Once again, as so often on this day, livestream commentator Ben Proffitt's voice is overflowing. The reason: from what feels like just a few metres away, he sees one of the slalom pilots sink what he thought was a sure victory into the Atlantic at the last buoy at the PWA World Cup in Pozo. The drone and the flying skills of Johannes Hertel not only bring the drama of windsurfing to Ben, but also to all of us on the screen like never before. In the slalom in particular, most of the exciting battles take place far out at sea - impossible to capture from the beach either with the naked eye or with a camera. Who is in the lead, who is crashing, who has made a false start, remains mostly a matter of conjecture and takes away the fascination of the competitions.
This has been a thing of the past since this World Cup season at the latest. At the IWT event in Fiji, Australian drone pilot Paul van Bellen thrilled the windsurfing scene with his footage. In razor-sharp quality and just a few metres away from the pros, he took us to a place that only very few windsurfers ever get to visit live in their lives. The shots in Fiji were comparatively easy to produce. Very little wind, large wave gaps and the surfers always in the same place to start their wave rides. But Paul was always there, where triumphs and dramas alternated. No one will ever forget Marcilio Browne's spectacular wash - the drone captured the massacre in millisecond intervals and 4K quality for posterity.
The conditions at the World Cup in Pozo were the complete opposite for Johannes Hertel: 40 to 50 knots of wind, dust on the beach, salt in the air and chaos on the water. But the Tutzinger, who lives in Portugal, defied all adversity with his drone and gave us the best windsurfing entertainment.
Let's start with a tricky question: How many drones have you sunk in the sea?
Unfortunately, two of them - but I had a clean slate for a very long time. My top priority is always to get the drone back in one piece. For some people, it seems to be a kind of status symbol how many drones you've sunk - I can't understand that at all. I definitely don't want to lose a drone, let alone endanger anyone. That's why I've taken an incredible amount of time to learn.
You live in Portugal but come from Germany. Why don't you briefly tell us your life story?
I've been living in Lagos in the Algarve for three years now. I was born in Munich and grew up in Tutzing on Lake Starnberg. My youth was characterised by music, photography and action sports. I played in big bands as well as metal bands. My father was hooked on windsurfing very early on and my older brother and I also started very young - I was five. Later I sailed very intensively, Opti and 420, but that was the serious stuff, windsurfing was always the ultimate for me. I think it was because of the film "RIP" by Robby Naish. I must have watched it 30 times. I was particularly fascinated by the helicopter shots on the open sea and in "Jaws". Together with the music, that influenced me. Maybe that's where a lot of it came from - I studied film music and got my personal trainer licence.
How did you come across Portugal?
I didn't actually have Portugal on my list. I actually wanted to go where we used to go on summer holidays. After my studies and training, I just wanted to try out living by the sea and theoretically being able to go on the water every day - whether for windsurfing, kitesurfing, stand-up paddling or surfing. Somehow, Portugal was suddenly on the agenda, but actually Peniche, which I knew from magazines. That was just before the Covid outbreak, and I ended up in Lagos more or less by chance. I really liked it there straight away. It's not the perfect spot for anything, but you can do everything reasonably well in the surrounding area. I liked the city, the nature and the fact that you can get on well with English there. It was also pretty easy to get a flat at the time because of Covid.
Did you go out with friends or alone?
I was alone. I loaded up the motorhome with everything I could possibly need on the water and was completely overloaded underneath. I just wanted to try it out. I never said I was going to emigrate. It could have been that after six weeks I would have travelled back home crying.
But that probably didn't happen. Do you have a permanent job?
I now make a living from my drone recordings. I started out making music for film trailers, I like that epic Hollywood film music. Then, by chance, I ended up working as a trainer at a wakeboard park and filmed a lot with GoPro, including kitesurfing and windsurfing. And at some point I had the opportunity to film with a drone. The result was very manageable, but I really enjoyed it. I'm someone who loves to practise. I asked surfers on the beach if I could film them so that I could learn as much as possible. It's no good filming weddings if I want to be good at water sports later on. What particularly fascinates me about the drone is that I can get to places that I would otherwise not be able to get to as a person, or only at great risk. It allows me to get up close and personal without having to be outside myself. My first big job was for a boat show in Lagos, then I filmed for surf camps and so it was a gradual process that I earned more and more of my money by filming with the drone.
Before you were at the Windsurf World Cup, you also filmed a lot on the huge wave in Nazaré.
Nazaré is one big playground for filming, but it's also not without its dangers. Sometimes there are a lot of drones in the air and you never know exactly how the wave will break. The spot is never the same. And because of the shorebreak, there is so much salt and water in the air that the radio signal can sometimes fail.
How did it come about that you filmed the live stream at the World Cup in Pozo?
As I said, I love practising and I just wanted to get better at filming windsurfing. I had already done some stuff in Portugal with Ben Proffitt and Simmer Style, but I thought that if I wanted to get really good, I had to go where the best conditions and the best surfers were. That's why I decided to fly to Gran Canaria for four weeks. I wanted to be there at least two weeks before the event so that I had enough time to practise. I was able to stay with Ben and filmed a lot with Alessio Stillrich during that time. But also with Lennart Neubauer and Takuma Sugi, they really wanted to do it and we experimented a lot, including with sounds. Initially, we were told that there would be a drone pilot for the live stream in the slalom, but then there were obviously problems and Björn Dunkerbeck told me to come to PWA Director Rich Page. We then spoke briefly and found a good deal. And 40 minutes later I was flying in the livestream. Luckily I had everything ready because I wanted to film anyway.
Was it a big difference flying for the livestream or just for yourself?
I was lucky enough to have an assistant from the production company who was extremely familiar with the technology and had drone experience himself. I was able to concentrate fully on filming. He caught the drone, changed the batteries and I was able to rest a bit in between. I sometimes filmed for six to seven hours, which is exhausting, especially when you're buffeted by nine-strong winds all day long, as was the case in Pozo.
How does the technology hold up?
I'm really fascinated by how well it works, even in high winds. This constant load is certainly not good for the drone. I always imagine it to be like driving a car in the red speed range all the time. On the first day of waveriding in Pozo, I flew 28 battery charges in a row non-stop.
Which drone are you using?
A Mavic 3 is very good for me, it's fast and manoeuvrable and doesn't weigh that much. I also have a larger Inspire, but it weighs considerably more and that's just too dangerous for me if it flies into something uncontrollably or falls on someone.
The livestreams from Pozo and Fuerte, in which you filmed the freestyle, were extremely well received in the scene. Do you think this type of reporting also reaches a larger target group?
Of course, it's important to satisfy the core community first. But I always try to look at it from the outside. You have to succeed in getting someone who has nothing at all to do with the sport excited about it from the very first millisecond. Drone footage can be an important part of this.
