TWENTY QUESTIONS WITH... ROBBY SWIFTTWENTY QUESTIONS WITHROBBY SWIFTAfter more than two decades at the very highest level of windsurfing, Robby Swift is entering a new chapterone that combines family life, business coaching and still plenty of time chasing perfect waves. From the challenges of stepping away from full-time competition to pushing his limits at Jaws, testing boards, training with Mauis elite sailors and finding new motivation away from the tour, Robby shares his thoughts on the sport, the future of professional windsurfing, and what keeps him fired up to keep pushing his sailing!Photos: Fish Bowl DiariesMaleen HoekstraJohn Carter/ PWAWINDSURF: You just got back from Fiji, tell us how the trip worked out for you?ROBBY SWIFT: FIJICloudbreak in Fiji is probably the best place on earth to windsurf on a wave. Its just insane how good the conditions are there. I had decided not to compete in international events this year, but when I heard about Fiji, I couldnt pass up the opportunity to sail in my favourite wave with just a couple of other people out, so I knew I had to go.The conditions this year were even more insane than we have ever had in the past. The waves were pumping and it was extremely windy (borderline too windy at times with the offshore angle of the wind this year)!I stayed on a catamaran with Morgan, Antoine and Camille and it was a fantastic choice. We were out there all day and could pick and choose the best moments to hit the reef. We got in plenty of surfing, sailing and fishing and had an awesome time during the event.I had a bit of a hard first heat, being seeded alongside Jaeger Stone and I had just had one of the worst wipeouts of my life before the heat started, so I had had a bit of the confidence knocked out of me before that heat started. I managed to pick out some good waves though and rode the first ones pretty conservatively but managed to rack up some OK scores. I then waited for a big set at the end and was able to pick off the best wave of my heat for my last wave. Jaeger was on the first wave of the set and I saw him go for a big aerial so I knew I had to go for it on this one. I ended up hitting the first section and getting lifted way up in the air and just about managing to hang on and land it right in the bowling barrel of the wave, did my best not to nose-dive and then squeezed in 1 more turn before the wave closed out. Jaeger had hit the second section of his wave and fallen, and it turned out in the end that that was the wave that broke his foot, so I was really sad for him that he didnt make it. That was the highlight of the event for me, hitting that aerial, probably one of the highest of my life, and managing to hold onto it through that gnarly barrelling section.Unfortunately I think all the judges were looking at Jaegers crash right when I was doing the aerial so I only got a 4.5 for my wave (you will have seen Jaegers crash on Paul Van Bellens video, so I know why everyone was looking at that), and I didnt make it through the heat but I was proud of myself for going for it and happy that I pulled it off. Hoping for a speedy recovery for Jaeger as it was awesome to see him in the water again. I had had a close up view of his insane wave before the heat, with an aerial and 2 amazing turns, so I knew I had my work cut out for me and it was inspiring to see him on the water!Having not made it to the semi finals, I had to watch the rest of the event from our boat and I was blown away by the pure adrenaline charging of all the guys. It was really, really heavy out there and everyone put on an amazing show, with no safe-sailing at all.Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to the event crew for putting on this incredible spectacle. Thanks to the local Fijian crew @fijisurfco for their ongoing support of this amazing event.WINDSURF: How was the winter season in Maui this season. Did you get to ride Jaws much?ROBBY SWIFT: This was probably one of the slowest winters I have ever seen on Maui. We did sail a bit, but the wind completely shut down for around 3 months so it was by far the worst windsurfing winter on Maui I have experienced since 2000.I sailed Jaws twice, it was as fun as always, but having been spoiled with 5-8 sessions up there the past few years, I was definitely left hoping for more next year!WINDSURF: Have you still got any bucket list destinations you would still like to go a mission and windsurf?ROBBY SWIFT: Yes, definitely. I am actually going to start working on my bucket list this summer. Im going to Indonesia for 4-6 weeks with the family and will be taking my windsurf gear so hopefully we will be able to do some good strike missions during that time!WINDSURF: What does it feel like now you dont have to go and compete in the Canary Islands this seasondo you feel a sense of freedom or will it be strange missing out?ROBBY SWIFT: I am definitely feeling weird about it. When Braw and Morgan go off to the other side of the island to train, I really miss it and it will be very strange watching the contests and not taking part in them. I am really happy that they are doing Fiji this year though, plus 2x events on Maui so if I do them and Chile, Ill still be doing enough of the tour to get a ranking so Im not 100% weened off it yet!WINDSURF: Who do you think has the best bottom turn in windsurfing and why?ROBBY SWIFT: I like Levis bottom turn is really solid. I would go with him.WINDSURF: What four guys would you like to take on a trip to Fiji and why?ROBBY SWIFT: Braw, Ricardo Campello, Jason Polakow and Morgan Noireaux, I think. That would be really fun. Jason has to come as he is nuts and would push us all to and past our limits. Braw is Braw and I have travelled with him for 20 years, its always great to have him around. Ricardo is fun and also pushes us all to surpass our limits, plus he always brings his drone and various other cameras so he makes us all look more professional! Morgan is my teammate and he rips, plus he is nice and calm and easy going so we