Robby Naish Interview on the Blue Planet Show, Episode 32

 What an honor to have Robby Naish on the show!  He really needs no introduction: 27 times windsurfing world champion and a pioneer in kite surfing, Stand Up Paddle boarding, foiling and wing foiling. The first time he became a windsurfing world champion was at only 13 years old, traveling by himself to the Bahamas. This interview gives you insight of how Robbie Naish grew up and how he lives his life today.

Show transcript:

Aloha friends! It's Robert Stehlik. Welcome to another episode of the Blue Planet Show. Today's show is extra special. I know it's been a while since the last episode, but I ran into Robbie Naish a few weeks ago at a race in Kailua and he agreed to come onto the show. So I'm super stoked to have him as a guest.

Really interesting stories. Robby Naish really needs no introduction. 27 times windsurfing world champion,  pioneer. First time he became a windsurfing world champion was when he was 13 years old, traveling by himself to the Bahamas. Great stories. I found a few new things about him. For example, He was going to study art at UC Santa Cruz if he hadn't become a professional wind surfer.

And he also designed the first Naish logo when his dad started making boards under the Naish label. So I think this interview gives you a really nice insight of how Robbie Naish He lives his life today and hope to get some more time with him soon. As I always like to ask a lot of questions.

So he had to go to a photo shoot. I didn't get to ask all the questions I wanted. So hopefully I can get Robbie back again. But for now without further ado, please enjoy this interview with Robbie Naish. All right, Robbie Naish. So good to have you on the Blue Planet show. Welcome.  Right on. Thanks, Robert.

Good to be here. Yeah. So a couple of weeks ago I just ran into you and Kailua. They had the  race over there and that was super fun. And then I saw you were on a wing foil board with a seven meter wing, even though it was like a really windy day. So just let's talk a little bit about that.

How was that experience?  It was fun. I was over there anyway and Dez and the crew were like, Oh, you should join this fun race they're doing. I didn't want to actually enter,  but figured I'd go over and, chase people around. So I did the course sorta. And, I'm not  really into racing, so to speak, but obviously, I'm old school, like I'm not doing loops and fricking spins and everything on the foil.

My body's not as forgiving as it used to be. And I know I'll hurt myself. An injury at this point is something I'm really trying to avoid. So I'm blasting around. I'm trying to go as fast as I can. I'm jumping high, but just not doing rotations, really enjoying winging  and pushing the envelope of what I would call free ride gear.

So You know, not full on speed or race gear, but taking gear that I can use for anything and trying to make it go as fast as it can go.  And in terms of wing size  is that pretty much always means like windsurfing. If you're really going fast,  you're going to use as big.  a wing as possible even to the point where most guys are out on fours and you'll be on a seven.

It's just the way that, aerodynamics work in power and efficiency of foils. So  you ride pretty lit when you're trying, especially upwind, you can handle a really big wing. Feathering upwind at a real high angle of attack. There's a point at which you just can't keep the thing in the water anymore reaching, and you've got to scale down the size of your foil at least.

But I tend to ride pretty big wings here.  Yeah, even back in the days of wing wind surfing I remember you were always more on a bigger sail than most of the other guys, right?  Yeah  Wave sailing is different even here. It's the same like most guys would be out at he'll keep on like a 4.0 or 3.0. And I'll be  historically on a five, Oh, four, seven, that's changed.

I've scaled down to where I'm writing smaller sales than I used to. Like my average sale now over here is a four or five. I'll hardly ever even go on a four, seven, just cause the way the equipment has evolved, it's changed. The boards are shorter, they're easily overpowered. You ride a bigger sale. 

And you'll tend to stuff the nose a lot. They just balance better with a smaller sail.  But it's more the difference between, say, wave sailing and slalom racing or course racing, where even today on the really short, really wide slalom boards,  The guys are using  seven meters when you'd be on a five, a wave sail,  four or five way.

They're carrying giant rigs and then most of the guys are a hundred kilos as well to hold them down. So it's really different when you're trying to go fast, you'll use a. A flatter, bigger  sail and then just get up on the fin or as it may be up on the foil.  All right. Cool. Yeah, like my interviews can tend to go pretty long, but you just told me that you have a photo shoot today.