A couple of weeks ago Alex Mussolini and Thomas Traversa went to Portugal to enjoy some great conditions and hang out with some talents as well!
A backside 360 from Jonas Handekyn, shot with a GoPro and Backy Mount.
Kevin Pritchards latest production featuring Graham Ezzy.
No matter where I am, there are 2 constants. Writing and the sea. I feel uncomfortable inland and away from the coast. Or when I’m not writing.
A month before I turned 18, I left Maui and pro windsurfing for 4 years and never really came back. While I studied Literature at Princeton, my heart anchored in New York.
Before, when I left Maui, often for months at a time to compete on the world tour, I had the feeling that I was away and would return home to Hawaii. I’m not sure where home is now.
I’m homeless.Since graduating from Princeton in 2011, I’m based on Maui, but I’m also back to Manhattan constantly. So many of my classmates have wound up in the city that I run into friends walking down the street or in random cafes getting a morning coffee. That happens on Maui too. But you expect it on an island in the middle of the ocean.
I write and i windsurf because i feel a need to. Sometimes both are miserable. But i still need to do them. Like breathing. Sometimes your nose is stuffed and you’re sick and you wish you just didn’t have to breath so that you could sleep but you have to breath. That’s what writing and windsurfing are for me.
I guess writing and the sea have become a sort of home for me. I’ve spent over 1 year– over 8765 hours– of my life at sea. Virgins to the sea can’t read the wind in the whitecaps. I suppose it’s like that more and more. So the sailor’s who’ve circumnavigated the globe see things in the sea that are invisible even to me.The sea is an ever changing chaos. Riding waves, especially massive waves, is a meditation on reacting unconsciously. If you think, you’re too slow and will get beat down. Writing, surprisingly is the same. The blank page stares back at the pen. Challenging it. Think about it too much: writers block.
The wave and the page offer infinite possibility and potential.
These two massive chaotic sources of unknowns have become a sort of home where I can be myself, whoever that is.
I don’t know if writing and windsurfing have any grand meaning or add an value to the world. But they are my home for now, the only home I’ve got. It’s what I do.
Ever wanted to know how to do a wave TAKA? This video is a perfect example from Morgan Noireaux at Ho’okipa!
Watch the 13 year old French young gun Loick Lesauvage at Ho’okipa in April 2013.
Storm surfing on Lake Urnsee in Switzerland, on May 18th, 2013. Winds were gusting up to 77.3 Knots, that’s hurricane forces.
Windbreeders is the new freestyle action clip from Steven Van Broeckhoven, Phil Soltysiak and Max Matissek.
When was the last time you changed the weather purely with your mental strength? They did what seemed the impossible. Dead calm, no wind at all. The scorching Egyptian heat was unbearable, and it seemed like an endless spell. There was no sign of change. We summoned every last bit of strength we had, and made it OUR mission, to bring back the wind.
Feel the adrenalin as Naish riders (and brothers) Diego and Benjamin Fabres explore & rip through some of Chile’s best windsurf spots.
German freestyler Adrien Beholz road tripping through Italy, as he prepared for the Podersdorf Worldcup. His first stop was Sardinia followed by Lake Garda.
Another clip from Cape Town, South Africa. Ross Williams testing and developing the Gaastra 2014 R&D sails.
This weeks Photo Friday has tons of spectacular shots from all over the World. Some of our favorites this week are Philip Soltysiak freestyling in Vienna, Ricardo Campello sky high, some RS:X training in Portugal, but this weeks cover photo is a spectacular cut back by Ricardo Campello.
The inaugural PWA Cold Hawaii World Cup was held in 2010. Every year thus far the competition has been blessed with a mixture of monstrous swells and port tack howling winds, to starboard tack float and ride – which has tested the top sailors in the world to their limits – whilst providing jaw dropping action aplenty.
Philip Köster (Starboard / NeilPryde / Maui Ultra Fins) reigned victorious in the first two competitions, but he was denied a famous hat-trick of Cold Hawaii victories by a rampaging Thomas Traversa (Tabou / Gaastra) in 2012. In doing so the Frenchman became the first man in five events to defeat the back-to-back world champion, but more importantly, Traversa held his nerve to claim his first ever PWA event victory.
The next amazing installment of the Cold Hawaii World Cup will take place later this year, between the 16th to the 22nd September. To wet your appetite, a brand new teaser has just been released to give you a taste of things to come. Expect to see double forwards galore combined with sick cutbacks and aerial antics off the lip, in what is sure to be another epic event on the Danish shores of Klitmoeller.
Enjoy this teaser that highlights exactly what Cold Hawaii has to offer!
Freestyle talent Oda Johanne brings us this short clip from her latest session in Bonaire.
Check out the pictures and Oda’s full report on her website – odajohanne.com
A very nice teaser for The Freestyle Project, shot in Piantarella, Corsica. It is coming soon!
