Episode #98 - Alex Mertens

Luc Moore (00:10.975)
All right, think we're good. All right, take two. Start fresh. So Bonaire, what a beautiful island. Thanks for being so accommodating for us. It's the first time in my life that I boarded the wrong plane on a tarmac. so because I go through this gate, right? And guy was, OK, the plane's just on the right. I didn't realize there were two planes out there. I thought there was only one. So I go out, I take a right and I hop up.

Alex Mertens (00:13.454)
Okay, take two.

Alex Mertens (00:20.641)
I know.

Luc Moore (00:39.66)
because you have to walk up the plane and the lady literally checks my ticket. So okay, welcome aboard, sir. So I go and I grab a seat. And before I boarded the plane, the lady over the intercom was like, by the way, the TVs at the back of the United plane do not work. So it okay. So she should make sure to update your phone app. So no problem. So the first thing I noticed when I sit down on the back of the plane, my TV's working.

Alex Mertens (00:45.454)
You

Luc Moore (01:06.06)
It's like, this is weird. whatever, they made a mistake. I start charging my laptop. A guy comes to sit down in my seat and the stewardess comes, shit, sir, you're on the wrong plane and your plane is just taxing and ready to take. It was like a Hollywood movie.

Alex Mertens (01:16.831)
Yeah

Alex Mertens (01:21.4)
no. That's shocking that that happened and that they let it happen also.

Luc Moore (01:22.783)
This is like shit.

Luc Moore (01:27.392)
Well, was the ladies, it was my fault for not seeing the big Delta sign instead of United. was, you said, sir, did you not see the side of the airplane? I said, no, I was just following the line. I said, all right. And then the second one was she literally checked my ticket before I hopped on the plane. So she does a good job.

Alex Mertens (01:32.68)
yeah, that's a big giveaway.

Alex Mertens (01:43.587)
Yeah.

Everyone's at fault here.

Luc Moore (01:50.792)
Everyone's a fly anyways, I worked out well, I stayed an extra night went snorkeling and what an amazing island though, isn't it?

Alex Mertens (01:59.119)
No, Bonaire is a gorgeous place. I haven't been in years, but I would love to get back for so many reasons. And you you know those reasons. I mean, the extra night getting to snorkel one more day is totally worth it there. You got the bathtub ocean and so much, I like life.

Luc Moore (02:13.472)
Yeah, it's crazy warm. Yes, that actually was really nice to see like an ocean fill of life like that.

Alex Mertens (02:22.188)
Yes. Yeah, I mean like you always see out the reports like almost every day of like the reefs getting bleached and that life is like dropping in certain areas so seeing an actual healthy reef and all the life that's actually inhabiting it is really really special. I don't know if they still have it.

Luc Moore (02:36.875)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's just like a real live aquarium.

Alex Mertens (02:40.108)
Yeah, I don't know if they still have it, but I know that like two-thirds of the coast on the west side of the island up to like the Crescent, believe that it's like protected ocean life and you're not allowed to snorkel or take boats in there. I don't know if it's still like that. Yeah, it's like a very well-protected reef that they literally don't allow anything in. You're not even allowed to fish there. I don't know if it's still like that, but that's one reason why there's also a ton of like nature life there.

Luc Moore (02:54.347)
Really?

Luc Moore (03:08.199)
Is that, that would be on the, the same side as Lac Bay, like on the outside of the island or the Klein, like Klein Bonaire on the inside? really?

Alex Mertens (03:15.498)
No, the other side. Yeah, it's on the... Yes, exactly. Like, north of Klein-Bonaire.

Luc Moore (03:24.084)
interesting.

Alex Mertens (03:25.281)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (03:28.043)
All right. So for those of you that are just on audio and haven't, I would definitely recommend you guys go and check out. were windsurfing and wing-foiling out of Lac Bay with, um, in conjunction with Franz Paradise, cause they were the ones that were setting us up with all the amazing gear. And, um, the assumption for all of us was that it was super shallow in the whole bay. So, but I didn't realize that half the bay was shallow and half the bay was like 20 feet deep.

Should I plat?

Alex Mertens (03:58.575)
Yes.

Yes, and it's like actually a really large play area too, where you can actually get some little swells that roll through and it's just a really fun little bay to do almost anything in. I have not foiled it because it's been so long since I've been there, but windsurfing in the main bay was always kind of my preference because you have flat on both sides. You can go into the mangrove, well you're not supposed to, but you can go into the mangrove all the way on the other side and it's like waist deep again and really flat. So for freestyle windsurfing, super awesome.

Luc Moore (04:12.328)
Okay. Yeah.

Luc Moore (04:24.01)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (04:29.838)
you can come back all the way to the inside right in front of Friends Paradise and it goes from like 20 feet deep to ankle deep in like 20 meters but it gets really flat because the bay has this little beach that sticks out in front and the wind just blows basically straight offshore right there so it's super fun it's a great spot to like learn how to foil if you're trying to get out because it's really flat and really deep so you have you don't have to stress about like you know chop knocking you around while you're trying to get up on your board

Luc Moore (04:36.714)
Yeah.

Alex Mertens (04:59.78)
But yeah, it's a great place. It's a great place for almost all water sports, also because the wind is so consistent. It's not super gusty, but it can be light, but it can also be just good enough to do everything. So it's a sweet place.

Luc Moore (05:00.015)
True.

Luc Moore (05:17.462)
Yeah, like I think I was on a pretty lit up in a four seven and It was the first time I hit close to like 50 or 30 knots or whatever 27 or 28 knots when surfing like 50 kilometers an hour and I was like on a four seven like my buddy let me his Apple watch and I know it

Alex Mertens (05:30.198)
Nice!

Luc Moore (05:37.418)
now jibing a little different story at 50, but like blasting straight. So I posted two reels and my brother was just making fun of me. classic windsurfers, eh, you just blast straight, fall down, turn around. I mean.

Alex Mertens (05:40.386)
Yeah...

Alex Mertens (05:52.047)
We had a saying, we called them the German Jibes because, okay, well, it's not me, was Andy Brandt. He had this joke in Bonaire. It was the German Jibes, because a lot of the Germans, I'm not trying to make fun of them, but this is just what we noticed is a lot of the German tourists would come, they'd blast in one direction, step down and turn the gear around, and then blast the other direction. So we called it the German Jibes when people were doing that.

Luc Moore (05:55.46)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (06:18.312)
they would literally just fall or slow down and turn their board and go again?

Alex Mertens (06:20.834)
They would slow down, step off, turn the gear around, and blast back the other direction. Because in the main bay, it's like waist deep.

Luc Moore (06:29.002)
All right, boy, I talk with my brother and say, hey man, you got to check that out then. All right, I tried to jive at least. yeah, we did, so we advertised the camp for CZEN Bonaire. So it's Charles and Ladina. Charles Dacher has been in the wind sports industry forever and really good viagra photographer. And he took some videos of me and he gave me a bit of a breakdown of my jive and gave me some tips to work on.

Alex Mertens (06:35.214)
Hahahaha!

There you go.