have fun together when we go to Jaws etc.WINDSURF: Who do you think has the best jumping game at Pozo and why?ROBBY SWIFT: It would have to be between Philip and Marino I think, with Marc Pare right up there too, and Braw also. Braw is probably as consistent as Philip and Marino, but I think those 2 jump the highest and do all the tricks. Marc can go as high as Philip and Marino but sometimes lacks a tiny bit of consistency, or he has in the past, its quite possible that this year he will be at the same level as he seems to get better and better exponentially!WINDSURF: Who do you think is the most competitive wave sailor on the world tour?ROBBY SWIFT: Between Marc and Braw I would have to say!WINDSURF: Are there any new moves out there you have been dreaming of?ROBBY SWIFT: I almost did a double 360 the other day, it was more like a 360 into a forward loop. I think that is perfectly possible (but very scary!) I will probably keep trying that, but I keep breaking gear doing it and its getting tougher to do now I dont have all that free sponsored gear to destroy without feeling the financial pain!WINDSURF: What new challenges are you facing now you are not competing full time?ROBBY SWIFT: I have been building a few other businesses up to try to make money while not making money from windsurfing, but getting my head around not really having a budget to go on the trips I would like to do and having to pay for gear that I break is something is hard to get used to. I just want to go for it on every wave and have been lucky enough to never really think about that in the past. Its kind of annoying to go sailing and take it easy!! (sorry to everyone who always had to do that), but yeah, that is tough to get used to when you have been lucky enough to get all your gear replaced when broken since you were a teenager!WINDSURF: What are you interested in outside windsurfing?ROBBY SWIFT: Surfing, and thats about it ha ha! No, I enjoy planning, designing and realizing building projects. That has been something that has been in my family since I was born, since my dad built and ran a roofing company in the UK. I work with my dad and brother now on those projects and enjoy them. We also have several other businesses that I enjoy overseeing, my wifes brand clhei.com started in 2013 and has grown into something really amazing now. That was just the 2 of us for about 8 years and my brother and his wife joined for the past few years to take it to a new level.We have a rental car business called North Shore Maui Rent a Car which is part owned by myself and Brawzinho. We also have a small caf and I am the distributor of NeilPryde and JP in Hawaii, so all of those things take up my time and are fulfilling in different ways. I enjoy teaching kids how to surf and windsurf and wing etc. and I run a clinic on Maui every year for adults which also gives me quite a lot of satisfaction when the people who come enjoy themselves and progress. There is nothing that really beats a sick wave at Jaws, or performing your best and doing well in a contest, but these other things have less ups and downs emotionally and I guess quite a bit less risk so as I am getting older, I am starting to enjoy them more and more!WINDSURF: What is a typical day for you at home in Maui in the winterhow busy do you boys keep you with all the lifts to the beach?ROBBY SWIFT: We wake up around 5:30 and try to get into the water at around 5:50 to surf before school. I have to drop the boys at 7:45 at school, so we usually get 1.5 hours of surfing in before that. Then I have Gym from 8-9 and then I try to finish all my work between 9-2pm which is school pickup. As long as I have all my work done, then we either surf again, or windsurf or wing after school, before the high school kids get out at around 3:30. Then we come home to do homework and then either go to the skate park or back to the beach for the late evening session (usually surfing as the wind dies in the evening). Its pretty full on and we go hard like that for weeks and weeks on end but its the most enjoyable way to spend my time, so the 8:30pm exhaustion is actually quite a nice feeling!WINDSURF: How do you know when you have found a magic board when testing?ROBBY SWIFT: I dont like boards to be too slow, so as soon as I step on them off the beach, I can feel the speed and I like them to get going quickly in that first little gust. The first gybe on the way out is also pretty tell-tale, but really on the very first bottom turn, you get an amazing amount of feedback from the board. Generally if I dont like that first turn, it is hard to imagine loving the board in the long run, but I do, diligently, work thorough all the different foot-strap and fin positions, mast foot position etc. to see if I can improve the performance. Its normally possible to tune up a board, but generally the first bottom turn to cutback is the most telling moment. I like to be able to go really fast on the wave, lay into the bottom turn as hard as possible and just concentrate on timing as I head up to the lip. Then I like to be able to push as hard as I can off the top and really feel the rail bite. I dont like it when the board slides out at all off the top (unless I want to make it slide out) so the grip off the top is really important for me. I like to have control 100% of the time, and the ability to go from front foot to back foot quickly, so I can adjust my turns in the middle of the bottom turn if I want to go steeper or more vertical, or cut the turn short to re-direct back towards the beach for a goiter or aerial. The boards have to be pretty special before I call them magic!!WINDSURF: Are you going to keep up the physical training?ROBBY SWIFT: Yes, 100%, we train with Sarah Hauser 3 times per week and I do yoga or stretching the other 2 days of the week and just surf / windsurf / foil on the weekends.WINDSURF: Do you ever worry about getting old?ROBBY SWIFT: I do and I dont. I really feel great at the moment. As long as I dont let the training slip for