ROBBY NAISH
“Jaws sessions are very different today than they were years ago, before the Internet and accurate swell forecasting. These days there is a lot of hype in advance, normally we all know that big swell is coming at least one week before it arrives. That changes the dynamic of it. This winter we have had six Jaws size swells already, much more than most winters. I have windsurfed three times so far, but none of those sessions were particularly windy or particularly big.
For all of my sessions this season, I have gone up on the boat with Kai Lenny with the intention of windsurfing, kiting or surfing depending on what the conditions provided. I have been windsurfing Jaws for 20 years now, which seems like a really long time. Still, even after all that time I get nervous whenever I go up there… which I think is a good thing. I pretty much always ride a gun in big waves, a longer, narrow and more “pinned out” outline than a normal board, and always a single fin. I made a new gun for this season with a faster rocker and a bit more volume then I usually use just because wind conditions are so often fluky at Jaws that getting into the wave is often quite critical. I made the rails too sharp on that board and it just wasn’t working well for me bottom turning, so I switched back for the last couple of sessions to my older, more traditional gun. It’s hard to improve a classic…but I have another one in the works that should be magic. It has been 5 m or even 5.3 sail size in every session so far this winter with winds barely strong enough to get into the waves most of the time.
