THE
LONGEST
wave
Tap on the arrows to spin the globe
The Longest Wave is a new film offering a rare glimpse into the life and mind of windsurfing pioneer Robby Naish as he embarks on a global quest to experience the ride of his life. But what brought him to that mission? Use the globe to explore key moments of a lifetime spent on the ocean – and get a little understanding of the waves (and winds) that have brought him to the shores on which he stands.
Writer Josh Sampiero
photographer john smith
THE
LONGEST
wave
Tap on a the arrows to spin the globe
Robby Naish is one of the most legendary watermen the world has ever seen – from his beginnings in windsurfing to his evolution as a surfer, kiteboarder, and standup paddler. In the new film, ’The Longest Wave’, he’s hunting for the ride of his lifetime. But what brought him to that mission? A lifetime of rides. Use the globe to explore some of the key moments and places of a lifetime spent on the ocean – and get a little understanding of the waves (and winds) that brought Robby to shores on which he stands today.
Writer john smith
photographer john smith
Pavones, Costa Rica
Nassau, Bahamas
Jaws, Maui
Ho’okipa, Maui
Diamond Head, Oahu
Skeleton Bay, Namibia
Pozo Izquierdo, Canary Islands
Sylt, Germany
Skeleton Bay
Sylt
Pozo Izquierdo
Diamond Head
Ho’okipa
Pavones
Chicama
Nassau
Jaws
LOCATIONS
Diamond Head
Jaws
Ho’okipa
Diamond Head
Jaws
Ho’okipa
Sylt
Pozo Izquierdo
Skeleton Bay
Sylt
Pozo Izquierdo
Skeleton Bay
Nassau
Pavones
Nassau
Pavones
Watch the documentary
Watch the documentary
Bahamas
Nassau
Nassau is no longer a windsurfing hotspot – but back in the ‘70s it was a convenient place to hold a race because it was a short hop from Miami Airport. Nassau’s main contribution to the sport? Giving young Naish a place to perform aged just 13.
I haven’t been back here for decades. The only reason I was ever able to go in 1976, aged 13, was because I got a free plane ticket after winning the US Nationals in Berkeley, California. My parents couldn’t afford to go, so I slept on the floor in photographer Steve Wilkings’ hotel room. He was supposed to watch out for me, but one thing I’ll never forget is that somehow, somebody let me rent a motorcycle – not a moped, not a scooter, a motorcycle. I cruised all around the island with Matt Schweitzer and Mike Waltze – those guys were my heroes back then. And yeah, I won the race. That got me another free plane ticket to the next one.
"
I haven’t been back here for decades. The only reason I was ever able to go in 1976, aged 13, was because I got a free plane ticket after winning the US Nationals in Berkeley, California. My parents couldn’t afford to go, so I slept on the floor in photographer Steve Wilkings’ hotel room. He was supposed to watch out for me, but one thing I’ll never forget is that somehow, somebody let me rent a motorcycle – not a moped, not a scooter, a motorcycle. I cruised all around the island with Matt Schweitzer and Mike Waltze – those guys were my heroes back then. And yeah, I won the race. That got me another free plane ticket to the next one.
"
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extended
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25.0443° N, 77.3504° W
Nassau
North Atlantic Ocean
Back to the globe
Ride the next wave
Watch the documentary
Watch the documentary
A surfer who’s been around windsurfing since the beginning. Still lives on Maui. Still rips.
Mike Waltze
The son of the inventor of windsurfing. An accomplished racer and wave rider.
Matt Schweitzer
Maui, Hawaii
Ho’okipa
Ho‘okipa is windsurfing’s main stage. This public park on Maui’s North Shore is the epicentre of the sport when it comes to wavesailing – Naish’s preferred discipline. When he sails here, everyone stops on the beach to watch.
Anybody who’s anybody in the windsurfing world has to sail Ho‘okipa. It’s more than just an incredible wave, it’s where all the biggest events are. Wherever you’re from, whoever you are – Björn Dunkerbeck or Jason Polakow – you’ve got to prove yourself at Ho‘okipa. It’s the most important wave in windsurfing.
"
Anybody who’s anybody in the windsurfing world has to sail Ho‘okipa. It’s more than just an incredible wave, it’s where all the biggest events are. Wherever you’re from, whoever you are – Björn Dunkerbeck or Jason Polakow – you’ve got to prove yourself at Ho‘okipa. It’s the most important wave in windsurfing.
