Windsurfing by Drone

Using a drone to film windsurfers effectively is nearly as difficult as windsurfing itself.  The speeds involved can be considerable, the target relatively small, and sharp turns frequent.  Contributor Rikdingo has mastered the art of aerial videography of this popular action sport as well as anyone alive.  Here is a compilation of his drone footage from filming windsurfers in the Mediterranean with his DJI Inspire 1 drone. 

As one might expect, Hawaii has become something of a mecca for windsurfing, just as it has for wave surfing and most other aquatic recreational activities.  One of the more prominent international windsurfing events is the Novenove Aloha Classic, part of the International Windsurfer Tour (IWT) and held every year on the island of Maui.  AirVuz contributor and drone pilot Karim Ilya filmed the 2015 event with his drone, creating this epic video from the highlights of his aerial footage.

Greece is one of the international centers of windsurfing, with its Aegean waters considered amongst the world's best for this very challenging sport.  In this video, contributor TomDrones created a marvelous aerial video of windsurfers Zois Theocharis, Vasileios Kretsis, and Philip Adamidis (GRE-1) as they ply the warm waters of the Aegean Sea in Greece.  The footage contains a wonderful long sequence where all three seem to be racing right into the camera lens on the drone which is filming them.

The waters of the Atlantic Ocean off of Miami, Florida offer some of the best windsurfing conditions anywhere in the world.  In this video, content creator and drone pilot one man_one drone films top windsurfer Timothy Knapp on the Gold Coast coastline.  The video opens with a marvelous top down shot of Knapp as he cruises in 35-45 mph winds, and the drone stays on him.  As you watch, you will appreciate how drones are making it possible to visually experience these extreme sports in ways which were never before possible.

Technology and the desire to make extreme sports ever more so conspired to produce foilboarding, where a hydrofoil is mounted under a windsurfing board to give the operator the ability to rise above the water.  It adds a degree of difficulty to an already difficult sport, requiring insane levels of balance and coordination.  In this video, One man_one drone used a drone to aerially film a foilboarder in the waters off Miami, Florida; Florida's Gold Coast is one of the world's top windsurfing scenes.  

While windsurfing is commonly associated with oceans, it should be remembered that this action sport traces its roots to a lake in Minnesota, a very much landlocked state in the Midwestern United States.  Large lakes with ample wind can provide windsurfing opportunities on a par with the best coastal spots.  In this video, contributor AirVuz contributor and pilot Above the Clouds uses a drone to capture a windsurfer plying the waters of Lake Neuchâtel, near St-Blaise, Switzerland

The Greek islands off of Turkey's western coast have ideal conditions for the challenging sport of windsurfing - strong steady winds, semi-protected bays, and lots of room to run.  It's not surprising then that some of the world's best windsurfers hail from here.  In this video, content creator and pilot WulcanStudio uses a drone to capture the world-reknowned windsurfing scene near Kefalos, on the Greek island of Kos.  Kos is one of the Dodecanese archipelago which form the outermost of the country's Aegean Sea islands. 

The Mediterranean waters of the French Riviera are ideal for many water activities, windsurfing being one of the standouts.  The moderate surf, steady winds, and spectacular scenery of the Côte d'Azur have drawn some of the top windsurfers from around the world.   In this video, top professional windsurfer Cyril Moussilmani, who hails from Marseille, is filmed by AirVuz contributor and drone pilot RikDingo, who has made a specialty of using drones to aerially capture this thrilling sport.   

The islands of the South Pacific regularly appear near the top of most authoritative lists of the world's best spots for windsurfing.  Numerous competitions are held there in which the best windsurfers on the planet compete for prizes.  One of these events is the 2018 Tahiti Freeride Cup, held on a lagoon of Raiatea Island.  Contributor and drone pilot CYWORKS was there to film the action in the 2018 creating this epic video which includes footage of the Brazilian windsurfing champion Mateus Isaac.

If you want to see a 60 second demonstration of what drones are doing for action sports, watch this video by AirVuz contributor and drone pilot Rikdingo.  He has taken the art of capturing windsurfers by drone to an entirely new level.  In this case, he's got some equally impressive windsurfing talent to work with; Cyril Moussilmani is one of the world's top windsurfers, having won numerous championships.  As you watch the footage, try to imagine how you could get this footage without a drone!  

Western Turkey has long been closely connected with the world of sailing; some of the world's best sailing waters lie off its Aegean Sea coastline.  In recent decades, the same conditions have led to a very large windsurfing culture.  The steady winds and generally calm but always beautiful torquoise waters represent ideal conditions for windsurfers.  And so they have come.  In this video, you'll get a bird's eye view of Alacati, one of the epicenters of the Aegean Turkey windsurfing scene.  

