Brazil 2011

So been down in Brazil for about 3 weeks now... I cruised down with Sam Medysky and our good friend and photographer/videographer Josh Pietras! After a full day of traveling we ended up at our friends Nuria Goma and Dave Romeo beautiful home in Taiba on the Ceara Coast where we met up with some of the NA Blend crew! Brandon Schied and Rich Sabo had already arrived before us and were hungry to start shooting and riding!

The conditions don't get much better then here in Brazil for freestyle/wakestyle kiteboarding! Warm and windy everyday, multiple flat water lagoons and nice kickers as well if you go search for them! The main lagoon in Taiba was closed to the ocean (which is good making it non tidal) and has been growing daily... perfect!!! It's only a one minute down winder from our house or a couple minutes to drive so we've been spending a LOT of time down there! The 2012 Liquid Force gear is working great and looks amazing lit up by the by the blazing Brazilian sun! I'm on the Envy and DLX again and couldn't be more stoked with the gear for this year!

By the end of the first week everyone was already on there game, dust was brushed off and it was on! After a couple weeks a shreding everyday a few more friends rolled into town and we now had a mob of kiters wherever we were riding! Dave Drinkwater, Brian "BCS" Smith, Kris Kinn and Lia Feriancek were the new editions to the crew!

The level in the lagoon is getting pushed everyday! Lots of new tricks being tossed by everyone and Josh is out there logging footy day in and day out! Watch out for some sick edits coming out of this trip and lots of photos in coming issues for sure!

Liquid Force team mate James Boulding dropped into town for a few days to ride and chill before he had to dip out to the south for some film work shooting a surf event. James, Brandon and I spent about 4 hours at the lagoon that day and it's crazy how well it came out! Steeze Productions is really not messing around! 3,ooo hits in 3 hours and it's almost at 10,000 hits after 3 days days! Will definitely be interesting to see what we could do in the future with a few weeks of filming with James...

Couple days after we shot the Taiba Trick Attack we headed north on a road trip to Ilha du Gurajuaru! Pretty cool spot but not the flat water haven I was expecting... Sounds like were going to grab a buggy and do some exploring up and down the coast from the main spot where apparently there are a bunch of nice flat water spots and river mouths! Will definitely be updating this again soon... Have 3 more weeks in Brazil so check back soon!

1'st Place at Wake Up Call & 1'st at KiteJam!

So been at home pretty much all summer since I got back from Cape Hatteras... it's been a lot of fun riding my home spots, hitting up the Canadian events and catching up with all my bro's! We haven't had a tonne of wind this summer so I have been trying to ride the 2.0 systems that have been popping up here in Ontario waiting for some more consistent fall winds!

Boarder Pass in Sarnia the closest of the 2.0 systems is 2.5 hours from my place and it was holding an event called Wake Up Call. A few of the locals I was riding with told me that I should enter... I knew a bunch of the heavy hitters from the Canadian wake scene would be there and thought I'd get killed for sure... but having a bunch of air tricks in my bag from kiting and sneaking in some practice on the rails the day before the event really helped and I managed to take 1'st place, so I was was pretty stoked on that for my first cable event!!! Results were;

1st - Craig Cunningham

2nd - Christean Primrose

3rd - Tim Nixon

4th - Dylan Rivait

Not long after a few of our friends from the States rolled in to check out some of our local spots for a little while before the Sauble Beach KiteJam kicked off! Eric Rienstra, Rich Sabo and Ryan Evans joined the crew which pretty much is a circus when Medysky, Drinkwater, Steiner and myself get together as well as Josh Pietras along with David Tran behind the lens! We didn't really get any epic conditions and it was kinda cold but we definitely had a good time shredding together again! We hit up Turkey Point Marina, Port Dover, The Ranch Wake Park, Sauble Beach and Oliphant all within about a week and then it was time for the event.

The wind was pretty light most the weekend but some of the race guys got on the water but I mostly stuck to hitting rails behind the jetski and doing some speed runs and power slides on the kite buggy! We didn't have enough wind for our biggest kites so the event was to be determined by a competition behind the ski on the features ! There was a 8 inch wide flatbar with a pretty heavy ollie on, a flat to gap to down and a incline box... you had 4 runs through and the best line won. You basically had to string together a solid hit on every obstacle one after the other or you were done. I did a nose press, tail tap to blind on the flat bar, back board, gap, back lipslide to blind on the gap rail and a switch toe front 5 of the incline and that was enough to secure the win!!! Results were;

1st - Craig Cunningham

2nd - David Drinkwater

3rd - Eric Rienstra

4th - Rich Sabo

Just want to say thanks to the Medysky family for having the whole crew chillin at their place all week and for putting on such a fun event! Cheers!!!

After the event Rienstra and Sabo came down to Port Dover for a session and then Sabo dipped back to Merca (USA)! Rienstra stuck around and we've been shooting some lifestyle stuff with Josh Pietras and are heading to the King Of The Great Lakes this weekend... with maybe a stop at Boarder Pass Wake Park and Placid Wake Park if the wind is still looking light! Either way were shredding!

Thanks to Josh Pietras, David Tran and Dave Sanford for the photos!

Kitespain Issue #15 - English Version Is Out!

