This year again, the Media Sailing Cup -Segel Media Cup- took place on the Alster lake for another classic three days of hot racing in Hamburg. Regarded as one of the most eagerly awaited events of our calendar, the Media Sailing Cup was held off from the 29th of June to the 1st of July, 2018.

Some of the teams were among the top level crews of Germany, including Women’s German olympic team led by Müller von Blumencron. Combining quality racing J70 sailboats, known as the world’s fastest growing sailboats (6.93-metre -22.7 ft), with a lively après-sail social schedule, this year’s event was a success.

Counting media teams from Der Spiegel, Stern, Taz, Der Hamburger, Tagesspiegel, Yacht, Welt, Boote and many more, this year’s Segel Media Cup embodied a true competitive spirit reminding that sports and smiles are always a simple equation that sum up the winning formula.

Far from last year’s strong winds and cold rain, this 2018 edition hosted once again by the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein has been organized under a wonderful sunshine. Sven Jürgensen, one of the main organizers, not only attributed the event’s success to the beautiful weather but to the action on the water. »This year, 5 extra teams found their way to the Alster lake. With 16 wonderful teams in total, fine weather conditions, this year’s event has been a great and fantastic event. Networking, sailing in the middle of Hamburg including a great final race, a great atmosphere and good spirit… It was truly perfect.« 

For 6 years now, Sven Jurgensen has been working in the heart of German sailing. As a landscape and sailing photographer, Sven has worked for some German sailing clubs and some German Sailing League Teams (NRV/FSC/SVI/BSC).

Over the years, he’s seen more and more women holding professional sail qualifications. For him, it’s important to include and focus on female sailors. »It’s a true challenge,« he says. »Earlier this year, we recently organized the Helga Cup, a female only-event considered the biggest female regatta ever. It is not only a regatta, today it’s a movement.«

The Norddeutscher Regatta Vereinwe hosted the very first edition of the Helga cup in June 2017. »Above all, it’s an event for beginners, for professional sailors, for young and old people,« he explains. »It’s not only a sailing race but a networking event. We’ve been impressed by the global and media interest.« The Helga Cup 2019 is already confirmed and sets to take place on the 13-16 June, 2019. »We hope to align over 80 sailboats on the starting line. The challenge is the boat fleet because we need more than 20 boats to be able to invite more teams.« 

The next Segel Media Cup is planned to happen in August, 2019. The Panthalassa team is ready to take up the challenge and bring its 4th place into play!

 Photos: Sven Jürgensen

More infos here.

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Known as a scientist, an expert in acoustics and a nature lover, Jorg Rychen managed to combine his passion for science and for nature. Working as a researcher and a lifeguard, Jorg is definitely not your typical scientist. He focused his work on neurophysiology research on freely behaving animals and managed to spend his spare time in wilderness, both as a freediver, a ballooner and farmer.

In last December, he joined our Panthalassa crew members on our latest expedition up to Tromsø, Norway. The expedition was above all about the journey of a group of adventurers meant to record and understand the secret language of the Orca Killer Whales, described as the most intelligent creatures on earth. We spent a few days with Jorg on a small size boat under below-freezing temperatures, sharing one of the most spectacular visions which is witnessing orcas in their natural environment. 

Hi Jorg, can you tell us a bit about your background?

I studied experimental physics, I obtained my PhD at the ETH Zurich for studies of quantum phenomena in semiconductors. Then, I founded a company that provides scanning probe microscopes all around the world. I sold the company in 2008 because, even though it’s very interesting, everybody in physics is a little bit of a nerd and it remains an all-male environment. To be honest, it’s socially boring. Today, I split my time between my lab and the shore of a lake since I’m also a lifeguard during summer in Zurich. As a lifeguard, you’re in the sun, you feel the wind, you see the clouds, you have a lot of friends and people around you. This job is basically at the very opposite of being a lab technician. I’m also employed at the Institute of Neuroinformatics where I work as as Prof. Hahnloser research group. My interest is to solve automation, measurement, and instrumentation problems arising both in neurophysiology research on freely behaving animals and in anatomy work using high-throughout electron microscopy. I work with a lot of mathematicians, physicians, and biologists used to do a lot of experiments with song birds. Working with them, I would record all the songbirds. Songbirds are a model for basic research and provide ideal signals for study and experiments. Birds are a model animal in neuroresearchs, as process happen in the brain. Only birds, bats and dolphins can do that That’s why it would be interesting to learn more about orcas.

Where does your fascination for the orcas and, more widely, for freediving come from?

I’d probably need to tell you the full story. My father was a mountain guide in Switzerland. When I was a kid, we did a lot of adventures in the mountains. And I remember that, even as a child, I could hold my breathe longer than anyone else. I guess it’s just something that’s given to you somehow. So, since a young age, I’ve been very good at freediving. I remember being on holidays and seeing Russian girls with wetsuits diving down deep in the water. They told me « this is freediving, it’s an old sport . » It was around 1999, and I was hooked. However, freediving is all about numbers. It’s all about how deep you can go, how far you can swim, and how long you can hold your breathe. I’ve never been very interested in this competitive side of freediving. For me, freediving is more about freedom. I like the fact that you don’t need a lot of equipment; just your mouth, the mask, and fins. It’s the same with climbing. I prefer bouldering these days because what you need is just a pair of shoes. This is everything I love. Going back to freediving, when you dive down, you’re overwhelmed by this really strong silence. I think it also has to do with the ears, it makes this feeling of complete silence. You can also hear the orcas from far away. It’s just a beautiful sound. I first met Jacques (De Vos) a few years ago, he was my freediving instructor. I remember the first time I saw an orca. I was standing on a stand up paddle and the orca just went close to me. The dorsal fin was about 2 meters high, so taller than me. The orca itself was 3-4 times bigger than its fin. Orcas are really big, especially when they come close to you. It was very impressive so, at that time, what I had in mind was to study the orcas the same way I study songbirds. One experimental method to decode the ‘neural algorithms’ underlying song learning is to record the song of a bird with a microphone and interact with the bird via a loudspeaker.

The December expedition aimed at decoding the secret orcas communication. From your scientific point of you, why is it so interesting and so important?