Alex Mertens (06:57.347)
Hmm.

Luc Moore (06:58.346)
So that's pretty sick. And it's actually, thought the analysis of it would be a lot more complicated, but it's relatively straightforward. Like you shoot it and then you look at it you're like, 75 % of your body weight was in your wrong leg and that's why you fell. And they're like, huh.

Alex Mertens (06:59.8)
That's awesome. Yeah, video is super powerful for that.

Alex Mertens (07:16.66)
Exactly. No, video is my secret to how I got good at water sports.

Luc Moore (07:25.0)
Yeah, let's dive into that because you mentioned any brand and yeah, how was the journey that you entered into when sports and stuff?

Alex Mertens (07:30.061)
Yeah.

Alex Mertens (07:33.871)
Oh, it's actually really long. okay. Way back when I was really young, I was playing soccer at a really high level. And I was playing for the San Jose Earthquakes, actually, like junior team. And I had a partial tear on my Achilles and got a stage three concussion. And essentially since that injury, I was no longer being treated the same way from the team when I came back. So it just wasn't fun. But...

As part of my recovery from trying to re-strengthen my Achilles tendon, I needed to train balance. And so I didn't want to be in the gym. I hated the gym. I hated feeling like a rat or a hamster in a wheel. I liked to be outside and all this. So my dad actually is the one who showed windsurfing to my PT and PT's like, yeah, that's great. So that kind of became my PT. And when I started windsurfing, I hated it because I was a scrawny little soccer kid. I had no upper body strength.

Luc Moore (08:10.665)
You

Alex Mertens (08:29.744)
All I had was leg strength and like we didn't have any like kids rigs I was using my dad's gorge sail with like his 70 % carbon mast and aluminum boom So everything was super heavy and I really struggled to get the gear up to get going and so it's really funny because when I started I Was so much against the sport. My dad had a rope attached to the back of the foot strap I would go out. This is worse than the German jibes. Honestly, I would go out and then he would pull me back with the ropes and

Luc Moore (08:32.297)
Yeah

Alex Mertens (08:59.824)
just to get me back to shore so I could get up and go again because I just needed to train my like my legs to get it stronger again. And so for me at the beginning it was literally just the 15 minutes and then the moment the 15 minutes was done I was done. I was out of the water, I was in the car, I was ready to go home. That was it. So when I became old enough

Luc Moore (09:05.832)
Oh fair, yeah yeah yeah.

Alex Mertens (09:21.324)
My dad signed me up for a clinic with Andy Brandt. And in that clinic, in one weekend, I went from not doing anything to planning, hooking in, doing heli tags.

Luc Moore (09:24.638)
Hmm.

Alex Mertens (09:34.381)
And I was having so much fun because Andy Brant had a bunch of gear that you could just borrow to use as part of the clinic. So I got access to like carbon masks, carbon booms, all equipment that I could actually use. And then they would, I had this instructor named Brendan and Brendan would really push me and he would make it fun for me all the time. So that really made me fall in love. And especially the moment I started planning, I remembered that first day, but from someone who would only be on the water for like 15 minutes a day,

Luc Moore (09:36.264)
yeah.

Alex Mertens (10:04.304)
My dad had to come pull me out of the water because I was non-stop just going back and forth in the little playpen. And actually this was at Sherman Island where the camp was being held and we had this little playpen and I was just going back and forth in this little playpen for hours. My dad had to pull me out for lunch because I was not coming out of the water. yeah, like that's how I got into windsurfing. And then where the video part comes in is Andy Brannon at all of his clinics. He would always film everyone. And at the end of the day, after all

Luc Moore (10:33.225)
All right.

Alex Mertens (10:34.364)
after the whole day of like getting instruction getting yelled at in the water blah blah blah you sit down with everyone around a little TV and they go through all the videos and then he points out like you're doing this wrong right here see look and he'll pause it and break it down for you and be like you can see your weight is on the wrong foot or your sail is too far back or your sail is too far forward so that kind of set in my mind about how powerful video was so

As I got better and I started going for freestyle moves, I would always ask my mom or my dad to film me and I would use the video that I got of me and I would compare it to whatever clips I could find of other pros from around the world.

Luc Moore (11:16.542)
that's smart. Yeah.

Alex Mertens (11:17.6)
And that's how I would compare. I would be like, okay, when I'm going for a spock and I'm jumping, my arm is way extended out back, but theirs is really close. So maybe I should try to keep my hand closer. And it was these little things like this, it helped me really figure out how to do the moves. And eventually I was able to learn all the moves because in the Bay, we got no one else that's doing this stuff at the high level. Like we have a freestyle scene here, but it's a lot smaller than what is present in Europe. I think the highest.

Luc Moore (11:43.175)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (11:47.537)
level of what people are doing is like we have another writer named Graham and he's doing Kulo's and Konos but no one's going for double pop moves no one's going for like big jumps or big air moves so when I wanted to get to that level I needed to really break everything down to see what is actually going on and video was the biggest key for that.

Luc Moore (12:08.621)
no way. Did you do any trampoline work or any gymnastics work and stuff to get your coordination good in the air?

Alex Mertens (12:15.886)
I've always been like an athletic person and I remember in high school I had this phase where I wanted to really learn how to do a backflip. So I signed up for gymnastics and I did do gymnastics for about three months and in those three months I learned everything that the coach had to offer. So yeah, I went from being able to like cartwheel and then I was able to like cartwheel back handspring into a double backflip on the tumble track.

Luc Moore (12:33.703)
Really?

Alex Mertens (12:44.46)
Yeah. So like the trampoline is huge for training air awareness. And actually for me, that's one reason why I don't wear a helmet because especially the helmets that cover my ears, completely zaps my air awareness and I lose all ability to like know where I am in the air. So.

Luc Moore (12:44.912)
Whoa, well done.

Luc Moore (12:55.472)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (13:01.419)
really?

Alex Mertens (13:02.262)
Yeah, for me my ears are a huge part of it. I know a lot of people do adjust to it, having your ears covered, but for me, I don't wear a hood in the winter. I don't wear anything that covers my ears, because the moment I do, I'm lost in the air, and I have no idea what's going on. So I always have the open ear helmets or no hood.

then my air awareness is still good. yeah, definitely training on the trampoline, getting comfortable with like doing a backflip and slowing down your rotation or speeding it up in terms of like in the air is a really good way to calculate where you are and get used to the feeling of being upside down and being able to call out like, okay, I think I'm this high, I need to slow this down. So yeah. How do you do that? Well, if you're doing a backflip,

Luc Moore (13:45.989)
And how do I do that?

No, sorry, that you would tell yourself in the air, like, know how to slow it down at this point through your practice is what I meant. Yeah. But, and then you ended up competing on the like European freestyle pro tour.

Alex Mertens (13:50.414)
Essentially,

Alex Mertens (13:55.691)
yes, exactly. Exactly.

Alex Mertens (14:03.778)
Yes, no, it was really fun. I really enjoyed it. It was an awesome experience. And the EFBT was a really great thing for me because I originally went over with just the idea of I'm just going to compete on this thing. And the first event I went to, ended up getting like...

