Healing

Earlier this year Pozo ripper Alessio Stillrich suffered a horrific injury whilst training in Cape Town, South Africa. Now on the mend, Alessio reflects on the fateful day and his recovery so far.

In Praise Of Speed HQ

Harty plots the evolution of the iconic Weymouth/ Portland Speed Trials

The Skeleton Hunt

Surfing magazines and websites gorge on images and videos from Namibia’s ‘Skeleton Coast’.Where the desert meets the sea, long winding waves unload onto barren sands, drawingwaveriders from around the world. Thomas Traversa reflects on his journey to its shores.

New Heights

A year is a very, very long time in a discipline as fast moving and dynamic as foiling. Not only have the foils and foil-specific products evolved considerably since our last test … but so, it seems, has the whole direction of travel! 2018 brought us our first PWA foiling champion and a foiling world championship open class, providing the test bed for the latest and greatest racing-oriented kit. There have been pioneers pushing the limits in foiling freestyle and wave riding … and as we go to print, it seems the World Sailing Council are reopening the debate about the potential for foiling to be adopted for the 2024 Olympics, to be decided after sea trials conducted towards the end of this year.

Turn Left For Humpback Highway

Ever think of running away to a remote part of the Western Australian coast and living on a diet of wind and waves at the edge of the desert? Fredrik Plantin makes the case for a simple, salty life.

Top Gun F-14

Pierre Mortefon has proved himself to be one of the PWA slalom tour’s most consistent podium placers, ranking in the top 3 for the last 5 years. In 2019 he has won the opening rounds of both the slalom and foil PWA tour. The fast Frenchman with eyes on the number one spot in slalom gives us an insight into his world.

Elevate

“Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things.” Denis Diderot.

Finding North

German PWA star Leon Jamaer is as happy in a heat as he is on the road. A Red Bull Storm Chase finalist, he has the skills to backup his lust for adventure. His latest travels took him to the far northwest of the UK to the islands of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland; Leon recounts his trip and gives an insight into the origins of his passion for exploring.

Search

I always thought windsurfing gave me an advantage in geography at school.

Fanatic FREEWAVE STB TE 105

WEB WWW.FANATIC.COM PRICE STB £1699 TE £1999 TEXTREME £2299

Improving Targets

This is perhaps the time of year where many of us think back over the past year and consider what we might do differently in the next year. It is inevitable as both the calendar and seasons change, so with this in mind I am going to give you the targets that a sample of sailors I have coached have on their list, as well as their clinic experiences. I also turn the spotlight on my own sailing and explain what I will be targeting personally in 2019.

RRD FREESTYLE WAVE V5 LTD 104

WEB WWW.ROBERTORICCIDESIGNS.COM PRICE BLKRBN £2379 LTD £2099 LTE £1741

SEVERNE DYNO 105

WEB WWW.SEVERNESAILS.COM PRICE £1899

GOYA ONE PRO 106

WEB WWW.GOYAWINDSURFING.COM PRICE £1949

Storm Ophelia

The business end of the season has arrived in the UK. As the leaves fall offthe trees and the days grow shorter, the Atlantic has finally started lighting up with a barrage of huge low-pressure systems battering the UK coastline. And of course, once this time of year comes round, then the infamous Motley Crew red phone starts bleeping. John Carter, Ross Williams, Jamie Hancock and Fergus the dog headed to the West Country to chase Ophelia and bring us their account of the first big storm of the season!

Adam's Good Year

Adam Lewis started his 2017 PWA campaign with a serious  ankle injury and ended it with a career best of 5th in the Men’s wave rankings. It may have been a surprise to some,but not to anyone who knows the dedication of the 29 year old Englishman to his sport and ambitions. Adam is testament to hard work brings results. From humble beginnings to a place on the Fanatic / North international team and a  result that puts him amongst the world’s wavesailing elite, Finn Mullen sits down with Adam to talk about his stellar year and rise to the top.

Travelling Man

Seasoned traveller Klaas Voget gives us the benefit of his experience with airlines, excess baggage and why he loves to explore the globe.

