MOVING ON

Jason Polakow tells us about leaving the brand he founded, JP, after 27 years to join Goya, plus his biohacking approach to a healthy lifestyle, his outlook on windsurfing and delving into property development.

- Jason Polakow

RIGHT TIME FOR A CHANGE

I left JP at the end of last year and had a lot of loyalty to Martin Brandner - he is an amazing guy. I was not looking for an exit at all, but the opportunity to join Goya appeared and it was just the right time for a change for me. I am semi-retired now and it was kind of weird to leave JP and go to Goya, but I live on Maui and all the Goya guys are around here and were motivated to have me on the team. I had a fantastic twenty-seven years with JP, so there were no regrets there at all, but at this stage in my life it just felt time to move on. Goya are based on Maui, so it is easy to get boards and sails. Keith [Teboul] is a great shaper and to be honest I just want to be on Maui, ride Jaws and have great equipment. I want to enjoy my windsurfing when the conditions are good. It was just a perfect fit with Goya. We kind of brought back the Strapper wings on the graphics. The wings were the identity on all my wave boards when I was riding for Strapper in the early '90s. That look was kind of Harley Davidson influenced. We wanted to do something different back then and we came up with that idea. I had a long relationship with Strapper and we had all the production boards with those wings and they were very popular. The '90s were a great era for me. I won the world championships a few times and also won the Aloha Classic. I think Goya might do some custom orders for those graphics for people that really remember the Strapper era.

GOYA MELTING POT