There are several aspects. One aspect is the scientific side of the expedition which is basically the information approach. Obviously, orcas are able to exchange some information and perform conversations. For example, when orcas hunt, they agree on a hunting strategy beforehand. During the hunt, orcas remain silent. It means every individual agreed and organized their hunt before. They are somehow able to discuss what to do together. I wouldn’t call it a language yet – in the terms of a subject, verb, and complement – but it’s interesting to see how orcas are sharing information. Orcas’ ears are their primary sense, while for human, it’s the eye. Orcas rely on sound production and also see with the ear, using their sonar. They use the vocalization to see, but they also use the vocalization to communicate. For us, the two are separate, we have the eye and the ear. Orcas navigate by echolocation, and the clicks and whistles are part of the orca’ sonar. I think it’s an interesting thing to study.

How did you proceed to try to start decoding orcas language?

It’s always a bit of a problem because we’re used to make just small announcement. We put the hydrophones underwater and recorded the orcas. The most challenging part was to separate individual vocalizations from the background noise and from the other orcas. This is a difficult part because, at the end, we want to come up with one single track of a single orca. Orcas are known to have three kind of vocalizations: clicks, whistles, and pulsed calls. So the idea is to analyze the single track and see which orcas is responding to which one. The collected data creates statistics. Analysing data, we’ll be able to understand who is talking to who. The objective is to study whistles in order to make a catalog of whistles and analyze how often they are repeated. Doing so, we’ll be able to make a vocabulary, a kind of protocole, and learn how they discuss. For example, science have studied bats for a long time. Because of their near blindness, bats use vocal signals – echolocation – to communicate, they are easier to study. As sound goes everywhere, they somehow steal the echo of another bat and use sound wave for communication. They echolocate within specific frequency ranges, and I think it’s the same for the orcas. The questions is « what kind of frequency do orcas have? » Last year, I made some recordings and it was interesting to see that they recently found a frequency. Orcas can basically tickle another orcas remotely. It means there’s maybe a physical interaction over a long distance.

What do you expect from the data collected during The Sound of Intelligence expedition? 

We’ll gonna analyze it in order to create a vocabulary and statistics. We’ll start classifying the produced sound and test in playback experiments. It’s a good idea to try to create interactions with them. For example, we’ll maybe find out that orcas have a signature call, like a name! If we have a collection of signature whistles, we can maybe compose another new signature whistle, then restart playing back and then the orca can recognize the sound. That would be awesome!  

The December expedition took place in a remote fjord north Norway, above the arctic circle. What was the most challenging part of it all?

What I found out is that the most challenging part is always to handle the materials, for many reasons. It is very cold, you are in a wetsuit, everything is wet, cold and dark, and you wear gloves. So everything is tough and you need to be sure it works. I tried the same experiment last year so I gained a lot of insights regarding the handling of products. For this expedition, I built up a container to put the records, and did a test in the lake of Zurich.

When you’re not in your labo, what do you do exactly? 

I’m also a balloon pilot. Since I’m a child, I have this passion for airships. I’ve always wanted to build an airship but to do so, you first have to have a licence for ballooning. So I started ballooning a few years ago. My goal is still to own a human-power airship, that looks exactly like an orca by the way! I’m a member of a ballooning club and we co-own two balloons. I also have a small farm in the mountain in Switzerland where I grow herbs and spices. You have to climb up there, it’s a very steep region but I like that. I like to have a cool project in mind, something that gives me a focus.

Portraits : Pierre David 

Orcas photos : Jacques De Vos 

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Photographer Kevin Meredith live in Brighton, by the sea. He got into photography in 1996 but never took it too seriously. In 2003, he joined the Brighton Swimming Club, known for being the oldest swimming club in the world, whose members swim all year round, no matter the weather conditions are. « Cold water swimming releases endorphins so you get a little natural high. » We had a chat with Kevin to discuss the joy of cold water swimming and « swishing ».

Hi Kevin, tell us a bit about your background.

I live in Brighton by the sea which is only 50 minutes from London by train. I’ve mostly lived in seaside towns having only spent 5 and half years inland in my entire life. I got into photography in 1996 when I started an art course. Part of the course was photography which, at the time, I never had considered. Back in 1996 it was not as accessible as it is now. I did my induction into the photo lab, basic photography and I just got it. I kept photography as something personal to me so it never became a chore. My photography really changed in 1998 when I got a Lomo LCA which is a quirky Soviet camera designed in 1984. The LC-A changed the way I thought about photography, mainly to not take it too seriously. It gave me a lot of creative freedom. I could, and did, take my camera everywhere. This is when photography became a big part of my life.

You’ve been documenting the Brighton Swimming Club since 2003. In which way is this club, founded in 1860, so special to you?

Way before 2003 when I joined Brighton swimming club. It only seemed natural to document what went on at the club like I did with everything else. At the time it might have seemed a bit odd in the days before Instagram when everyone documents every detail of their lives. The club is very special for me as I have friends in the club that I have known since joining. In 14 years, I have seen the club change massively from a basic little changing room where the ladies had to walk through the mens changing area in order to get to the showers. Our new modern facility has much more capacity: no drafts and heating!

Some members of the club swim in the sea all year round, no matter the weather is. How would you describe this special relationship the community members have with the sea?

I am one of those members. I’ve swam through winters without a wetsuit like a lot of the other members although I must admit I do wear neoprene gloves. Without them, my fingers would be too numb to operate my camera. The cold water thing becomes a challenge. In our first year, Yvonna (who joined the club around the same time as me) wanted to make it through winter, so we did not loose our cold water acclimatisation and made sure we went every day. Now I know that I can easily miss two weeks of cold water swimming and not loose my acclimatisation. The cold water can become kind of addictive, you want to prove to yourself you can hack it as it gets colder and colder.

How do you stand the frozen waters especially during winter? 

As long as you start swimming in October, the water gets colder and colder and you can hack it. If you started in January, you might have problems as you would loose control of your breathing when entering the water. As I said before, it’s all about acclimatisation. At this time of year (January), it feels cold when you first get in and then, after while, you’ll have a tingly sensation all over your body. It’s quite odd but pleasant. Warming up can be a problem. I can’t get straight in a warm shower after a cold swim. If I do, I might pass out so I have to let myself warm up naturally before having a shower. Not everyone is affected in the same way. If I don’t shower I can shiver for some time after a swim depending how long I was in for. 