Luc Moore (14:05.36)
How was that?

Alex Mertens (14:25.344)
So there was a writer named Adam Sims and Adam Simmed, he was making all of the media for EFPT and he had seen the media that I'd been putting out in the past somehow. And he was like my idol for Windsor videos at the time. And so like in the first event,

Luc Moore (14:39.986)
that's

Alex Mertens (14:42.966)
I ended up getting knocked out in my first heat, but I was maybe a little ambitious with what I was going for when I first competed, but Adam Sims saw me and he asked me to film for him because he,

Luc Moore (14:45.646)
Mm.

Alex Mertens (14:56.024)
He needed someone to film because he was going farther in the contest than he was expecting and he didn't have the ability. So that led to me working for the EFBT for the next three years, basically. So I worked for them and I was competing with them at the same time. I worked on all the highlight reels that were going out online, helped film. We were giving content to the writers. It was a really, really cool deal. And that led to also doing some brand photo shoots and other media.

Luc Moore (15:06.913)
Luc Moore (15:25.698)
no way.

Alex Mertens (15:26.038)
stuff with Adam. Yeah, it was a really fun experience and like the whole thing really kind of stopped because of COVID. COVID made me have to come back home and then since then there was no really opportunity to get back over. yeah, it's a... EFT was super fun. Like for anyone that is thinking about it, go do it. Contests are fun, especially when you make it fun because like it's really easy to get stuck into this really competitive mindset of like, I have to perform.

Luc Moore (15:49.313)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (15:54.595)
But as long as you keep it fun and you have a good time on the water, you're going to have a great time at these contests because you have a bunch of other people that are all like doing stuff that is really insane because like it's like you're not the only one or especially for me coming from the Bay Area where it's a small scene, but like yeah, you're not the only one doing these moves. There's other people doing these moves. And for me at every contest that I went to personally, I improved because I was sailing with other people who were better than me.

That really helped me out.

Luc Moore (16:23.628)
yeah. And her in warm water and shallow stuff and... Bonaire, right, that's why.

Alex Mertens (16:27.212)
Yeah. And then sometimes really cold water and really cold stuff as well. Yeah, like with the... Yeah, we had the one contest in Austria and that one was always really cold.

Luc Moore (16:35.383)
Really? Yeah, I guess Europe does get nasty.

Alex Mertens (16:44.416)
we there was like a hot tub quote unquote because they had this really crazy setup where there's this stage in front of the whole crowd and this this this event was really cool because it was almost like a festival that had windsurfing like a windsurf contest going on in front of it so you have like this dj stage

Luc Moore (16:47.512)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (17:02.754)
with the hot tub for the writers and there's thousands of people lining the crowd because they're all partying and having fun. They're all watching. when we had very light wind we would do tow in where we're getting towed by a jet ski and we have our windsurf rig and we try to hit this wake and we get sent like five, six meters in the air and we're just spinning like crazy. It's so fun, but.

Luc Moore (17:17.514)
yeah, I've seen that before.

Alex Mertens (17:27.982)
for the, I remember going to that event, they asked like, oh yeah, do you have a song that you want us to play when we announce your name? And so they literally, it felt like you were like a WWE like wrestler or something. Cause yeah, you feel like a rock star going to this event. They're like announcing it, you get on your board and they're like cheering for you as you're like screaming at like, like 58 kilometers an hour into this steep wake. And you hit it, you fly in the air. And when you land, you can hear the cheers from the, from the crowd or when you

Luc Moore (17:38.055)
Yeah, Rockstar.

Luc Moore (17:42.829)
shit.

Alex Mertens (17:57.889)
it you can still hear the cheers from the crowd it was a really cool vibe and then you get out and as you're walking up to the jacuzzi you have to walk on the beach like in front of the rails and people are all like cheering for you as you get to the hot tub and you sit in the hot tub and the hot tub is colder than the water you were just in yeah so it was fun

Luc Moore (18:00.524)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (18:07.747)
Come on, that's sick.

Luc Moore (18:13.603)
Really?

Luc Moore (18:19.09)
shit. So obviously it's a lot bigger scene over there, right? Than we have here in North America.

Alex Mertens (18:23.21)
Mm-hmm. No, in Europe, the windsurf scene is incredible. mean, especially in North America, I can't speak for Canada, but we don't have any proper like centers for windsurfing things. That's kind of, that's where I feel like why the scene is a lot smaller is because just the accessibility is really low in the US. In Europe, you're able to go to a center where they have a restaurant.

gear rentals, like trained coaches and all this stuff. you pay like, here's 50 euro. I'm going to take this whatever rig I want and I'm just going to go have fun for the day. And then they bring it back at the end of the day. Kind of like what you experienced at Bonaire where the water is ready or not the water, the gear is ready on the water. Yeah. And so like in most of Europe, they have centers like that all around. Whereas in the U S I can't think of one place that has it. I mean, I actually, the one place that does have some

Luc Moore (19:04.707)
The gears are rigged. Yeah.

Luc Moore (19:17.089)
Hmm.

Alex Mertens (19:18.996)
similar I would say is Ocean Air Sports on the East Coast but that's just the one that I know I could be very wrong that there's not that much but proximity of like Indian melt yeah ocean in Cape Hatteras I know that they have something similar where you can rent gear I think like right on the water

Luc Moore (19:26.711)
like in Cape Hatteras and stuff like that? Yeah.

Alex Mertens (19:36.877)
But it's not the same level where it's like you have a ramp down into the water. The gear tent is right up top and you kind of just like walk up, grab the sail and walk straight into the water. That's a lot more common like all across Europe. Like I remember you have Lake Garda, there's one that's specifically like that. You have in Fort Aventura, like a lot of the vacation spots you have Tenerife.

Luc Moore (19:49.462)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (20:03.564)
Tarifa had one, but like, they're really spread out. There's a ton of them all over, and it's just a lot more accessible to get access to gear. And I think that that's why the scene is bigger.

Luc Moore (20:05.794)
wow.

Luc Moore (20:13.035)
Yeah, like in our, in the home city kind of of Ottawa, there's, I don't know if anybody does it. used to, my buddy said it was bigger. Like he was in Sudbury before and there was a spot where you could, but it was old kind of shitty gear. There's schools on Vancouver Island for winging and stuff and kiting, but not really windsurfing. So yeah, not big. I know you can get stuff in demos and Hood River obviously, but

Alex Mertens (20:28.878)
That's the other bank.

Alex Mertens (20:35.074)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (20:41.068)
Yes, obviously.

Luc Moore (20:42.035)
That's probably one of the only and maybe that island off of, of tech south Padre, maybe in Texas. I don't know, but East coast, like New York or, or, Cape Cod or any of that kind of stuff. I don't know if there's anything there, but the great lakes, we might have stuff, but yeah, you're right. Not a ton of access, even though the sport in the fall here in the great lakes, it's phenomenal. It's some of the best stuff and there's no reason why.

