ROSS WILLIAMS
“This picture is of myself and Gaastra and Tabou team mate Cedric Bordes tuning up in Maui last spring. Some of the best product brochure photos are taken when you simulate real racing situations, this allows you to show the curves, colours and shapes of the equipment as appealingly and realistically as possible. Gybing together for a photo can be very much like gybing around a buoy on the race course. The setup for the shot actually starts much further out at sea. We lined up close to each other as if you were racing along towards the start line and down the first reach of a race course. I remember trying to get as close to Cedric as possible, almost close enough that I could have sat on the nose of his board. In that moment you are always looking ahead, trying to read the sea state to not get surprised by any chop or gust of wind. All the time you are aware of the other guy, even if he is just outside of your field of version. As we didn’t have any real marks to gybe around we were actually just pushing each other as close as we could towards the shore before one of us would be forced to start his gybe or risk crashing into the beach. It’s kind of like playing a game of chicken and it’s a lot of fun and good practice for a real race. I can tell that it’s probably me that started to gybe first with Cedric pretty much a microsecond after me and he is trying to find his way around or inside of me to come out in front as we exit the gybe.
As you can see we are but a few metres from the shore, just entering the start of the gybe. Our back feet are out of the straps and carving on the inside rail, at the same time we are looking forward. If we had the next photo in the series you might see that our heads might be more positioned at 90 degrees to our shoulders and looking through the sail monofilm, as the mark that we would be trying to gybe around would be passing by our boards. You can see that I was probably a fraction of a second further into my gybe as the nose of my board is raised more, meaning that I’m in a more advanced state of carving my board and applying more pressure to the inside rail. We don’t lay our sail down too low next to the water as this is a more risky/off balance position and makes you less likely to be able to react fast enough in case of space opening up to overtake your competitor. Having your sail more upright in the gybe allows you to keep the power on and in your hands throughout the whole transition. I can’t quite remember who got the better of who in this gybe but we spent a good hour or so chasing each other around that day. The key points to remember for a good racing gybe is to think and look ahead. Know what is going on around you. Be in control and ready to react to competitors’ mistakes. This was a classic Maui session – sunny, warm and windy and I am looking forward to our rematch this year!”