"
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20.9331° N, 156.3586° W
HO'Okipa
North Pacific Ocean
Ride the next wave
One of the most distinguished watermen of his time. Just like Naish, you never know what kind of board he’s going to ride. With Naish’s mentorship, he made Ho‘okipa his training grounds.
Kai Lenny
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Watch the documentary
Maui, Hawaii
Jaws
Jaws – Pe’ahi to the locals, this was one of the world’s first big wave hotspots. A deep water break, far from shore, that turns on only with a big swell. It’s just a short way away from Naish’s house.
The thing people don't realise about windsurfing Jaws is that, other than getting out there, it's actually quite easy. Anybody can ride in front of a wave, even a really big one. But the more you really ride the wave, the riskier it gets when windsurfing. Jaws is one thing, but laying down a heavy, full rail, bottom turn from deep in the pit is another thing altogether.
"
The thing people don't realise about windsurfing Jaws is that, other than getting out there, it's actually quite easy. Anybody can ride in front of a wave, even a really big one. But the more you really ride the wave, the riskier it gets when windsurfing. Jaws is one thing, but laying down a heavy, full rail, bottom turn from deep in the pit is another thing altogether.
"
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20.9423° N, 156.2969° W
jaws
North Pacific Ocean
Ride the next wave
A good friend of Naish’s and known for epic, daring and incredible rides on heavy waves that have heavy consequences.
Jason Polakow
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Watch the documentary
Oahu, Hawaii
Diamond Head
Diamond Head is just a few minutes’ drive from downtown Oahu, Hawaii’s only ‘big’ city – making it an early hotspot for wavesailing. It was here that Naish, Mike Waltze and other early wavesailors really drove the early development of shortboard windsurfing.
Nowadays, you won’t see many people windsurfing at Diamond Head on Oa‘hu, but back in the early ’80s, you’d easily have 20-30 people out there. That was right when boards started getting really radical in terms of shape – I had a board that was all the way down to 7ft 4in (2.24m), when the stock windsurfer was almost 12ft (3.65m). A few years before that we had literally been cutting the tails off the stock windsurfers, now we were making our own boards.
"
Nowadays, you won’t see many people windsurfing at Diamond Head on Oa‘hu, but back in the early ’80s, you’d easily have 20-30 people out there. That was right when boards started getting really radical in terms of shape – I had a board that was all the way down to 7ft 4in (2.24m), when the stock windsurfer was almost 12ft (3.65m). A few years before that we had literally been cutting the tails off the stock windsurfers, now we were making our own boards.
"
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extended
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21.2620° N, 157.8060° W
diamond head
North Pacific Ocean
Ride the next wave
Robby’s brother was no slouch on a windsurf board, and was among the original Diamond Head crew that helped revolutionise wavesailing and waveboards.
Randy Naish
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Watch the documentary
Germany
Sylt
The German island of Sylt, in the North Sea, felt like a quiet vacation destination until windsurfing showed up – now it’s home to the longest-running pro windsurfing event in the world. Naish likes to joke – and he can do it in German – that Sylt is his second home. When he walks down the street, he’s a local.
Sylt is this tiny island off the northern coast of Germany and it’s got some of the best onshore wavesailing in the world. It’s a really unique place and I love it, even though it can be brutal – tough, and really cold. Either you’re fighting through the massive shorebreak, or you’re racing slalom way offshore in the middle of the ocean. But it’s a great place and I love it. I probably recognise more people on Sylt than in Pe’ahi on Maui. I think I’ve spent literal months of my life there.
"
Sylt is this tiny island off the northern coast of Germany and it’s got some of the best onshore wavesailing in the world. It’s a really unique place and I love it, even though it can be brutal – tough, and really cold. Either you’re fighting through the massive shorebreak, or you’re racing slalom way offshore in the middle of the ocean. But it’s a great place and I love it. I probably recognise more people on Sylt than in Pe’ahi on Maui. I think I’ve spent literal months of my life there.
"
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54.9083° N, 8.3180° E
sylt
North Sea
Ride the next wave
A legend in his own right and Naish’s fiercest competitor over the years, the duo faced each other at Sylt countless times.
Björn Dunkerbeck
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Watch the documentary
Canary Islands
Pozo Izquierdo
The Spanish Canaries are some of the most consistently windy places in the world – and the beach town known as Pozo Izquierdo is the windiest of them all. Naish loved the challenge of sailing wildly different conditions than in Maui.
