Ruaraidh Somerville a young Ripper locked down in Scotland just sent me this… What do you think?
As we’re all stuck inside, counting our toilet paper rolls and doing our best to avoid looking at the wind forecast for the rest of our time in quarantine, I decided to collate my entirely biased and subjective playlist of “the best windsurf videos out there.”
Unlike surfing, which has a large quantity of 10-15 minute long 4K edits available to watch at the push of a key or the tap of a screen, windsurfing tends to have shorter, more concentrated, lower-cost productions, a trend that is in no small part due to the lack of money available in the industry.
However, as the videos are shorter, that means that they tend to be jam-packed full of action, and as a result, are a lot more exciting to watch that some of the more drawn out surf films out there.
So, without further ado, here is my top ten list of the best windsurfing videos in recent years. It’s completely unordered – it’s up to you to pick your favorites.
Ruaraidh Somerville
Last Summer – Marc Pare Rico
One of the hottest up and coming talents and arguably one of the most complete sailors on the world tour, Duotone and Fanatic’s latest signing to their pro team had his best year yet on tour this year, but he’s still hungry for more.
During his last year on Simmer, Marc got his highest result yet in Pozo and had a little bit of bad luck in Tenerife, before jetting off to Galicia to score with some of his friends.
Everybody who knows Marc knows that he’s incredibly focused on his goal of being the best sailor in the world, and in the past few years he’s been pushing super hard to get there. His edit features huge stalled doubles and push forwards as well as some huge turns in the Canaries, and then some perfect (and very refreshing) starboard tack down the line action in Galicia. The video showcases some of the most exciting sailing from windsurfing’s most promising talent with good editing and an incredibly underrated location for waveriding.
After signing to Boards&More, Marc spent the start of 2020 in Chile and Cape Town and pushed his sailing to a next level whilst R&Ding for his new sponsors. At the time of writing he’s “stuck” in Maui due to the Virus That Cannot Be Named, slumming it at boring old Ho’okipa. Although there probably won’t be a 2020 world tour, we can at least expect Marc to be pushing for the podium in 2021.
Place your bets folks!
https://windsurfing.tv/video/last-summer-marc-pare/
Moritz Mauch’s Spring 2019 edit
If you’re familiar with ex-Severne team rider Moritz Mauch’s name, you’re likely thinking of flippy, tricky, inverted onshore freestyle-in-waves lunacy done in the ridiculously high performance skatepark of Pozo, all on extremely small sails and with curious fin setups. But Moritz, when he’s not riding very short wide boards in very bad waves (although sometimes even when he is!) also has some of the smoothest rail-to-rail riding in the business, no doubt helped by all the time he’s spent ripping on a SUP.
In Spring 2019 the Spanish-German wavehead released two minutes and thirty seconds of uninterrupted silky smooth rail game at an undisclosed spot in Gran Canaria – although the last fifty seconds are devoted to the aforementioned flippy-trickiness.
The power and flow are almost unrivalled here; his low boom and agile, surfy style look so perfectly in tune with the wave. This is of course Gran Canaria, so he’s still looking very powered up, but it only adds to the beauty of the turns. He mixes old-school Angulo rail surfing with a modern, fins out approach like only Moritz Mauch can do – although older viewers might not be impressed by his music choice.
Dying To Live – Antoine Martin
Fans of old school edits will also love Antoine Martin’s 2018 winter output from his training season spent on Maui. The young Frenchman is well known for his radical style and balls to the wall approach to both jumping and waveriding, melding insane no-handed modern rotations with retro Eagle Wings and even weird variations like the one foot bottom turn.
Combining the fireworks of his seminal “Sun, Sea, S#x & Windsurfing” clip from a few years ago with a classic rock tune and a nicely-spaced 4 minute run time, Titoun throws down some mind-blowing tricks and of course comes off better – although often worse – from some incredibly late hits of Hookipa’s fearsome lip.
