Out at sea

No windsurfing for me this summer, but for sure I'll have plenty of wind and swell, I will be off-line till mid Agust, taking pictures in a fishing boat in the North Atlantic.
Aloha.

Punk's not dead

Knee high (part 2)

Click down here where it says “read more” if you want to see all the pictures.

Secret spot (1)

Small conditions this weekend with an unusual wind direction, so we had to move to find the right spots for the conditions.

Drops on the lens

After years and years with drops only ruining great whater shots, finally, yesterday for the first time in my life as a photographer, a few drops not only didn't ruin the picture, but gave it something special otherwise wouldn't have had, and turned an average shot into something, framing the picture and giving the sensation of a bigger wave, or at least that's my opinion.

Gabi

Gabi, with his new board, was today the happiest guy on the water.

Weekend

The forecast is not that good for the weekend, with NNW wind, an unusual wind direction here, we will have to find out the right spot to windsurf, because Pozo is not the place with this kind of wind.
Have a nice weekend!

On fire !!!!

The boards Victor is using in Gran Canaria look soo good, yesterday during a forward loop coming in, really close to the shore, I had the perfect chance to take a picture of the board, but suddently the tail of the board went on fire !!!!
I guess that means I still can't show you the last prototypes from Sebastian Wenzel.

Vargas

Yesterday afternoon the wind was too gusty at Pozo Izquierdo and waves were perfect for a playmobil, so I went to Vargas with Aleix Sanllehy and Victor Fernandez, and just when whe arrived there, everybody was going out of the water, they were sailing in 4,0-4,2 with some fun waves, but just dropped (the wind and the waves), we decided to go anyway (Victor with 4,7 and Aleix with 4,5) it was a fun windsurfing session and we had the beach to ourselves.

Backside 360

Two days ago, I shooted this sequence of Aleix Sanllehy doing a nice backside 360, and I asked him to explain the maneuver himself, thesse are his words:

First of all I would like to clarify that we are facing a move considered as part of the last generation in waveriding, from the Shaka in freestyle but incorporated to the wave, being called then Backside-360 or Shaka in the wave.

The first step is making the correct selection of the most hollow part of the wave, finding in it a good wall to lean against it, allowing to complete the maneuver in the wave and not at the back.

The next and crucial step is the famous hip hit, that is essential to allow the rotation of the maneuver, at the same time your head looks towards the point at which you want to rotate in order to complete the rotation, because you have to know that where the head goes the body will follow.

It is also essential to move your back hand to the end of the boom, so you can keep the sail against the wind pushing gently with the back hand to control the sail and overcome the 360 degrees rotation needed to complete the maneuver.

If you have these three points in mind and train a lot, you will end up getting the "timming" needed to feel the wave which is what will allow you to complete the maneuver and will make you feel very satisfied to successfully overcome this difficult yet rewarding, nice and spectacular maneuver.

Go for it !!!

See you in the water !!!!

PS: the original words from Aleix were in spanish, I did my best to translate it, but I'm affraid the final ressult is not as good as it should, for the ones who preffer the original words in spanish, here they are:

En primer lugar me gustaría aclarar que estamos frente una maniobra considerada de última generación en el mundo del Wave, procedente del Shaka de Freestyle pero incorporada en la ola llamándose Backside-360 o Shaka en la ola.

El primer paso para realizarla es la correcta selección de la parte mas hueca de la ola, encontrando en ella una buena pared donde podernos apoyar, permitiendo así poder terminar la maniobra dentro de la ola y no fuera de ella.

El siguiente y fundamental paso es el famoso golpe de cadera el cual es esencial para permitir la rotación de la maniobra junto con la cabeza, buscando de nuevo el punto en el cual queremos rotar para así poder realizar todo el giro ya que tenemos que tener muy claro que donde va la cabeza va el cuerpo.

También es imprescindible llevar la mano de atrás un poco retrasada, así podremos mantener la vela contra el viento empujando con suavidad con la mano de trasera para poder acabar de rotar los 360 grados necesarios para terminar la maniobra.

Si tenemos estos tres puntos en la cabeza y entrenamos muchísimo, nos encontraremos que poco a poco vamos consiguiendo un “timming” al unísono con la ola que nos permitirá finalizar correctamente la maniobra y nos hará sentir muy satisfechos de salir airosos de esta difícil pero a la vez gratificante, espectacular y bonita maniobra que uno puede realizar.

Ánimos y adelante !!!

Nos vemos en el agua.!!!!

Power and style

Let's not forget the basics, because, in my opinion, the rail to rail surfing is the base every windsurfer should have to start building his waveriding from there.

Everybody can go down the line with a twinzer and do some kind of off the top or even a little aerial, but not everybody can do a propper carving turn, the classic rail to rail, which might look old and easy, but it's not, definitely not, and I don't mean to put a little bit of rail at the start of the turn and finish with the board flat at the top of the wave, I mean keeping the rail all the way to the end of the turn, there's not that many guys who can do that.

Victor Fernandez is in town

I was checking the conditions this afternoon at Pozo Izquierdo to decide if I was going to take pictures or not, and as it was nearly flat I decided to try Vargas, but when I turned arround Victor Fernandez was just behind me, with his new gerar and a smile ear to ear, so I decided to go in too, and somehow conditions got better and ended up being such a fun session.

FUN

As you can see it was fun this afternoon in Pozo Izquierdo, I would even say, Josep Pons (in the picture) was having a blast.

The sandbar

We are having a lot of sand now in Pozo Izquierdo, so I can stand up on the sandbar to take pictures comfortably from the water which is great, because allows me all the control I need for frame and forcus but I can stay really close to the action and have water angle.