Red Letter Day: HOMEWORK
Pro foiler Benjamin May trades global wind-chasing for a glassy pump and wakefoil session on his home waters of Lake Starnberg, Munich.
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RIDER & WORDS: Nicolò Spanu PHOTOS: Montecristo Productions LOCATION: Oristano, Sardinia DATE: Saturday March 28th, 2026
Nicolò Spanu, along with his sister Madalena, knows a thing or two about photoshoots, and the small intricacies – positioning, timing, communication – that can make all the difference. Professionals doing professional things. Being able to tie this one in as practice for an upcoming race tour stop was an added bonus…
The day started early with the ambitious idea of dedicating the entire thing to both shooting and training, which already says a lot about our collective optimism! The morning was calm and mostly about organization, planning, and trying to make sure we were all thinking the same thing at the same time. A surprisingly complicated task for something that looks like “just go ride and take photos”.
After lunch, we had a proper briefing to structure the photoshoot. We defined positioning, timing, and the type of shots we wanted, basically turning vague ideas into something that could survive reality. Once everything was aligned, we packed gear and headed to the water.
The session took place at Torre Grande, in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, at the Windacademy Sardinia, a spot that basically exists to remind you that water sports can be both beautiful and slightly chaotic. It’s a training center for windsurf, wing, and other water disciplines, and it gave us exactly the kind of playground we needed.
I was riding with Alberto Citzia and my sister Madalena, and the dynamic clicked immediately. Beyond the obvious fact that we already knew each other, we somehow managed to turn “three athletes trying to coordinate in moving water” into something that actually worked. Communication was constant, quick, and occasionally just a look that meant “don’t mess this up”. The equipment was fully race-oriented: boards, foils, and sails set up exactly like we would use in competition. No casual setup, no excuses, just proper race gear pretending we were not about to also try to look good for a camera.
💎 Premium Content Ahead! 💎 *You will receive our weekly Friday Pump newsletter, plus the latest features, gear tests and giveaway announcements. Conditions were on the lighter side, but still good enough to make things interesting. The photographer was in the water with a windsurf setup, staying relatively fixed while we essentially used him as a human reference point and repeatedly passed very close to him. This created some very dynamic angles and also some moments where everyone silently agreed that timing was not optional. The most entertaining part of the session was exactly that proximity. We were doing jumps, transitions, and aggressive turns just a few meters from the camera. Some of them were clean, some of them were “creative interpretations of control”, but all of them stayed just on the right side of acceptable risk. Nobody planned to crash into the photographer, which is already a solid achievement. Between runs, there was a constant mix of adjustments, jokes, and small corrections that somehow improved everything. The atmosphere stayed light, even when the technical level demanded full focus. It’s always easier to perform well when you’re laughing at the fact that you’re trying to be precise in moving water with wind involved. At the same time, the session was not just for photos. It was part of our preparation leading into the European Wing Race Championship in Naples. So while we were trying to look good on camera, we were also fine-tuning race setups, timing, and overall feeling in real conditions, which is a slightly more serious way of saying “training hard while pretending it’s also a photoshoot”. As the day went on, the coordination between the three of us improved noticeably. Early chaos slowly turned into something closer to a system, with cleaner lines, better spacing, and fewer moments where everyone wondered what the others were doing. Progress, in its simplest form. We kept riding and shooting almost until sunset, making full use of the light and whatever energy was left in our legs. By the end, fatigue had fully arrived, but so had the satisfaction of a session that actually worked on both fronts: performance and content. To finish the day, we stopped at a bar for a drink, mainly to remember what sitting still feels like. After a long day of wind, water, coordination attempts, and near-perfect timing experiments, it was the most stable part of the schedule…This is premium magazine content, usually only available to our subscribers, but you can access it for free when you join our mailing list!
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Pro foiler Benjamin May trades global wind-chasing for a glassy pump and wakefoil session on his home waters of Lake Starnberg, Munich.
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When it comes to wetsuits, finding the sweet spot between warmth, flexibility and durability is no easy feat. With the latest evolution of the Majestic, MYSTIC has taken a closer look at how materials, construction and design can work together to get more out of a 5/3mm suit. We sat down with Timon from MYSTIC to talk about the thinking behind the new Majestic, the introduction of Yamamoto 40 neoprene, and why sometimes the smallest details make the biggest difference on the water.
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Tracking a massive forecast for ten days paid off when Sydney delivered a rare, mega-period swell. Matt Davies and crew scored glassy, 700-meter-offshore bombs at North Narrabeen—trading epic lines until shark sightings, ski breakdowns, and engine trouble finally called the session.
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