Pozo is actually a pretty rough spot to hang out for 10 days – it’s super windy and back then there was just nothing there. It was just a pile of rocks on the beach, nothing like it is today. The wind is dead onshore and you’ve got to walk over these rocks just big enough to break ankles to get out into the water. They’re just rolling around in the shore break. And did I mention it’s windy? You’d be on your smallest sail – 4.0 or even 3.7 – the one you almost never use. It’s way harder than sailing at Ho‘okipa!
"
Pozo is actually a pretty rough spot to hang out for 10 days – it’s super windy and back then there was just nothing there. It was just a pile of rocks on the beach, nothing like it is today. The wind is dead onshore and you’ve got to walk over these rocks just big enough to break ankles to get out into the water. They’re just rolling around in the shore break. And did I mention it’s windy? You’d be on your smallest sail – 4.0 or even 3.7 – the one you almost never use. It’s way harder than sailing at Ho‘okipa!
"
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27.8280° N, 15.4236° W
pozo izquierdo
North Atlantic Ocean
Ride the next wave
While Naish sailed here frequently in the late ’90s and early 2000s, the Pozo Izquierdo scene is now dominated by local Spanish-German rider Philip Köster, a true high-flying, high-wind specialist.
Philip Köster
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Watch the documentary
Watch the documentary
Costa Rica
Pavones
Costa Rica offers little windsurfing – it’s a pure surf hotspot. Big swells push in from the Pacific to countless surf breaks. Pavones is hard to reach, but worth it if it works – the wave can be up to 1.5 km long, and it’s a left – Naish’s favorite.
The final location stop on the search for the world's longest wave was Pavones, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. By that point, we weren't even measuring waves anymore. We weren't timing them, but they were really long, really awesome. We rode all the way from the outside to the inside, the longest waves we got on the whole trip. Instead of continuing to ruffle guys' feathers and deal with the scene, it was like, that's it. We came, we conquered, but we're done. And we went and surfed other spots, went and foiled them and just had a good time. But Pavones is definitely, hands down, for us, the longest wave around.
"
The final location stop on the search for the world's longest wave was Pavones, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. By that point, we weren't even measuring waves anymore. We weren't timing them, but they were really long, really awesome. We rode all the way from the outside to the inside, the longest waves we got on the whole trip. Instead of continuing to ruffle guys' feathers and deal with the scene, it was like, that's it. We came, we conquered, but we're done. And we went and surfed other spots, went and foiled them and just had a good time. But Pavones is definitely, hands down, for us, the longest wave around.
"
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extended
audio
8.3876° N, 83.1394° W
Pavones
South Pacific Ocean
Ride the next wave
Occasionally referred to as ‘Captain America’ for his classic California beach-boy look and attitude, Chuck is a good friend of Naish’s – they love chasing waves.
Chuck Patterson
Back to the globe
Watch the documentary
Watch the documentary
Namibia
Skeleton Bay
Named for the countless shipwrecks dotting the coast, Skeleton Bay is known for long, cold Atlantic waves, but it needs a very particular swell angle to serve up the long ride Naish was looking for.
I’ve wanted to surf Skeleton Bay since I heard about it. It’s a relatively recent find and it’s a left, and I’m a goofy footer, so I can go frontside. In the movie, it looks like we got totally skunked there, but that’s not true – we didn’t get the super-long wave we were looking for because the swell angle was wrong. But we got great surf and killer footage – we were stand-up paddling into barrels.
"
I’ve wanted to surf Skeleton Bay since I heard about it. It’s a relatively recent find and it’s a left, and I’m a goofy footer, so I can go frontside. In the movie, it looks like we got totally skunked there, but that’s not true – we didn’t get the super-long wave we were looking for because the swell angle was wrong. But we got great surf and killer footage – we were stand-up paddling into barrels.
"
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extended
audio
41.2492° S, 148.3089° E
skeleton bay
South Atlantic Ocean
Ride the next wave
A South African big wave surfer who was the local expert in Namibia. He came up from Cape Town to help the crew on Africa’s remote west coast.
Frank Solomon
Back to the globe
Watch the documentary
Watch the documentary
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THE
LONGEST
wave
Tap on the arrows to spin the globe
The Longest Wave is a new film offering a rare glimpse into the life and mind of windsurfing pioneer Robby Naish as he embarks on a global quest to experience the ride of his life. But what brought him to that mission? Use the globe to explore key moments of a lifetime spent on the ocean – and get a little understanding of the waves (and winds) that have brought him to the shores on which he stands.
