After some years jobbing as a Windsurf Instructor i set out to do my studies by correspondence from the ocean side and settled on the Canary Islands for that. There i was the first one on the islands to get into kitesurfing in ’98. My kitesurf experiments got me to move on to Hawaii and become a Cabrinha rider by 2001. From then on i was lucky enough to witness and be part of the early years of kiteboarding and start a career as a pro rider that brought me around the globe and eventually to entirely focus on riding waves with a surfboard. By 2012 I\u2019ve started to pass on that expertise in Wave Clinics that i started to hold initially in Indonesia, now all over the world.<\/p>\n
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You were competing in freestyle back then, do you ever still ride freestyle or is it now all about the waves?!<\/strong><\/p>\n Nope i never really ride in Freestyle anymore, that being on a twintip board. My freestyle aspirations are satisfied a 100% by strapless riding on a surfboard where i still have heaps to learn to get to a decent level. So there is absolutely no need to get back on a twintip or wakeboard.<\/p>\n What we’re the killer freestyle tricks when you we’re competing?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well i was kinda known for my inverted back and front rolls in the early days. At the end of my competing time, it was all about air handle passes and i even managed to to some powered mobes. Then though i became too old for this kinda stuff to keep up with the young guns and i allowed myself to focus my attention entirely back on the waves, where my true passion lies<\/p>\n How do you think the sport has changed since back at the start?<\/strong><\/p>\n The sport has become much wider in terms of the disciplines you can ride (and compete in) these days, that being the multitude of boards you can use together with a kite. That\u2019s a great development that took place also on the competition level, something the sport initially missed to institutionalise from the start on to help push exactly that development which is now taking place. it was a bit too long only freestyle and nothing else, now we have waveriding, racing, foiling, strapless freestyle, snowkiting, snowkite racing etcetc.. It\u2019s great to see our sport grow into so many different directions.<\/p>\n Now you’re running clinics at some great spots, so what can people expect from your wave clinics?<\/strong><\/p>\n You can expect to come to a well suited location at the right time to work on your wave riding skills in a way that will maximise your learning experience in a sustainable way. This means that we will set the foundation for you to keep growing your level of fun, comfort, safety and performance in the waves. i have refined a way to split up the different aspects of wave riding, looking at them individually and putting them back together throughout the week. Like that my kitesurf wave coaching program is set to demystify the complex art of wave riding and to build up a set of tools that will help you to keep nurturing from that later on. All this is supported by professional video coaching to help to put theory into practice in the most effective way.<\/p>\n What are your top 3 wave spots & why?<\/strong><\/p>\n Personally my top 3 spots right now would be Indo for perfection, Mauritius<\/a> for the mix of on and off the water conditions\/infrastructure and Pacasmayo<\/a>\/Peru<\/a> for the length and ripability of it\u2019s waves.<\/p>\n