Due to the change of the product cycle at Gunsails, which was changed from December to August, I had to organize a photo shoot with the complete team this year. Normally, that shouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, the production of the first 2019 sail was delayed by 3 weeks, which reduced the time frame from one month to one week.
In order to keep the release date that was scheduled for the following month, a simple solution had to be found. The Worldcup takes place year after year on Fuerteventura in the end of July and therefore most of the team riders from the disciplines freestyle and slalom are there anyway. In addition, the good wind statistics and turquoise-blue watercolours fitted into the concept.

After arriving in Fuerteventura with a solid packages containing 22 rigs ( 2 sails per model), I realized that the conditions did not look that promising after all. Although the 10 team riders were on site, the weather forecast promised only 3 days of wind. Not enough to shoot 12 different sails in many perspectives from flat water sails to waves sails. So we went directly from the airport to a secret spot south of Costa Calma. We found Freeride conditions with gusty 20-40 knots. Flying Dutchman Ben van der Steen pulled his brand new GS-R slalom sail out of the quiver and was the first to jump into the water. After less than 1 minute his session was over.
A gnarly shorebreak liked his brand new sail and destroyed it and the rocky underground . Thus the first racing sail for today was done - unfortunately without a single photo.
We changed our location to the lagoon in Risco del Paso, where we produced average shots while being fully overpowered on our 7qm freeride sails while a few tourists enjoy there session with 3. 7 sqm. Instead of a “freeride smile”, you could see the typical "survival look" in the faces of most of the team riders.

There are different ways to produce photos. Amateurs tend to press the trigger spontaneously with the hopes that at the end of the day a few reasonable pictures are taken. Another option is to start from the best possible end result. We needed at least 3-4 good images of each sail from different perspectives such as land, water or drones perspectives. Especially with a photo production for sails, vertical light must be avoided in order to exclude shading in the product. Therefore, it is necessary to shoot in the morning or evening light. Before each session a short briefing for each sail was made in order to score what was needed - Freeride sails, please smile and have fun - Race sails, serious look, go full speed and keep the sail closed. Parallel rides with the same sail type also require riders that know what they are doing when they go full speed into the jibe with just a few centimetres away from each other. The same manoeuvres and settings were repeated until the cameraman was happy with the result on the screen. In the end it’s not about having fun, even though it is something rewarding to work with a highly motivated team for one goal instead of fighting against each other in contests. After 3 windy days we finally could tick all the boxes of each sail. Thanks to the foil boards and the new high efficient “bow sail” we could even start working with 10 Knots of wind that exented our wind range of being productive. At the end it came down to the last day and we still didn’t have any proper photos in waves. After some trips to the north coast, we tried our luck again on the last day. At Glassbeach, we meet a local surfer who studied the waves enthusiastically. Even though the forecast looked anything but good, he was convinced that a few lines should appear on the horizon later on that day. We wait a good hour and suddenly the wave machinery started to work . Clean waves of about 2 meters started to break over the shallow reef in gigantic water colors. Pierre decided to jump into the water with his camera and we took turn after turn in these in these clean walls of water. The wind was blowing sideshore, perfect for the new 5. 0qm Seal. I had a really good session with nice turns, goiters and airs right in front of Pierre's lens. The Frenchman Yann Dupont went a step further and accidentally went right over him, who got away with a few bruises. After three intensive hours we went a few kilometres south to a spot called "Puerto Lajas". In a small bay we found really good jumping conditions until the sun finally dove into the ocean. All in all a very productive day at the office.