2010 Wind Or No Wind Board Jam @ CWC

Wind Or No Wind 2010... what a blur! All I can say is Morris and Governor L-Ray know how to put on a proper event and throw some mega parties! Everyone had a blast and the level of progression went through the roof! Being able to wake up and just take a short walk to go shred the best cable park in the world or take a set on the System 2.0 winch park helped take everyones riding to the next level! Now we just have to take all this cable knowledge and drop it into kiting! The two sports are so similar with only a few differences. With a cable or System 2.0 you have the advantage from the consistency of pull and the features always being ready but with kiteboarding you have your own personal cable and you don't need to walk back to the start dock! Other than that were doing a lot of similar stuff and with events like this the sports can really feed off each other and grow at a faster pace!


Wind Or No Wind 2010 offically has put it's stamp on the kiteboarding industry and is now a world class event that nobody will want to miss! Having a full sized kite park, world class cable park, boat lake, 7 System 2.0's, cheap food and booze and $10 hour long massages, the CWC in Camsur is a hard venue to beat!



And the event organizers and all the riders took full advantage of having the chance to be here! Logging massive amounts of riding while the media crew buzzed around in the chopper! One thing that's for sure is there will be no shortage of footage coming out of this event! The amount of media was crazy, not one minute went by without being fully documented from multiple angles!



But Wind Or No Wind wasn't just about shredding all day long... we got a chance to see the other side of the Philippines too! Morris had a few trips organized for us with the most memorable being a trip to one of the local kite beaches where they had a System 2.0 with a flat bar and kicker set up for us just in case we didn't score any wind and our trip to Mount Isarog National Park was another highlight where we hiked to this raging waterfall with hidden caves!




As the week was coming to an end we knew something big going to happen to shut this event down and once again WONW stepped it up and threw a massive closing party complete with fireworks, L-Ray dancers putting on an amazing show, pig roast dinner, and another night of DJ Paul dropping beats late into the night at the Happy Ending bar after the awards ceremonies!




During the awards I was super surprised to hear my name? Morris called me up and handed me the "Best Attitude" award! SO STOKED! Being able to come to this event with all the top riders in the sport was crazy enough but winning that award and having it presented to me by the "Godfather" of wakestyle kiteboarding was unbelievable! Brandon Scheid fellow Liquid Force Team Rider and travel partner for the winter took down 1'st place on the cable and 3'rd on the kite! Amped for him cause he's been straight up murdering the rails and is one of the hardest working riders out there! Nice to see him take a first home for NA and LF! Aaron Hadlow and Sam Light held it down for the UK! Aaron took 2'nd on the cable and 1'st on the kite while Sam Light grabbed a 2'nd on the kite and 3'rd on cable! Big ups to the whole crew though! Everyones riding progressed a lot and kiteboarding just got a huge boost as far as skill level from the top riders on rails and kickers!!!



Wind Or No Wind 2010 was a huge success and a lot of fun! Such a beautiful place with the best wake and kite park you could ever imagine!!! I already cant wait to come back next year to get sick on the water and chill with the crew!



NOW OFF TO MAUI...

CWC @ CWC - Craig W Cunningham @ Camsur Watersports Complex!!!

The last few days have been crazy! I've been riding the CWC (Camsur Watersports Complex) which is basically the best cable park/winch park in the world. I arrived in the Philippines Saturday morning with Brandon Scheid and we met up with the UK crew who were just getting in as well. Everybody is killing it and the progression is going through the roof! This place is absolutely of the charts! Couldn't think of any setup that even comes close... beautiful scenery, world class cable, kite park, concrete winch park with 7 System 2.0's, sick skatepark, $10 hour long massages, great food, free shuttles into the town and some very friendly people make CamSur, Philippines a place I know I will be returning to in the future no doubt!



We came here for the 1'st ever Wind Or No Wind Jam put on by the godfather of wakestyle kiteboarding, Mauricio Abreu! This will be like no other kite contest before. If we have wind we shred the kite park, if not we just go hit up the full sized cable or one of the System 2.0's! The idea behind this event is to show the world what kiteboarding can be and that the top wakestyle riders in the world can throw down on the cable or a kite... doesn't really matter!


Today we hit up the concrete winch park that featured two down rails and a step up pool! Nowhere else in the world does anything like this exist, just wait until you see the photos and footage from todays session!

