Brandon Bay, Ireland, January 28, 2013 – Robby Swift participated in the first Mission of the Red Bull Storm Chase in Kerry, Ireland, and advanced to the second round.  Despite recorded storm-force gusts of up to 74 knots (137kmh) and fierce 20-ft waves, the sailors completed three rounds of competition in two locations on the Maharees peninsular.

About Red Bull Storm Chase:
Red Bull Storm Chase is the most-challenging windsurfing contest of all time, with a waiting period that started in August 2012. By hunting down 3 massive storms around the globe, 10 of the world’s best sailors will battle for the crown of ultimate storm windsurfer. Now extended into 2013, the competition is split into two parts in accordance with the main global storm seasons: Between January 10 and March 22, 2013, the sailors will be on standby to hunt down two massive storms at seven previously nominated destinations. From July 22, 2013, the top four sailors from rounds 1 and 2 will compete for the title in the final mission at one of the Red Bull Storm Chase destinations. To catch raging conditions, the participants have to  be flexible-to-the-max during the two holding periods with just 48-hours to mobilise on-site before the next storm strikes. The contest format is simple: The top 10 sailors from the online voting compete in the first mission. Six advance to the second and the 4 best riders to the final mission.

Robby’s report:
I was on my way to Maui from Chile. I had just landed in San Francisco when I got the green light. My flight was horrible! Santiago-Panama-Houston-San Francisco-Maui-Denver-Frankfurt-Dublin! Longest journey of my life. 4 days without sleeping in a bed!

I was scared on the day, now I’m happy I did it. It was really hard. I never imagined it would be that windy. I could hardly sail in a straight line. We only sailed a total of one hour each that day and I’m still very sore two days later. It was by far the most extreme windsurfing I have ever done by far.

I did my best push loop forward ever though. That was the highlight of my trip. I was so scared just to sail that I was really proud of myself for even trying a back loop, let alone that push loop forward. It was a good feeling to land that one! I had told Rob Jones on the beach that I was going to go for one, but when I sailed out, I realized that it was going to be hard even to do a gybe. I pulled off one back loop close to the beach and it wasn’t that bad. I saw a big ram just a few seconds later and decided to go for it. The scary thing was that you just couldn’t tell if there was going to be a 70 knot gust at any moment. I took off and did the push loop and was getting blown around so much in the air that I almost didn’t sheet in for the forward. Then, on the way down already, I decided I had to go for it. I wanted to win the best jump prize!!! I sheeted in hard and rotated really fast. I actually finished the rotation very high up in the air and realized that my front hand would probably slip off the boom as it does a lot of times when you land really hard like that. I had the time to slip my thumb around underneath the boom to hold on in a death grip and when I slammed into the water completely flat, it was lucky that I had done that.

I actually sailed out of the move almost planing. I didn’t even get my feet wet at all. I felt the board snap in two under my weight and the weight of the sail. Coming down from an almost 15m jump will often break a board, but this one was a landing with the force of 60+ knots of wind behind me and slightly over rotating the forward part of the push loop forward. The poor board had no chance! I’m happy that I did it though, I have been scared of landing doubles and push forwards like that as I didn’t think my ankles would take it, but they were fine on that one, so hopefully it will give me more confidence to start landing on my feet more often. It’s amazing how much everything seems to go in slow motion when you are in the air like that. I spotted my landing from very high and even though I felt completely out of control, my body somehow joined forces with my brain and made me do everything right to sheet out, brace my legs for the landing and put my front hand’s thumb underneath to hold the landing.

The whole event I only used my 3.4 Combat and a 2.5 that I borrowed from my friend Rob Jones, a sail he had cut down from an old 3.2 Combat! For the next chase I will definitely be taking a 3.0. Robert Stroj at the NP design center is already working on it, so I’m excited to see how it comes out!!