18 TRAVELNORWAY
A few months later and here we were, the island of Gladstad,
off route from where we had originally planned to go and only
our third day into a three-week trip. Our first scheduled stop
was up in the ferry port of Bodø, where we would take the
four-hour trip across the treacherous Vestfjorden to Lofoten.
Then it was two weeks exploring a previously scouted Lofoten,
the long drive back and with quite a few added kilometres for
Riki who would have to make his way all the way to Italy.
Windsurfer’s paradise
Back to Gladstad, we’d woken up, the spot looked like this
awesome place in Naxos, Greece, but quadruple plus-sized
with the extra sides. Kickers, waves, flat spots, it was all
there – a windsurfer’s paradise, all with a sandy bottom, a
few seals kicking around and scenery that’s out of this world.
And did I mention already, this was just the third day!
We’d scored from the get go, as we were just a two-man
team for now, Riki got going first whilst I setup the cameras,
and even the drone, the wind strength was strong,
unbeknown to me and to my drone, we didn’t quite realise
how strong, it was very nearly a case of weather 1, drone 0.
Fortunately, whilst the drone was drifting away immediately
after launching (in sport mode, that’s a flight speed of
44mph), I remembered the time I flew it in Tarifa’s famous
Levante wind. So I brought the drone super-low to level of
the bushes and rocks, which slowly it returned to me and
eventually further up and out over the water to a very fast
rigged and riding Riki.
Usually you really take half an hour or so to become
comfortable at a new spot, you sail different, it’s kind of a
mindset you have to get in to. Here we had to be 110% from
uk
WIND
SURFING
the get go, the drone had very limited battery life in this wind,
there were few gaps between the rain clouds and damn it was
cold to be the one doing the filming. The session was on, air-
kabis, double moves, triple combos, then some ramps for
jumping. Suddenly this came to halt, I smacked my boom
across my head right on my left eye socket, that was painful,
seconds later my vision was turning orange!
I came straight off the water, blood was streaming into my
eye and Riki was like, “Man, you might need stitches.” We
were on an island, nowhere, did they even have any kind of
shop here, let alone a hospital or medical facility. I decided
to become my own surgeon, taking the edges of plasters as
steri-strips and a bandage, I was fit for halloween but keen to
get back on the water.