Robby Naish
The greatest windsurfer who ever lived isn’t ready to look back on his life. At 58, he’s still riding the wave Words JÜRGEN SCHMIEDER
Robby Naish was born in La Jolla, California, in 1963 – five years before the first patent for a windsurf was filed. In 1976, he won the Windsurfer World Championships. Naish was just 13 years old. It would be the first of 24 windsurfing world titles he’d claim over the next two decades. “There wasn’t the slightest thought it might lead somewhere,” says Naish today. “There was no career path, no thought of what would happen next year or 10 years after. I was just along for the adventure and trying as best I could, in case it lasted a little bit longer. More than four decades later, it’s fair to say it has. At 58, Naish is still flipping his sailboard, and the sport, on its head. He’s a living legend, but even more – he’s the embodiment of the evolution of global watersports. In 1968, Naish’s father, an avid surfer, moved the family to Hawaii. Robby was five. He still lives there today, but the scene around him has changed. Alongside surfing and windsurfing, there’s kiteboarding, stand-up paddleboarding (SUP), foil surfing, and more. Naish hasn’t just mastered these sports, he helped pioneer them. In the mid’90s he launched his own business, Naish Sails, innovating gear for these emerging sports. “It was never a goal to do something new – it just happened,” he says. “Whether I’m windsurfing on a waveboard, a slalom board or a kite board, or on a foil with an inflatable wing, or on a longboard or SUP, they’re all surfing. I’ve
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adapted from one to the other; I had all those tools and the know-how.” In 2016, Naish was approached by Joe Berlinger, director of 2004 rockumentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, to make a film where he tackled the world’s longest waves. Then, weeks before the first stop, Naish landed an aerial move badly, resulting in a life-threatening pelvic fracture. The film, released this year, became a candid insight into an athlete facing a different kind of long wave – his own mortality. Now fully recovered, Naish is older and wiser, but just as optimistic as he was that first time. “My last world title was decades ago, but I don’t look at it that way. I don’t sit around talking about the good old days. I’m as active as I was 30 years ago, enjoying where I’m at right now as an old athlete waking up and taking ibuprofen, polishing my old tricks or developing new sports for younger people to get out and enjoy.” the red bulletin: It can’t only be ibuprofen. What’s the fountain of youth you’re drinking from? robby naish: Red Bull. I’m not joking – I drink it every morning with my vitamins. I’m in good shape for my age, but it’s just luck, good genetics and a healthy lifestyle. I eat pizza and hot dogs, hamburgers and French fries, but I exercise enough to balance it out. I don’t do drugs, smoke or drink alcohol, and that helps as you get older. I couldn’t do what I do if I drank alcohol every day. Do you have a fitness routine other than being in the water? No, which is totally not normal. Other people [in my profession]
Let’s talk about that injury… The moment I did it, I thought I’d broken my back. I didn’t crash hard, I just came down from a landing. Everything was perfectly wrong – if I tried 100 times to do it again, I couldn’t. My back foot came out of the strap and went into the water behind me, but my front foot stayed in and went with the board. The kite was going fast and I couldn’t get my weight off my front leg. Then I felt a pop in my back. I was in the water trying to see if I could move my legs, and I could, so I thought I’d torn a ligament. I dragged downwind back to the beach and I guess I looked bad. The next thing I know, I’m on a stretcher to hospital, then on a medivac plane to Honolulu. I’d never really had a bad injury my entire career, so it was educational. Certainly unpleasant. Your first major injury at 53 – did it change your perspective? I used to think I was invincible, and not just when I was young. I’ve been lucky to have a body that can recover quickly, and I’d never even thought about age or what would happen if I got really injured. I’ve spent my entire career avoiding injury. My friends rode dirt bikes, I didn’t. I wouldn’t skateboard other than cruising on the street. I’ve only got one plate and four screws in my entire body. They say an athlete dies twice: once when their career is over, THE RED BULLETIN
CRAIG KOLESKY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, THE LONGEST WAVE
Ride of the ancient mariner
stretch, do half an hour of yoga each day. I hate yoga. I think stiffer is stronger, so I barely stretch. That hasn’t changed since I was 20. If a trainer spent a month with me, they’d think I was doing everything wrong. Falling into water is pretty forgiving; my joints are slowly wearing out, but nothing like if I had repetitive injuries in my knees, elbows and shoulders. I try to get on the water every day – taking a break isn’t good for you when you get older. Injury is the enemy, but I worked hard to come back after my recent injuries [alongside his 2016 fracture, Naish broke his right foot a year later]. Living in Hawaii, where there’s no off-season, helps.
