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NO RISK, NO REWARD…SYLT ON FIRE!

While many sailors were waiting for their equipment or busy rigging, Antoine Martin and Leon Jamaer snuck under the radar and scored an epic session on registration morning at the Sylt, PWA World Cup!

Photos: Carter/pwaworldtour.com

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LEON JAMAER

I woke up early that day. I was obviously getting ready for the world cup. When I arrived at the beach the North Sea was on fire already. It was nuclear winds and the tide was coming up. The wave were pumping already. Normally, Sylt is best at high tide and around three hours before and after. That is when the waves are the biggest and the shore break is the heaviest. I knew the morning was going to be the golden slot for scoring.

ANTOINE MARTIN

The season was pretty stacked this year. Before Sylt, I was in La Réunion working on my project YLEM. Shortly after Sylt, I planned to spend a week in Guadeloupe before heading straight to Maui for the Aloha Classic.

Usually, when you travel from far away and arrive in Hamburg, you have a couple of options for getting to Sylt with your gear. You can either load your gear onto a big truck at the airport, organized, scheduled, and paid for by the event organizers and then take the train, or you can rent a car at your own expense and make the trip alone or with other riders. Most riders take the train, but I decided to rent a car in Hamburg and avoid leaving my gear in the truck. I wanted the freedom to move around.

Somehow, epic conditions arrived right during registration. I quickly signed up for the contest and headed out to sail. Unfortunately for most of the fleet, the truck was delayed that day, so many riders couldn’t go on the water early, except for a few locals, like Leon, who brought their own cars.

I couldn’t believe it. For a while, it was just the two of us out there, which is so rare because at every event, no matter the location, the water is always packed with windsurfers.

LEON JAMAER

It was pretty chaotic with rain and howling wind. I went to the tent to prepare my equipment and Antoine Martin was also in the tent rigging. Antoine was motivated to go in for the early session.  So, we both rigged and headed to the beach before any of the other sailors were on it.

We ended up having an incredible session.

In the sets it was probably three to four metres in height. At first there was a lot of rain and it was pretty hectic but then once the high tide had passed, it cleaned up and there were some epic sets coming in. There were some waves that were not ridable, but when the good ones came through, it was pretty amazing. There were some clean sections with steep faces. It was a sick session. Just about as good as it gets at Sylt.

ANTOINE MARTIN

Man, we all know the shore break in Sylt is intense! The beach has a few sandbanks, but it’s mostly straight, so the swell often comes in directly facing the beach. That makes it tough to handle on its own, but the worst part isn’t just the strong shore break it’s the current and the onshore wind. That combination makes it even harder. When it’s light wind, onshore, and wavy with a strong current, I think Sylt might have the most challenging shore break in the world. I never, ever think about injuries during a session, so I was charging full power!

LEON JAMAER

Both myself and Antoine are sailors that go hard whenever we sail so we were not holding back. If I was on my own I might have taken a bit more time to start pushing it but with Antoine there we were both going for big moves from the word go.

When you see Antoine busting out wave 360’s and nailing huge back loops I knew I hard to go hard, even though it was the day before competition. He was really going to hit the steep vertical sections so I also tried that. It was nice to have another sailor out there and not be fully on my own. A few freestylers also came out but they were more focussed on the flat part of the wave.

It was pretty intense sailing and not very user friendly. There was a tonne of current, chop on the waves and the shore break was breaking top to bottom. If you missed a section by a split session, there were some pretty intense beatings and I had some big swims after my gear. It was quite exhausting and taxing on the body. But when you timed a 360 right in some of those steep sections it was a really satisfying feeling.

It reminded me of Atlantic swells with big clean faces but in Sylt we only getting one of the epic sets every ten minutes or so. When you got one of these it definitely did not feel like Sylt. For a brief second the waves felt a little bit like Maui, aside from the weather and the colour of the wave.

ANTOINE MARTIN

I had mixed feelings. No matter the spot, it’s always incredible to sail in the best conditions a location can offer. But I was also sad that we didn’t compete on that day. There’s nothing more frustrating than competing in low-average conditions. Even though we managed to finish the event and I got a good result, I wasn’t fully satisfied. I always aim to compete in the best conditions, even if they don’t necessarily suit me.

Leon absolutely pushed me to go harder. He’s such a big ripper! Watching him sail motivates me to be as good as him or better. I believe there wasn’t a sense of rivalry nor competition that day between us, but having someone close by to push the limits is always a bonus. You could feel the joy and excitement we both shared while sailing together. I had as much fun watching him as I did sailing myself.

LEON JAMAER

I was riding an 87L Flikka board and it was ripping. It was just working perfect. I made a few alterations with the fins and it was working just the way I wanted it. I was on the GUNSAILS Seal 4.2m. It was actually a little bit too big and I was struggling to keep the control. I wished I had rigged a 4m.

I was surprised that myself and Antoine scored this session in Sylt right under the noses of the rest of the PWA sailors. I thought everyone would be out there. It turned out they liked to sleep a bit longer and take it easy. It was also it was registration day of competition, so a lot of sailors did not want to risk anything. Some of the guys only got their equipment mid-morning so they missed the best of it. They needed to rig up and were busy organizing everything. It was a cool session.

It was just epic! The was probably the best I have seen Sylt. I guess it can get a bit more side shore or down the like but it was pretty much as good as it gets, I would say.

ANTOINE MARTIN

Most of the time, I was riding my North WAVE 4.2 and Starboard Hyper 88L. As it got windier, I switched to a 3.7m, but eventually, I was completely overpowered and didn’t have anything smaller. I would say that was a session to remember!