France is getting warmer! Antigua is nicer tho…
I’ve been here for 2 weeks now, exams are done and I had the opportunity to kite again in rideable conditions… I’m not used to kite in cold weather anymore and I must say it’s hard to enjoy when getting in the water and feeling that your hands, head and feet are freezing. Anyway the weather is getting better and we went to ride in l’Almanarre with a bunch of friends. The spot is as usual perfectly flat and we took advantage to shoot a little for Unit 6, a kite association from Cannes. Stéphane made a short teaser with Adrien Jaujou, one of the best french riders, and myself. I’m really looking forward to go back there soon as I love the spot for throwing some newschool tricks…
Kristina Bott was there to take some nice pictures and I’ll put them on as well as a link for some more. Thanks! 
Now I just packed my kite “golfbag” as tomorrow I’ll be on my way to Guadeloupe where I’ll get on a boat and travel to Antigua for 10 days for some training and discovering the spots. I’ll post a picture of my office for next week.
Nice Winter
I’ve spent a great weekend filled with action!!! My friend photographer Carlos Moncho came to visit and I showed him the variety of places and sports we can do here in my new home base, Nice.
I’ve been traveling pretty much the whole winter so couldn’t take advantage of the spots but I’m still surprised by the capacity of this place!! We’ve been kiting one day (a bit cold tho), next day we went snowboarding only 1h away from my house, which is on the beach, and the next one we went snowkiting at an amazing spot surrounded by white mountains… I love this sport, first year I try it and the feeling is just great, you can fly for ever sometimes… so cool!
Then we visited a bit Monaco, Cannes and it’s luxury boats, we went climbing…
So here a bunch of pics for me to remember about this little weekend!!
Cheers
Pictures are from Carlos Moncho and Kristina Bott. Thanks!
Boracay, Trip, KTA…
I was really sad on my way back home when I left Boracay… Life there has a different rhythm, everything is nice, people is always friendly and you can find some great kite conditions in a perfect weather and environment. Once you try it it’s hard to leave but I don’t want to get hooked to this lifestyle, it’s like a drug and it would be too easy.
I have so much people to thank for these 2 amazing weeks I spent, but mainly thanks to Normeth the NKB dealer for taking care of me, Dani for the great staying and care in 7Stones hotel in which I definitely had the most luxury hotel room ever, Reo for the help and all the rest of the people…
The little trip together with Susi and Flo for the French Kitesurf mag was cool, we had some nice shots, cool videos and I’m sure it will look great when printed. I show some screenshots of the videos… A clip should be out within the next months.
We also had the chance to experience a great massage at a nice Spa for some lifestyle and it was uhmmmmmm, so good!!!
Then the KTA started and I met the crew as well as all the riders from Asian countries and I really liked competing and doing kind of little shows for the crowd together with Flo! I ended second in that comp just behind English rider Robin Snuggs who has been spending some time in Boracay now… I’m quite happy for him as he’s a nice guy and it was his first win ever so I could see he was super happy about it, that’s cool. In the single elimination final I was on fire but as soon as it started I was stupid enough to make a Loop 3 landing my kite in a coconut, so I’m part of the “Coconut riders” now!!! Actually during the 2 weeks I spent there I’ve seen about 20 kites in the coconut trees!!! Flo is also part of them.
So after crashing my kite in my first tack it took me way too long to get a new kite because the one they gave me had the lines completely tangled… what a mess. But I enjoyed and Robin was showing some good stuff so he deserves it! Then in the double I sadly was struggling with my 14m trying to go upwind… and once again he managed to pull some nice stuff, so congrats Mate!
The last night we had a crazy closing ceremony party, Flo and I dressed up for the price giving and it was well fun, but I don’t want to remember the rest of the party… stripteases, crazy dancing… I’ll just try and forget it all. haha
So yeah, Boracay is amazing, the KTA (Kiteboard Tour Asia) is a very good tour as the organizers are really trying to make good competitions with cool atmosphere and pushing the level of Asian riders, all of them are also very nice and I like seeing them having fun in and out of the water even with their biggest opponent… that’s great. And I’m sure we’ll soon see a couple of them, such as Yo (Thailand) and Ken or Doque (Philippines), on the PKRA as they are very stylish and consistent riders.
Now I’ll snowboard/snowkite a bit here in France, maybe kite in the cold water and I’m soon off to Guadeloupe and Antigua for a little 10 days boat trip so I’ll have to study hard first to deserve it!
Here some pics from several photographers!! photocredits are respectively shown on each pic…
For some more pictures from Loic go to his Flickr page… he has some really nice action pics from Flo and Susi and great landscapes…