PATRIK DIETHELM: ONE MIND

Inside the mind of Patrik Diethelm, who expanded his development from purely boards into the wonderful world of sails, fins, foils & beyond.

Words: Patrik Diethelm // 

Photos: Carter / pwaworldtour.com

---

BROADENING HORIZONS

I have been making my own brand of boards since 2010, so my brand PATRIK has existed for 13 years, however, on top of that, I originally worked for F2 from the year 2000, which means I’ve accumulated a grand total of 23 years, and counting, of experience with regards to working in the windsurfing business as a board shaper. After so many years of doing the same thing, I felt like I needed a new challenge and this was part of my motivation for broadening my horizons and moving into the sails and foils industries too. We have always been looking to develop a harmonious relationship with a sail brand to go with our boards, however, realistically, the options were to try and buy another brand, which would have simply been too expensive as a small brand, or to also look around for a small sail brand to work with us. We explored the latter, but that option just proved too complicated to bring to fruition. To be able to showcase our true performance I felt we needed sails to go with our boards. The final push to start making sails came from Tine Slabe in October 2018 when he challenged me by saying: “could you do it?”, and just two months later I tested my first prototype wave sail at my home break in Margaret River, Western Australia. The race sail prototypes were made in the middle of 2019. At the BOOT 2020 we introduced the sails for the first time, while during Covid-19 I was in WA and I had time to develop the rest of the range plus all the other rig components and accessories.

DRAWING UPON EXPERIENCE

I went through a process and thought about how to make my own sails. I have plenty of experience from my past when I was not only competing, but also heavily involved in the sail development process, so I felt I had the knowledge of what I wanted to develop and feel on the water. However, translating that into measurements, and how to actually make the sails, was still unbeknown to me. The material side was easy because you can physically touch and feel them, but you don’t know all the measurements in a sail profile, and you certainly don’t know all the ins and outs of how a sail is built. Covid gave me the chance to get up to speed with this, and after a bit of experimenting, I quickly understood the basics and the sails performed well right from the beginning. It’s the details that still today give me a headache – like wrinkles in the mast sleeve – haha!

COMBINING FULL-TIME JOBS

Shaping boards is a full-time job, while making sails is also a full-time job… then there is everything else from mast and booms, to extensions and all the accessories in between, which is again another full-time occupation. The sail adventure started as a team of two and our first port of call was to study the sail designer program, we received from the sail production. After that I wrote down all the measurements and the construction details, while my collaborator carried out all the necessary computer work.

LEARNING ON THE GO

We began playing around with the sails at the end of 2018, with wave sails being first on the itinerary as they are much easier to make compared to race sails – there are no cambers or wrinkles in the sleeve to worry about. After that, my next move was to dive into the race sail development because I thought if I can make the easiest, and the hardest sails, then everything else in between would be relatively simple in comparison. I used the wave sails to get a feel for what I was looking at and then I went straight to making the race sails. We made so many prototypes to truly understand how the whole thing worked. Eventually our production team told us to stop making prototypes because the R&D Team were exhausted from all the changes. They wanted to start production, so fast forward a little and we did… the first production sails were amazing.

BOARDS VS SAILS

With our boards I basically carry out all the work in Thailand together with a production team of workers. I create the shape, they laminate, I re-shape, then they put the inserts and finish the boards with graphics. Hand making boards involves an incredible amount of time and effort and eventually it can drain my creativity as it is such an intense process. For the sails, we work directly with the production team once we’ve completed all the testing. I send the file, they make the sail, then I receive the sail and check it over. If it’s good, then we proceed and make it into a production sail, if not we refine it until we are 100% happy. The sails are made at Global Creations in China because I find the quality and finishing from there to be extremely high and I really love the finished product from that factory.

MISSING PIECE OF THE PUZZLE

I was also involved a lot with fins in my early days, and together with the same guy cooperating with the sails, we made the whole fin range for all our production boards. However, foils have made fins almost obsolete for racing nowadays. So, the last missing part of the puzzle for us was the foils. With the foil I wanted to implement my own ideas, using real life feedback from actual testing and not having the design influenced by artificial intelligence. The end result is truly fantastic.

PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING

Our performance on the racecourse is both testament and proof of this. For example, Michele [Becker], who was competing in his first full season on the PWA World Tour last year finished 5^th overall, which is hugely impressive and almost unheard of. The gear has played an important role, and it is the reason why Michele joined our brand, but of course Michele’s racing ability is outstanding – especially his gybes.

