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!

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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.

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Here I put the rest of the pics from our mini trip to Maui this time. Xisco and I went there for a couple of days after spending 2 weeks in Oahu…
We got picked up by Jesse Richman, he took us at Cameron Dietrich’s house in Paia and we spent the time with them, it was quite cool to hang out there and get to know the place. The higlights was the beers in the Jacuzzi after a each kite session, so good.
It was early morning when we got there, and we had to wait until 11am before riding, because of the fishermen… It’s a rule that must be respected all year long. A good deal for the lazy riders who wants to sleep longer.
Once we made it to the beach the spot was smaller than we expected, however the place is stunning, a perfect flat water spot behind the rocks for throwing out some good tricks and the wind was cross onshore and not gusty at all. We were lucky as it wasn’t the normal direction for summer… However on our second day we had the chance, or not, to ride the cross offshore direction and powered on our 7m, not as orgasmic as it was on our first day I’d say, but we must ride it all to improve, so no complains.
Leeshai Miller from Israel was by coincidende on the island for a week, I once did a trip to Cuba with him 6 years ago and since we never met again so it was a good opportunity to go for a beer and a delicious fresh tuna burger at the fish market of Paia. He told us it was a must when staying in Maui, so we were pleased to go after a good session.

Then we got back to Oahu and had almost 48h of travel back home… We visited New York city and some friends in Barcelona and I finally ended in my bed with a broken back  from 2 nights of sleeping in planes.

Now I’m traveling around France for 2 weeks in order to attend  a couple of events around the country…

“The alarm has been ringing for 5 minutes now, but I can’t move as I’m exhausted and asleep from a crazy day of sport yesterday. Xisco finally makes it and throws a pillow at my head… I’m so tired, it’s 4h30 am.
The swell got in and it was announced just for 3-4 days, so we decided to make the most of it  as we are apparently very lucky to get these waves in summer time. Yesterday we woke up at 5h30 but we soon found out that we were not the only ones to be overmotivated on the island… in fact it was Saturday, fully sunny day and the whole island seemed to be surfing out there. So today, we made it at 4h30, well let’s say 5am after asking ourselves if we had enough power to go… it’s rainy and kind of cold out of bed, but I rather sleep on my surfboard watching the sunrise.
20 minutes later we are sitting in the car in the dark, barely seeing the foam of the waves breaking far out and raindrops pour down the window. Once again we are not the first ready for a session, people keep arriving in their Pickups filled with surfboards in the trunk. OK Buddie, we can actually see the waves now, it’s time to enjoy!
After a 2 hours surf session we’re going to make our first ever skydive jump down onto Mokuleia, the wave spot up north of Oahu. This experience is very hard to beat, Reo warned us, the rest of the day will simply feel boring after doing it… In fact, the feeling of watching the world beneath yourself, on the edge of a plane at 14000 ft and about to jump, is ridiculously exciting. Xisco is going ahead of me, I can’t stop laughing as the situation is hilarious. He tells me: Man we are jumping from a freaking plane!!!  And as soon as he finishes his phrase he disappears through the door and I can feel the plane go up. It’s time to put my head out of the plane, and I ask myself what the hell am I doing!!?? But there is no time to think twice, the 3 first seconds of fall are absoluuuuuuutely nuts, then I feel like floating in the air and I enjoy my minute of fall watching the kites and waves under myself, the channels, reefs, I try to find a shark but unfortunately, nothing…”

Afterwards we obviously had a big brunch at Café Haleiwa, one of the preferred places of Reo… I went for the 7th time for eggs and Bacon combined with two huge pancakes and litters of maple Sirup, a proper American breakfast… I know I could try something else but I keep loving it and can’t make the change. After the 3 coffees and the adrenaline we still had in our bodies we obviously had to finish the day with a 4 hours session of strapless wave riding in a proper Hawaiian wave with all the locals and friendly riders of Mokuleia, among them Reo Stevens, Felix Pivec, John Amundson, Chuck, Adriana and friends…

After staying on the island of Oahu for almost 3 weeks I can definitely say it’s one of these places I could perfectly be living in. No wonder so many people go there and never come back… The North of the island is remote from touristic mainstream with stunningly beautiful beaches, landscapes, turtles everywhere… Just 45min down south, Honolulu, the main city and capital of the Hawaiian state, is surrounded by nice bays with little waves braking everywhere… It was my first time surfing in front of skyscrapers in a paradisaical place with turquoise water, a hard combination to find in the world.
The surf culture is all over the island, and Stand Up Paddle (SUP) has conquered the spots. You see people from all ages on their SUP  having a little ride on the sea.

Reo Stevens was cool and helped us a lot by showing the spots and introducing us to the kite crew of the island. We had our first sessions with all of them at Mokuleia but it was the first time that Xisco and I were feeling weird riding our twintips when everyone was riding wave boards. But we didn’t care, the good kickers were coming in and we enjoyed the Freestyle so far. However we didn’t wait long to get some strapless boards to enjoy the wave park!!!

Here some pics of our trip, and in a few days I will put some more of our staying in famous Kitebeach, Maui, where all kiteboarding tendencies start.

Aloha

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