Here the next 2 chapters of the North Kiteboarding DVD where we show the work at the office, all the boards construction, the testing of the material in order to come out with the best stuff on the market! The story is cool and interesting to see how it all works at NKB, it’s a big team work, and always cool to work with nice people!
Cheers
Here a little clip I’ve edited quickly… the action is all from Hawaii, Oahu for waves and Maui for freestyle. The purpose of our trip was mainly for pictures but my friend Xisco shot a bit with his camera and some stuff came out… so Thanks to him and to Chuck Harlan for some shots. The editing is easy and most of the image quality is average but it is better than nothing. 
I finally made it to Morocco, what a shame when living for 8 years in Tarifa, just 35min away by boat. I actually tried to go about 6 years ago but I only had the chance to visit the harbor of Tanger because they sent me back home straight away as my passport wasn’t valid by this time… 
So now I made it, and I’m happy to know that there is still a place where you can ride and surf perfect waves totally on your own with thousands of kilometers of empty beaches!!!
We crossed by boat together with my friend spanish rider Xisco Salas, and drove to Essaouira which is where the 4th PKRA stop was being held… The swell forecast was looking great and we decided to go earlier and enjoy the waves, which we did. I love the feeling of being with 2 friends in the water with no one around for kilometers, a perfect wave just for us and hours ahead to enjoy… Pure pleasure, nothing to complain, well, except Xisco begging for some more power when he was exhausted and couldn’t paddle anymore!!! Lazy boy.
As soon as we made it to Essaouira we met Samad the brother of Majid, a Moroccan friend of ours living in Tarifa, who invited us to stay at his house… We liked the idea of staying in an authentic Arabic house.
So we instantly got introduced to the local riders who showed us their Medina (old town), we went to the local market to buy all the ingredients for a Tagine and then gave it all to a restaurant for them to cook it. A Tagine is probably the most typical moroccan plate, you find it in every touristic restaurant, however it is always small and not amazing. In a real big Tagine, everyone eat in the same huge plate, with your fingers and the help of some bread. Xisco and I made it almost successful, with a couple of burned fingers…
Then the PKRA started, after 2 years not joining the world tour I decided to slowly come back into it, the level is high, not so different compare to before I’d say, but the top guys are nuts, charging big time in hardcore conditions… You need to be very consistent in all your mobes and land all perfectly as well as the switch tricks, in all kind of conditions. So I ended 9th in that event, not too god but I went to see how it looked like, and now it’s time to train! My mission is to perform and be a metronome in all my tricks, I’ll work hard!!
As for the wave event it was a shame that we didn’t get a proper swell, a week ago it was much better, but that’s how competition is, you must ride in all type of conditions… So there was a vote for riders to choose if they should run it and everyone obviously said yes, despite the small waves. It was fun, but unfortunately nothing incredible when the guys out there are very talented.
Now I’ve spent a few days in Tarifa and I’m flying to Fuerteventura where lots of training is expected with Kuky, our summer trainer… My teammate Cesar has been there for a while, Jo Ciastula, and we’ll be about 8 guys training and getting fit for the summer!
Here the first chapter of North Kiteboarding DVD which has just been released… I’ll put each chapter to follow the story.
After spending a couple of days in Tarifa I came back to France for 2 weeks… I first flew to Marseille to attend the Orange Freestyle Cup which is a sport event where skateboarders, kiters and windsurfers come to compete and do a show for the public.
The skating was very fun to watch. Actually pros from around the world came to participate to a stop of the world championship. The guys are quite insane doing their tricks and crashes are intense, very intense. We, the kiters, decided to do a show more than a comp, Florian daubos, Sam Light, Jeremie Tronet, Jalou Langeree and myself were invited and we enjoyed a lot the 3 days of strong wind showing our sport to the public… pretty cool. We all 5 had loads of fun with the windsurfers, good vibes and big parties. These kind of events are missing really, no stress, just ride hard by day and night and enjoy the conditions!
Then I drove to Flo’s house in Montepellier and we had a good session in Beauduc with some friends, we did a little shoot and then headed to Britanny where we’ve been shooting for Stance mag with my team mate Thomas Paris and many frenchies… We got there after everyone, luckily as they sadly had no wind for 4 days, you don’t want to know how the house was after 4 days of no wind with kids wanting to ride hard…
They built and skecthy slider, but we unfortunately didn’t have enough wind to ride it, just a couple of knots missing. However I was surprised by the beauty of Britanny, the spots are as beautiful as in Caribbean with turquoise water and perfect waves almost all year long… However the temperature is not the same as in Guadeloupe.
So we shooted some lifestyle, got things ready for the next episode and next time we’ll make a great movie I hope!
Then we headed to Quiberon where I attended together with Thomas and young Marie another stop of the North French Demo tour where there was again no wind… traveling is frustrating sometimes as you don’t get the conditions you wish. But I had some very good surfing and also tried for first time to ride on a foil, that was great!!! I couldn’t beleive I could ride in 5 knots on a 14m2 Fuse and 32m lines… the feeling of riding above the water not hearing a sound except the foil cutting into the water is very cool…A perfect weapon for very very light winds.
Now I’ve spent some days in Tarifa and I’m again leaving in a few days, this time to Morocco and just have to load my car and go… a nice swell is announced so I’m thinking about going today or wait for Saturday which is when Spain is going to win over Paraguay at the football game!!! Got to watch it at the beach with all my friends!!
Here a few pics I’ve found on the web from the events… thanks to the photographers.
