Christina Gindl

Slide no 2. Feeling this so much.



Photography by

A big part of why I love every second of it:

Something that completely hooked me on tow-in surfing is that it’s truly a team sport, a full team effort. You’re nothing out there without a solid crew behind you. No matter how famous or great of a surfer you are, you’re only as good as the team backing you out there.

I used to play volleyball semi-professionally for more than six years when I was young, before I left Austria, and that sport, for surfing. And ever since, I’ve missed that team aspect in my new sport.

In my opinion, surfing is quite a selfish sport. It’s for the ego. YOU want that great set wave, you want that insane feeling on that wave… you alone. It’s just the way it is. You’re absolutely stoked for your friends too, of course, but in the first place you’re hoping you’ll catch that perfect bomb.

And in Nazaré it’s still like that, of course… but without a solid driver and experienced spotter, you’ll never get that wave on your own. And without a solid second safety, you might kiss the season goodbye very early if you take huge ones on the head and get injured in the process.

So my eyes lit up as soon as I felt that teamwork in the water. Familiar memories from the teams I used to be part of came back, and it made me want it even more.

Now it’s time to work hard, learn as much as I can, soak it all in, apply it, and try to spend 4828158 hours in the water 🤝🏻

Before the season kicked off with some proper November swells, I spent time surfing easier waves with big fun boards. Longboarding was never something I was drawn to. It was always the speed of a twin or the control of a shortboard that got me excited. But after quite a few struggle sessions learning to navigate and surf a longboard, it started to click.
And I have to admit, it feels good.

I’m far from being a solid longboarder, but I’ve grown confident with a few things, like turning big boards on a slow, drawn-out bottom turn, or highlining to keep speed. Skills that, in my opinion, are essential when you want to paddle into big waves.
Which is what I want.

So, all my favorite boards ended up in the corner, and this longboard, which my lovely and supportive friend Kathi lent me for as long as I needed, taught me a lot.

Looking back now, I can’t help but smile and feel a little more ready to grab the gun and start training and surfing again when the first safe days appear in the forecast.

And I was lucky enough that my friend Hedda, a talented longboarder herself, spontaneously joined one of those sessions, camera in hand, swimming in freezing water at first light to capture some memories from these weeks of training.

So big thanks to Hedda
And Kathi for the board .ericeira
And my sponsors for making it possible to keep chasing dreams!!

WOW. This was my first session on a slightly more difficult wave with a twin pin, and I was lucky enough to catch this gem of a wave

Almost lost control on the drop, surfing a twin is such a different feeling compared to my standard black trusty thruster step-up.

But oh man, that unique feeling of a twin in slightly more challenging waves, the speed, the flow, the way it forces me to really feel the wave before deciding what to do on it, it stuck with me and makes me want to grab that board a lot more!

I still find it hard to switch between board setups, depending on the day or the wave. Anyone else have experience with that?

Thank you Antonio for shaping this rocket for me

Captured by

Always special to open a window into my world and the things that truly matter to me.

Sharing this recent journal feature. It might answer a few of the questions I get asked on here quite often.

I get inspired, empowered, and motivated by the stories I read of others. Maybe this one can do the same for you.

Some important topics for me:
Breath
Our anchor in it all. It elevates our energy, calms the system, regulates what the world often throws off balance - in training and in life. A reminder that calm is something we can create: one inhale at a time.

Apnea
Not just for performance, but for safety. Learning to stay calm underwater. Finding peace in the place where most lose it.

Rest
The real progress happens in recovery. Where growth quietly happens. The space between effort and progress. Without it, we burn out before we break through.

Reset
At least once a year, I stop. Refocus and realign. Ask yourself what truly matters and where you want to go next.

Let me know if you can resonate to what I share in the journal. It’s always great to connect with likeminded people from all over the world to elevate and empower each other.

With love,
C.

I remember this day so well. A winter day in my favourite bay. My comfort spot. Probably the one spot where I’ve had the most sessions in my life.
When gearing up, some of the guys I surf with a lot told me not to jump. Honestly, they were probably right, and I really appreciate a community that looks out for each other and wants everyone to stay safe on days like this.
But I felt confident that I wanted to be in that lineup.

So I put on the impact suit, grabbed my beloved 6’8 (which snapped that same session on the wave in this pic). On the really big days in this bay, you’re likely to get washed to the other side because of the current. If you time it really well with the sets, you can manage to paddle straight out, but this worked for me maybe 2 times out of 12.

So off I went, washed to the other side of the bay, dodging the lefthander that breaks there and duck-diving countless sets. Finally, I made it to the outside, all the way back to the spot, sitting in the lineup with the rest of the handful of people out.
Watching, studying, slowly feeling comfortable, figuring out which wave I wanted, noticing how often sets came, and how the biggest ones would close out the whole bay and wash us all if we weren’t quick enough. Which is exactly what happened to me before I could even attempt to catch a wave.

Sometimes you just have to trust yourself, go anyway, and find your place out there. Because the amount learnt that day out during this powerful swell was immense, and is still guiding me through many difficult surfs today.

Through the eyes of >>

Almost once a year Lotta and I meet here in Portugal, catching up on life, spending quality time, mostly in the water, and most of the time she brings her camera along as well.

I met Lotta a long time ago, must be around 10 years back. I was still living in Indonesia, just starting to surf more and connect with talented artists like herself.

We always kept in touch, watching each other grow, and tried to connect and meet up again whenever we could. She still lives in Bali, I moved to colder waters, but our connection, when lens meets surfer, is still the same.

There are only a handful of people I’ve felt so in flow with when shooting in nature or the ocean.

Unfortunately, this year we won’t see each other, which made me think back to last year. I never shared the photos. Lotta’s water housing fogged up right when we started shooting and she wasn’t happy, of course. But I still see such a mood in the photos that came out of that session.

So here they are, along with a few more from the past years!

Hopefully we’ll link up again next year for more quality time and fun, spontaneous shoots.

xx