Update July // The busiest month of my life.

After two weeks of "holidays" at home relaxing I'm going think back and write down some of the stories that were part of the busiest month of my life, starting in Greece July 1st. 

After winning the Spanish Nationals once again and shooting the Junior VKWC as a photographer I flew west to the island of Rhodes (Greece), where I was supposed to meet up with the Polish gang, for a week of training before the VKWC Tarifa which was right after that. Greece was great, with the economical crisis it was super cheep, windy everyday and sunny. The spot there was in the most southern tip of the island, a town called Prasonisi which is based on a stripe of sand with waves in one side and flat water in the other one. 

 

I flew to Tarifa with Paula and Hela two other riders from the tour who were also in Greece training, we got there and the event started in "Los Lances" beach we had light "poniente" winds for the first couple of days. On the third day the wind changed to a different direction and it was windy everywhere but at the competition area, after discussing it a lot the organization decided to move the event to Balneario, which is the beach right in the village of Tarifa, one of the most unique places to kite. We went from choppy 13m weather to perfect flat water and 7m weather. Somehow I managed to win my heat in the second round against my good friend David Tonijuan and right after that I also took the win over Robinson Hilario from the DR. This put me straight into a 5th place position in an event/conditions I would have never expected to be good at. My training in Greece paid of in the event in Tarifa and got me my best result so far on the world tour. 

 

Straight after the VKWC in Tarifa, my friend Jerome Cloetens and I flew down to the island of Lanzarote for ten days to shoot a new movie we are working on with Sam van Olmen and take some photos with Reinout Smit as well. Overall we had some good winds and shot a lot, so look forward to articles, photos and the final movie coming soon! 

 

Here it is to another awesome adventure! Cheers to everyone who helped me along in the past month! 

Noè

The American Dream #11 / Mission Failed.

After a few really intensive days waiting for the results of the video submissions for the wildcards, we got the results. Oli Panny is the winner for the men and Manuela Jungo for the women. So this means I'm not in the event "yet". I'm lucky to be in Hatteras and be able to compete for the last spot on the event during the Open. Hopefully the wind blows my way and I can score a good run so I can finally be in the pre qualified group of riders.

The wind hasn't been good at all here so we went to Hexagon Wakepark with Sam, Brandon and Eric to get some training done. Hopefully the wind kicks in and we get to ride the park soon! 

Cheers from America! 

The American Dream #10 / TripleS Wildcard.

The first time I heard about the Triple S invitational was in 2011, since then I've followed the event really close, and every time I liked it more and more. It's a completely different format and the disciplines are different than the regular Kiteboarding World Tour. 

Last year I submitted a video as well, but unfortunately there were other riders who deserved it more than me. After that I focused on improving my rail riding a lot as it's something I'm really enjoying now, I headed to Canada in the summer to film for "Northern Fresh" which was my first big rail project with a kite. That really motivated me to keep practicing the whole wake style thing with rails, kickers and other kind of obstacles. 

Now with more experience on it, I'm submitting another video for a chance to get the wildcard of the TripleS Invitational 2015. 

Wish me luck!

Watch all the other video entries here!

April 2015 - Home & America.

After not making it through the qualifiers in Morocco, I lost a lot of my motivation to ride and train again. So I went home with the goal to rest, refresh my mind and start over again. At home the wind was good and I was having fun again, kitting with my friends and hanging out. We built a slider in my home spot and that got me really stoked to ride again, I even shot some photos with it. I released another episode of #Teammates which again had lots of repercussion. I flew to Toronto and we did a road trip with Sam from Toronto, Niagara Falls, Boston, NYC, Washington and ended in Hatteras. We even kitted in Boston with the locals and they enjoyed watching us ride at their spot, it was really fun as Woo hooked me up with a device and now it’s game ON for me as well! Now here in Hatteras, I’m finishing off my TripleS wildcard and hopefully I will be in the event! Looking forward to get some riding done here in Hatteras and film, shoot an have fun like always. 

For more about my road trip click here -> #TheAmericanDream 

The American Dream #9 / Cape Hatteras NC.

We drove 2200km from Toronto (CA) all the way down to Cape Hatteras NC and we visited the Niagara Falls, Boston, New York City and Washington. It’s been an amazing road trip; I hope to get the chance to visit some of those cities again.

We arrived in Cape Hatteras Friday night and the first couple of days were cold, rainy and not really welcoming. We did some skateboarding in a bowl near by and slept in which we hadn’t done in a while.
The setup Real Watersports has got here its probably one of the best kite school/ kite club setups ever. You have a big path to pump your kites and no sand at all which makes it perfect to keep your gear clean. There is an endless amount of slicks (little islands that create flat water) all over the place so it’s pretty much a dream playground. Oh and not to mention the best kite park ever, which I still hadn’t had the opportunity to ride.

It picked up yesterday afternoon but the wind direction wasn’t the right one, the winds coming from the NW bring the cold and clouds. We went out on our 11m but it was too much, we still had some fun in the other side of the slicks. It was cold and windy so we just went for a little ride.
We signed up at the local gym here and we’ve been getting swollen every morning before breakfast. Followed by breakfast burritos at Waves.

Today we hit the gym again in the morning and went for a 3h surf session straight away, right now I’m sore and tired and how not hanging out at Craig and Colleen’s pimpin apartment where I’m about to eat an amazing burger.

Cheers from the state side!

Today’s “same but different” -> Cool to be hanging out with the same people in many different places around the world. It’s like being at home but everywhere at the same time.