Alex Mertens (20:49.364)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (20:56.845)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (21:11.875)
there shouldn't be, but maybe they're all sailing or e-foiling or something, cause that's coming around. I don't know. But so that's quite a big journey then coming from an elite level kind of soccer to like not for hating this thing and then doing extremely well on a pro tour compared to all these other people. That's insane. That's really good.

Alex Mertens (21:16.552)
Yeah.

Alex Mertens (21:32.396)
Yeah

Yeah, it was a fun journey. Thank you. Definitely, I feel like I learned a lot from it. And like the sports definitely taught me a lot about like perseverance and just, you know, kind of believing in yourself, but it's a hundred percent. If I was given the opportunity to do it again, I would, So.

Luc Moore (21:38.242)
You're welcome.

Luc Moore (21:55.19)
Yeah, is there a sport that requires more, like how long would it take you to land a specific maneuver? Cause I've seen guys here in their late fifties or early fifties trying to learn like a forward loop and it takes some 7,000 attempts or my neighbor who was like one of the best windsurfers in the area. He went out in 50 knots and 25 foot swell on Lake Ontario one day and I

Alex Mertens (22:06.189)
Hahaha

Alex Mertens (22:14.552)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (22:23.489)
I didn't have a sale small enough to try to follow him, but he's trying all these freestyle moves now. And he's like, I'm 61, I'm not getting into big stuff, but I want to learn some Spock's and all these other maneuvers. And he's just charging. And I was like, yeah, I know. I called him from Maui or whatever and I said, hey, oh, I almost got this move. And he's like, I almost got it. But I said, I have to keep working at it. So it's like inspirational for guys that are passionate.

Alex Mertens (22:31.746)
Haha.

Alex Mertens (22:35.49)
That's so awesome. I want to be like him when I grow up.

Luc Moore (22:51.071)
And they found health, healthy hobbies and healthy ways of using their energy. Cause there's so many things out there, obviously that you can get caught in that are not healthy for you or in the rest of the planet. So it's really amazing to see examples like that for us. you find the same? Yeah.

Alex Mertens (22:51.276)
Yeah.

Alex Mertens (22:59.394)
Yeah.

Alex Mertens (23:07.872)
No, 100%. I mean, there's a few other guys over here as well in the Bay. Like we have one guy who's, I think he's like 74 and he's still windsurfing like every day. Every time I go to Sherman Island to the spot, he's the first one there. Every time. And he's the first one on the water. Every time he comes up to me, he's like, he gives me a Snickers bar, even though he knows I'm not the biggest fan of candy. And he's like, here, you need your energy. And then he goes on the water and he's the first one out. He's on his foil, like a windsurf foil, not

Luc Moore (23:30.688)
Yeah.

Alex Mertens (23:38.155)
not wing foil, but he's on his Windsor foil and he's just ripping it, going, like working on his jibes, and he comes in with like the biggest smile, and then he comes up to me and like, hey, you have to try my Goya sails sometime.

Yeah, we call him Mayor Dave because he's the mayor of the spot. because he's like seniority there. yeah, there's a in California, I find that there's a pretty big scene of like, I don't want to say elderly, but like older people that are still pushing. And it's so, so cool to see because I wish that there was more young, but it is really cool to see people still pushing for something that they love like that. And it's really inspiring.

Luc Moore (23:54.631)
That sick.

Luc Moore (24:09.012)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (24:16.362)
Yeah, it gives us hope for the future. How old are you now?

Alex Mertens (24:20.034)
Yes. I am 25.

Luc Moore (24:23.617)
25, you got some time. I think Frank's what, 57 now? I just turned 42 and winging and all that stuff is opening up a completely new door. But yeah, 25 is sick. Did you grow up in the San Francisco Bay area? Like when did you, when did that whole process start?

Alex Mertens (24:25.728)
I know.

Alex Mertens (24:41.122)
Yeah.

no, I, I grew up here. I was born in San Diego and then we moved to Europe actually almost immediately. And then, I came back here when it was time to start, start school essentially. but I grew up in the Bay, always around here, kind of rotating around South Bay, San Jose area. my parents really liked it. The reason my parents chose the Bay area over Southern California, because they loved SoCal. That's where they went to college. That's where they loved everything.

The reason they chose the Bay is because there's wind up here. So because my dad's a windsurfer, yeah, my dad's a hardcore windsurfer and he thought that when he had me windsurfing was gonna be done. But he was so happy to find out that actually it was quite the opposite. And that he could continue to like continue pushing for it. But yeah, I grew up in the Bay area. So yeah.

Luc Moore (25:15.008)
they're fellow windsurfers too.

Luc Moore (25:24.404)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (25:27.808)
I

Luc Moore (25:34.117)
that's good to hear.

Yeah. so obviously we have, everybody always wants to know like if you've ever surfed or foiled under Golden Gate, cause I've been to San Francisco once and I would love to get out to see Alcatraz cause I think that would be such a cool experience. But have you ever ridden under the bridge? I know there's ferries and all this stuff going on too, right?

Alex Mertens (25:59.385)
So that's the reason why you would go under the bridge is for the boats, but also the bridge is crazy. I've foiled there, foiled there twice. One time was a little scary because I took a smaller foil, the wind kind of died and then on an ebb tide, the current pulls you out of the bridge and it actually funnels a lot faster because you're going from this huge bay to this like mile wide.

Luc Moore (26:18.751)
to

Alex Mertens (26:24.608)
channel. So the water really funnels and that's why the swell picks up really big there. But if you don't have enough wind, sometimes it's impossible to get back up on foil until you're like way out into the bay, way out into the ocean. So in the bay area we have a lot of people who ride with radios or for me I bought an apple watch just for that purpose of being able to call.

Luc Moore (26:33.006)
Hmm

.

Luc Moore (26:43.635)
Yeah. How does, let's I'll let you fit it. But I would like to learn a little bit more about that. Cause I'm just in the process of figuring out which one to get. Cause my buddy in Bonaire was like, it's, it's quite important. Yeah.

Alex Mertens (26:53.804)
Yeah, no, especially if you're going to be planning on going to like out to the bridge or in the big Bay of San Francisco, it is important, I think, to have an Apple watch or some kind of communication device because there's a lot that can go wrong. I mean, even in the Delta or by the Delta, it's also Sherman Island or Ria Vista or

There's so many ways that people refer to that spot. But you need one there. I've had to use my watch to call the Coast Guard for a friend who was getting sucked upwind by the ebb, the ebb tide.

Luc Moore (27:26.43)
Whoa.

Alex Mertens (27:27.382)
And so, yeah, mean, safety isn't very important, especially in the Bay Area, because like it's kind of the Wild West, especially when you have all these huge freighters that are coming through or all these little ferry boats that come through. But you can ride the swell. Like you've seen so many videos online of people riding the swell. I do remember hearing somewhere that it's actually like illegal to get to a certain distance to the boats. But the swell that they create is super fun to ride because it's typically bigger, a bit steeper and has a bit more power.

Luc Moore (27:44.534)
Yeah

Luc Moore (27:50.12)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (27:57.35)
and they're a lot faster than the ocean swell that comes through.

