Wings, Waves & Wicked Spots – An Interview with Mark Shinn
This video was made for Wing Surf World magazine issue 05 – which is all free to view here:
In this interview by WSW editor Jim Gaunt, Mark Shinn discusses winging in waves, his journey towards the equipment he likes to ride now, including a harness, and the best wingsurfing spots in Tenerife and Poland; two locations he knows incredibly well.
Jim has known Mark for many years. Mr Shinn has written almost 90 columns for our sister magazine, Kiteworld and he’s a two time freestyle kiteboarding World Champion – winning both titles in the same year, 2002, a unique feat. He’s also a much revered twin-tip and kitefoil creator.
In this interview Mark explains that he had initially been sceptical of wingfoiling but had a eureka moment two years ago when he realised the potential of the sport in the surf.
Mark has spent 25 years living on the beach and was ideally situated to develop designs, but the time came to move when Shinn reached a scale that was making it more difficult to manage the logistics and business side of the company from Tenerife. In order to have the greater control over manufacturing that they wanted with the company expanding, Mark and his wife Malwina decided to relocate to her homeland, Poland.
Since the move in 2016 they’ve opened their own factory and warehousing, but it just means Mark has to drive quite a lot more than he did before for his water time.
Look out for a separate video coming soon that’s more focused on the challenges of manufacturing in today’s current climate, but in this video Jim caught up with Mark via Zoom at his office the day before he and his team were heading off to Egypt, to shoot for the next product release cycle of kiteboarding and wingsurfing gear.
Find Shinn’s wingsurfing and kiteboarding ranges at: www.shinnworld.com
Find all our free multimedia issues of Wing Surf World at: magazine.wingsurfworld.com