It was our last chance for warm up sets before the event kicks off tomorrow morning so check back here, SBCkiteboard.com and windornowwind.com for daily updates! Brrraaapppp!

Boarder Pass, Sarnia - November 11/2010

I've had been working on a short kite edit with all the scrap footage I had lying around on my computer from this fall at home in Ontario! Was looking pretty sick and I just logged some more footy at the cable in Sarnia! Then when I almost almost had it done, my computer crashed... so bummed, hope I can recover it. But I did have a little edit for finished, so here it is...


Quick set from last week at the Boarder Pass in Sarnia! Managed to make it up there a couple times this season and was jonsing for one last set before I head out for the winter! Tim and Chris have done an awesome job with the place and have a full selection of Liquid Force rentals if you dont have wake gear! If you havent made it up there yet to check out the setup you should definitely make sure you get up there next season! Cable is so much fun, perfect for no wind days! To bad it's over 2+ hours from home, really wish we had one closer!

Boarder Pass Edit from Craig Cunningham on Vimeo.

LTR Productions in Ontario...

Chuck from LTR Productions was in Ontario for a week along with some other friends from Cape Hatteras. At the end of their stay they came down to Long Point and shot for a day in the slick! The edit turned out really good! Wish I had more time to film with Chuck though cause he's so creative and I had a lot more tricks to stomp for him! Check it out! Part #2 featuring...
Evan Netsch, Brandon Scheid and myself!

More videos and sick swag at www.lifetheral.com

Ontario part 2 (feat. Evan, Brandon and Craig) from Lifethereal on Vimeo.

BEERS, BUGGYS AND BROKEN BONES

SBC Kiteboard Magazine just recently dropped their 10'th anniversary issue and they ran an 8 page article on our crews trip last fall! Brazil: BEERS, BUGGYS AND BROKEN BONES! The title in the FEATURES section reads... "They were groms when we lunched SBC Kiteboard, now they're kids in adult bodies. Photographer David G Tran follows the next generation to Taiba, Brazil and does his best to keep them and himself, out of trouble!"

Pretty pumped on how the article turned out and that I scored a page and 1/4 spread in it! First one in SBC! Doing a crail grab over the sandbar at Cobra Lagoon! Check out the mega dunes in the background! Spot was super gusty but the scenery was perfect so we hiked all the way over that dune to get there! Plus it's called "Cobra Lagoon" for a reason, we had a short session, got the shot, then dipped! Here's a sneak peak at the some of the photos in the article! Pick it up at you local magazine rack or the nearest Chapters!








Thanks to Mark and Katie at Revolution Pousada for their hospitality, Liquid Force for providing me the best gear on the market for this trip, Rip Curl for always having me sorted for outerwear and westsuits, David G Tran for being down to shoot all the time and John @ SBC Kiteboard for running the article!

Liquid Force Crew Shreds Ontario, Canada!

Last Wednesday I rolled out to pick up Liquid Force team mate Brandon Scheid at the airport. He was in my hood for the first time and we were ready to cruise and get our shred on! We headed straight up to Sauble Beach to meet up with everybody at the Medysky cottage. Some of our other friends from Hatteras were down... the LTR crew, consisting of Eric Rienstra, BCS, Evan Netsch, Claire Lutz and Chuck the man behind LTR Productions!


We woke up Thursday morning at the Medysky cottage right on the beach! We were all itching to get on the water but the wind looked kinda sketch and the locals boys were saying it wasn't worth the drive to the local flat water spot Oliphant! Brandon had never seen the spot though so we thought we'd take a quick 10 minute drive over to "Oli." They were right. The wind was pretty light but we hung out for a bit watching people try to kite with a few other locals that were chillin on the beach. Luckily the wind came up enough and we pumped up a 12m Envy and a 13m HiFi Comp! Everybody else was on huge kites and foils and they couldn't believe we were able to throw down in boots with such light wind. You wouldn't call it an epic session but we had fun and it was time on the water!



The next day was the first day of the Sauble Beach Kite Jam! This was the first year for the event organized by Sam and Dan Medysky! We woke up and took the 20 minute drive to next town over where LF had sent us a bunch of promo stuff to the local dealer. Now we had a tent to toss up at the event site! LF represent! 2011 Envy's were on demo as well as the new LFX and Contact board, Synergy CT and U2 boots and the new Luxury and Comp harnesses! Everyone thought the stuff was sick! I still cant believe how good the new Envy is! Now that everything was setup... light wind of course, it seems to be a trend for kiteboarding events.