Luc Moore (28:01.83)
And that's a massive opening, right? From Sutro, Baz to Point Bonita or something, like those two lighthouses, that's a massive bay. So if you're under in the center of the bridge and you got a tide ripping out into the ocean, like it's just, it's wide open. Yeah.

Alex Mertens (28:09.943)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (28:15.734)
Yeah, you can see it's so small and it goes into this really wide open area. So the current literally just funnels through. And so on an ebb tide, it funnels out and on a flood tide, it funnels inward. So it...

It can be really cool. I've gone under the bridge many times. I remember the very first time I ever went under the bridge, we were windsurfing in a group of people. I was with Phil Soltysiak, Ariane Ocas, and several other windsurfers from the Bay Area. And we were just kind of all as a group, just kind of cruising up. The wind kind of died a little bit, and then a pod of whales actually started breaching around us. we had people with GoPros, and everyone was filming and like screaming, and one of them, John, he actually

Luc Moore (28:52.561)
No way.

Alex Mertens (28:59.088)
and he had a slalom sail so like the mast filled up with water so he couldn't lift it up but a whale was breaching like right in front of him and then swam under him and that clip ended up going on to it went on to like Fox News or something it was a it was really cool that was like a big like viral moment let's say for windsurfing but yeah the last time I was out under the bridge was also for windsurfing and actually we were I was what's the word

Luc Moore (29:07.326)
you

Luc Moore (29:13.569)
Yeah

Alex Mertens (29:29.984)
Uh-huh.

looking on it but I was hired basically to be a to be a windsurfer for a commercial shoot for a tech company that is now gonna be bought by Nvidia so yeah we were filming out under the bridge we built like this windsurf mount like where we mounted a laptop to my boom and I was essentially typing on this laptop while sailing underneath the bridge but the day that we went to film there was only eight knots so there was I was on like my 4.8

Luc Moore (29:35.742)
no way. no way.

Alex Mertens (30:02.152)
They put me in jeans and a sweater like over my wetsuit and like every time I fell in everything got heavier So like for me, I'm I'm not the heaviest guy. I'm like 69 kilos 70 kilos and so I write a 91 liter board and that yeah, and so when I was for me normally 91 liter board in my 4-8

Luc Moore (30:06.108)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (30:09.454)
yeah.

Luc Moore (30:15.773)
I was like 160 or something. Yeah. Yeah.

Alex Mertens (30:24.206)
It doesn't budge. With all of this stuff on and the laptop that's like mounted onto my sail, trying to uphaul the board, I was sinking my 91. And I never do that. So, I mean, it's eight knots and it's like, I have to uphaul it. I don't have an uphaul rope because I thought it's cool to go without one, but for that day I wish I had one. And yeah, I was like palm gripping the mast trying to lift it out of the water.

Luc Moore (30:34.737)
Ha ha ha ha!

Luc Moore (30:40.125)
Yep. Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (30:49.166)
It didn't really work. I had to always like get carried or I had to get into the boat, lift my gear out of the water onto the boat and then kind of do like a dock start off of the boat to get going. Cause the wind was just so light. But yeah, it was a fun shoot.

Luc Moore (30:56.06)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (30:59.901)
You

How'd the commercial end up? Pretty good?

Alex Mertens (31:05.622)
Yeah, I mean, I'm in there for like three seconds at the beginning. That's it. But it's like, that's the opening of it. That's the cover of the video. It was really cool. It was a fun little thing. Now that company, they were called Kodium. Now they're called Windsurf actually. Their whole product was called Windsurf and that's why they wanted a Windsurfer.

Luc Moore (31:08.719)
yeah.

Luc Moore (31:24.007)
Hmm.

Alex Mertens (31:24.814)
Now the company rebranded to Quinsurf and I believe they're in the process of being acquired by Nvidia, which is pretty crazy because to think that that whole project that I was a part of is the project and the product that led them to being as successful as they are. That's really wild. It's wild.

Luc Moore (31:34.225)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (31:43.709)
Yeah, that's pretty neat. Yeah, that's awesome to be a part of. Yeah, because Nvidia is doing some amazing things. I just started watching a documentary or like a podcast about them and what their origins were and what they've been able to accomplish. it's phenomenal.

Alex Mertens (32:01.72)
Yeah, no, is insane.

Luc Moore (32:05.83)
Talking Sherman Alex, we were talking a little bit before in Sacramento River. What makes that place for those who don't know it, what makes that place so special?

Alex Mertens (32:15.754)
Okay, Sherman Island slash Rivista slash the Delta. That place is, holds a very special place in my heart because it is where kind of my whole windsurfing journey started. I have photos of me as a baby over there because my parents used to windsurf there like when I was really young. By really young I mean like a few months old.

Yeah, no, it's really cool. And that place is really special because it is a tidal river. And so that means that we get, just like the ocean, you get rising and falling tides, but it's in a river. And the way that it's set up is actually when the tide is ebbing, you get the exact same setup to what Hood River has, just to a bit of a smaller effect. Hood River, believe that their current is like six knots.

Luc Moore (32:59.484)
Alex Mertens (33:07.094)
something like that, it's really fast, but in the Delta it's around 3 to 4 knots. So when it's ebbing, you still get a good amount of current, but because the river is also lot wider,

The swell doesn't set up as much, but we call it the mini gorge because the swell, can get some really like steep, quite big swell at the Delta on an ebb tide with the wind really howling as well. It tends to be one of the windier spots in the Bay Area, one of the more reliable ones for wind as well. Just because it works off of pressure gradients in terms of like, an easy way to spot it is like if inland is like 10 degrees hotter than

Luc Moore (33:47.175)
thermals, yeah.

Alex Mertens (33:48.451)
then like the coast, then it's most likely going to blow in the Delta. So for me, I like it on every tide. A lot of people like to go there for just the ebb, especially on like a big ebb because around like full moon, we get like King low, King high. then, and when that's, when that ramp is like lined up perfectly with how the wind is going to be blowing, it is like all time super fun. It's going to be super busy, but you're going to get steep ramps, big swell, and then everyone

Luc Moore (33:56.827)
and King-Hi, yeah.

Luc Moore (34:14.107)
yeah, true.

Alex Mertens (34:18.424)
can spread out because it's a really long river and there's many different areas where you can actually launch but it is so fun and it is it's incredible of a spot. What makes it really unique is that no run like no two runs are ever going to be the same.

because at each minute the current is slightly different. then because the tide is also, how deep the depth changes every minute, the swell or the ramps never line up in the same spot on each run. So you're always having to read what's going on in the river. You're always having to kind of watch how things evolve as you ride, which makes it a really dynamic and fun ride if you are looking for something that's a bit more...

Luc Moore (34:50.449)
Huh. Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (35:03.466)
engaging, let's say, but it's so much fun and it's also so frustrating sometimes.

Luc Moore (35:11.615)
And your dad was stoked to have you as a little one and actually not lose his windsurfing. So that must have been pretty good for him.

Alex Mertens (35:16.824)
Yes, exactly, exactly. He thought it was going to be over, yeah, luckily for him. Exactly, exactly.

