Another beautiful day
Foton bildspelet: Bill Watts & Måns Jensen
Åkare: Kristoffer Living och Peter Forslin
Plats: Sverige
About a month ago on one of those almost religious Sunday, 22 m/ s of wind and 3 metre swells coming through on the sets, I ran into Mathieu Turries ( your friendly founder of Nordic Surfers Mag ) on Bjärehalvön. He had just come out of the water and had that endorphin contented look about him. I showed him some windsurfing pictures of Kristoffer Living that I had just taken a couple of hours before. Mathieu was a bit sceptical about including them in his magazine but…I assured him it was the right thing to do. Surely if you covering surfing and kite surfing, then you must include some windsurfing too?
Not that Mathieu said anything; but It always makes me laugh when I hear sly, bitchy remarks from surfers about windsurfers or from windsurfers about kitesurfers or from windsurfers about surfers or whatever…
I was a bit sceptical about kitesurfing myself until I saw Robby Naish doing it in Ljunghusen 2003. He was getting some serious big air, letting go with both hands and flying upside down for about 8 seconds before casually landing. The Nordic kite-surfing championships were being held on the same beach. The difference between Robby and the Scandinavians can only be described as total out classing. But things can change quickly with young sports and I know the level of Swedish kite surfing is now much better.
Surfing has exploded in Sweden during the past ten years and it is pushing everyone to the next level. I remember in 2004 how pioneer Skåne surfer, Zafer Taylor jokingly said that the competitive “elite” Swedish surfers take themselves far too seriously and that the standard of surfing in Sweden really sucked. Freddie Meadows has made huge progressive leaps for Swedish surfing mankind over the last 5 years and if the rest of the young guns follow suit, then who knows what might happen in say 5 or 10 years. Miracles can and do happen. Who will be the first Swede to make it to the top?
Out of all the surf related sports it’s the Swedish windsurfers who consistently over the last 20 years have made the biggest impression competing internationally. Several riders have achieved World ranked top 10 placements and given the best in the world a serious run for their money. Anders Bringal, Mathias Holmberg, Peter Forslin and Kristoffer Living just to name a few, without mentioning any women.
Kristoffer Living is in some ways Sweden’s own Robby Naish but from Höör. The first time I met Kris was back in 1996 on freezing November day when the wind was howling a south-easterly gale. This young stocky guy was going absolutely mad. Attacking every wave that came his way, aggressively hitting lips and pulling off some stylish manoeuvres. When he saw me standing there filming from the beach, he came up and introduced himself. I would have shaken his hand if it wasn’t oozing puss from a big open blister. Windsurfing has paid its toll on Kristoffer´s body. His feet have spent so much in foot straps that he’s developed “club foot”. A weird science fiction like growth of gristle on his upper right foot that must have frightened the lives out of at least a couple of shoe shop assistants.
After 9 Swedish winters in South Africa and 5 summers on Gran Canaria, Kristoffer is comfortably at home in heavy conditions. Attempting double forward loops, and occasionally landing them, in the wind torn, shark-infested oceans south of Cape Town almost became routine. But like most good things, unfortunately sooner or later they come to an end. Lack of financing forced him to give up his competition dreams, so he cut his hair and got a real job. Not that I’ve noticed deterioration in his windsurfing or his love for the sport.
I have photographed and filmed Kristoffer with water housings on various occasions over the years and I am always amazed by his professionalism. He can go out in mediocre conditions and pull off jumps anywhere you ask him to do it. The precision of his judgement and timing is incredible, which is lucky for me as I wouldn’t
really want him or his board falling on me from heights of 5 metres and above.
Kris knows some pretty good jokes about kitesurfers too, that might give you a good chuckle. But to my surprise he actually admitted the other day to have secretly tried kite-surfing and that he would like to put some time into it, but is a bit worried about possible hostile reactions from his friends.
If Kristoffer is Sweden’s answer to Robby Naish then Peter Forslin must be the South coast´s own Laird Hamilton. Peter windsurfs, surfs, kitesurfs and even has a stand-up paddle board.
I first met Peter in January 1993 in the crayfish town of Lancelin, Western Australia. Peter was in training for the PWA world cup together with Per Andersson. Both of them were only 19 years old at that time, and were temporarily sharing a house with the Eastbourne windsurfing mafia from England. It was definitely a party house with just enough space for 10 young men to curl up next to each other in bed or on the floor. Peter and Per were not as well trained drinkers as the English lads, but they could definitely hold their own in the surf! Seeing their fearlessly high aerials and death defying moves out on the 4 to 5 metre waves that break about 1 kilometre out to sea on the outside reef was just awesome.
Despite achieving a personal best of a sixth place on a leg of the world cup in 1994 on the Canaries, Peter’s claim to fame must be when he survived breaking his fin by running over a shark in Japan.
The only thing I have ever personally seen him break is a mast at Gislövs Hammar in Skåne. The conditions were spectacular and Peter was ripping. All of a sudden he was no longer a windsurfer but a swimmer. He lost his board and got caught in a rip pulling him southwards. Eventually he caught up with his board and set about self-rescue. I sat in the warmth of my car overlooking the break where he struggled for about 45 minutes before he finally made it back to the beach. Most people would have been happy just to call it a day and go home, but not Peter.
Peter is a really fit athlete and just loves the water regardless of what he has got under feet. He likes to let the weather conditions decide what sort of board to ride and can easily switch between, surfing, windsurfing or kite, on any given blessed day.
I doubt at this stage that Peter or Kris has much hope of improving their International competition results, not that I think it worries either of them. Just as long as they find the time to surf and have a good laugh at bad jokes about kite surfers and surfers then I’m ¬sure things will work out just fine.
All the surf sports are more closely related to each other than most people would like to admit. Life is too short and the surf days too few to waste time being sceptical.
Artikel: Bill Watts
Publicerad i Nordic Surfers Mag #7