Fabian Grundmann: "Idols within a sport usually stay with you for many years. In windsurfing, names like Naish, Dunkerbeck and Köster are often mentioned - one of my idols has always been André Paskowski. In my youth, a picture from SURF magazine of him surfing in board shorts was burned into my memory - at the perfect moment of the manoeuvre, seemingly in absolute darkness.
As our northern German winters are characterised by alternating shades of grey and seemingly never rising sun, we actually always surf in the twilight up here. So my desire to somehow bring light into the darkness coincided with my memories of Paskowski. When I told Andi Diekötter, a professional photographer and self-confessed lover of 8.5-metre sails, about this idea on the beach, he was immediately enthusiastic. He had already built a special flash: It was built into a drainpipe and easy to position in the water using a tripod.
We spent two afternoons working on the pictures. My task was as clear as day to him: "Jump your whatchamacallit manoeuvre right in front of the lightning! Not in front of it and not behind it, otherwise it won't work!" He defined his task differently: "Don't pay attention to me, I'm trying out some settings."
Jumping very precisely to the point of a good-looking manoeuvre in half darkness, positioning the best moment on the 1-metre stretch in front of the flash, in less than knee-deep water and in very gusty and shifting winds - phew! As the flash took three seconds to charge, only one image per attempt was possible. After a while we got into the groove. Andi learned to name and distinguish the manoeuvres and, despite the freezing temperatures, I even had warm hands thanks to the super short approach strokes! After 90 minutes, we had less than 50 pictures on the memory card, so we managed a shot almost every two minutes. In the evening we got the good news: "Dude, I've never been so cold in my life, my feet were blue! But there are some good pictures!"
And how did the photographer fare? Andreas Diekötter also reports on his experiences that day: "I first had the idea of taking windsurfing photos with a flash in spring 2021. Back then, I had built a housing for a studio flash, but it remained unused for a long time - due to a lack of opportunity. Until one day Fabi asked me if it was possible to take a photo that looked like it was taken at night, but with the surfer lit up. Bingo! I had found my "partner in crime". Now we just needed the perfect conditions.
Timing and temperature were the biggest challenges during the shoot. The timing was particularly demanding, as the flash requires a lot of power in HyperSync mode, which means longer charging times - several seconds between each flash. Shooting in "continuous fire mode" at 20 frames per second was therefore out of the question. This in turn meant that we had exactly one attempt at each jump. A single shot had to capture everything perfectly: the best moment of the action, the surfer's position in relation to the flash, the perspective, the framing - everything. In addition, for some tricks Fabi had to rely on a small wave as a ramp to jump off - another factor that we couldn't influence.
The temperature posed an additional challenge - especially for me. While Fabi kept moving, I stood relatively still in waist-deep water (5°C) and waited for the perfect moment. What can I say - I've never had such cold feet and hands in my entire life. The cold not only made it uncomfortable to stand still, but also made it very difficult to operate the camera. Because I knew that cold hands would make operating the camera difficult anyway, I decided to do without my protective housing for the camera. So I stood there with my unprotected Nikon Z9, shaking hands and seawater up to my hips - and just hoped that everything would go well. Looking back, I would say it was worth it!"