Luc Moore (35:22.262)
Yeah, they just brought you in.

that's sick. How did the switch from windsurfing to winging go and foiling and whatnot? you still, did it feel like you were cheating on windsurfing when you pumped up a wing for the first time or how was that transition?

Alex Mertens (35:34.711)
Hmm

Alex Mertens (35:41.423)
So the transition actually kind of came around from me I'm still like a smaller guy and I'm not too tall I'm not I don't have like the most upper body strength, but so for me windsurfing big sails like 5'2 I hate that Because I can't like for the stuff I want to do. It's just too much for me to really maneuver

Luc Moore (35:58.831)
Yeah.

Alex Mertens (36:04.59)
to the extent that I want to. Like I can, but it's like for each single time I want to do a move, I'm like putting 150 % into everything. So it gets really exhausting and it's just not that fun, let's say. So wing foiling was kind of like a really good solution to that because I could go in lighter winds and jump.

Luc Moore (36:12.463)
Yeah.

Alex Mertens (36:24.99)
higher than I'll ever jump with my Windsor stuff. And actually I never intended to jump when I got into foiling because even to this day I'm still scared of foil. But because you have these swords under you that you try not to think about it but all it takes is one accident with it let's say and that thought is right back in your mind.

Luc Moore (36:34.731)
Yeah.

Yep.

Alex Mertens (36:50.2)
there's ways to be safe about it. And that's what the first thing about like learning how to jump on the foil was learning how to be safe with it. But yeah, no, the transition was not, let's say cheating. I was maybe getting made fun of by a few of my friends on the European side. Cause there I was like, yo, I just started foiling and they're like, what you cook? Like, what are you doing? But,

Luc Moore (36:52.346)
Fair.

Yeah.

Alex Mertens (37:14.284)
I think very quickly that mindset changed. There's a, cause it's fun. mean, it, opens up accessibility for a lot more people. And especially here in the Bay, you saw a huge switch because Chrissy Fields used to be majority, let's say, kiting and windsurfers. And now you maybe see like five kites in the sky.

Luc Moore (37:25.795)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (37:34.795)
Everyone is foiling at Chrissy Fields now. It's crazy because Chrissy Fields is known for being a little gustier. But yeah, now you go there, it's like milsy foils and it's a really cool scene because everyone is going and chasing boats in Chrissy Fields because they want to get on these boat swells. It's really fun, though. No.

Luc Moore (37:35.245)
Whoa. Yeah, same everywhere. Yeah, it does. Nobody's been hit, thankfully. I guess they chase behind. They don't chase in front.

Alex Mertens (37:58.051)
I remember seeing this clip online some years back, I think it was two years ago, someone somewhere, I don't know if it was in the bay, it might have been in a different country, but someone got hit by a boat. And that's, yeah, if you're gonna go chase boat wakes, just be smart about it.

Luc Moore (38:13.163)
Yeah, we should put a little disclaimer here. Just make sure you know what you're doing before doing it.

Alex Mertens (38:16.746)
Yeah, yeah, don't go in over your head. Don't go in over your head. mean, know your limits, play within that because foiling is super fun, windsurfing is super fun, but in the end these are all extreme sports. So you're always at risk for something. Yes.

Luc Moore (38:29.721)
Be careful. like we were checking out your YouTube channel and you started that thing. think your first video is what six years ago, the Island you've never heard of that. this is Bonaire. Ooh. And, yeah, you got some amazing videos, but let's hop over to the sections where we're, where you're showing off your first wind foiling moves. Cause we had talked about that before as well.

Alex Mertens (38:37.293)
Yes.

Alex Mertens (38:44.172)
Yeah.

Alex Mertens (38:56.16)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, secrets of the sand.

Luc Moore (38:57.144)
So it was like your windsurf pro and average Joe. exactly. Um, how many episodes do you have? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Alex Mertens (39:00.79)
Yeah, secrets of the sand.

Alex Mertens (39:07.8)
Something like that, yeah. It's like, I think in terms of move breakdowns, I think we have five moves, maybe six. And then like one of them is we had a GWA writer on with us and we were talking about...

Kind of the differences between a back loop and the push loop, because they look very similar. I think the tour actually doesn't, the tour now doesn't separate those two moves, but like back then they were separated into two different move categories. And so we were talking about what the difference is between them and like, are you doing them correctly or are you doing a push loop or are you doing a back loop?

Luc Moore (39:35.405)
Aha, okay.

Luc Moore (39:45.327)
Fascinating.

Alex Mertens (39:46.519)
And so it was, that's what we were talking about there, but the move breakdowns, yeah, that was a really fun thing. Essentially, the whole reason that that show started was because...

Luc Moore (39:56.28)
We're happy. Welcome, Taylor.

Alex Mertens (39:57.855)
I was coming into foiling and I was wanting to learn how to, I was starting to want to learn how to jump. And I had one friend who has, for his life, he had almost never done wind sports. And so his name is Taylor and, or is Taylor, he's still alive, but his name is Taylor. and he's the average Joe because he, his background in water sports and knowledge of the wind is very minimal because he had just started doing water sports like a year.

before he started foiling with me. And we were in the Delta, just kind of like during the summer, jumping and like...

trying to figure out the front side 360 together. We were like, okay, what are we doing wrong? We look at each other and how we're doing it. We talk about what we're feeling when we go for the things, when we go for the moves. And we would be like, hey, I think you're doing this wrong. Can you try this? And we would just talk back and forth. And as we were talking in the water and talking off the water, we would also look at clips online of people doing it on the tour. And we're like, oh, it looks like

they are actually pulling the wing down rather than leaving it high or it looks like their front hand is coming down to their down to their hip versus like pulling to just the shoulder and so noticing these small little things we talk about it we go try it and then we talk about like yeah when I tried pulling it to my hip I found it made me rotate flatter or when I tried pulling it to my shoulder like I had no control over the wing

So those conversations, it was like, hey, I think people would really benefit if they're trying to learn this stuff too. I think this kind of knowledge and learning about like what things to do, but no one talks about what not to do. So let's share that. Let's share our process. Because we're learning these moves at the same time. And I think people would also benefit from hearing these conversations that we have. You were about to say something.

Luc Moore (41:35.492)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (41:56.894)
So in essence, you can go to YouTube and look up secret of the send and then Alex Mertens, but your YouTube, what's your YouTube? It's at.

Alex Mertens (42:07.902)
My YouTube is just Alex Mertz, A-A-A-L-E-X M-E-R-T-S, my last name is Mertens, but a lot of people thought my last name is Mertz because of my Instagram and the YouTube handle. But yeah, no, that, lot of people ask me, where did the show go? Like, why did it stop? cause it was really fun, but the boring side is that, Taylor...

Luc Moore (42:17.631)
you

Luc Moore (42:27.67)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (42:35.522)
got into law school and so he had to focus in on that and I got a full-time job. So we just ran out of time. I had to focus on the full-time job because like the show was fun but like yeah I kind of need money to live so I was just focusing on the job and just haven't had time to continue working on it. The more interesting side of it is Taylor actually got really injured jumping on the foil and so he had a lisp-rank fracture.

