Best event you attended in 2016?
The best event I went to this past year was the 10th Annual Kiteboard for Cancer event in Hood River.
Best travel trip in 2016?
P-pass, Mirconesia aboard The Cabrinha Quest with the Patagonia Crew. Back in March I did a trip aboard the Cabrinha Quest with Jason Slezak, Jason McCaffrey, pro surfer Dan Malloy and a few others. We had just missed a large swell the week before and arrived to almost no surf at all, but with 20knts of wind everyday. Life aboard a boat can be slow, but the ocean always provides some form of entertainment. Over the next week, we fished, dove, explored ancient structures and laughed a lot with good friends. In the final days of the trip, a swell showed up and our crew scored the was at P-Pass nearly all to ourselves. That wave is one of the best rights in kitesurfing and we had it good and nearly to ourselves.
Best Session?
That session at P-Pass.
Favorite instagram photo this year?
My GoPro shot from Cloudbreak. It ended up being my highest “liked” shot of the year and even won a “GoPro Award” and was featured on GoPro’s Instagram page. This shot was taken last summer after a coaching trip in Fiji on the Cabrinha Quest. I was in transit on the main island of Viti Levu and had a day before my flight out. The conditions were on and made the trek out to Cloudbreak for a morning surf. The wind picked up so I put up my kite to catch a few as the surfers thinned out. Was stoked to get this shot! It just shows how smooth the water stays at Cloudbreak even when it’s windy.
Favorite video you appeared in?
This is KiteSURFing 2 – Last year myself and Patagonia put out a video entitled “This is KiteSURFing”. It was a collection of some of the best “surfing with kites” footage that I could collect. The idea was simple, show surfers (and rest of the world) why we kiteSURF and you could make the most out of every session. It was received very well and even topped out Patagonia Surfs Youtube views at over 250k. The point of the sequel was just to continue the stoke. People from in and out of the industry were really stoked on the first one and I didn’t want that stoke to fade out. After another year of riders getting out there and pushing the limits (like Patri and Jesse at Jaws and Ian’s above the lip tricks) this is just a quick refresher that things are still progressing and guys are still out making the most of marginal conditions.