His time at Ho’okipa was well spent: the year he released this edit he finished 2nd at the IWT Aloha Classic, and in 2019 he won it as a PWA and IWT event, combining winning the IWT world title with his first ever PWA event win AND his highest ever overall PWA ranking. At just 26 years old, the crazy Caribbean ripper has only good things to come in the future.
https://windsurfing.tv/video/dying-to-live-antoine-martin/
Anyone of Jaeger Stone’s videos (they’re all insane)
The blonde-haired thunder from down under-celebrated his first-ever PWA event win this summer, getting a chance to show off his extreme power turns on the perfect canvas of surprisingly on-form Tenerife. Over the years he’s put together some pretty phenomenal clips of him shredding across the globe. My two personal favorites from Jaeger are his 2016 Tenerife edit and his 2019 comeback video.
In his 2016 Tenerife video, Jaeger scores pumping Cabezo almost all to himself, with a young Julian Salmonn as his audience – given how well the young German has been sailing recently (on a similar kit setup), he was obviously paying attention!
Understated, letting the action speak for itself, this video just shows you why and how Jaeger is one of the best guys in the world. Almost all wave-riding, the Ozzie physio’s video has some of the most powerful turns and ballsiest 360s out there. On starboard tack guys like Brawzinho and Levi are maybe the best, but Jaeger has to be one of the most progressive sailors on port tack.
https://windsurfing.tv/video/tenerife-jaeger-stone-ii-2016/
In his return-from-injury edit, produced by the legendary Two Goat Media, we get to see more of Jaeger’s jumping, and just how much of a polished sailor he’s become lately. I love watching him sail: there’s something almost cheeky in Jaeger’s style; he looks like he’s enjoying himself immensely when he sails, and while he’s an incredibly humble, modest guy – one of the most down-to-earth dudes on tour, in fact – there’s a little glint in his eye when he pulls off stunts that betray certain showmanship that we love to see.
Did I mention those power turns?!
Marcilio Browne – Winter Sessions
Marcilio Browne is one of, if not the most, complete sailors on the planet. Whether it’s port tack or starboard tack, in high wind, light wind, onshore, offshore and everything in between, this guy rips. Raw, aggressive power is the name of his game.
But while Brawzinho is an extremely complete sailor, he still has that slight next level on lock at his home spot of Ho’okipa. Having started a family in Maui, the Brazilian expat has a lot of time to shred Hawaii’s number one windsurf spot in between changing diapers and organising playdates. Every year, his sailing seems to reach a next level of mindblowing; his doubles (stalled or otherwise) get cleaner, his push forwards get more radical and his tweaked airs get even more tweaked. His 2018-19 winter training edit helpfully documents the improvements on his sailing, and, with a good rock song to set the mood, we get treated to a visual guide of his wanton destruction of Ho’okipa’s clean open faces and powerful lips.
Braw is a big guy, there’s no doubt about it, but it’s all put to good use in his sailing. Even on light wind days, he generates so much speed from the wave and lays into some beautiful screaming bottom turns and huge power top turns, his time spent at his home spot evidently paying off as he times every turn perfectly into the pocket.
It’s been a while since his last event win, but if the wind delivers at the next Aloha Classic, I’m calling everyone’s favourite Brazilian claiming on the number one spot.
https://windsurfing.tv/video/winter-sessions-marcilio-browne/
The Monkey Show 1
Ricardo Campello is a passionate sailor. He’s focused, committed and 100% driven to succeed at his goals. But he’s made for a perfect world, where windsurfing is as big as surfing, or even bigger, like Formula One racing. He needs to just be given the most epic conditions and allowed to shred unrestricted in those conditions. When he gets those conditions, he’s one of the absolute best sailors in the world, by a country mile.
The Monkey Show is a classic style surf edit, with shaky camera, good music and jam-packed with pure, unadulterated ripping in pumping Ho’okipa and Pozo. Conditions where there’s nothing holding him back and he can just let loose and go crazy.
This guy is such a wild sailor that watching him feels like a guilty pleasure; something that’s too good to be true. Enjoy it, you’ve earned it.
https://windsurfing.tv/video/the-monkey-show-1/
Antoine Martin – Baja
Other than Jaeger, the only sailor to get a double entry on this list. I put in Baja because it’s really the epitome of waveriding. It’s so perfect. Beautiful, clean walls of blue water in the middle of the Mexican desert, a source of seemingly never-ending glassy perfection. Titoun’s video perfectly captures the vibe of such a spot – the music seems to encapsulate the gliding feeling of a flowing waveride.