FOIL FOCUS

I was really targeting control with our foil, so naturally that was my top priority. There are other foils out there that are easier to ride, but they are perhaps 10 knots slower! At this level on the PWA, control is paramount – especially when it comes to gybing. In a straight-line everybody has a similar top speed, but you can clearly see that through the gybes, a lot of riders just explode, and then they are out of contention. You are last and that is it. Ultimately, if you don’t make it to the finish line, being fast in a straight line is pointless. So, we set our sights in finding more control while still keeping the top speed of course. Personally, I think Michele Becker is the best gyber on the tour on the foil. Just listen to Ben Proffitt, I am sure he has said it. You can only gain that reputation if you have that kind of foil. With a lot of other foils, you could not gybe that high as it feels so different.

LIVING AND BREATHING WINDSURFING

We are a small brand if you simply use turnover as a metric, however, we are the biggest windsurfing brand – we actually offer the most products – hehe.) when looking at products quantity. Other major brands mostly have boards and then a sail brand as another company. So, I feel we are one of the biggest sole windsurfing brands as we offer boards, sails, masts, booms, foils and all the accessories in between all under the PATRIK name. I can’t really ever switch off from thinking about the brand. I am so addicted to windsurfing, for Karin [Jaggi] and myself, it is our hobby, it is our sport, it is our business and daily talk. We truly live and breathe windsurfing! It is either about the business, the product, or just what we have been up to on the water. I simply can’t stop! I cannot imagine doing anything else. I am so addicted to this life. I don’t like some of the business side of things, such as talking about money and contracts, but I just love the R&D process and making the best gear we possibly can.

AMBITIONS & THE TEAM

I am 51 now, but I am not 100 percent sure of my ambition for the brand. I would of course love to see one of my riders become world champion with fully equipped PATRIK gear, but a lot of that comes down to budget. If you can afford a few top riders there is more chance of having a sailor consistently in the final and fighting for top honours, come the end of the season. If you only have one or two riders, your chances definitely drop significantly. It is much harder as a small brand to fight to become world champion. With Michele, he never competed on the whole tour before, so it was a great surprise that he came 5^th. You simply can’t plan that! That made me really happy because it was a clear proof that the gear performs. Obviously, he is a talented sailor as well, but the gear needs to work for him to be consistently achieving those kind of results. He is not afraid to attack when he is racing, and he’s certainly not scared of the big boys, while he is very confident in his own ability. We are delighted with Michele and all our riders.

SPEED WORLD RECORD

Heidi Ulrich set a new Speed World Record in 2022 in Lüderitz on our sails, which was mightily impressive. Karin Jaggi is not slow and neither is Zara Davis. Heidi completed the run with an average speed of 47.06 knots over 500 metres and there are not many men out there that can beat that! Heidi beat Zara Davis’ previous record of 46.49 knots, which was set in 2017. I personally don’t compete anymore after a few injuries and losing a lot of weight, but I am often left pondering if we had a male speed sailor on our sails – just how fast could he go?

SYNERGY

Having all of our products coming from one mind has been great for PATRIK. When we were designing boards, and had riders testing on different sail brands, the feedback we were receiving was very mixed and confusing, which made it incredibly difficult as a designer to make a decision. Having everything under one umbrella, as the PATRIK brand is now, with myself as the designer, has made life much easier as I can decide where to focus my attention on any aspect of the entire setup. I may think the sail needs adjusting rather than the foil or vice versa – previously this simply wouldn’t have been a viable option. When you are trying to achieve maximum speed and efficiency it can be difficult to tie all of these things together perfectly – when each component is designed separately. However, now with everything under one brand we can truly work in synergy. I feel we have a connection between everything that I cannot explain, but it feels amazing to have it all working as one. I feel where I am the rider and the designer, which is a huge advantage for us. I often compare it to Michael Schumacher, who was not only an amazing driver, but also a mechanic himself, which gives you a greater depth of understanding. This kind of combination is how, and when, you end up with the best products as you know how to fix things and crucially – what is going right or wrong.

HANDS ON APPROACH

After being injured for two years, I am now making up the hours I have lost foiling, as being able to test the equipment you are developing is a crucial part of the process. You gain invaluable feedback that can sometimes be difficult to put into words. You need to feel everything on the water to be able to know what you need to change to achieve the desired result.

My personal drive to create the best products ever is simply based on the very fundamental love and passion for this sport in all its aspects – from high speeds (PB 52.33 knots) to Slalom (Top 10 PWA) to big waves (I moved to Margaret River just for this :)), to the endless opportunities the foil has opened up in windsurfing – especially for places where the wind conditions are less ideal.

 

 

 

 

 

The post PATRIK DIETHELM: ONE MIND appeared first on Windsurf Magazine.