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Many of you have said that I should tell my story, as the loop was a very important breakthrough in windsurfing history.
So let me take you back in time, on the journey of the aerial loop. At the time, curiosity was in the air as to who would do the first rotation. We were the pioneers, world-class sailors. Sailing at this level meant being able to see a new maneuver and duplicate it within minutes by quickly visualizing it in our minds. The first time I saw a table top jump, I went straight out and did the same thing on the first wave. However, the loop was much more complex, it was a full rotation, the commitment had to be 100%, an all or nothing maneuver. That first year had many challenges, and many failures before I would experience the physical mechanics of having an eight foot board, a sail with a fifteen foot mast and my body complete an aerial rotation.
Today we understand more about how any type of duplication is performed and I have included it because I find visualization fascinating, as an artist and professional inventor. A recent discovery in brain chemistry has identified a set of cells called "mirror neurons." These neurons pass information around the brain at 224 m.p.h. giving us a remarkable ability to use our imagination, turning what we visualize into physical form, i.e., the aerial loop. This is how we as wavesailors duplicate the maneuvers of others so quickly, and this is what happened with the aerial loop. Days after we filmed the first loop, many sailors were all over it, even attempting different versions of it. It felt great to have taken aerial maneuvers to a new level, and to see other sailors breaking through as well.
To me the loop was art, something I could leave behind in a sport I loved - and love - so much. In the very beginning over "the year of the loop," I started practicing on a trampoline in Haiku, on Maui. I came from a gymnastics background and also learned how to perform an aerial flip/loop on snow skis on a trampoline, so it was an obvious tool in practicing a wave jumping loop. As any gymnast would tell you, "sticking" the landing of any rotation is considered complete. It took a very long time to break down the elements, first holding a boom in my hands, feeling and visualizing the maneuver over and over. The next step was to do it while being footstrapped onto a finless short board, first without a boom and then with the boom. I must admit, I had reservations at times after landing flat on my head again and again, and there were many days of sailing with a sore neck. Then there was that one moment when I jumped into the air and experienced for the first time a perfect rotation, landing the board square on the trampoline bed, sticking the landing with the boom straight out in front of me. I sat there for a long while, knowing that I had just performed the first aerial loop, minus a sail and on land, mind you, but nevertheless this was the nucleus, the origin of the aerial loop. The 360 degree rotation is everything, and once you know that feeling you should be looping very shortly after. It gave me confidence that it would be only a brief matter of time before I would perform it on the ocean. But it was not so. Being powered up and trying to do the rotation off a wave was a disaster at first. I was trying too hard, and it cost a lot, on my equipment and in body pains. Then, just like on the trampoline, came that one day that I completed the rotation into a nose dive, like the picture shown below. In that moment I knew I was getting close -- very close.
The final phase of the loop's evolution came together in an very interesting way. I had been hired by Maui Video Productions to film windsurfing at Hookipa for a "This Is Maui" type video. Getting to know the cameraman was a good experience - he knew when and what to shoot. At the end of one day's shoot we got to talking about the history of windsurfing, and I mentioned to him that I had been working on this new move; I remember him being very enthusiastic at the possibility of having the first loop in their film, so we agreed that I would go for it that next day.
The following day Hookipa had perfect wind and small waves, excellent conditions for practicing a new maneuver. Before getting in the water I closed my eyes, going over and over it in my mind, visualizing the success on the trampoline, and the nose dive landing at Sprecklesville. I knew that I had to force the board into a landing and hold onto that boom with everything I had, given my handicapped left elbow. A few minutes later I was facing the wave that would produce the birth of the aerial loop. I rushed up the face, smashing into the air, watching the world go around in a circle, and exploding back on the water. I held on for dear life as the sail pulled me back into position; I stood on the board for a moment knowing that I had just stuck the landing, laughing my ass off!!! As I heard a scream from the cameraman up on the hill, I dropped the sail, fell backwards into the water throwing my fist into the air, screaming, yeah!!! All the emotions of that year came rushing up to the surface. I had finally completed one of the biggest dreams of my life!
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