Robby Naish goes beyond imagination. He is the deep love for the sea, the wind. He lives for this. Only.
Robert Staunton Naish - born April 23, 1963 in La Jolla, San Diego, California, won his first world championship in windsurfing in the Bahamas.
Since then, he has been featured in films, videos, news reports and articles. In 1996, he founded Naish Sails Hawaii, which manufactures and sells sailboards, sails, kitesurfing equipment, stand up paddle boards and paddles, hydrofoils, foil boards and wing-surfers.
Robby Naish and the rebel surf at the Olympics. By Emanuela Audisio, 20 February 2017.
Montecarlo. He is the Lord of the Waves. The Prince of the Tides. The legend of the rebel sport. The idea of freedom in a world without rules. Nature, ocean, man. All in acrobatic balance. Robby Naish looks like a rock star. Helmet blond hair, backwards cap, wiry body. Naish has won everything, but especially 24 world titles. The first at 13 years in '76, becoming the youngest champion in history. Surfing, windsurfing, kitesurfing. Everything that slips on the waves. Anyone who has seen "A Big Wednesday" and "Point Break" will understand. He is 54 today, has retired from competition, is a Laureus ambassador and has a $ 25 million turnover materials company.
You just got back on your feet after a bad accident.
"On May 1st of last year in Maui I broke my pelvis. First bad accident of my life and first plaque. The wave was high, my foot came out of the strap: I ended up with one leg forward and one back, landing on my pelvis. The doctors had given me 9 months of recovery. But in October I started going again, I am in shape, If I were a tennis player, a golfer, a footballer now I would have hurt my elbow, my shoulders, my joints. But I feel fine, I also dedicate myself to Sup, Stand up paddling, excellent even at a certain age."
But you live in Hawaii.
"Yes, I was born in California, in La Jolla, but my father, also a surfing champion, when I was six years old moved to Kailua in the island of Oahu where I grew up. Windsurfing never went out of style there. Every day I go out on the waves with friends who are over 80. And none of us are doing badly. I wear the same size of trousers as ever. Of course in front of the mirror I have aged, but in the shape I have not. I don't smoke, I don't drink. I'm not healthy, I'm not on a diet and I eat everything: even pizza, even junk food, if it happens. I'm a grandfather and I have a little girl, Christine. Often the pleasure of being with her makes me divorce from the sea."
Surfing the waves is no longer transgressive?
"It’s that people have a somewhat folkloristic idea of us: drunks who let themselves go, who go crazy at night, irresponsible pranksters, tending to suicide. It’s not like that. I don't want to die drowned, I don't care. We are professionals. I wear a life buoy that helps me rise to the surface when the wave drags you down. As a boy I went around in Bermuda shorts and I didn't give a damn. Today I always enjoy, but if I don't feel I don't go, I have become lazy or, let's say, more cautious. Before I always wanted to give 120%, now I'm satisfied with 100%."
Surfing begins in Tokyo 2020.
"I understand the question: did we, the people of the wave, become bourgeoises, or is the IOC riding the renewal, looking for a young audience. Maybe the truth is halfway. I have won a lot, even 150 races, but I have no Olympic title. I remain a stepson of the sport. When I had to make the choice, before Los Angeles '84 where windsurfing began, I decided for professionalism. Also because then if you just earned a dollar, for the IOC you were no longer amateur, it’s not like now. I have no regrets because the board chosen for the Games was much less competitive than ours and because we were and went much further than the Olympic sport. Without losing our freedom. But if now surfing also enters the big traditional family, old fashion, instead of being the rejected child, that's fine."
You keep on being chased by sharks.
"I was surfing in Japan with a friend. We were fifty centimeters apart, a shark passes right between the two boards and disappears. We no longer knew what to do, whether to move forward or remain there still and motionless. We asked ourselves: and if he comes back? The fact is that on the kite and on the paddle you are above the water and they can see you and go away. While on the surf the situation is worrying because if there is a shark at a meter you do not see it. The problem is that people end up thinking that sharks eat men. But it's not like that, they just bite you thinking you're something else. But in the world there are more people killed by hippos than by sharks. Right now at Hawaii there is a campaign to save sea turtles, favourite sharks prey. Nature has its balances."
Do you ride a changed sea?
"In the 80s, when I was racing in Japan, the sea was full of plastic on the shore, especially when it rained. In Brazil I found myself with other types of waste. Today there is more awareness and the situation has improved, even in the Mediterranean. The real Point Break is that of nature. If we break it, we will get off the waves forever. All of us."
August 22, 2019, Waikiki, Hawaii – Surrounded by family and friends at the famed Outrigger Canoe Club in Waikiki, Robby Naish was inducted into the Hawaii Waterman Hall of Fame.
Learning to windsurf as a kid on Kailua Bay on Oahu, Robby has made an incredible career out of his pursuits on the water including 24 world titles in windsurfing and helping to pioneer kiteboarding, stand up paddling, foil surfing and the latest Naish development, the Wing-Surfer. His induction marks another accomplishment on his incredible career.
Robby spoke on his appreciation through a social media post stating, “stoked to be inducted alongside Tracy Phillips Darling and Kai Lenny, joining a long list of Hawaiian watermen and women and raising funds and awareness for the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation which provides scholarships to outstanding young athletes here in Hawaii.”
Robby Naish quotes:
“Every day on the water is a good day!”
“You know that I am a big car and motor racing fan.”
During practice for the United States Formula One Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on October 20, 2018 in Austin.
"Did I already tell you that I like to have fun? There was a nice climate in Calgary in the Olympic village but we were staying in a hotel a hundred kilometers away among the coyotes and there was never a way to party. But after I picked up the medals, I immediately got back, with a week in Honolulu. I met Robby Naish the surfer and we had a lot of fun together. Then I rented a Ferrari and I did a couple of tricks like Magnum P.I.. Guys what a car..." Alberto Tomba
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