Luc Moore (42:38.624)
Yep. Focusing on that.

Luc Moore (42:49.887)
I know.

Alex Mertens (43:04.03)
And what was really interesting is we were actually planning on making an episode about how to set up your foot straps safely and like correctly because it's a lot of people we see so many people set them up wrong. And by wrong, I mean a way to set up your straps in a way that allows you to get out of them easily but is still secure because there's so many people who set up foot straps in a way that is super unsafe.

Luc Moore (43:09.398)
and

Alex Mertens (43:28.84)
in terms of like being able to eject the board when you need to or if you fall wrong your feet come out and that's essentially what happened to Taylor because his straps weren't set up 100 % correctly he had one foot strap that was set up wrong and he ended up having a listerine fracture in his foot and so he ended up not being able to sail for like a year almost and then after that he went for a whole season without any foot straps because he was too afraid to jump but now he's got the straps back on and

Luc Moore (43:45.577)
Holy shit, yeah.

Alex Mertens (43:57.293)
I just was winging with him a few weeks back and he was jumping and it was really fun to see him doing that stuff again. But yeah, like long story short, setting up your straps is very important part of the process. If you're going to jump on the foil or the windsurfer, it's all very important.

Luc Moore (44:10.917)
Big time. Yeah, because I was like blasting out in Bonaire and I was starting to get tired. And obviously you're going 40 or 50 kilometers an hour or something or 40 and you're going into a jive and I pull out my back foot and it starts to get choppy further out. I was like, so it's just but I was able to with all the years of training windsurfing is just I was while you're going that fast, you just slip your front foot out of the strap. You let the whole kit go.

Alex Mertens (44:19.82)
you

Luc Moore (44:36.436)
whatever you fall behind it, you catch it, you're good to go. But like I was talking to Benji and stuff and some other pros on tour and footstraps or winging is a lot different because the floor falls right out from under you. It's not like you have a mid second or something or you have something that you're holding onto. It's a completely new level of gnarliness. And I've stayed away from them completely because I just surf. So it's like, I wanted to, I started doing some,

Alex Mertens (44:36.875)
Exactly.

Alex Mertens (44:53.217)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (45:02.755)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (45:05.622)
like strapless, um, foil slides and stuff in Bonaire for like two or three seconds. So I was like, come up and I hold and you just, it's the first time I actually committed to doing it. And so I have like maybe four seconds of me floating and then it goes back down and I can save it. But, uh, but yeah, try, try to keep progressing there, but everything else, I think it was just too scared to potentially have it. And what's the risk to reward if you're not jumping. So he was saying, if you're not jumping.

Alex Mertens (45:09.518)
That's so sweet.

Alex Mertens (45:20.046)
That's so cool.

Alex Mertens (45:31.414)
Like having foot straps or?

Luc Moore (45:33.13)
Yeah, like he was saying, if you're not jumping and if you're not foil sliding like cash is doing in the top of the lip, he said, don't worry about it. You don't even need them. So, cause the risk to reward for what art style of writing was too high. But if you're jumping, then your risk to reward scale is going to be completely different. Yeah.

Alex Mertens (45:40.44)
Hmm.

Alex Mertens (45:48.589)
Yeah, I think also if you're trying to push like a speed boundary, I would add that into the equation because if your goal is to go as fast as possible, it is really useful to have the foot strap. At least the front one. You don't need a back one, but the front one is really useful in terms of keeping stability.

Luc Moore (45:51.955)
Mmm, fair. Yeah.

Luc Moore (46:03.111)
I would say if you can go with the back one as well, because if you ever fall with only one, your knee is done, hips done potentially too. Cause if you can't get that, cause okay, let's maybe talk about that. Like is there a trips and tricks we can mention about that? Because that is a, yeah.

Alex Mertens (46:11.47)
But that's why you set them up right.

Yeah, so you were mentioning about how in foiling, the floor can fall away, which is true. And actually, like the way that I'm about to say how you should set up your straps may sound super counterintuitive.

Luc Moore (46:25.385)
Yes.

Alex Mertens (46:30.702)
But the way that I set up my foot straps is the same way that I set them up for windsurfing and essentially I have this like omega shape where the the bottom is super tight and essentially like the bottom hugs my feet and is like kind of almost like pressing into my feet on both sides but then the top has more of a loop and so the way that you can lock yourself in like this like you want to be able to have enough space where if your foot is in your strap you can like turn it and that way

Luc Moore (46:48.091)
Mm-hmm. Hmm.

Luc Moore (46:57.488)
All right.

Alex Mertens (47:00.49)
If you're falling or if you need to bail the board, you just, it will come out. But when your foot is planted on the bottom, it'll be locked in. And so you should, with that space also on top, when the floor starts to fall away, what's going to happen is actually your foot's going to go to the top of the strap. So if you keep your toes engaged, you're still locked in as, as tight as it can be. but yeah, I have it super tight on the bottom, a little taller.

Luc Moore (47:06.069)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (47:27.598)
And a lot of people look at my straps and they're like, what are you trying to put your leg through that? And it's like, no, it's just, that's a really safe way to do it where you're still secure. Cause then the bottom is what's holding you. And then the top can almost be like a release. And I've never had any issue with like throwing the board away from me while jumping.

Luc Moore (47:38.907)
Okay.

Alex Mertens (47:45.665)
if anything goes wrong. And you'll learn that when you ride with this style foot strap, there's some small changes you need to make in terms of how you stay secure. So when you put your feet in, it's not just putting your feet in now, you wanna put your foot in and actually twist it sideways a little bit. So you can set your foot straps up to be a bit flatter, so that way when your foot goes in forward, you then twist it to the normal riding position.

Luc Moore (48:10.377)
Hmm. All right. Okay.

Alex Mertens (48:11.02)
And then that will lock it in in more than one way until release. Your foot will come out naturally when you want it to. But you still have the security of it.

Luc Moore (48:20.378)
But if somebody is doing it more so like this, like just a cup or whatever, and then it's in your flat. Yeah. Yeah.

Alex Mertens (48:24.962)
Yes, and like a really wide cup and really small and flat, that's what leads to the Lissrank fracture. Because when you fall, you're not, if, because you're held down vertically, you're being pressed. You don't have as much ability to kick out. You're literally being sandwiched by the board. And so when you fall, if you start falling, let's say you fall, you fall forward. Your foot is now getting pulled against the strap and the strap doesn't want to go anywhere. And that's what ends up popping the Lissrank.

Luc Moore (48:31.124)
All right.

Luc Moore (48:52.788)
okay. Because I would always set them up so that the upper arch of my foot would be tight, but everything else was loose. So I would have to jam it in quite far just to get tight. But still then it was still cupped over the whole thing. I've only had it once in 12 years that I got stuck. Everything else, it's super easy to pull out. But you're saying a little tighter on the side, a little taller on the top would be safer. All right.

Alex Mertens (48:59.106)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Alex Mertens (49:04.62)
Yeah.