The English version of KiteSpain Magazine latest issue has now dropped! You can now read the 14 page article on fellow Liquid Force team rider Brandon Scheid and myself even if you cant read Spanish! Pages 55 - 68! Peep it... http://www.kitespain.com/english/online.html

Kitespain Issue #15 Coverage

pg 55 & 56

The latest issue of Kitespain Magazine just dropped and Brandon Scheid and myself scored some major coverage... a 14 page feature! Mostly stuff Bryan Elkus shot at the 2011 Liquid Force Team Shoot in Cape Hatteras! The article talks about the direction we would like to see Kiteboarding go and how to make the sport grow instead of be limited to a certain style...

pg 57 & 58

pg 59 & 60

pg 61 & 62

pg 63 & 64

pg 65 & 66

pg 67 & 68

Right now only the Spanish version is available but in another 2 weeks an english version will drop as well! Pretty excited though because Europe is such a huge kiteboarding market and Tarifa, Spain is probably the most popular spot on the planet! Nice to snag some coverage there for sure!

Within' Reach - An Ontario Kiteboarding Movie... Premieres in Toronto!

"DVD and Blu-Ray for sale!"

This past weekend I headed up to Toronto for the premiere of Within Reach: An Ontario Kiteboarding Movie! Brendan Shnurr and friends at Big Fall Productions has been working on the video for the past three seasons, showcasing the best spots and best riders that the province has to offer! When I showed up I was stoked to see they had used a photo David G Tran had taken late last season of myself in Long Point as the back cover for the DVD as well as the DVD menu! I was really impressed with the amount of support for the event, they had a huge turnout for the premiere and the party went on all night! Check out some of the photos from the event and pick up a copy at your local board shop!

"Brendan and Krystian the videographers getting ready to start the movie!"

"big turnout"

"myself, Steiner and Krystian post viewing!"

Thanks to Jay Newman for the shots!

Boarder Pass Wake Park - Front Page News

"Boarder Pass Glass"

"shifty to wrapped"

It was a national holiday this past weekend and the forecast looked pretty bad for kiting so I made the drive up to Sarnia for my first cable set of of the year! The crew at Boarder Pass is always fun to ride with and after a few really fun sets with everyone Saturday I was really not looking forward to the 2 1/2 + hour drive back home. With no wind in the forecast for Sunday either and an invitation to crash at Tim and Cody's pad I figured it would be a good idea to stick around and shred for another day! On Sunday we woke up and it looked miserable but by noon it had cleared up and we had another bluebird day in the glassy System 2.0 park!

"indy tantrum... almost. did tim miss the shot or did i miss the grab?"

"270 front board"

"around the corner raley"

"look at the all the LFX's!"

We all had a full afternoon of hitting sliders and loading up air tricks! A handful of locals are killin it now, getting real steezy on the sliders and throwing big raleys and some rolls! I really wish I had one of these so close to my house cause these guys are going to get ill quick! Everybody was throwing down and a reporter from the Sarnia Observer newspaper happened to show up, snapping photos and asking questions about the park! On Tuesday, the newspaper had Boarder Pass and myself on the front page throwing a raley to blind! Pretty stoked to get in the paper and for BP to get some coverage! Cant wait to get back up there again!!! Word is they have a rooftop with a flat bar on the end going in this week or next, similar to the famous one at McCormick's cable park! And the Liquid Force Browdown is going down on June 25'th with free cable sets, free food and free shwag! Get there!!! Should be sick!

"front page of the Sarnia Observer"

"Liquid Force Brodown Poster"

SBC Kiteboard and Kiteworld Coverage!

The new issue of SBC Kiteboard just dropped and I'm pretty stoked on it! Lots of park riding, powered hits and heavy waves! Plus our crew scored a 6 page article on our trip to Maui, a few other shots here and there and Brandon nabbed the cover! Check it out...

One of the many beautiful Maui views!

Some Kitebeach action!

Secrets on the North Shore!

Some more media in the "Kite Camp" section of the mag! Hitting features is getting really popular in kiting and more and more people are getting interested into this side of the sport! Hitting the park with a kite is no joke though, so SBC hit up 7 pro's that are pushing the scene on what to keep in mind while taking your first attempts at hitting a slider with your kite!

Kite Camp - Hitting Sliders

There was also an article on the Wind Or No Wind Board Jam at the Camsur Watersports Complex in the Philippines! I was so excited to be invited to this event and to have a chance to be a part of kiteboarding history. One full week of kite and cable, rider judged, no heats and as much water time as you could handle! When we had wind we kited and when it shut off we went and shredded the cable or multiple 2.0 systems! Then at the end of the week everybody voted on who was killing it the most! I've never seen this much progression in such a short amount of time, I'm already jonsing to get back to Camsur and take some laps at CWC again! Lots of content already out from this event and I'm sure a lot more in the future as well!

WONW article

A little more exposure in the photo section as they do a feature on "jibbing, pressing and bonking" in kiteboarding and how it's blown up in the last few years! The photos from a session Bryan Elkus hit up last spring in Cape Hatteras, switch tail press on the Dock out back of REAL Kiteboarding alongside my budday Eric Rienstra booting a fat BS3, late melon grab off the kicker! Pretty pysched on this too because on the following page the credits for our shots are on the side of a two page spread of one of the guys I really looked up to coming up! Andre Phillip, as always steezing out on the corrogated tube up in the goofy slick!

Eric and I getting down in Cape Hatteras!

Kiteworld Issue 49 also had a little exposure in it too! A few shots from a trip to Brazil winter 2010 with Sam Medysky and Jon Van Malsen! Thanks to David G Tran for shooting that trip!

Kiteworld Issue 49

Jon, Sam and myself

Not riding but not a bad view, right?

So now I'm at home, catching up with family, friends and sponsors, Getting ready to kick off the summer for 2011!