We did have enough to buggy though! Although it looks pretty kooky, riding in a buggy and blasting down the beach with a 12m Envy doing mega powerslides is about as much fun as you could ever ask for in 8-10 knots! So no kiteboarding today but lots of buggying and a few refreshments here and there!



Saturday morning we woke up to again another day of no wind activities. People were at the LF tent checking out the new gear and Brandon and I got our tech on!


By the afternoon it looks like kiteboarding was canceled for the day and we pulled out the ski to run the "sliders" portion of the contest on the Kite Jam slider park! There was the Dakine up box, the Chenzo up, flat, the Best up, flat and a huge kicker! Everybody got 1 warm up run, then 3 park laps. I hadn't hit any sliders since Hatteras in early June so I was feeling a bit rusty but by the 3'rd run through the park I finally had some solid hits! Too bad the third run was the my last lap and I didn't really get to put my run together... oh well that's how it goes.


Brandon staright up beasted on the Kite Jam park though and took 1'st place for the LF crew! BAM! Behind him was the other Hatteras boys in 2nd Eric Rienstra and in 3rd BCS showing that the Hatty boys got there slider skills locked down! That night the band got rained out at the main stage so we headed out to one of the local bars and tore it up!


Sunday morning was a slow start but by the time we got to the beach in the morning it was blowing just over 10 knots and there was 50 + kites on the beach. By noon the wind was coming up and those kites were on the water and there was easily another 150 + people on the beach watching! We didn't get enough wind to run the freestyle heats but we still had a fun session! I was riding the wakeskate all afternoon and scored some pretty sick photos with John Bryja and David G Tran from SBC Kiteboard Magazine! Brandon was stalling on this fence and post that went out into the water and I'm sure got some bangers as well!





After the final word we took down the LF tent and were packing up when the wind started to get stronger. The decision was made and the crew headed out to North Oliphant for one last session in the Bruce Peninsula! We kited over 3 km offshore to these uninhabited rock islands that offered up beautiful rock slicks and clear blue water! We kited out there for a couple hours then headed in hoping the wind would hold for us to make it back to land! The spot were pretty sure has never been kited before and was coined "Steinbag Cove." I wont forget this session for a long time! Everybody throwing down in the middle of nowhere with MAJOR consequences if you broke down! Fun times!


After we all packed up we toured back to the Medysky's cottage and made the decision to dip out that night and head south from Sauble Beach to my home spot in Long Point for some favorable SW conditions! BCS came along with Chuck from LTR productions and David G Tran! On Monday morning we woke up at my place just outside of Turkey Point and headed out to the slicks on Long Point! Loaded up my little 14ft aluminum boat with all our gear took the quick 5 minute ride out to the west slick!


It was pretty sick rollin' up to my home spot with these guys because other than Tran nobody else had ever seen this place. We had it all to ourselves and when we got out the reeds were bending over! We knew we were going to get the goods today! Chuck and Tran fired up their cameras and we pumped our kites! It was on! Pretty stoked we scored a solid session here with two of the best wakestyle riders in the world... can't wait to see the footage to come out of it! After we were done we all headed back to my place to relax and figure out our plan for the next day.




The wind was looking okay but the new Sesitec System 2.0 in Sarnia always has perfect conditions... but Tran had to head back to Toronto and Charlie and BCS back to Hatteras via Maine. Too bad everybody to leave because the next day Brandon, my girlfriend Tahnee and I took the 2 hour drive North to Sarnia to check out the new System 2.0! They had put in a new 6 inch wide A- Frame with a super legit ollie on in and they also had the Metlab up, flat box set up! 2.0's are so much fun if you haven't tried one yet you really need to! Hit after hit on the rails and we even started getting some air tricks down too! To bad it was getting dark out by the time we arrived and we didn't have any flashes... Thanks to the boys over at Boarder Pass for hooking up the session and letting us ride until we could barely see the sliders! Super fun night, I'll definitely be going back soon!






What a week! Who would have thought with all theses crazy sessions that we were cruisin in Ontario? It was a lot of fun having the Hatteras crew here since we spend so much time down there on the island! Hopefully next year everyone will come back to shred, chill and party and hopefully more people will come to check out KiteJam and all Ontario has to offer!