Writer Josh Sampiero
photographer john smith
THE
LONGEST
wave
Tap on a the arrows to spin the globe
Robby Naish is one of the most legendary watermen the world has ever seen – from his beginnings in windsurfing to his evolution as a surfer, kiteboarder, and standup paddler. In the new film, ’The Longest Wave’, he’s hunting for the ride of his lifetime. But what brought him to that mission? A lifetime of rides. Use the globe to explore some of the key moments and places of a lifetime spent on the ocean – and get a little understanding of the waves (and winds) that brought Robby to shores on which he stands today.
Writer john smith
photographer john smith
Skeleton Bay
Diamond Head
Pozo Izquierdo
Sylt
Jaws
Pavones
Ho’okipa
Nassau
LOCATIONS
Nassau
Pavones
Diamond Head
Jaws
Ho’okipa
Sylt
Pozo Izquierdo
Skeleton Bay
Watch the documentary
This experience is better with sound
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Bahamas
Nassau
25.0443° N, 77.3504° W
Nassau is no longer a windsurfing hotspot – but back in the ‘70s it was a convenient place to hold a race because it was a short hop from Miami Airport. Nassau’s main contribution to the sport? Giving young Naish a place to perform aged just 13.
I haven’t been back here for decades. The only reason I was ever able to go in 1976, aged 13, was because I got a free plane ticket after winning the US Nationals in Berkeley, California. My parents couldn’t afford to go, so I slept on the floor in photographer Steve Wilkings’ hotel room. He was supposed to watch out for me, but one thing I’ll never forget is that somehow, somebody let me rent a motorcycle – not a moped, not a scooter, a motorcycle. I cruised all around the island with Matt Schweitzer and Mike Waltze – those guys were my heroes back then. And yeah, I won the race. That got me another free plane ticket to the next one.
"
I haven’t been back here for decades. The only reason I was ever able to go in 1976, aged 13, was because I got a free plane ticket after winning the US Nationals in Berkeley, California. My parents couldn’t afford to go, so I slept on the floor in photographer Steve Wilkings’ hotel room. He was supposed to watch out for me, but one thing I’ll never forget is that somehow, somebody let me rent a motorcycle – not a moped, not a scooter, a motorcycle. I cruised all around the island with Matt Schweitzer and Mike Waltze – those guys were my heroes back then. And yeah, I won the race. That got me another free plane ticket to the next one.
"
Listen to
extended
audio
Back to the globe
Nassau
North Atlantic Ocean
A surfer who’s been around windsurfing since the beginning. Still lives on Maui. Still rips.
Mike Waltze
The son of the inventor of windsurfing. An accomplished racer and wave rider.
Matt Schweitzer
Ride the next wave
Watch the documentary
Costa Rica
Pavones
Costa Rica offers little windsurfing – it’s a pure surf hotspot. Big swells push in from the Pacific to countless surf breaks. Pavones is hard to reach, but worth it if it works – the wave can be up to 1.5 km long, and it’s a left – Naish’s favorite.
"
The final location stop on the search for the world's longest wave was Pavones, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. By that point, we weren't even measuring waves anymore. We weren't timing them, but they were really long, really awesome. We rode all the way from the outside to the inside, the longest waves we got on the whole trip. Instead of continuing to ruffle guys' feathers and deal with the scene, it was like, that's it. We came, we conquered, but we're done. And we went and surfed other spots, went and foiled them and just had a good time. But Pavones is definitely, hands down, for us, the longest wave around.
The final location stop on the search for the world's longest wave was Pavones, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. By that point, we weren't even measuring waves anymore. We weren't timing them, but they were really long, really awesome. We rode all the way from the outside to the inside, the longest waves we got on the whole trip. Instead of continuing to ruffle guys' feathers and deal with the scene, it was like, that's it. We came, we conquered, but we're done. And we went and surfed other spots, went and foiled them and just had a good time. But Pavones is definitely, hands down, for us, the longest wave around.
"
Listen to
extended
audio
8.3876° N, 83.1394° W
Back to the globe
Pavones
South Pacific Ocean
Occasionally referred to as ‘Captain America’ for his classic California beach-boy look and attitude, Chuck is a good friend of Naish’s – they love chasing waves.
Chuck Patterson
Ride the next wave
Watch the documentary