Tell us more about the analog shots you take…

The Nikonos V is the best underwater film camera ever made. When I first joined the club, I would take photos on the beach before and after a swim with my Lomo LCA and leave it on the beach rolled up in a towel. In my first year of being in the club, a fellow member offered to sell me his Nikonos as he did not use it anymore. Shooting on film is great, but for swimming it’s a bit limiting as one day you could shoot 27 photos which means the next time you go swimming, you only have 9 shots left on your roll. It was annoying as you can’t change films when you’ve swam 500 meters to the end of the pier! But I loved the colours I could get from films like Agfa Ultra and the original Kodak Portra VC.

Eileen, Midge, Shoichi, Sean Dave Sawyers, the more we look at your shots, the more we feel close to these friendly people. Dave Sawyers seem to be a character… Could you tell us more about him?

Dave Sawyers is a living legend, and I think he is the spiritual leader of the club. In the early days, when it was really rough, he was like an oracle judging the timing needed to get in the water between massive waves. He used to be a school teacher, his past students have found my photos online and left comments saying that he was a legend back in his teaching days. He had his signature moustache way before it became fashionable. Dave is also the man that taught others in the club to ‘swish’, which means fishing and swimming at the same time. He claims he was taught it by ex SAS personnel but he can’t talk about it. Maybe he is ex SAS himself, it would not surprise me. 

Tell us more about your routine with the club. You just go there, swim and shoot spontaneously?

In the summer, I usually swim at about 7:30am, but in the winter I like to swim while the sun rises so my swim time varies. Sunrise is getting earlier and, as I write this in January, it will get 30 seconds earlier each day. There is a group that swims at 6:30am but in the winter that’s crazy as it’s cold and there is no light for photos. I will usually try and swim with a small group of people. When I was single, I would swim everyday unless I was hungover. But now I have a family, I tend to do it 3-4 times a week. I also do 1.7 kilometres in the pool while my daughter has her swimming lesson.

There is an authentic feeling of happiness coming out from your shots. Do you think it’s the power of the ocean? 

Club members tend to be very happy during their swims. There is always a lot of smiles and laughing. Cold water swimming releases endorphins so you get a little natural high. Not so much the power of the ocean, just lots of different things like being around friends, being in the natural environment and the endorphins all add up to increase the happiness.

Discover Kevin Meredith’s work on his website.

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« Where everything happens at the touch of a button and requires a computer science degree to understand and repair, Infinity’s working parts are manual, simple, laborious, greasy and somewhat comprehensible. » 36,7 meters-long, Infinity have properties that make it exceptional for a polar vessel. We met Northern California-based director and filmmaker Nico Edwards, author of ‘Sea Gypsies: The Far Side of the World’, his first feature. The movie seeks to tell the ambitious journey of a group of modern seafaring gypsies across the Pacific Ocean. « Captain Clemens Gabriel has transformed Infinity into a sea tribe, comprised of crew from all over the world» he said. « Water, trees, dusk, mountains, sunrise and dramatically bad weather are some of the strongest catalysts for awe. So along with extreme pest control, the voyage is a quest for awe, and for the sheer joy of it. » So, please, get onboard this hand-built sailboat described as a ‘bunker that floats’…

Tell us a bit about Infinity, an environmentally friendly hand-built sailboat… 

Though by all outward appearance, these voyages appear to be exercises in reckless abandon, and while it is true that infinity was not designed to travel through ice, Infinity is an incredibly tough boat made of ferrocement. She was constructed in 1977 in Oakland CA, and is believed to be the largest ferrocement yacht ever built, meaning she’s made of metal reinforced concrete and is basically a bunker that floats. Ferrocement, a well tested and long practiced form of boat construction, no longer in fashion due to its downsides of being extremely labor intensive during construction and heavy compared to fiberglass or aluminum, does have properties that make it exceptional for a polar vessel, such as incredible toughness, impact resistance and strength in any temperature. In the Ross Sea, Infinity made impact with a large number of icebergs without so much as a scratch. Infinity is also very green, as her sails are recycled from super yachts, and sowed up to fit. She also has a very large solar array, which provides for all her electrical needs as well. Right now, she is also a vegan ship, trying her utmost to source all foods locally.

Sailors, a captain, an electrician, a carpenter, and filmmakers… Most of you are, above all, adventurers with a taste for the extreme…

Infinity seems to be a magnet for those who just don’t fit in anywhere in particular, mainstream societies cast offs. A rotating group of wanderers, they come together on Infinity as a sort of ocean going tribe, then they head off across the globe to earn a living for a while doing various things. We have carpenters, surveyors, electricians, professional sailors, and even a former NASA rocket scientist, but they always seem to return to Infinity just as soon as they are able. 

When did you first have the -crazy- idea of the « Sea Gypsies » project? 

In 2011, well ensconced in a little padded gray cubicle, in a nondescript office park on the side of a generic highway in Silicon Valley, I was growing grim about the mouth. The 3 hour-commute and job that would most likely be replaced by an algorithm in a few years was not providing much in the way of stimulation. So one day, I took stock of the situation, and having nothing in particular to interest me on shore, I decided I would sail about a little and see the watery parts of the world.

Before I left, I did the first thing that anyone nowadays would do… I googled my options. This led me to a website called FindACrew.org, which connects crew looking for boats, to boats looking for crew. Opportunities abound for all skill levels, from landlubbers to salty sea dogs. This is how I came across Infinity. I was looking to learn to sail and she looked like a learning boat. By this I mean, that unlike the more modern, technologically advanced sailboats of our day, where everything happens at the touch of a button and requires a computer science degree to understand and repair, Infinity’s working parts are manual, simple, laborious, greasy and somewhat comprehensible. 

