MICHI SCHWEIGER

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FROM AUSTRIAN LAKES TO MAUI, HAWAII

Product Manager of Naish Windsurfing, tells us about his background, working with Robby Naish, his views on foiling & some of his most memorable days in Maui

Words: Michi Schweiger // Photos: John Carter, Fish Bowl Diaries & Michael Gilbert

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BACKGROUND

Originally, I started windsurfing in Lake Neufeld, just south of Vienna in Austria. Call it luck or coincidence, probably both, but through the past 20+ years I have been a product manager for Naish Sails for some of the sports that we develop. I started out as an instructor in Lake Garda, then I became a team rider for Mistral competing on the PWA World Tour as a Freestyler. During my time on the tour, I became involved with product development, which eventually led me to work with Harold Iggy, Rick and Randy Naish and of course Robby. When Robby left Mistral I was given the opportunity to come along and have been with Naish Sails ever since.

PASSION

I still have the same desire to get on the water as I did back when I first started and that has always been my driving force. I am originally from Austria. Through the job I was eventually able to move out to Hawaii and I currently live in Maui. When the freestyle scene started, the Mistral guys called me to come and work on some boards in Hawaii and they flew me out to O’ahu. Back then Freestyle was more of an outlet to bring at least a small fraction of the feel of wave sailing to flatwater spots. During the winter we would go somewhere to wave sail for real. My goal was always wave sailing, but freestyle was what was possible, as we didn’t have any wave conditions where I grew up. Before that I was also into slalom racing and that came in handy when I started testing freeride and freerace equipment. The freestyle has gone under the table for me now. I mostly wave sail these days, but I do a mix of everything. When we started to get into Stand Up Paddling it complemented the windsurfing really well. If there was no wind, we would be working on SUP gear and when it got windy we would shift gears and work on windsurfing products. Sometime later foiling came along and we were pretty much there from the beginning of that as well, the same can be said with the winging. Personally, I try to keep a balance between all the different sports these days, no matter whether it’s testing or through work on product development.

DEVELOPMENT

When it comes to windsurfing I work with Ricardo Campello, Robby Naish and Zdenek Maryzko, who is based in Tarifa. When Harold sadly passed away, we found a combination of working with Randy Naish, and eventually Robby and I started to design boards on the computer, which is what I now do for the windsurf, SUP and foil boards. This provides a healthy back and forth between Robby and myself – allowing us to draw upon our years of experience as a solid base to create new products. The rest of my job is essentially product management; which involves coming up with the range, understanding the market, what is needed and then putting it into production when needed.

TYPICAL DAY

It’s hard to explain a typical day, but my general work/day flow is to get up early, get as many emails out of the way as I can, head to the office to connect with the other R&D guys, the sales team and the graphic/marketing team. I would call it connecting the dots as the interaction with the different cornerstones of the business is essential for all of us. Eventually, we are off to get on the water for whatever is suitable – depending on what conditions the day throws at us. It is very seldom that Maui does not offer any suitable conditions to allow us to work on something that is within our scope. Water time is essential for us as it is the driving force of the product development. It makes the difference between just looking at what everybody else is doing, to being able to be proactive, and crucially, ahead of the game. Maui in general has that pedigree whereby there are a lot of trends developing as many other companies also develop in Maui, which offers a healthy mix of ongoing innovation.

That being said, our development is pretty much global these days, especially when it comes to windsurfing. We take advantage of developing and testing Freeride and Freerace gear in Europe, which has intensified since Kubus Sports purchased the company. So that, and several factory visits per year certainly keep me on my toes with travel throughout the year.

MOTIVATION

I think, in the end, you want to have great equipment to ride for yourself and others. I really enjoy developing windsurfing equipment. I love the satisfaction when you make a product better, with the end consumer ultimately in mind. When we see customers happy on the water it really motivates me to continue this process. It is extremely fulfilling to be a part of this process, which eventually leads to the final products that you then see on the market.

