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MARK OF A CHAMPION: JASON POLAKOW

Few wave sailors in the history of windsurfing have had as much influence on the direction of the sport as Jason Polakow. From our August issue, the two-time world champion and big wave legend gives us an insight into his career and life. 

WORDS – Jason Polakow // PHOTOS – Fish Bowl Diaries

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EARLY DAYS

When I was a kid I got into motorbike riding really early. I raced and was Australian junior champion at the age of ten. My grandmother said to my parents that it was too dangerous. I had a lot of accidents as I got faster and faster. My grandmother was freaking out, so my parents decided to stop me motorbike riding. The son of one of my parent’s best friends was a windsurfer. At the weekend they would go down to the beach and I’d just be sitting there watching. I had a go on his board and it just went from there. I got into surfing for a little bit and then kind of married the two together. The surf coast around Torquay has a lot of good swell. I learned in the little bay there, quickly got hooked and went into the waves. Back in those days windsurfing was really popular. Every family had a board; it was almost bigger than surfing in Torquay. It was the cool sport to do. Naturally I just took it up.

ORIGINS

So I was windsurfing at around 11 to 12 years old and already by 13 I had made my first trip to Hawaii. Rip Curl sponsored me when I was 13 and had my first commercial advert in a windsurfing magazine. It said, ‘Jason Polakow at age 13 carving at Point Danger’. Diamond Head was my first Hawaiian experience, and then I heard that Maui had more wind and that it was the spot to be. I think around the age of 14 or 15 I came to Maui to check it out with my parents. I just fell in love with Ho’okipa and Spreckelsville and all that. After that, twice a year, every year, I would come here on holidays, to train and windsurf. I started down the coast at Sprecks, but it did not take long to start sailing at Ho’okipa because I came from a surfing background. To me Ho’okipa was very similar to some of my home breaks. I think I was riding tiny 7’4’’ boards back then.

STRAPPER

The boards I rode back then were from ‘Strapper’. Originally they were called ‘Watercooled’, made by a guy called Kym Thompson, who was shaping basically enlarged surfboards. When I was around 16, Strapper took over and I stared working with Michael Di Sciascio. We started building boards together and they just took off. I really started getting a name by the age of 17, when I was doing well in the Hawaii wave contests, which were huge back then. I think I won my first big Hawaiian event when I was 18. A lot of people noticed those boards and the way that I was riding and it all started taking off from there. Strapper really became popular and were distributing boards to 23 different countries worldwide. Back then there were a lot of asymmetrical boards around and Angulo was probably the biggest name at the time. They were the coolest thing because Mark Angulo was so radical. I came in with my pintails and at first nobody understood why I was riding them. Once people saw the way I was sailing on my pintails, pretty much everybody started using them as well. Mike and myself pretty much changed everybody’s perception of board outlines for sure.

VIDEOS

I put together my first video around 1991 and 1992, which turned out be pretty cool for its time. We were already doing 360’s and lots of cool stuff. Before that video I was brought up and hooked on a movie called Tradewinds that starred Mike Waltze, Robby Naish and Fred Haywood amongst others. I used to watch that video every single day! I did my one, which was a lot more radical for the time. At the time it showed what windsurfers can do at a whole new level. That was a big one. I sold a lot of videos and it gave my image a huge push in the market. Once that was out, everybody knew who I was. It was a good time for me the VHS tape days!

TITLES

My first PWA world title was in 1997 and then I won again in 1998. I was really into competing back then. I loved the big contests in Hawaii, but I really did not enjoy going to Pozo. I could have won a lot more world titles if I was any good at port tack jumping. I don’t know how many times I came second because I would win all the starboard tack events, but then I’d go to Gran Canaria and not even make the top twenty. The way I wanted to push the level of windsurfing you could not really do on tour. In the back of my mind I always wanted to be in Hawaii and chasing down big waves.

JP

I started JP by myself with my dad around 1997. I just felt the windsurfing industry had space for a hardcore brand. I was looking at the surfing companies as a comparison and there was not really anything around in the windsurfing industry. We had all these big manufacturers like Mistral and F2, but no hardcore wave brands. I just thought that it would be a cool thing to do. JP took off really well. I owned it for a year or two and then I licensed it to F2. After F2 I licensed it to Neil Pryde, who then bought 50% and then years later bought the last 50%. My dad had some health problems and I’d rather have my dad around than have a business or money. It worked out well in the end for me. I don’t consider myself that much of a savvy businessman. I like what I do, which is filming, getting cool shots and chasing down big waves, not sitting in an office and working out what colour to put on a logo. It was also a good time to sell because windsurfing was very strong. I did great and I was happy.

