When the PWA youth event in Denmark was cancelled after a Extreme day on the water at the fish factory in Hanstholm was over, I had to rush back to my house in Klitmøller to edit the photos for a press appointment at 5pm. It was a wild day with over 30 knots of wind and big waves, packed with action from the Young Guns.
As I left the car park, I had a quick chat with Canarian high-flyer Marino Gil, who had come here with his mate Liam Dunkerbeck to train ahead of the World Cup on Sylt. Marino is over 20, which means he can no longer compete in youth competitions, but he had had a great week of training, while Liam had just won his first world title in the under 20s. Marino mentioned that they might go out again later and that he would let me know if it looked good to take some more photos.
Refuelling
A warm house, a cold six-pack of beer in the fridge and a lot of work to do - but I still had to go out again!" - John Carter
When I arrived back home, I was glad to have escaped the wind and waves and had to deal with a mammoth task of photo editing. There was a six-pack of ice-cold beer in the fridge, which seemed the perfect accompaniment to this huge workload. Would Marino call? I doubted it. I wasn't sure if he even had my number. Did I want to go out into this storm again? Not really. I cracked open a cold beer, fired up the computer and set about working my way through the several thousand photos from the day. I managed to send off the required shots in time for the deadline, and was now stretching my poor laptop to the limit as I trawled through the rest of the day's images to select and edit them. The sun was still shining through the windows and the wind seemed to pick up again, literally shaking the house to its foundations! The first beer didn't last long and I was just about to open another can when the rest of the event crew I was with came back to the house. They had been surfing at the fish factory after the event and reported that it was now totally wild with huge waves.
Late call to Marino
I still hadn't heard from Marino and assumed they had decided to call it a night. As a precaution, I checked to see if I had Marino's number in my contacts and there it was. Although I had a pile of work to do, something told me that this might be one of those epic sessions that you don't want to hear about later if you've missed it. So I sent a quick message on WhatsApp to remind Marino to let me know if they were going out again. Five minutes later, my phone beeped with a message from Marino. Liam and he would probably be surfing at Middles in Hansholm, because it would probably be even wilder there than at the fish factory.
Hanstholm: ideal for jumping
Hanstholm is known as an ideal spot for jumping, but back when the PWA was hosted in Cold Hawaii, the action was limited to Klitmøller because the livestream was installed there, so we competed a few times in flat onshore winds, even though Hanstholm had the finest sideshore conditions. I vividly remember one evening when it was similarly stormy: I stayed in the office and worked while some riders rushed to Hanstholm for a late session. I later heard that Philip Köster and Ricardo Campello had jumped up to 20 metres in record conditions. Imagine: 40 to 50 knots, the best conditions in the world and mast-high ramps! Needless to say, I was disappointed to have missed the spectacle. But today I wouldn't make the same mistake a second time! The work would have to be put on hold and done later! I closed the lid of my overheated laptop and hurried to the car to load my camera equipment. Just before I set off, I called out to the guys in the house to see if anyone wanted to come along. And luckily Andreas, one of the judges, who is also pretty good with a camera, got in touch to offer me his support.
Outside, the pine trees bent wildly in the wind, and as we came onto the dead straight, ten-kilometre stretch to Hanstholm, sand and spray were blown across the road, while the sea above the dunes could only be seen as a collection of white whitecaps and chaotic waves.
We arrived just in time to see that Liam and Marino had rigged their 3.3 and 3.7 sails and were ready to go. Out at sea it was insanely windy, with mast-high ramps. The two had come together with the Delgado sisters, who wanted to watch the show from the warm van. It would stay light for maybe another 30 to 40 minutes and dark clouds were looming on the horizon to the west. We needed Lady Luck on our side so that the sun didn't completely disappear behind this moody sky. I rushed to the car to attach my fast 500mm lens to the tripod and handed Andreas my 100-500 zoom so we could capture some decent perspectives.