However, the main drive for me is still to score as much time on the water as possible. Then everything else attaches to that. That is how we have always been at Naish. The idea wasn’t to look at the market and then follow what it is doing. Obviously, trends start very small and we managed to latch on to some and even create some of them. Robby’s popularity, and approach, has certainly helped a lot of the newer trends to gather acceptance in various markets. The idea was always to do something that we have fun with. If we have fun riding our products, then we are pretty sure other people will too.

FOILING

Foiling has changed everything. It is one of those things that has been around for a long time before its current explosion. Even back in the early windsurfing days. There was Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama, who were foiling in Maui way back in the 80’s. Rush Randle was also ahead of everybody. He was windsurfing with a foil really well at a time when almost nobody was looking at it as part of the sport. Then foiling kind of disappeared until former Naish rider Kai Lenny helped to turn it mainstream. It truly went from one application to several and now spans from yachting to windsurf foiling, surf foiling, downwind foiling to wing foiling. It is like the spreading of a good virus.

For windsurfing, I look at a place like Lake Garda, when the wind is 10-12 knots, and if it was fin windsurfing there would be nobody moving consistently. Now, on days when it is under 10 knots, there are still a lot of people out on the water, all over the place in fact. It is so impressive to see. In the end, foiling gives riders more water time and they have more fun.

On the PWA, the last event I went to was Japan in 2022. In my opinion, if it was fin only, they would have maybe had two races in marginal conditions. Meanwhile, on the foil, they were racing every single day. When you look at any location, the wind is never 100% consistent. Maybe the dedicated fin guys, once in a while, are faster in a straight line, but when you take into account the whole course, because of the gybes and the manoeuvres, in the end, the foil guys come out on top the majority of the time. They just don’t slow down. If you don’t plane through the gybe on the fin, the competitor on the foil will overtake you. I think it is exciting watching the fin and foil race together. Everybody has an opinion about it and all opinions are valid. Personally, I think the PWA is representing the pinnacle of the sport and it should stay that way. It makes no sense to get in the way of the natural progression of a sport. At least in my opinion, you need to let things run their course and evolve with them. The same happened when Eric Thieme won the first course races on the slalom board instead of using the raceboards with a daggerboard. In any case, I am sure there will be ongoing heated discussions about that subject no matter what.

JAWS

Big wave days on Maui are a fickle thing. They always look great in the pictures and videos, but the reality is that there is a lot of luck involved to even be there and score good waves. Through one winter season there are usually not that many opportunities to sail Pe’ahi. More recently it has become more difficult with the advent of paddle surfers and the resurgence of tow-in surfing. There are a lot of people on the water doing different sports, and of course, everyone wants to get their piece of the pie. It is always a memorable experience when you sail there and the beatings are usually equally as memorable. I have to say I have not had it as bad as Jason Polakow, who has been seriously worked the last few times he has sailed there. He got pounded and then climbed up the cliff and went back and got more equipment and wiped out badly again – most people wouldn’t have gone back out after the first beating. It is not only his riding that is still impressive, but also his determination. In any case, just being out there is an amazing experience. The place is certainly a force of nature.

STANDOUT MEMORY

I think my most memorable days I have had in Maui were not even at Jaws, it was at La Perouse last year. We had that Code Red mega south swell. That one was unbelievable. La Perouse is a beautiful place to begin with, but that day was something else. On big days you can see the waves breaking about halfway from the point of the black lava rocks, whilst the contrast of the turquoise water colour against the jagged black lava formations provides a spectacular backdrop. On that particular swell, the sets were breaking all the way out at the point, which is pretty much double as far as I have ever seen it break before. The side offshore winds were ripping at the crests of the breaking waves – creating a massive curtain behind the wave.

NAISH

Robby was able to sell the company to Kubus Sports, which is one of our most long standing distributors in Europe. The idea is to be able to focus on product development within the Maui headquarters, and take advantage of the structure and resources that Kubus has to offer in order to grow the business further, while being able to keep our core values. Robby is heavily involved in the product development process, as he always has been, but now has the freedom to focus on that entirely, while being able to enjoy the process and the riding itself. We are all learning how to work together globally and are excited to bring Naish into the future for many years to come.

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