the wave gear, loading up 1 or 2 cars with slalom/freeride gear and driving down early so we can rig up basically everything you need to test. As the wind picks up, you don´t want to be running around trying to find fin screws or rigging up different sails, this works in spots where the wind remains the same all day, but not in South Africa – so you really need to be on your game. On the other hand, it means you can also get through a remarkable amount of different board/sail sizes in one or two days, so it can also be quite efficient, if you get the timing right!

Cape Town itself might seem simple – SE wind blows all the time, but if you want to test/train in good conditions, it also presents its challenges – do you wait all day till 1500/1600 for the SE to fill in on the Table View side, or do you wake up at 5am and drive to Cape Point to miss the traffic rush hour/sail with a 4.0 instead of 5.3. Is it actually windy at Cape Point when you are sitting at Witsands with 5.3 weather? Even on the days when the wind is blowing in Table View from early morning – will it do the midday drop, are there any waves at Sunset or Hakgaat, will Big Bay work in the evening when it´s too windy elsewhere? When we have 3 or 4 different waveboard sizes to test, we could easily sail 95/85/75 litre boards within one day and do four different sessions and 4 different spots to try and find the ideal conditions to test each product. The same goes for the riders, do they want to train strong wind jumping, or light wind down the line. Starboard or Port tack? Flat water freestyle or wave freestyle? Each change in conditions has quite a big impact on the feeling of the gear and also the technique needed to adapt, especially in slalom. Milnerton Aquatic Club, called MAC, is situated at Rietvlei nature reserve. Slalom testing on the Vlei (lake) at MAC offers fresh water but short chop. Table View has salt water, rolling swell waves and very big gusts and Langebaan has smooth or choppy water with currents etc….you need three types of fins for each spot sometimes! Of course all of this testing is still more fun than a day in the office, but perhaps not quite as simple/relaxed as you might think!

KLASS VOGET
I’ve been in Cape Town countless times, probably somewhere between 25-30 times. It’s the mix of good sailing, great lifestyle and the beautiful city and scenery that surrounds it. It’s easy to get to from Germany, plus we get quite a bit of our Board R&D done there. My favourite place to hangout in Cape Town is a difficult one, as these places change so much from year to year. One that’s been consistent is Giovanni’s in Green Point, great Italian coffee and very nice for a breakfast or snack. My typical day in Cape Town, if I’m not heading to the Cape before 7am to avoid traffic, is I usually go out for breakfast. Then it’s either a quick session at Milnerton or Sunset, before heading down the coast. If it’s mast high or bigger, I’d sail at Haakgat, if it’s smaller than 3M I’d go to Melkbos for a couple of hours. After that it’s dinner time at one of the hundreds of restaurants or time for braai and a beer. Next day same thing again!

I love Cape Point, it’s just a playground with a mix of incredible jumping and solid waves to ride. My dream spot is Haakgat though, I’ve had my best sessions there when it’s big. Back in 2011 I had a sick day there with solid over mast high waves and no crowds as it was huge and super windy. It was mostly just a few guys from the Fanatic Team out and we had the place almost to ourselves. In the evening the wind turned more offshore, which is what it usually does. I was still on my 3.7, which became too small on the inside, but it was still enough to catch waves from the outside. Once I was on a wave, it was just perfect, as they got so clean! I have had a few gnarly wipeouts in Scarborough Point on big days. The rocks there can be tricky but somehow I make it out without totally destroying my gear. If you can only bring one board to Cape Town, then I’d bring an 81 litre Quad, with sails from 3.7 to 5.0. I personally hardly ever need a 5.3, but I’m only 72kgs. This year I didn’t use my 5.0, only 4.7 once, rest of the time 3.7 – 4.5! I’ve been with the Fanatic Team for over 15 years and it’s always been a real team! Some of my best friends are in this team and there is always a very good vibe and support amongst each other. Fanatic has always been focussing on talents without much of an attitude and I’m pretty sure that’s the reason for the good atmosphere and why trips like these are so productive but also so much fun!