BIG WAVES

My world championship time was pretty good. Back in the early nineties when I first hit the scene, it was really big for me. I was in demand. When I pulled out of the competition phase and I started chasing down big waves, people started looking at that and it really did create a lot of interest for my image. For me personally that was a great time because I could show people what I could do and what I wanted to do. I consider myself more of a free windsurfer right now. I don’t have to travel to events and compete. I just wait for those exceptional days that don’t come around so often. I am lucky enough to still have some great sponsors, particularly Red Bull. They really enjoy what I do. I am able to still make a living and chase down great conditions, Covid permitting! I go where I want to go and sail when I want. I am just enjoying it and love what I do.

JAWS

One of the reasons I moved to Maui was for one wave – Jaws! If that wave was not there I don’t know if I would be living on Maui. I guess I probably would. I moved here just because of that wave. It is such an intriguing wave to me; there are so many more things I want to conquer out there. I want that perfect day so bad. I want to ride that perfect wave. I really have my heart and head set on scoring that place as good as it gets.

If Jaws is as big as it can be, but perfect, it does not scare me. The beautiful thing about Jaws when it is perfect is that the wave pulls flat. You drop down the wave and it looks like it has been made out of marble. That is how good the wave is. Imagine a speed board going down a perfectly flat speed course when you have that sort of offshore ripple. You get that sensation at Jaws, the way you skim across the water when you are travelling down a wave that big and going that fast. You can feel that pitter-patter of the water hitting the bottom of your board and then you can just set the rail anywhere. It is just an awesome feeling. That is the day I am looking for. The fifty-year storm!

MISSIONS

In the past Cloudbreak is another spot that really got me fired up. I scored a huge day there years ago, it was pretty amazing. It was a little onshore, the wind was super light, but it made me see the potential. I really want to keep my eye on it and score it again. There is another wave upwind of Cloudbreak as well. You can only get there by boat, it is on another reef and it is supposed to be sick. These days are not just about sailing for me. I have to organize photographers, film crew and all the logistics myself, so it is a full mission for me. If I had a huge budget it would be so much easier. The surfers have so much more budget than us.

I was actually staying on an island with pro surfers Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson and they had two personal photographers with them all the time. Obviously they are all friends, but they don’t have to organize anything in the way that I do. It was amusing for me to listen to them talking about their heartaches. ‘Oh the photographer wants me to do an aerial’, as if it is like some major hassle. Meanwhile I am up at 6 a.m. trying to pick up a guy from the mainland to get him out to shoot and onto the scaffolding. It is a stressful time aside from the fact I have to go out there and ride massive surf and be ready on top of all the organization. I am trying to do everything on a relatively small budget. At the end of the day it is a sweeter sensation if you pull it all off and get the job done with all the shots and video. If you have had a great day and made that accomplishment, you  get more satisfaction than someone that has not put all that effort into the project. In that respect it is fine doing it all myself, I enjoy it.

BOARDS

I was on quads, but I have gone back to thrusters now. I think with all multi-fin setups, fins can make or break a board. They make the difference from a board being bad or good. Fin position is critical as well. So if you don’t know what you are doing you can have a great board, but if you have not got the right fins in there it will sail like a dog! I have been playing around with a lot of setups and at the moment I really am enjoying the thruster setup I am riding. I started out with quite large side fins, now I am heading towards the side fins being smaller and a larger centre fin. It is almost back full circle like in the single fin days, even though the outlines have totally changed. A single fin helps you draw those really nice lines on the wave and push off that large centre fin, but with a thruster you still have the side fins holding you in. That is what I am riding at the moment. I still love pulling out a new board, especially when they work really well. When I get a decent board I hang on to it. Sometimes when a board pounds out over a period of a season it just flexes into a really nice curve.

LIFESTYLE

I feel lucky to be where I am in life right now. I work hard at it though. I keep myself fit, I go to the gym and I eat healthily. I do what I can to keep the lifestyle that I like and get paid for it. Social media, Facebook and Instagram, I am diligent with that. Nobody helps me out with my posting. It is all me doing it. Every morning I get up and I do at least an hour on the computer and then I am hunting down forecasts and keeping an eye on all the big swells. If it’s good I am prepared to travel, if not I will hang at home in Hawaii. If it is two feet at Ho’okipa, generally I will go mountain biking, road cycling or motorbike riding. Motocross and snowboarding etc. show people through Facebook and Instagram all the stuff I do apart from windsurfing. I suppose I am trying to classify myself as an extreme sports athlete, rather than just a professional windsurfer. Windsurfing is still my main objective, but I still want to showcase some of the other stuff that I do and that I am good at. I have plenty of life in me yet. I still feel as fit, and as young and agile as I did when I was twenty-five.