Carte Blanche: Yannick De Jager !

Yannick De Jager (NDL) pulling in some chilly North Sea barrels at his homebreak of Scheveningen. ©Ray Max

CAPBRETON, France (Monday, June 11, 2012) – A couple weeks ago we, along with all the major surf medias worldwide, shared an introduction clip to the Protest video project ‘Stories from here to there‘. We were most impressed with the quality of the footage and the original story Yannick has to share; that’s why we decided to give him ‘Carte Blanche’ to tell you what this is all about !

“‘Stories from here to There’ is a video project that we are filming with my good friend Alexander de Bruycker from www.shadowplayfilms.eu. It’s about the professional surfers in the Protest team that all tell their own, personal story.

My story is more specifically about my background and myself as a person, how I grew up surfing in Holland, where I am at now and where I want to go next as a surfer. We tried to capture the vibe of surfing in Holland, portray how different it is surfing in the North Sea and around my hometown Scheveningen. To find good waves in Holland takes a lot, but that also makes it special. You don’t take it for granted, you really appreciate it. But really. Like in a different dimension then when you are in a country with consistent quality waves. There is so much anticipation and looking forward to those sweet sessions somewhere on the dutch coast.. whether it’s just really fun, rippable onshore slob on a good sandbank or those very few clean days with groundswell from the north (as far as you can call it ground swell). The tide in the North Sea is massive and influences the waves a lot too, which means that a lot of days timing is everything out here.

Don’t get me wrong. Scoring waves in a place that is blessed with consistent surf never gets boring. It’s what surfing is about. Whether that is on an epic French sandbank, barreling Portuguese reef, Irish slab, American A-frame skatepark, Australian point or some perfect tropical coral. Yet scoring quality waves at a place that doesn’t receive swell so often is a different experience.

Different in a way that maybe the energy of the place changes, because its not used to the energy of clean breaking waves. Maybe it is because not a whole lot of people have ridden waves at that location before and it’s usually uncrowded, more pure. Maybe because there are plenty of discoveries to be made. Maybe its because those few times a year, exceptional sessions almost feel like a miracle when they happen. Which they are in a way. Its almost like all those conditions coming together that produce high quality waves should not be possible at that place or spot. Or maybe you just have to come from such a wave poor country to recognize and appreciate that long term, special anticipation. To fully feel the reward. Surfing waves at spots rather unique to the surfing world at a coast that needs special conditions to work. Its probably got to do with where I am from, but I can say I’m a big fan of surfing these different, wave starved places on those special moments.

Anyway, this first episode is a filmic introduction. We filmed the images of the intro during a couple sessions around 3 weeks ago, all the shots were taken in the city I live in, my home beach and the places I grew up surfing. We were really lucky with the waves, it was all filmed in a very short time. The introduction episode mainly shows my situation, about how I want to get out of my comfort zone now and challenge myself to things like international contests, the WQS and more powerful waves. Things that I am not used too, but want to explore, to grow as a surfer and as a person.

So the next episodes that will follow now will be more rough-cut, ”on the road” kind of edits. They will be more like a ”fly on the wall” feel and look of whats going on in our lives and the moments we get to experience. Authentic moments that just happen, plus hopefully some good surfing. At the moment I’m looking into some cool trips and destinations.. to score some real waves at more typical, yet beautiful destinations. I hope we can score some ”out of the box” stuff too. It will probably also show more surfing from sessions in Holland if she, my fickle friend and beloved North Sea, is in a good mood. It’s going to be fun, that’s one thing that’s for sure.”

To find out more on Yannick De Jager, check out his ASP Europe Profile, or his personal websites: http://www.jagershots.tv & www.yannickdejager.com. If you’ve missed out on this great introduction video, have a look right below !