Jacob Szekely and Ben Gravy went tow surfing with a remote-controlled winch in Southern California. While the waves were too tiny to attract anyone but fishermen that day, the addition of the winch, courtesy of Josh Sleigh, allowed them use those ankle-slappers to take to the air. “We’re gonna do some human fishing,” said Sleigh at the outset of the session.
The whole situation came about because Ben Gravy was in Southern California shooting a video with Jonathan Wayne freeman and Jacob Szekely came to crash. He also invited Josh Sleigh, who is a team rider for Motowinch, a company that produces a remote-controlled electric winch designed specifically for board sports.
We’ve seen winches used for towing a few times before. Blair Conklin put the Motowinch through its paces earlier this year, and Jamie O’Brien got catapulted across Pipeline on a similar device. However, the innovative aspect of the Motowinch is that it allows the rider to manage the throttle using controls on the handle.
After just a day of getting dragged around. Szekely and company were quick to see future applications for the device. “We’re thinking about putting the winch on a bridge and doing some tow-out surfing towards a bridge, under a bridge, maybe doing some cliff jumping with the winch,” said Zeke afterwards.
