Drone video captures brutal Fiji windsurfing wipeout

For people still laboring under the illusion that windsurfing is the staid, plodding option amid diversifying – and, annoyingly, increasingly motorized – aquatic board sports, a new drone video out of Fiji provides some updated perspective to those notions.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, windsurfing was largely filed away as the activity people did in summer on lakes or waveless bodies of water like the Mediterranean – puttering along in the breeze and only inadvertently getting air after running over submerged kids. Since then, however, generations of athletes have taken those boards and sails into incredibly fast and hairy breaks – including monsters at Maui’s Pe‘ahi (aka Jaws) or Nazaré, Portugal. 

Read: Drone surf videos enhance footage shot on, in, and above waves

A new video uploaded overnight by windsurfing enthusiast and drone pilot Paul van Bellen offers arresting (and breath-robbing) evidence from Fiji…