LEON JAMAER
I was in Fuerte’ with just a surfboard some years ago and surfed this wave on the north shore. It wasn’t big, but on the sets I could see the potential of this left-hander and set a goal to come back one day to windsurf it. From Google earth I knew which wind direction is side-off, so I basically just had to wait for the right forecast. It got really cold at home in Germany towards the end of February and we were playing ice hockey on the frozen lakes and I knew this big high pressure system would stir low pressures further south. I monitored this particular low pressure for some time and eventually saw the wind would be just perfect for three to five days in a row with plenty of swell. Thomas Traversa and I were in contact and he gave me the final nod that it should be really good, so we both booked our flights. I arrived a day before the big swell. From the airport I drove straight to the spot, met Thomas and had a good warm up session in over mast high waves. Unfortunately Thomas tweaked his ankle on a bad crash and couldn’t join me the next day. I went to the same spot and watched for more than an hour, not sure to go out or not because it looked huge, stormy and the channel was small. Finally, I decided to give it a try with a local photographer on the rocks watching me in case something would go wrong. Being by myself between mountains of water was unreal and it reminded me of those huge and fast open ocean swells in Hawaii. I was fully powered up on a 4.2 and my 88 litre board felt good, especially with a really forgiving and control oriented K4 fins quad setup. I used a 10cm asymmetric prototype with 2 degree angle and 70/30 (outside/inside) foil. For rear fins I used 15cm Scorchers on the big days and a 15cm Leon when it was around mast high and smaller.