I joined the boat in Singapore in early 2012 and we sailed through the Malacca Straight into Malaysia, all the way up to the Andaman coast of Thailand. This was probably the most memorable 5 months of my almost 30 years of life. The time machine slowed to a crawl as it gorged on the abundant unknown. Roughly a year after leaving the boat, I was back in the US, plugging along, when out of the blue one night I get a call from Captain Clem. He says the boat is infested with tropical termites he can’t get rid of, and he heard that if he dropped the temp of the boat below freezing for 3 days it would serve as an environmentally friendly, yet extreme form of pest control. To get the boat below freezing for such a long time, he had it in his mind to make a pacific crossing from New Zealand to Patagonia, with a visit to Antarctica, and wanted to know if I might like to join in and video the experience. The decision seemed brash, as he intended to start the 15,000 mile voyage in “a couple of days”. I quickly agreed to go, and informed him I would join the boat as soon as I had sold my possessions and put my affairs in order.

The plan had more than a touch of madness to it, due to Infinity not being at all designed or equipped with cold weather in mind. I was pretty sure Infinity did not have any heaters, insulation, nor did the main saloon have a door to keep the outside, outside. I looked at an atlas and tallied up my frequent flier miles (hard earned through years of signing up for credit cards solely for the bonus miles) and schemed up a way to meet the boat in route. A couple weeks later and I would be rejoining Infinity on the island of Trukk, in The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Our path would lead south-ish, meandering down the international date line, to New Zealand before heading east. It would cover over 15,000 nautical miles and was expected to take roughly 10 months.

You’re currently travelling on 8,000 miles across the Pacific ocean, from New Zealand to Patagonia, with a stop in Antarctica. What are your motivations, intentions, and goals?Just « for the sheer joy of it »?

Awe has the power to diminish the emphasis on the individual self, encouraging people to forgo strict self-interest, to work towards improving the world around them. Research conducted in the 1960’s on awe or transcendent ecstasy found that the most common triggers come from nature. Water, trees, dusk, mountains, sunrise and dramatically bad weather are some of the strongest catalysts for awe. So along with extreme pest control, the voyage is a quest for awe, and for the sheer joy of it. 

How is life organized onboard? Does everyone has duties and a daily schedule?

Though perpetually exploring, daily life onboard consists mainly of sailing and maintaining the boat and crew. The rhythm of life onboard reflects the necessities of a sailing vessel. Cleaning the boat, navigating an approximate course, raising sails, keeping the boat clean, maintaining an approximate course, oiling, greasing, scraping, scrubbing, disinfecting, cleaning, lowering sails, killing bugs, and of course… cleaning. Crew join up with every level of skill, and the experience they gain depends on what they seek from their time aboard. Some join up with the intention of becoming professional sailors or some already are and just want a change of pace. Everyone contributes, everyone learns something, and yes, lots and lots of work, mostly in schedules. 

« What can be found in abundance on board is blood, sweat, enthusiasm, risk tolerance, disdain for authority, and an ample supply of alcohol,» says the voiceover of your film entitled « Sea Gypsies: The Far Side of The World ». Does it sum up your balance onboard?

Pretty much, its a whole lot of work just to keep it going. A boat is a delicate structure of rapidly decaying materials, floating atop and constantly being bathed/marinated in, a caustic brine of destruction. They are holes in the water in which people throw money in, never to be seen again. Unless you’re really hardworking and crafty, up to but not necessarily over the point of conniving, a boat owner can expect to part with upwards of 10% of their boats value per year in upkeep costs. To avoid the constant shelling out of cash, one has to do all the work oneself… or have volunteers/suckers do it. This voyage being no exception, Clem maximizes the blood sweat and toil of his crew. 

The movie tells the ambitious journey of a group of modern seafaring gypsies across the Pacific Ocean. Were you prepared to the level of adrenaline you’ve been experiencing? 

I think for the most part people were prepared for a lot, but the massive hurricane of ice in the Ross Sea was a whole lot more than we expected and we’re pretty lucky to be alive in all honesty. I think if we did the trip 3 times, one of those times we would not have made it… at least. When help is 3 weeks or more away, you hope that you just die as quick and painlessly as possible. When you’re alone at sea, you feel like anything and everything is possible. It’s also a lot like groundhog day when you don’t see land for months at a time, you start to think you might be trapped in purgatory. 

What’s next now?

I head back to the boat in one months time, and we plan on heading North, attempting to sail further north than anyone in history. Following the two warmest Arctic summers on record, the sailing vessel Infinity will tackle the formidable Northwest Passage, attempt to reach the Northernmost inhabited settlement on the planet, aptly named Alert. More than just breaking a record, reaching this normally icebound settlement at the tip of Ellesmere Island, will be a stark warning to the world. To reach Alert at 82° latitude, Infinity will traverse through Nares Strait, a narrow channel of fierce currents and rapidly moving mountains of ice at the height of summer. Along the way, the ship and crew will battle severe storms, avoid marauding icebergs and hungry polar bears, and explore a part of the world that is rarely seen. This is the most dangerous maritime route in the world; more people have been to the top of Mt Everest than have successfully taken a sailing vessel through the Northwest Passage, and no one has ever sailed this far north. The full route will be over 15,000 miles and take 10 months from Tonga to Greenland. The expedition begins Nov 2017.

Follow their adventure online.

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Niklas Reisenauer, based in Lübeck in Northern Germany, worked in the German navy before committing himself fully to sailing. Today he competes in the newly founded German Sailing League (Bundesliga). As the first nation to establish a national sailing league in 2013, Germany didn’t foresee the rapid development of the new sailing format. Earlier this year, the German Bundesliga commenced its fifth season in Lake Chiemsee, in Bavaria. With some former Olympic sailors competing in the Sailing Bundesliga, this season provides a high-level competition. 

We sat down with Niklas Reisenauer, skipper of the Panthalassa crew during the Media Sailing Cup, to discuss performance, taking risks and professional sailboat racing. “It’s been a big challenge to race during the Media Cup. As an international team, it’s never easy to communicate. You need to choose a language, explain the different manoeuvres, and stick to it. It’s hard for everyone, and it can be a bit stressful, but like German Bundesliga, I love a challenge.”

When did you start sailing?

I started sailing at the age of 13. At the very beginning, I sailed small boats like dinghies and optimists. During my free time, I would sail across the Mediterranean Sea, in the English Channel, or off the Greek coast. Later, I sailed more than 10 different types of bigger boats. I ended up travelling all over Europe, competing in both the European Championships and the World Championships.