Wild and windy
Anyone who has watched Liam and Marino surf before knows that they always go full throttle and that they wouldn't pull back even in these extreme conditions. From the moment they hit the water, I had the feeling that something special was about to happen. The light was shimmering through the clouds, the wind was still blowing at 40 to 50 knots and there were logo- to mast-high ramps just screaming for rocket flights. Marino opened the session with a monstrous backloop that easily topped the horizon from my vantage point in the dunes. His friends in their van screamed as he took off and just flew high, higher, just insanely high. Liam wasn't far behind, racing at full speed towards the next ramp after seeing his good mate set the first highlight. A huge, mast-high ramp loomed further out and he managed to clear the wild white water, heading for it at full speed with unwavering confidence. Marino's backloop looked high, but Liam was faster and hit a bigger wave at full speed. He flew at least 15, 16 metres into the air before launching into an absolutely crazy front loop. I could hear the girls in the van screaming, "Oh my god, that was crazy!"
Pushing the limits
From the shelter of the dunes, we could see that Marino had already noticed Liam's heroic deed and was waving his fist at his friend to honour his incredible jump. And one thing I know about Marino: he doesn't like to be outdone! Especially not in his favourite conditions, and from now on the two of them would push each other to the limit. I've seen a lot in my life, but this session is one of the craziest and most extreme I've ever photographed. Every time the boys did a jump, the girls in the van cheered. Some jumps seemed too high to do a forward or backward loop. But just when you thought it was going to be a straight rocket air, they pulled the trigger and rotated forwards or backwards like it was nothing and completely natural. It didn't take long for Marino and Liam to reach the same altitude. And to be honest, they both flew so high that it was hard to tell who got the glory in the end. Marino landed a crazy pushloop into forward, where he was so high after the pushloop that he could have easily done a double loop on the way down. Meanwhile, Liam returned the favour with a perfect double in the chaotic conditions. He celebrated this heroic feat with a raised fist!
The two U-17 Worldcuppers, Luca Bühler, who lives in Gran Canaria, and the Spaniard Toni Pijoan, who had come to the beach to watch the show, could no longer bear it in the dry. So they also rigged up their smallest sails and rushed into the water to be part of this wild and unique evening session. However, they couldn't quite keep up with the breathtaking flights of the other two.
Sundown
The sun played along for the first fifteen minutes or so, but then the clouds gained the upper hand. In the west, the sky turned pink and an incredible sunset added to the drama of the action on the water. Marino finished his session with one last monster jump, which soared into orbit against the pink sky in the background and was one of the biggest jumps I've ever seen.
When Liam and Marino finally returned to the beach after an intense hour on the water, they were both visibly excited and full of adrenaline from this wild session. I was still pretty shaken up myself after tensely pressing the shutter button so many times to capture the impressive action. But then I realised that I had to get back home to work on the other shots of the day! But at least I hadn't missed anything this time and was glad to have witnessed this epic show on the water.
Liam Dunkerbeck
"That was probably one of the wildest sessions of my life. There were probably gusts of 50 knots with mast-high ramps. I think I made the biggest jumps of my life. My watch showed that I jumped over ten metres high, and some jumps were over twelve! That was probably the best jumping session I've ever had. The smallest sail I had here in Denmark was a 3.3 square metre sail, which was fine. Marino is one of my best mates, we always surf together. Being out there and sharing this awesome session was just a dream. We were shouting at each other on the water, it was just so crazy."
Marino is one of my best mates. Sharing this crazy session with him was a dream." - Liam Dunkerbeck
Marino Gil
"It was incredible out there! I was totally overpowered with the 3.7. We had some perfect mast-high ramps and it was just epic. I think it was one of the best sessions I've ever done! There were probably some of the biggest jumps I've ever done in my life. It was super fun, I wasn't scared. If I'd had a 3.4 sail, I might have had everything a bit more under control. But it went with the perfect sideshore wind, and there was enough space between the waves to hit the ramps at full speed and shoot off. It was great to share this session with Liam. We are best friends and love to push each other."
