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We’ve seen some pretty sick vids of late
with you stomping big moves on the foil.
How long has it taken you to get here
skill wise?
Well, I have been landing backloops, forwards and shuv-its
for the past two years. And I had another season or two of
part time foiling before that. But my buddy Bryan Metcalf-
Perez who is a ripping freestyler only had five days on the
foil and he was landing big backloops just the other day.
So, if you have the freestyle skills already it’s a pretty
natural progression. One of the things that really surprised
me is that a shuv-it is just the same as on the regular
board. I landed the first one I ever tried. I was going into it
wondering what would happen if I tried a shuv-it and it was
just completely surprising how natural it felt.
There aren’t many riders pushing this
side of windfoiling. Is it something you’ll
be continuing to showcase?
I am surprised there aren’t many more guys pursuing the
big moves on the windfoil. I get a lot of inspiration watching
all the crazy stuff Balz Muller and his brother Jacob are
doing. I think now that I have posted some videos we will
see a bunch of other guys throwing down, it’s a pretty
natural extension of the sport, and at the moment I feel
like I can jump higher in the given conditions than I can on
my normal kit. I will definitely keep working on it. I want to
get a pushloop here soon, but to be honest it’s a bit scary
getting on top of your gear like that. It’s great to see the
recent progression, considering that windsurfing foils have
been around for 30 plus years.
(www.slingshotsports.com/slingshot-windsurf)
Your kit is probably under a lot of stress
during big moves. Have you broken
anything?
If you are going to be jumping you really want the carbon
version. I bent a couple masts and fuselages on the
aluminium gear. So far the carbon stuff from Slingshot has
really held up. I haven’t broken anything.
And what about near misses? After all a
foil is quite large and hard should it all
go pear shaped.
I definitely think about it a lot. A few of the big backloops in
the photos I did on a real small sharp wing. Now we have
produced curved wing tips on the foils that make it a lot
less dangerous as far as puncturing yourself. The mast is
still super sharp and sometimes when I over-rotate a
forward, all my momentum is headed towards the trailing
edge of the mast which is not so good. The pushloop is
going to be the sketchy one to learn.
uk
WIND
SURFING