Tell us more about the professional competitions…

In the past, I sailed in what we call “Handicap Systems”. Handicap Racing describes races where boats – either dinghies or yachts of different speeds – compete against each other. Each boat is slightly different, so if they compete in the same race, the position and actual time can be reviewed and corrected. For example, although you may be first on the finish line, after calculation with the handicap factor, physical parameters of the boat (length, beam, weight, sail area) and past performance, you can actually place 4th or 5th. The handicap factor plays a big role in the competition. To be honest, it can be really annoying. It makes the race quite difficult. The handicap factor is called the ORC race and it is very popular in Germany. It is expensive for all the participants as everyone tries to find the best material, hire the best sailors and the lightest mass. Sailing involves a variety of competitive formats but I prefer yacht sailing – it means boats against boats – like we have here in Hamburg. I like competition between same classes of boats. In these types of races, boats have exactly the same sail size and exactly the same weight. It seems fairer as it depends more on the human aspect. 

Competition plays a big part of your life today as you compete in the Bundesliga, the National Sailing League…

Yes, I’m not a long-term sailor. I tried it but I like to have short races and short competitions. That’s why I chose the Bundesliga in Germany. It’s a lot of fun. It took time to end up here. The Bundesliga was founded 4 years ago. It is a new challenge for Germany as well as for Europe. It’s somehow similar to soccer because we have now a Champion’s League. Today, I compete both as a team and for the country. 

What does training for the Bundesliga exactly mean?

Training is a real problem for all the members of a same crew because we sail J70, like here in Hamburg. To sail this boat, you need a crew of 4. However, as in soccer, you always need more than 4 people on the bench, as it depends on certain conditions such as the wind and overall weather, or your competitors. Most of the sailing clubs like to have people with different weights in their team. For onshore conditions, such as lakes, we need light crews, so we’ll make 70kg members our first choice. I personally belong to the heavy ones as I weigh 95kg. I’m usually picked up for offshore conditions such as the Baltic Sea. Training depends on each individual race. We try to find competitors and sparring partners before the main race. We organize small races and spend a lot of time on water which is very important as you need time on the boat. The real advantages in competition come from spending time with your partners, working on the tension of the sheets, the main sail, the foresail, how to use the Gennaker, etc. 

Where do you go to train and compete?

We prefer the Baltic Sea because it has no tide, so it becomes easier. Here in Hamburg, we have more than 4 metres between high and low tide so that makes things more difficult for sailing. There are also lots of currents, which is why the Baltic Sea is more popular over here. Sometimes we train on a small lake nearby Lübeck. It’s about a 10 km-long lake. We try to train two weeks before the race starts. We generally train on lakes, rivers and on the sea. It means if we have a race in Flensburg, in northern part of Germany, we have to go there two weeks before in order to have an intense training session.

What have been your biggest challenges as a professional sailor so far?

My biggest challenge has always been the World Championships. The World Championships require a lot of energy and a lot of time. You must prepare your boat, and safety and emergency equipment. Sails have to be measured, and you need official stamps on your sails and on your boat, etc. It’s a lot of effort, but again, I like it because we have only one sail, one team, and the same chance for all.

What are your projects for this year?

Sailing in the Bundesliga as it requires a lot of time and training. As we’re not so good at the moment, we need to train more. We can potentially qualify at the end of the year. We have to put our energy into remaining in the league. For the first time this season, the four last teams of the First League will be relegated directly. There will be no relegation regatta as in former years. If you find yourself in the Second League, it’s very difficult to go up again. In Germany, you have 60 German Clubs which try to come up to the league. It’s not that easy so we need to work hard! 

 Photos by Elisa Routa

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Invited to take part in the first ever Media Sailing Cup, members of the Panthalassa Society left the massive summer crowd of the Atlantic coast to land in Hamburg also known as the »Gate to the World«. 

Der Spiegel, Yacht Magazine, Stern, Taz,  Der Hamburger, as well as the German Federation of Sailing, Tagesspiegel, the Norden, the University of Applied Sciences of Hamburg, and »Kielbomben», the only 100% female team of the regatta. Organized on the Alster River, the regatta gathered some of Europe’s largest publications and some of the most popular german magazines.

»Always have a rain plan«. Known as the largest deep water port of Germany and the second largest city of the country, Hamburg is home of sailors, dockers and businessmen. The leading maritime capital of the world welcomed us with traditional heavy rains. As Hamburgers like to say “Schietwedder givt dat hier nich” (There’s no such thing as bad weather). The grey city’s skyline is covered with a thick fog hiding such historical monuments as The Elbe Philharmonic Hall (Elbphilharmonie), an ever-changing landmark visible from afar thanks to its glass façade catching the reflections of the sky and water. 

11 media teams were invited to participate in this years’ 2017 edition of the Media Sailing Cup. More than 70 people from the biggest publishers in Germany made the trip for this unique 3-day event. Included were creative minds of all sorts, and some big names such as Klaus Brinkbäumer, Editor-in-Chief of the Spiegel, Christian Krug, Head of Editorial Staff at Stern Magazine, Sven Hanser, journalist from Taz Magazine, David Pohle, the Hamburger Editor-in-Chief, to name just a few. Unanimously described as »intense and sporty«, the Media Sailing Cup managed to highlight some very important values such as team work, determination, challenges and friendliness, all via competitiveness. As we know, taking great risks comes with great rewards. Sergio Penzo likes to sum it up: »We had an incredible time at the first ever Media Sailing Cup. Thanks to my amazing Panthalassa crew, Elisa Routa, Ralf Burmester, super-Niklas Reisenauer and Geert Schmelzer. Although reaching a 4th place that felt like winning an olympic medal, I think the result is purely anecdotal. I sincerely believe that everyone grew as individuals having been through this adventure.« 