Watch as Antoine links graceful, elegant turns together in an awkwardly-situated paradise.
https://windsurfing.tv/video/bucket-list-baja-antoine-martin/
Skeleton Bay – The Windsurf Project
Speaking of awkwardly situated, you don’t get much more difficult to get to than the legendary surf spot of Skeleton Bay in Namibia.
The Windsurf Project is a truly awesome series of videos filmed and produced by Jamie Hancock, documenting Thomas Traversa’s hunt for perfect conditions across the globe, and occasionally co-starring a fluid ensemble of cameos from other top sailors.
In this project we get to feast our eyes on the perfectly groomed sets of powerful swell lines hitting the freak African sandbanks being torn to pieces by an on form Traversa, Flo Jung, Camille Juban and Leon Jamaer, all shot in perfect 4K and accompanied by some truly stunning visuals of the surrounding landscape.
It’s a personal favourite of mine not just because of the quality of sailing from the four big hitters, but because of the breathtaking visual storytelling and professionalism involved in the production.
Plus it features Leon taking out a cameraman in slow motion as he comes off the back of a wave, which is priceless.
https://windsurfing.tv/video/skeleton-bay-the-windsurf-project/
Never The Last – Victor Fernandez
Cabo Verde is one of the most well-known holy grails of waveriding in our sport: glassy walls peeling into oblivion, teetering on the rocky abyss that lies just one mistimed turn away. It truly is perfection in the most visceral sense, and who better to sail it than the world’s most perfect sailor, Spain’s own Victor Fernandez. The Spaniard is one of the most consistent guys on tour, with the results to back it up, and to go with that reputation, has one of the smoothest styles in the game. He never seems to push too hard or do anything the wave doesn’t him to do; he looks as if he’s a part of the wave, as perfectly placed as each droplet of water. Elegance and gentle, flowing grace are the keywords of his impossibly stylish style, and he almost never seems to fall.
Shot in stunning 4K by CC films, Victor’s 2018 trip to Cabo Verde is a giddy day dream of impossible perfection; watch as he lays into the immaculately groomed waves with an ease that seems just too good to be true, and hits heavy sections at just the right moment so that they look effortless.
https://windsurfing.tv/video/never-the-last-victor-fernandez/
Leon Jamaer – Lewis and Harris
Part of windsurfing is the search, the desperate hunt for conditions that can take you all across the world to find them. Leon’s video from up in the north of Scotland shows some of the realities of the chase, sailing thick, steel-coloured monsters in cold waters and braving the elements all for the adrenaline rush that we’re all so addicted to (you wouldn’t be this far into the list if you weren’t, just face it.)
The burly German ripper is a huge talent in the sport and to me, seems a little underrated. He’s not at the absolute top of the rankings maybe, but he’s finished consistently well in a huge variety of conditions for several years now and is an extremely gifted sailor. This year he, unfortunately, cut short a Maui visit where he really showed what a rounded sailor he’s become lately, by getting a fin to the bum.
Reports from social media have Leon getting back on the water recently, which is awesome to see. He has a huge amount of power in his turns and has a unique take on the raw, powerful kind of style that we like to see from guys like Brawzinho, that makes him such an exciting sailor to watch. Part of Leon’s DNA, almost, is cold water sailing and so it only seems fitting that I picked this video for my list (although his boardshorts-and-t-shirt Java edit is also one to watch for sure!)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NbWE-FkG8X4&feature=youtu.be
That brings my list to an end. In no way is it complete, and in no way is it 100% accurate or anything like it. It’s just 10 edits that I’m really loving at the moment! These guys risk their lives and limbs almost daily, be it in the Red Bull Storm Chase or hitting impossibly huge lips at Jaws, or just sending it at their regular spots, all in the name of advancing our sport and pushing the envelope of what we consider to be possible on a pole board. If there was any justice in the world, guys like these would be as famous and as widely respected as Lewis Hamilton or Lionel Messi, but sadly they’re not, so the least we can do is watch their creative output and appreciate the love, passion and the skill that goes into their sailing.
thank you, thank you, thank you! made my next day or two more interesting!
Reply