Jake Schettewi in Maui's waves - video by Dax Barker

16 year-old Jake Schettewi and 13 year-old Dax Barker produced a video with finest wave action from Maui. Jake definitely rips. He got a lot of experience competing in many AWT events and a few PWA events in 2016 and Dax shows great skills in filming and editing. Thumbs up, well done boys!!!

In addition to the video we hooked up with Jake to speak about the video and his 2017 plans.

Jake Schettewi with powerful wave windsurfing in Dax Barker’s film “Don’t worry about it”

Interview with Jake

Looks like you are living the windsurfing dream on Maui! How often do you make it on the water in a regular week?
If it’s windy I go sailing every day. I live 100 feet from the beach and I can leave my sail rigged so it’s not to much effort to go out. I try to go to Ho’okipa on the weekends or on the weekdays if it’s good.

And if there is no wind?
Unfortunately, it’s not windy every day so when there is no wind I go surfing, tow in surfing or swimming. I might also go skating or biking, but I try not to go to much so I don’t injure myself.

Your style in the waves looks very easy . Do you have a special secret for making windsurfing in waves easy?
It’s not much of a secret, but I think the best is to sail as much as possible. I get on the water as much as I can and stay out as long as I can. On the weekdays I usually stay out until it’s dark and on the weekends I do 2-3 sessions a day.

Jake Schettewi rips in Ho’okipa

What’s your most used gear at the moment?
I’m using board sizes between the 59 ltr JP Young Gun and 69 ltr Radical Quad. For sails I use 3.4, 3.7, and 4.0 Hot sails KS3. These sizes work great in Maui, but I think I might need to get some bigger gear soon.

Quads are still state of the art? Did you try out trifin, single and twinser as well?
I’ve been using the quad a lot as it seems to work well for me. I have tried other fin set ups here in Maui, but I continue to like the quad. I definitely want to experiment with different fin set ups in different conditions.

Windsurfing is fun, producing windsurfing clips is a lot of work. How many hours, sessions, days did you invest to create this clip?It’s hard to track the hours we spent editing, just from watching Dax edit the video I could see how much time, effort, and thought goes into just one short clip. We must have spent over 15 hours editing, mostly Dax editing and me watching, but still a lot of time. We started editing it in the beginning/middle of December and just finished. We probably filmed over 12 sessions of sailing, sometimes the sessions were short and sometimes we would get many shots from the same day.

When did Dax start with filming and photography?
Dax started working with cameras when he was 9 and quickly progressed to start filming and editing. Now he is 13 and did all of the filming and editing.

Dax Barker films the action

How much does it help that he windsurfs as well? Do you give him a lot of instructions?
It helps a lot that he windsurfs as he understands what I’m talking about and the right shots to take. I give him lots of instructions, but most of the time they don’t make sense to him and Dax figures it out and makes something work.

In the video you land big Back loops and the wave riding is brilliant. What comes next? IWT and PWA again in 2017?
I think this year I’m going to go to some IWT and some PWA competitions. I would like to go to the first stops of the IWT and then go to Pozo and Tenerife. I hope I will be able to get a spot in the trials and of course the Aloha Classic in November. I wish I could go to all the events, but because of school my school schedule will not make all of them.

What means windsurfing to you and would you like to have more friends in your age playing around on the water?
At the moment sailing is very important to me. I think about it all the time whether I’m at home or in school. I’m always checking the forecast to see when I can get on the water. It’s my favorite thing to do and I just hope I can continue doing it as long as possible. Sailing with other kids your age makes it much more fun and you push each other to improve. It would be really nice to have more kids sailing and I hope more kids will be able to enjoy the sport as much as I do.