We were warmly welcomed at the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (NRV) sailing club, one of the oldest and largest sailing clubs of Germany specializing in regattas. Founded in 1868, the club has always been interested in setting high standards for the international sailing scene through prestigious regattas like Atlantic crossings, Rolex Baltic Week, NRV Champions Week or Nord Stream Race. At the end of the main pontoon, the German flag proudly floats among the dark clouds, as a solemn welcome sign. Almost 100 wooden Dragon keelboats are parked in front of the club and carefully covered in soft sheets. »The NRV is the biggest sailing club in Germany with more than 2,000 members, situated on the Alster lake.«  explains one of the organizers Sven Jurgensen who learned how to sail more than 30 years ago at the Deutscher Hochseesportverband HANSA (DHH), a renowned German sailing school. »Here, we can literally sail in the city! The NRV is said to be the club with the most J/70 titles and a precious place in the the German Championship. We also have an Olympic team.« Christine Bauer, usually journalist at Der Spiegel, was part of the all-female team. She took her chance to sail on the J/70, known as the world’s fastest growing sailboat. »When  they asked me if I wanted to train on the J70, I said yes straight away. It’s such a privilege.« As a sailing enthusiast, Christine knows the power of this sailing machine. J70 is a high performance sportsboat and clearly one of the most popular one-designed keelboards.

»It’s amazing how the organizers managed to gather all this media together. That’s what they wanted, they wanted us to connect and bring people together,« said Philipp Jägersberg from Der Hamburger. Organizer and photographer Sven Jurgensen confirms. “We wanted to bring sailing to a broader public in Germany, and we also wanted to reach some big media partners; newspapers, magazines and broadcast stations. The idea was to create a journalist sailing family made of active sailing journalists and beginners. We wanted to bring journalists to the water and share with them that great feeling which is sailing. Sailing is a fantastic sport that requires important qualities such as teamwork. I’m proud to have such a great team behind me, helping and supporting the Segel Media Cup. It’s a pleasure to see that everyone involved, from the sponsors to the crews, is very enthusiastic about the event«.

According to Sergio Penzo, the event brought people together and made the teams feel like family. »I think many of the teams didn’t get too many chances of practicing before the event. We were all going through similar challenges, making incredible progress and getting better with every heat. It was beautiful to watch the other teams improve within the 3 days the competition lasted. I think that, the fairplay, and the effort by the organization to make this event beyond a simple race is what brought us closer together. It was certainly a special honour to participate in the first ever Media Sailing Cup. I have always looked up to many of these influential publications so sharing the passion for water and realizing we have so much in common felt very special. A big thanks to Jens Hoffmann and Max Gebhardt for making it possible. And special thanks to Christopher Rothe and Sven Jürgensen for the invite and making us feel like family.« 

Already working on next year’s edition, the organizers confess. »Sailing is a not only a fun sport but also a clean sport. That’s why it’s very important for us to raise awareness of the oceans. For the 2018 edition, we’ll have around 20 media crews on the water, coming from all around Europe. We’ll also work with a tracking system and will get some support from Yacht TV. We’ll work on showing how important it is to save our oceans.«

 See you next year then!

Photos: Courtesy of Axel Schilling 

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Known as one of the world’s finest marine photographers, Kurt Arrigo has been interacting with the sea for over 20 years. Born on the island of Malta, Arrigo has been passionate about the sea from a very young age. Sailing, swimming and diving have thus been a significant part of his career as a photographer. »The connection has been strong ever since and I can almost count the days when I have not stepped into the sea.« Known for his profound connection to the ocean, Arrigo’s work always tends to create awareness around this natural element.

From elite international sporting competitions to wild swims amongst hammerhead sharks or environmental projects from the Galapagos to the Himalayas, the maltese photographer’s expertise in underwater photography techniques led him to capture diverse subjects and undertake fearless expeditions. 

Assigned to the 1992 America’s cup, Kurt Arrigo is asked to cover important sailing races around the world. Recognized at the prestigious 1995 Underwater World Championships of photography held in the Red Sea and in the Communications Arts Photography Annual in 1997, Kurt Arrigo has been defined as an official yachting photographer for over a decade. Providing graceful visuals from both the air and the water during the Rolex Sydney Hobart and the Rolex Fastnet, Arrigo is awarded the prestigious Yacht Racing Image of the year in 2012. 

Not only a prestigious photographer, Kurt Arrigo released two books, capturing the historical beauty of his homeland and highlighting the relationship between light and the sea. As a long-standing Panthalassa member, we wanted to showcase his illustrious career and breathtaking work.

Discover more about Kurt Arrigo’s work on his website.

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Jacques De Vos describes himself as a certified freediving instructor, underwater photographer and cameraman. In other words, he spends most of his time paddling in the deep blue world’s oceans looking for orcas, these incredible creatures he fell in love with as a kid.

«I’m originally from a coastal town near Cape Town called Fish Hoek. As a kid, I always had an interest in the ocean. I wanted to become a marine biologist but I ended up working as a Chemical Engineer. I also worked in the oilfield for a few years before shifting my attention completely to all things ocean and underwater related. Few years ago, I started scuba diving, » explains South-African freediver who have always loved being underwater. « As a child I spent more time underwater than at the surface of the pool. I eventually did a formal freediving course in 2010 which is where it became a bit more serious. » His different careers have one thing in common; they are fields of artistic expressions for his fascination for the ocean. « It is impossible for me to imagine my life without the ocean. When I’m not in or near it, I’m doing something somehow related to it. It can be editing or making plans for expeditions. So I’d say it’s quite an intimate relationship I have with the ocean today. »

When Jacques De Vos was young, he developed an obsession with dolphins. « Then, in 1989 my aunt gave me a book as a gift called ‘Whales, Dolphin and Seals and Their Kin’ which had an entry on orcas. This was the first image I saw of one and it immediately struck a chord. The idea of seeing one in a while from shore is something I never imagined would happen. So to see them underwater is just the further thing I ever imagined would actually happened to me. »

Today, photographer De Vos is known as the man who freedives with orcas and became an expert in finding these beautiful creatures in the ocean around the world. « No two places are alike. When diving in False Bay, Cape Town, I can be at the bottom of a lush kelp forest which is visually more stunning than any forest on land – colours, life and the unknown – or in Dahab, Egypt, where the visibility is so clear that it feels like you are flying. The ocean can be unforgiving, but as long as you respect it, even though unfamiliar, anytime spent underwater is a pleasant experience. »