too long, my body feels good. I am slowly allowing myself to accept missing out on certain sessions when I have other things that I have to do which are more important (although it is hard!) and I think that that kind of thing happens slowly and gradually so that eventually you end up being happy with whatever it is that you are doing at the time. My kids are so into surfing / windsurfing / winging that I know they will be keeping me young. They literally go from the bed to some kind of board (either surf or skate) by 6am and then continue in that vein throughout the day until they are ready to pass out at 8:00pm so I think they will keep me young!WINDSURF: How did the Maui Pro Am work out for you and were you impressed with the general level of sailing you saw in the finals?ROBBY SWIFT: It went well. I sailed as well as I could in every heat. The heats were super short so you had to go from it from wave number 1 and I did that every time, I think I landed a goiter and a 360 in every heat plus backed them up with some kind of turn on most waves, so that was really all you could possibly do in each heat. If you look at the Liveheats scores from the heats, they were often so close, it was hard to tell 2 people apart, and in the B Final, I lost to Bernd (who won) by 0.23 of a point, so it was as close as splitting hairs to get to the final. I got a wave right on the buzzer and did my best 360 of the heat, along with a turn on that wave, so I really performed in a clutch moment to 100% of my ability and have to be happy with myself for that!WINDSURF: What do you think of the sailing style of Bernd Roediger?ROBBY SWIFT: I think he is the most fluid and surprising sailor out there at most waves. His connection with the ocean and with the wave he is riding on is uncanny. He is really confident in his decisions to wait for sets and then executes incredibly well on every wave. I dont think anyone else has the same flow as him, and his ability to pull moves on really gnarly sections where you think there is no chance of doing anything but a closeout hit is what really sets him apart in many heats.WINDSURF: What is it like to have training partners like Morgan Noireaux and Marcilio Browneare you guys always competitive when free-sailing?ROBBY SWIFT: Yes we are super competitive but we are really respectful of each other and its amazing to sail with them. We train in the gym with Sarah together and we are kind of competitive there, and then in the water always looking at what each other does and trying to show off for each other. It actually makes it insanely fun and I dont know what life would be like without that, like I said before, Im sad when I know they are going to the south of the island to train and Im not there any more, but at Hookipa we always sail together and it makes every session much more fun when they are out.WINDSURF: How do you see the way the WWT / PWA world tour is working out?ROBBY SWIFT: Honestly I was pretty burned out at the end of my involvement with that and I have enjoyed not looking at it too much in recent months. I try not to share my opinion much at all anymore unless there is something obvious, I can see that would solve a potential problem. They have their way of doing things and, as a competitor who was involved in the management of the PWA, some of the things that changed werent particularly great for me or my peers in the short term (massive reductions in standards for sailors and much more liberal judging standards being the main things), but we were not able to get events in places we wanted to go before and having the sailors involved in the decision making on standards probably held us back from achieving that for many years. Hopefully in the long term it will be good that theres a more dictatorial approach now with the new system and the sailors are one step removed from the decision making. We certainly have a lot more events in a lot more places in the world now and its much more interesting as a spectator, so I hope that sponsorship will follow and then the sailors will be able to get more reward back for their efforts and turn professional windsurfing back into an actual profession again.We are actually in the process of trying to organize a small event in Brazil (hopefully even 4*) together with Braw and Jason, at a hotel that we all invested in down in Icaraizino in August, so I very much like that the events have become more accessible to organizers due to this new event platform. This kind of thing would never have been possible with the full standards that we used to require of organizers.Im going to do a clinic before the event, possibly even 2 clinics, hopefully together with Jason and Braw, so it will be a fun thing for people to be able to sign up to do to train before the event and then participate in a starboard tack jumping event which is something we have had very little of on the tour in the past.Preliminary details about the clinic are here, but there will be a lot more information coming out in the next week or 2 once we have things finalized for the event: https://robbyswift.com/products/brazil-experience-campWINDSURF: What sailor inspired you when you were a young rookie on tour?ROBBY SWIFT: Jason Polakow, Josh Stone, Nick Baker, Bjorn and Kevin Pritchard mostly.WINDSURF: How are you going to keep motivated now you are not competing full time on tour?ROBBY SWIFT: I guess if you have read this far you can see that my days are full to the brim from sun up till sun-down each day. Maui is a mega expensive place to live so keeping yourself the right way up is motivation enough! Trying to manage my life so I have time to maximize time with my kids while they are at this precious age is my main focus, and building up the JP / NeilPryde brands again in the US seems to be a fun way to do that and hopefully it will end up being something I can work on with my children in 10 years or so when they finish school!The post TWENTY QUESTIONS WITH ROBBY SWIFT appeared first on Windsurf Magazine Online.