Move On Up

With the windy season well underway, this month I take a look at how to gybe when it is getting wild out there. You may feel that the gybe is quite a complex move but actually it is just a sequence of key positions that should follow in succession whilst, as ever, employing a clear strategy. It is simple but challenging and when it cuts up rough, is a physical and mental test. A positive self-dialogue alongside a lot of self belief and resilience will see you making way more gybes and especially so when you are fully stacked! You will also be better placed to up your gybe success rate by being cardio fit and physically strong, as when it is windy, sailing in a straight line is more tiring and once you unhook the sail it has a lot more power coming through it and thereby you! When you are gybing fully powered up you really need to be precise and be ready and able to control a lot of power! On my recent Ireland clinic we took on Storm Ophelia, when the wind was somewhat manageable, and I gave my crew some top tips on gybing and some of their responses were along the lines of ‘Yeah, yeah that might work in Rhodes but …’ This made me consider how they went about their business and also look at what really worked for my gybing whilst stacked on a 3.4 and so compile the tips to present in this feature.

Adam And Oz

Adam Lewis traded his usual winter haunts for Western Australia this year and wasn’t disappointed with his decision! Read on as he brings us his tips for a successful trip down under and how he fell in love with the place and its people.

Foil Design

Designing foils is throwing up fresh challenges to the windsurf industry. Starboard’s head of brand and design, Tiesda You, gives us an insight into the innovation and process of foil R&D.

Moroccan Heart

Sam Bittner, organiser of the IWT (International Windsurfing Tour), recently ran a competition in Morocco that left an indelible mark on her life. Read on as she shares her experiences of the mystic magnetism of Moroccan life.

Foil FAQs

To help you navigate the world of foils we’ve compiled a buyer’s guide to some of the latest offerings on the market, but first Sam Ross gives us the answers to some foiling FAQs

Oz In Three

A once in a lifetime trip to Western Australia is top of the bucket list for most wavesailors around the world. Normally a trip to W.A. involves meticulous planning, flights booked months in advance and a detailed plan to take in all the best spots over at least a month to 3-month period. So how many people would think about travelling to Western Australia on a forecast for a 3-day mission? We know of only one - Severne team rider Timo Mullen; buckle up as Timo tells his tale.

Lost In The Van

Going against the grain of forecast based windsurfing trips, Sylvain Demercastel casts plans aside and in an act of spontaneity takes a wrong turn but ends up exactly where he needed to be. Read on as Sylvain shares his story of an unexpected but memorable session in Asturias , NW Spain.

4x4

One board, four sails, four sailors = 4x4 windsurfing. The crazy frenchies are at it again with their bid to be the fastest and funniest windsurfers in the world. Raf Filippi brings us behind the scenes for a not so serious look at the entertaining engineering and endeavours of the Quadem project.

I Swiss Army Made Wave Boards

Testing wave boards is never a real hardship, particularly when it is the sector of the sport for which all the testers, without exception, have a true passion for. The difficulty in testing them around the UK shores is chasing down consistent conditions to reach meaningful conclusions. That said, there is significant value in testing these products in ‘real world’ conditions - conditions that the vast majority of the magazine’s readership experience at their favoured break.

Severne Fox

Severne have been making waves with their entry into the windsurf board market. We catch up with Severne head shaper James Hooper to get the lowdown on their new freeride board – the Fox.

The Magic Of Moulay

Morocco has a mystique that has long drawn artists, hippies and bohemians to its shores. On the Northern flank of Africa, its latitude puts it within easy reach of Europe and before long windsurfers started venturing to explore its potential, discovering the magical town of Moulay. The legacy of these pioneers has been a generation of Moroccan windsurfers who are as talented as the amazing conditions they can call home. Read on for an inspirational tale of how windsurfing changes lives.

Freeing Radicals

This month we bring you the last of our wave equipment tests for 2017 …

Sea Mandala

When it starts to take up all your time and mind, windsurfing can feel like a religion. Graham Ezzy uses an Indian religious symbol to describe his springtime windsurfing on Maui - “Mandala”, a Sanskrit word that refers to intricate geometric designs that represent the universe. Mandalas serve many purposes in Hinduism and Buddhism—from being a visual aid for meditation to providing architectural layouts for temples. Graham references sand mandalas, a Tibetan Buddhist practice that involves monks carefully using small funnels to position millions upon millions of coloured grains of sand into a beautiful and incredibly intricate mandala. This process normally takes weeks. Upon completion, the sand mandala is ritualistically destroyed to represent the cyclic, empty, and impermanent nature of life. Often the sand is deposited in a river to be carried to the sea. What, then, is a Sea Mandala? - Graham Ezzy muses.