On a recent expedition, Jacques De Vos spent few months in the Arctic, braving near-zero temperatures in and out of the water of the frigid fjords. « My partners (Boreal Yachting) and I run seasonal expeditions near Tromsø in northern Norway where we take guests to experience orcas and humpback whales in and underwater during the winter herring aggregation. It’s a unique way to see these stunning animals in their natural environment in one of the most beautiful places one earth. Despite the extreme temperatures, with the right equipment you can be completely oblivious to the temperatures. »

Trying to  describe his first encounters with orcas in the Arctic, Jacques De Vos evokes a mix of euphoric excitement and nervousness. « It ’s different each time. They can be completely uninterested in us while feeding and won’t even give you a second glace and, in other instances, you might be the only interesting thing in the water and they will circle you while having a closer look, even being playful. Either way, it’s always a very humbling experience which never gets old, »  he explains. « The first thing I do is I dive down and wait for them. Basically, you see the shapes and the shadows long before you see any fine detail. As they come closer, and I look up, you can see that, in this moment, they’re aware of me. It’s really humbling to have an animal that big, stop, turn and look at you before moving on. That’s not just an animal which is seeing something in the water and trying to avoid it, that’s genuine curiosity. That’s really something special to experience. »

Specialized in underwater photography, Jacques De Vos also listens for clicks, whistles and the multiple underwater sounds of the countless orcas through a hydrophone. « Using a hydrophone taught me that our way of vocal communication is baby noises compared to the complexity and range of orcas and whales. It’s amazing how little we still know and understand of how these animals communicate. And even more so when you realize we can not even hear or capture the majority of the frequency ranges these animals communicate it. »

In the summer 2017, Jacques De Vos and his partners will be exploring the coast around Svalbard. « We will hopefully encounter some more large marine life there as well. We hope to see some whales – blue whales, beluga, minke whales – and, of course, some Polar Bears! »

Find more infos about Jacques De Vos on his website.

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Called »The Duke«, and known as »The Godfather of Cliff Diving«, Duque started out diving in swimming pools before turning to cliff diving. Over the years, Orlando, 42, has won eleven world titles, and made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. Duque literally dedicated his life to cliff diving. With a 30-year diving career and 20 of those as a cliff diver, the Colombian high diver hopes to help recognize the sport as an official part of the aquatics family, and see cliff diving in the next 2024 Summer Olympics. Here’s the second part of our interview with Orlando Duque.

Is training a big part of your daily routine?

Training is continual, I train non-stop. We have a limited time in the air. Once I jump, I have less than 3 seconds and I have to utilize those 3 seconds the best way possible. My legs need to be very strong so I can gain a little more altitude. I need to make sure that I’m very fast, so while I’m falling I’m still able to spin very fast and complete my dives. Then, due to the height, when I hit the water, I need to be very strong to handle the impact because it will be really hard. The body has to be in very good shape. The water will push you around, but you have to be strong enough to be able to handle that.

Do you think the mental game is important?

Yes, very much. If your body is very fit, but your mind is not up to it, you won’t get the right result. When you’re standing on a high cliff looking down, you start to really worry, your mind is what’s going allow you to do the dive. Your body basically freezes because your brain is sending a message  -‘be careful, you could kill yourself. Step away, stay there, don’t jump.’ But in your head, you know you can do it, you know you’re prepared to do it. So it is actually your mind that allows you to do that. I do some mental training. For example, I can see my dive in my head, I see myself from far away, I see myself from inside my eyes doing the dives. I do breathing exercises when I’m on the cliff or on the platform ready to dive. When I start to get worried, I know I can visualize my dives, I know I’m prepared to do it. I just breathe nice and slowly, and then I’m in a different mood and ready to dive.

As a cliff diver, you know that the risk of losing your life is imminent, how do you overcome fear?

You have to trust your preparation. You have to trust your training. I know the risks, I think I probably understand them better than anybody else. I also understand that I’ve done all the preparation. If I’m on this cliff, trying to do this dive, it is because I know I’m prepared to do it. I’m pushing as hard and as high as possible, but I think without going over that limit. Making sure I’m very close to this limit, without really going over it because we have no protection. In some other sports, there’s the fortune of having some sort of protection, whether it’s a helmet or boots, or even in big wave surfing now, they have floating devices on wetsuits. In cliff diving, we don’t have anything. So I have to trust my preparation, I have to make sure that I’ve done it, and then I can perform.

You recently said in an interview: »If I climb to top, I’m ready to dive, there’s no turning back.« That’s what we call determination.

I make that choice. If you’re playing football, you’re in the field and the balls comes to you, you have no choice, the ball is coming to you. So it’s my choice. I wake up in the morning and I know I’m going to dive, I know I’m ready. If I’m climbing up to the place that I’m going to jump it is because I’m ready to jump. Unless there’s some sort of safety issues in the water, there’s some floating debris, animals or a boat and I cannot dive, nothing else can stop me. But if I’m standing ready to dive it is because I’ve gone through all the preparation. The mental preparation has started, the mental stress has started. When I wake up in the morning, I can feel my heart beating faster because I know that I will be competing. 

You spend so much time in the water, how would you describe the intimate relationship that you built with the sea?

Without water, I can’t do anything. It just gets to that point. Water is what allows me to do my sport and to enjoy the life that I live. If there’s no water, there’s no chance. It’s called gymnastics and it’s a completely different sport. Water is probably the most important element. Everything that happens in the air, I’m controlling. But water is what allows me to do it safely. When you hit the water, after a hard impact, it can be really heavy depending on how high you’re jumping from. Then, the water is trying to tear you apart but you can handle it. Then, underwater, everything is quiet. Underwater, everything is nice, everything is okay. It’s really enjoyable. The best feeling is being underwater after a successful dive. And you’re pretty much ready to do it again. It’s exactly what allows me to do my sport.

What does the environment look like once you’re underwater?