Windsurfing in challenging high wind conditions is not for the faint of heart. Windsurfers can achieve speeds that would be respectable for a well-powered speedboat. Nor is it particularly easy to film a windsurfer traveling at such high speeds with a drone.  If anyone is up to the task though it's AirVyz contributor and drone pilot RikDingo, who has created some of the world's best aerial views of windsurfing.  In this video, he films a windsurfer hitting about 45 mph (just under 80 km/h), no easy task! 

Just as Maui offers some of Hawaii's best surfing spots, so it goes with windsurfing.  Contributor and pilot Aerialvideomaui created this epic drone video of some of the world's best windsurfers plying the windy waters of Maui, the second-largest of the Hawaiian islands.  The footage was captured at a couple of legendary Maui Spots: Pe'ahi (aka the JAWS surf break) and Ho'okipa.  Both of these spots are considered some of the finest (and most challenging) windsurfing areas in the world.  

Top contributor RikDingo created this amazing drone video of a windsurfer catching some serious speed in the waters of the South of France. Jimmy Thiémé, the son of championship windsurfer Erik Thiémé, was filmed at the famous  l'Almanarre Beach, near the southern tip of mainland France.  In the video, the windsurfer is hitting speeds of roughly 60 km/hour, or around 36 mph.  Needless to say, staying upright at such speeds is no easy task, nor is keeping up with him by flying a drone! 

Lord Howe Island is a very small Australian island in the Tasman Sea. It is just easy of Port Macquarie and is characterized by its sandy beaches, clear waters, and subtropical forests. The south end of the island is home to Mount Gower, rising at nearly 3,000 feet, while the north end has many coral-rich waters. You can even find masked boobies, the white and black masked bird, among the many seabird colonies that call the island home. See it from above in this drone video by Isabellefabre!

Western Australia is home to many amazing and unique animals, plants, and naturally occurring phenomena - one of which is its pink lakes. Yes, pink.  This very unusual but very natural phenomenon is caused by a combination of high salt content, several salt-loving bacteria, and different types of red and pink algae that give the lakes their unique shade. Creative pilot and adventurer Isabellefabre does what she does best while visiting one of these lakes - windsurfing the fuchsia waters. 

This is windsurfing like we’ve never seen before. Naturally, it is brought to us by first person view (FPV) drone pilot and AirVuz Drone Video Awards nominee Red—fpv, who created it while flying during a training session for the 2019 PWA Fuerteventura. He gets closer with his mini quad to these athletes than we’ve ever seen before. Watch as he comes from behind, overtaking the powerful windsurfers then coming back behind to follow them again. It looks like an amazing event that Red—fpv was fortunate to capture. 

With its warm, semi-protected waters and steady winds, the Attica Peninsula of Central Greece is one of the world's top spots for windsurfing.  In this drone video by paschalis, you'll get an aerial view of one of the world's top windsurfers: Zois Theocharis.  Shot with a DJI Mavic 2 Zoom, the video captures the 13x Greek National Windsurfing Champion plying the waters around Loutsa, a beach area on the Petalioi Gulf due east of Athens.   As you can imagine, it takes some skillful piloting to keep up with a target moving this quickly.  

Known for his epic, high energy flights, top AirVuz contributor and first-person view (FPV) pilot Red - FPV was at it again in this film; watch as he chases some of the world's fastest kite surfers as they train for the annual PWA (Professional Windsurfers Association) Grand Slam, off the coast of Fuerteventura, one of Spain's Canary Islands. This talented drone pilot gives us a bird's-eye view on the speed, agility and raw strength required by the surfer to harness the wind power and charge through the waves.  

It's a little known fact that modern windsurfing emerged from a spot nowhere near an ocean: Alexandria, Minnesota to be exact.  The Land of 10,000 Lakes, as the state is known, is home to some of the best recreational lakes in the USA.  In the city of Minneapolis, where power boats are prohibited, windsurfing has emerged as one of the key on-water activities on the largest of these lakes, Lake Bde Maka Sa, formerly known as Lake Calhoun.  Here, Brianthron captures this vibrant windsurfing scene.

Prepare to be blown away by this incredible first person view (FPV) drone footage of some very talented windsurfers off the coast of Italy, compliments of AirVuz contributor and FPV pilot Quino FPV.  The video was filmed near the "white beaches" of Vada in the Tuscany Region, on the Ligurian Sea.  The video features some phenomenal up-close windsurfing footage, which is extremely challenging to capture from the FPV pilot's perspective due to the speed of the windsurfers and the strength and direction of the prevailing winds.