After spending the summer traveling a bit around Europe I came back to Oahu for the winter to finish my studies and hopefully continue my progression in the waves.
Summer has been pretty cool except for an annoying injury that I unfortunately never took care of… I sprained my ankle when one foot came out of the strap and the board twisted. I wanted to ride as much as possible but it did not quite happen, had to limit myself to a few shootings and a lot of rest in between. Really not what I expected from the summer but at least I’ve been in some nice places, one of them Sri Lanka which is one of the new hot destinations for kiteboarding. This trip was for a shooting for French Kitesurf Mag together with my buddy Victor Hays. Sri Lanka is definitely a nice country with amazingly friendly people, nice temples and places to visit, and of course plenty wind all summer long (a bit gusty though…)
Then I also went to France for visiting the Headquarter of Takoon, some kitecamps in Tarifa and Dakhla, and Fuerteventura for training at www.protrainingfuerte.com
Now it looks like the foot is getting back in shape and I’ll be riding and surfing as much as possible before getting back to Tarifa in May and start eating, sleeping, breathing kite as much as I can!

Few pics from the summer. Credits: Sharkeye reload prod, behance.net/zarco, Stephen Whitesell, moups.com and Lucas Baggio.

This is my last freestyle video around my new home spots in Hawaii.

After living in Oahu for about 4 months I can definitely say I love the life I’m having here. Plenty of kiting and surfing all the time and I don’t have to think about how the conditions will be the next days because there is always something good coming in…
However it’s funny how when you need these good conditions they kind of never appear, or there is always something going wrong. James Boulding came to visit for a week so we could try to score some good riding around the island, but the weather really played with us and we struggled to find the good spots on the right time. We drove for hours around the island in search of perfect conditions that we never really found. We then decided to fly to Maui where I met up with my team mate Tuva Jansen, and we were finally lucky with a nice session at kitebeach. Sam Light and Rick Jensen were also on the water and it was far more motivating to ride with some kite mates around, since no one really freestyles in Oahu.

James could do a nice edit of the week and big thanks to Takoon for making this little video possible!

It’s been more than a month that I arrived in O’ahu for living here in Hawaii. The purpose is obviously to kite, surf, waver riding, and all that again and again. And a bit of studying as well… So far this is what I’ve been doing since I got here and I need no more to be happy!

Since it’s an island it offers plenty of spots to ride with different kind of conditions. The only bummer is that almost no one knows how to freestyle and it’s kind of boring to ride alone sometimes… on the other hand for wave riding it might be the best place with a bunch of pro riders such as Reo Stevens and Felix Pivec. Good opportunity to improve I guess.
The most memorable sessions until now were a suicidal one in massive shore break waves in Waimea and a perfect flat water session at the sandbar of Kaneohe with some buddies having beers while checking out from the boat.

As for the surfing it’s the max! You see turtles everyday, I even saw one getting barreled one day, don’t think she intended to but she might had a fun washing machine time. You also see seals sunbathing on the sand and whales jumping around. No sharks till now!!
We’ve been going as early as 6h30 when you can barely see the waves and there are a few crazy guys surfing in the dark before it gets too crowded. But it is much better than I expected, sometimes there is just a few more guys and if it’s packed, people is usually chilled so you can still take your waves.

Going for a little session now!

Thx to Raph and Amanda for the pics!

Here is the poster of my first kitecamp of the upcoming summer! I will start with a first one at my homespot Tarifa in the beginning of June (4th till 10th), in association with the Spanish kite agency Kite Around and I am pleased to work with them in Spain. We’ll probably do a few more and it won’t be closed only to Spanish kiters so if you ever want to come from Europe or even further don’t hesitate. It will be cool and we’ll learn plenty of new tricks.

Being at home will allow me to take the guys to each of the best spot Tarifa offers. I will spend most of the day with them and the purpose is to help improve their riding and learn some cool new tricks. Shooting, giving advices, stretching, dinners in town, cool and relaxed atmosphere… It will be a week full of exciting new stuff!!

If there was any place I’d live in the Caribbean it would certainly be Union Island. The wind is very consistent during the winter and the weather is much better than in northern islands of the Caribbean where it rains quite more often, the water colors and reefs are a joke, locals are super friendly, there is a great group of frenchies and a lot of people living on their boats and sailing around the amazing islands of the Grenadines, and the vibes are just perfect!!

I kited everyday but 2 in 2 weeks, one because of no wind and the other because of too much pain in my muscles from riding. There is one perfect flat water spot ideal for training freestyle and the spot of Jeremie’s JT Pro Center is also great for riding with stunning reefs to watch under your board while riding. We’ve been shooting together for about 10 days and he took me to kite to each of his favorite locations… kickers, waves, flat water… Paradise and bluest water ever. Jerem kiteschool is in a perfect location and I’m glad people from everywhere is coming to learn and ride with him and Lynn.

I also did a little boat trip with Kite-Surfari and we again went to Tobago Cays to swim with turtles, I had a few good freestyle sessions and cruised around the different Grenadine islands. If you ever want to do an amazing boat trip around the Caribbean with a skipper, Richard is a friendly kiter and surfer and he will certainly take you around the best kitespots and you’ll experience the Caribbean in a different and very pleasant way for kiting. I do think it is one thing a kiteboarder must do once in a lifetime!

And if you want to get from another Caribbean island to Union, I highly recommend to fly with Jeremie’s JT Pro Airline as I did. His very friendly partner Nico flew me from Union to Martinique for catching my next flight and I had the chance to pilot the plane around the islands… it was pretty epic experience and you can really check the waves and spots from a low altitude!! Here some screenshots of the shots we captured with Jerem’ and a cool video should come out this winter with some riding on dream spots!!