Like I said before, I have a little bit less than 3 seconds in the air. There’s so much action, there’s so much stress, the wind, the speed, there’s so much going on. All these things, when I hit the water, disappear. Underwater, everything is quiet, everything is calm. Your first reaction is like ‘Okay, everything is okay’. Then, you realize, ‘Oh this feels so good!’. In the water, sometimes, from over excitement, I’m shaking. It’s just because the feeling is so intense. And it doesn’t have to be competition. What I try to explain to some people sometimes is that it’s more about the dive. Sometimes, it’s just a beautiful place, nice rock, it doesn’t have to be too high, 10-15metres. I jump in the water and it just feels good. To me, it’s tempting, it’s attracting. I want to jump, I want to be in the water. The time I spend in the air is so short that when I’m in the water is actually when I’m experiencing the best feeling of the dive. Because it is where I probably spend more time. 

Today, you’re considered a legend in the sport, you won 13 world titles, and have two Guinness world records to you name. What are your next projects?

I’ve been lucky to have a really good career and great results. But I don’t just sit and remember that. Of course, I want to keep winning, that’s why I keep competing. Next year, we’ll have the World Championship, I would like to win that again. I won the first Gold medal in 2013 so I would like to repeat it. It’s the highest honor we have in our sport.. One of the biggest projects is trying to include high diving in the Olympic Games. It has potential. I may not be able to compete at 42, but I can play a role in making sure that it is included and some of the other younger divers get to show the sport I love in the Olympics. I think that would be a really cool project to work on the next few years. And in terms of diving, I always had this idea in my head: I want to do this road trip, starting in South America, then maybe check out some European places, and Africa. On the road, I want to explore more. A lot of my events lately are fly there, dive, get on a plane, fly out again. So I want to do it on my time, that would be something fun too! 

Credit photos:

Jason Halayko / Predrag Vuckovic

Romina Amato / Marjan Radovic / Tomislav Moze News

The post The Godfather of Cliff Diving – part 2 appeared first on PANTHALASSA.

Recently, Dubai hosted the Red Bull Cliff Diving in Dubai Marina. For the last step of the World Series 2016, world-class cliff divers joined to compete on Pier7, an iconic building offering a panoramic view on the magnificent Dubai marina. On October 28, 2016, Pier7, well-known as the home of some of the emirate’s most popular dining spots, has been transformed into a 27 meters-high diving board. The occasion for Panthalassa to meet Orlando Duque and draw up a portrait of the world’s best cliff diver.

Tell us more about your background and career as an icon in the world of high diving…

I started diving in a pool in Colombia. I used to go to the pools to watch the divers. I really liked the color of the pool, not so much the swimming pool, but I liked the dark blue of the diving pool. As a little kid, I used to go and watch the divers practice. Then, the coaches asked me if I wanted to try. The next day, I was there and I fell in love with this sport. Since then, I just wanted to keep practicing and learning more.

When did you go from classic diving to cliff diving?

I did that for about ten years. I was competing with the national team, doing all the regular competitions. Every pool is the same, every pool looks the same. It does no matter where you are, it’s always the same height and the same conditions. Everything is very similar. So, after a while, it started to get more attracting to be outside, to start different places and start jumping. I was hired to do a contract in Austria, to do a jumping show. While I was there, I started watching the Red Bull World Championship on TV. I though ‘I think I can do that!’ So I started training for that. I went for my first competition in 1999, and I placed second. When I placed 2nd, I thought ‘I think I could be really good at it’. That’s pretty much when it became really serious. I remember telling myself: ‘Now I’m gonna practice really hard, I’m gonna dedicate myself and make it a career’.

You define cliff diving as, I quote, »The more natural form of diving«. Why?

I think so, this is what I always tell people. I love finding one rock that is there. If it’s deep water, we are ready to dive. All I need to do is jump. So it’s a little bit more natural than jumping in a pool. When you’re in a pool, you have to build a platform, you have to build a pool, you have to build all these things. You’re adapting everything for you to be able to dive. Whereas in cliff diving, you’re in nature, I’m adapting myself to the conditions. I’m making sure that I can jump in those conditions. It’s much more natural than anything else.

 What does it feel when you’re up there? How do you describe this adrenaline?

From the heights that I jump, a lot of people would probably never jump. But when you find a little rock on a nice afternoon, you’ll see that a lot of people is jumping. You go to any beach that has a rock anywhere in the world, and you can see people jumping from the very little rocks. That’s where I go to the point of almost everybody has done a cliff dive or a dive at least. And that’s already enjoying cliff diving. I see the world with different eyes. I walk around, I look at the balconies from hotels, I look if there’s a pool, and if I can maybe jump from there. I see a rock, I look how beautiful it is, but I also start looking to see if there’s a possibility to jump. If there’s a bridge, I look down to the river to see if the water is deep enough. I enjoy it so much. To me, it’s finding places to jump, that’s where the fun is.

Is there a part of craziness or everything is under control? 

To do it at the level we’re doing it right now, everything has to be under control. The risk is too high, the maneuvers we’e doing in the air are too complicated. You have to be trained for many years to do what we do. At that level, everything has to be under control. Normal people may need more craziness than skills, cause the skills can take so much time to learn. If somebody wants to jump, it doesn’t have to be super high, maybe just 5 meters-high. To a lot of people, it’s already very high. You need a little bit of craziness telling you in your head ‘Just run and jump!’ But after the jump, when everything goes okay and you’re underwater and everything is fine, you feel like you’re so happy! That contrast is the nicest feeling that you get out of a cliff dive.

Sometimes you dive from a cliff, some others you dive at night from a building in a marina. How exciting is it to discover different places and different atmospheres depending on the location you dive from?

That’s basically the reason that brought me to cliff diving. All the pools are the same; some are inside, some are outside but all the pools are the same. With cliff diving, we change locations every single time. Some are gonna be at night, some are gonna be in a building, some are gonna be from a bridge. Everything changes so much that you need to adapt really quickly. You need to be able to be versatile and well-prepared because we don’t have so much time to get ready to the location. That makes the whole thing much more interesting. To me, that’s what makes it much more challenging and more attracting. A lot of times, I get so focus in my dive that I completely forget about everything else that surrounds me. After the dive, I look around and I’m like ‘Whoa’! It’s one the nicest component of the dive. Yes, I do enjoy very much the dive itself but just exploring all these locations, going around the world, and seeing all these different places is such a cool part of this sport. 

Credit photos: Romina Amato / Jason Halyko / Dean Treml

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