Alex Mertens (49:12.695)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (49:16.844)
Yeah, for me, when I ride my, the strap goes all the way to my, like my ankle essentially is all the way up into the strap. My foot, it's like almost all the way up to my leg. It's really like jammed all the way in there and then you twist it and you're locked in like super tight. But when you want to get out, it's still super loose and it's going to be like, if you, if anyone's ends up trying this, it's going to be an adjustment.

Luc Moore (49:24.902)
right.

Wow, okay.

Luc Moore (49:33.106)
Very good to know.

Luc Moore (49:41.553)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (49:41.849)
just be ready for it and the front of your legs are gonna be very tired and very sore because you're gonna be pulling up much harder but it is a much safer way to ride especially if you are wanting to use straps or wanting to jump or wanting to do freestyle I mean if you look at any freestyle rider on like the EFPT all of their foot straps look like this and like there's guys who have smaller feet than me and bigger straps than I set up so yeah

Luc Moore (50:02.259)
Okay.

Luc Moore (50:08.043)
fascinating. All right. So they just turn their feet or do something to angle it to lock themselves in. So when they're doing something insane, it doesn't break everything. good to know. All right. I didn't know that.

Alex Mertens (50:13.121)
Exactly.

Alex Mertens (50:17.182)
Exactly. Yeah, it's a like, yeah, if you end up finding it, just be ready for some to roll out your the front of your legs.

Luc Moore (50:26.673)
Yeah,

Alex Mertens (50:27.886)
you're going to be pulling up on the strap a lot more but yeah it's much safer and like once you get used to it what the benefit also is you are able to get much more over the board on the center which is really only useful for people who are maybe on like a freestyle board or like on a foil it's really beneficial because you want to be over the center line but yeah that's that's my foot strap setup and what i've noticed from a lot of the other like windsurf guys

Luc Moore (50:30.899)
Fair enough.

Luc Moore (50:38.483)
Hmm.

Luc Moore (50:47.347)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (50:52.332)
cool.

Oh, nice. Well, hey, man, thanks for sharing that, because that's something that a lot of people should pay more attention to. And a lot of people are riding it just for the fun of riding in straps. And I think they feel more locked in. But there's a lot more things going on than I find windsurfing wise. The floor doesn't necessarily fall out from under your windsurfing. And even if you're falling super fast in the air, for some reason, you still have that split second to pull at your feet. I don't.

Alex Mertens (51:06.253)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (51:15.904)
Exactly.

Luc Moore (51:23.089)
Like I've never had enough, like once in 12 years where I got my one foot stuck and I was like, that was close. But, and that's blasting along full speed, choppy stuff, the boards bouncing all over the place. Like, I don't know. Yeah. Any trips coming up for you or any kind of cool work slash win stuff in your art world?

Alex Mertens (51:29.197)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Mertens (51:36.406)
No, that's right.

Alex Mertens (51:43.694)
Yeah.

In terms of trips, I don't have anything planned at the moment. I'd like to because it's been a long time since I've actually done any kind of trip related to wind sports. I've just been like, like I've mentioned, I got a full time job, so I've been really focusing on that. And quite frankly, I haven't really had the budget to go out for any other trip at the moment. But I do have like some fun, like creative projects that I want to work on.

Luc Moore (52:05.457)
Yep, that's fair.

Alex Mertens (52:13.388)
I got to make a custom design on a freestyle windsurf board and it's from Duotone. They hooked me up with being able to make my own design. So I got to make that and I have it now. It's gorgeous. I love it. And I want to make like a little, I want to make some kind of video where it kind of compares the differences and the similarities between artists and athletes. Cause the more you think about it, the more similar they are.

Luc Moore (52:24.798)
sick.

Alex Mertens (52:43.342)
kind of what I designed the board to represent in terms of like the art of the board itself. it's a that's a fun little project that I have set up. I've already storyboarded the whole thing in terms of like how I want it to look and like what kind of shots I want. It's just now a matter of actually going and filming it. And that's kind of the hard part because I don't have any camera men here.

Luc Moore (52:58.448)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (53:02.129)
Who's in San Francisco that we know? Yeah. Yeah.

Alex Mertens (53:06.712)
Yeah, if you know a camera person in San Francisco, please let me know. Someone who's willing to film windsurf sessions.

Luc Moore (53:13.657)
Yeah, and cold and you might see a shark or two. The other idea we were talked about before was the the wing foil escape from Alcatraz. Anybody listening that wants to fund this venture, you reach out to us. We will fly out to San Francisco just to see this. And there you go. We're going to do it. I think this would be so sick. Maybe you can get

Alex Mertens (53:24.674)
That would be so cool.

Alex Mertens (53:32.92)
Yeah, I'll fly out from San Jose.

Luc Moore (53:43.547)
was that? I can't remember the actor's name right now. That's Blasphemous.

Alex Mertens (53:49.888)
Luc Moore (53:51.89)
Clint, we gotta get Clinton on this man. Clint Eastwood, that'd be great. Maybe he can direct it. Yeah.

Alex Mertens (53:54.659)
Yes. Clean these would be sick. no, it would be such a cool idea. mean, imagine you have someone that's like trapped in Alcatraz and then you kind of have like the message.

that's like hidden in the food and it's like, it's ready. And so you open up the hole in the wall, sneaks out, and then there's just this like, there's just this pump ready to go on the side of the side of the shore. And then you hear the sound of the pump that you have the guards that are like, what's going on, right? You just see the foil take off from the shore.

Luc Moore (54:11.496)
Hahaha!

Luc Moore (54:30.161)
geez, you'd have to have a few bikini ladies and all that stuff set up and you'd be off to go boom.

Alex Mertens (54:34.682)
Exactly, on Chrissy when they get to shore, right? Exactly.

Luc Moore (54:40.689)
Hey, you're home. Yeah, exactly. All right. It's out there now, so let's see what we can do. Yeah. Well, hey, man, thanks for taking the time and thanks once again for being so flexible in your schedule. yeah, next time I travel, I'll make sure to check the side of the plane and see what the name is.

Alex Mertens (54:47.881)
See who runs with it.

Alex Mertens (54:57.107)
Of course. No, thanks for having me.

Alex Mertens (55:03.5)
Hahaha

Luc Moore (55:09.072)
Oh shit, what are you gonna do? And then I got to spend another day in Washington. Yeah, you know, it's life. Life happens to you when you get on the wrong plane. All right, that's just the way it goes. Oh man, but hey, yeah, thanks. It was great to meet you and chat with you. yeah, no, absolutely. I hope you had a good time. And yeah, we're gonna work on that Alcatraz thing and we have to see if we can get that thing going.

Alex Mertens (55:12.674)
Get on the right plane?

Alex Mertens (55:20.139)
Exactly.

Alex Mertens (55:27.65)
Yeah, thanks so much Luke. Thanks for having me.

Alex Mertens (55:36.591)
Thank you. Have a good one. Thanks.

Luc Moore (55:39.535)
All right, man, hey, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and yeah, we'll chat with you soon. Awesome. All right, bye everybody.