Red Letter Day: No Rope, No Problem
A Foil Drive, a busy Florida lake, and one mission: ride waves without using our own boat.
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RIDER & WORDS: Xavi Corr PHOTOS: Mitchell Doyle Markgraaff LOCATION: Cape Town DATE: Thursday, January 15th, 2026
If you’re going to have a first day in Cape Town, you might as well do it properly. For Xavi Corr, that meant howling winds, epic conditions, postcard-level views, a session with a windsurf legend, and launching clean over a (slightly apprehensive) friend…
My first day in Cape Town started at 6am. I’d just flown in from visiting my new sponsor Starboard in Thailand at their HQ the night before, and between the jet lag and the wind absolutely howling outside, I barely slept. The wind was crazy all night – you could hear it nonstop – which already had me pretty hyped because that usually means it’s going to be good.
I woke up tired but buzzing. I’d never been to Cape Town before, so I was super keen to see what it actually looked like in real life. I grabbed something small to eat, and tried to wake myself up while frantically pulling all my new gear together. Everything still felt a bit surreal – new country, new crew, new gear, new spot.
Not long after, my new team manager Matt Maxwell arrived, coffee in hand. We loaded all my gear into his van and headed straight to the beach. On the drive there, the sun was just coming up, and I was already blown away by how sick everything looked. Just like I’d seen in the magazines. Huge Table Mountain right next to the ocean with a big ‘tablecloth’ cloud hanging over it, and you could just see whitecaps everywhere. It was pretty obvious that the wind was going to be strong.
When we got to the beach, it was already pumping. The wind was solid, and there were some fun waves coming through. I remember standing there for a bit just looking around because it honestly didn’t feel real. Table Mountain in the background, proper Cape Town conditions, and perfect timing.
We got straight into shooting. Rigging up, getting in the water, coming back out, changing angles – just grinding through it. The wind stayed strong all morning, which made everything way easier. I felt good on the gear, and we were getting some really nice shots. The whole session just flowed. Nothing too hectic, just good riding and good conditions.
💎 Premium Content Ahead! 💎 *You will receive our weekly Friday Pump newsletter, plus the latest features, gear tests and giveaway announcements. By late morning, everyone was pretty tired, so we packed up and went to grab brunch. Food was definitely needed at that point. We sat there for a bit, went through some of the shots, and started talking about where to go for the next session. That’s when we decided to head to Rietvlei, a small lake nearby. When we got there, it was absolutely nuking. Way windier than at Big Bay beach where we were before, which was slightly more protected. I rigged up my 3.5m because anything bigger would’ve been way too much. Rietvlei is a sick spot, but it’s also pretty unforgiving. There’s a ton of seaweed, and you can only really ride in certain parts of the lake. As expected, I kept hitting seaweed and fully eating it. I’d be riding along feeling good, then suddenly the board would just stop and I’d be sent flying. It happened more times than I’d like to admit. Definitely ate it a few times, but that’s kind of part of riding there. You just get up, you go again. Despite this, one of the cooler moments of the day happened here. The crew wanted a shot of me jumping over my friend, Rocio Torado. At first, she really wasn’t keen on the idea, which is understandable. But after chatting about it and lining it up properly, she agreed to go for it. I went for it and managed to do a stalled forward clean over her. The shot came out super sick, and we were all pretty hyped that it went smoothly. After that session, I was pretty cooked. My arms were done, and I could feel how long the day had already been. But there was still one more session planned. For the last shoot of the day, we called on the windsurf freestyle G.O.A.T, Lennart Neubauer to come join. Riding with Lennart was insane. He’s easily one of the best freestyle windsurfers in the world, and now also my Starboard teammate, so sharing a session with him was really special. We were riding totally different equipment – him on windsurf gear and me on the wing – but still somehow in sync and pushing together. The light at that time was really nice, and the wind didn’t seem to be calming down. It wasn’t about landing anything crazy, just having fun and throwing down together. Watching Lennart do his thing was super motivating, and it made the whole session way more fun. By the time we finished up at it was close to 8:30pm, pitch dark, and the shoot had been going for around 14 hours. Everyone was exhausted. We packed everything away as the sun disappeared and headed back. I didn’t even make it two minutes into the drive before I completely passed out in the van. For a first day in Cape Town, it couldn’t really have gone much better. Strong wind, good people, and some really fun sessions. Definitely a day I won’t forget and I am looking forward to spending more time down here in the future.
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