Robby Swift, Morgan Noireaux & Leon Jamaer test their wave boards in Maui, Hawaii and Cold Hawaii, Denmark. They land radical moves and the action is great to watch. The filmmaker and riders have obviously put in a lot of effort in the clip and the result is great to watch. The contrast between tropical spots and Danish winter conditions couldn’t be bigger 😉

Robby Swift, Morgan Noireaux & Leon Jamaer in great wave conditions in Maui and Denmark – Video

Action: Leon Jamaer, Morgan Noireaux & Robby Swift
Cinematography: Jace Panebianco, Matty Schweitzer, Paul Karaolides, Stefan Lehman
Producers & Editors & Special Effects: Jace Panebianco & Robby Swift

 

Interview with Robby Swift about their 2021 video project “Magic Wave”

Continentseven: When did you produce the clip?

Robby Swift: We produced it between October and March on Maui and Leon did a trip to Denmark when it was possible to travel there. 

C7: How many days did you plan, film and edit till it was ready for the upload?

RS: Planning: well we had 6 months of planning in the end but we only filmed 5 sessions on Maui and Leon did one quick trip to Denmark. We wanted to pick good conditions and had to think of wind/waves/ sun, and also we all had to be available to shoot which wasn’t easy. 

C7: How many people were involved in the production?

RS: Sailors: Myself, Morgan & Leon. Videographers: Jace Panebianco, Matty Schweitzer, Paul Karaolides, Stefan Lehmann. Production and editing: myself with a lot of helpful tips from Jace Panebianco. 

Jace and Matty are filming for a new windsurfing movie called “Broken Molds”, so they are actively filming all the good days at the moment and we got some epic footage from Jaws etc. in between the days we picked for the Magic Wave video. It was great to work with them on this. 

Manfred Rassweiler (new owner of NeilPryde and JP) had the initial idea to make a video about the new board and sent us some inspirational videos. We weren’t able to do exactly what we had planned, which would have featured more spots from all over the world, due to COVID travel restrictions, but in the end we shot some different Maui footage, some classic Maui locations and some epic Denmark footage and I think it came out pretty well. 

C7: Was it less crowded in Maui this winter and did you have an advantage in producing such a video (less crowded beaches, better prices for helicopters)?

RS: It was less crowded so the shots came out very nicely on the good Ho’okipa days. You can see many long open waves with hardly anybody else out which is pretty rare. Prices for helicopters were the same as always which made picking the moment for that shoot really stressful. We only had budget for a 1 hour heli slot, which was my main request to make the video really stand out. It took us about 3 months to finally get a day where the wind / waves / sun and all of our availability lined up but I think it definitely set the video apart from other videos I have made. I would have liked to wait for bigger waves but every time there was a good swell with wind, it was cloudy so we just had to pull the trigger before it got too late and I’m glad we did it that day as we would still be waiting now if we hadn’t. 

C7: JP-Australia & NeilPryde has new owners, what you mentioned before. Do you have more budgets available now and has the marketing agenda changed?

RS: We have new owners who are all windsurfers and that has meant that we now have a more windsurfing oriented marketing crew which is really nice. Budgets are not bigger yet. As I’m sure you can imagine, this was probably the worst moment ever to buy a new brand due to the worldwide health pandemic but they are very motivated to regenerate the image and business structure of the brands, so videos like this are extremely important for that. Unfortunately there are many difficulties with shipping etc. all over the world so despite huge demand at the moment, it is difficult to fulfill orders but it’s a worldwide problem that all the brands are facing and I’m sure that over the next year things will improve and then budgets will increase and allow the team to move forward with the many different marketing and sales plans that they have. 

C7: What will come next?

RS: We are working hard on new marketing plans at the moment that we can achieve inside the available budgets. A big part of that is going to be helping the windsurfing/SUP/foil/wing riders to promote themselves and be more active and interactive. We have an awesome team which is by far the biggest marketing expense that the brands have so it makes sense to make the best use out of that team possible and I’m happy to have a part in the planning for this. We are all hoping that the summer PWA events will happen and if so, that will be awesome but if not then the team riders will be active locally and we will be helping them promote themselves as best as possible. It’s clear that people are still windsurfing all over the world and we all take inspiration from watching things online nowadays so whatever the summer will bring, there will definitely be lots of great content to watch, whether it be exciting competitions or amazing clips from local spots. 

Thanks a lot for the interview!!

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