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Trips

Trips / Venezuela

Update 1
I'm allready in Venezuela for more than 3 weeks now and the time is flying. It seems that the wind finally picked up and now we can ride every day. I'm kiting with 9 or 11m2 and the wind is getting more steady every day. I uploaded some pics that you can watch by clicking this news article (gallery comming soon).

It's really ripping to be in a place again where you can kite each day after one month of no kiting. I still don't have my level from the last trip in Brazil but i'm getting closer now and i'm improving each day.

If the wind stay's like this i will try to make more footage and also some video footage. So keep on checking my website!

Update 2
It's allmost a month ago I went from Holland to Venezuela. Time is flying. Just one more month untill the PKRA starts.

The beginning of last week I had a nice four hands massage from Tuva and Devaki. Devaki is a pro in massages and is taking care of all the riders here in Venezuela. Only I had a special treathment, wich was really nice!

After the massage I went kiting and beginning to take the sliders. After a few atemps, wich all sucked, I made the whole slider. The slider here is allmost 25 meter long and 2.5 meter high. I was really stoked and continued. After 10 minutes or something I was at the middle of the slider while my footstrap got out of my board. I had a lot of speed and went down. The slider was a open slider and I hit the wood full with my leg. I couldn't even swim so Manual (a local guy) got me out of the water and the boats took care of my kite.

So now I'm just relaxing a little bit and I hope I can kite the end of this week again.

Further everything is fine here and the wind is picking up and picking up. Now people are riding on 7 and 9m2 at the evening.
When I'm able to kite again i'm going to shoot some footage and put it on my website!

Update 3
It's comming, the PKRA is comming... Just 3 more weeks before the PKRA will start and you can notice it because all the riders are comming. Cesar, Angela, Christian, Rui, Mallory and there more comming every day. It's fun to train together and everybody is training hard and improving a lot.

Last week Kim Albrecht arrived. I meet him in Brazil this winter and now he is here for 2.5 weeks to train. And this week Silvester and Phillipe are arriving as well. So it's going to be sick.

Training is going pretty good and i'm still improving. Further where playing playstation at Jo's place or where making some nice pictures with the italian guys. The picture you see here is also one of them.

Yesterday I was riding on my 7 for the first time. DAMN this kite is fast but it's really nice and stable. I was suprised that I was allmost able to do everything with this kite. All my passes where good accept the downloop passes.
At the end of the day whe where trying the flash from the italian guys and we did a night shoot. The pictures where pretty good and as soon as I have some of them i will post them om my webpage.

Update 4
The last week there was a Pre PKRA competition. The competition was here because of the main sponsor of the PKRA. They wanted to have a event in the Semana Santa (if you right it like that), wich is a holley week. It was really cool to do some competitions again and to train and see what I have to train the next 10 days.

When the green flag was raised we started to do some sick tricks. I was agains Mike and Jo. I started with a kung fu s-bend HP en then a nice kiteloop. Really soon I was not upwind anymore and I needed to choose to do my tricks a little bit more downwind or try to go upwind, while the wind was not really strong enough... I choosed to stay here and do all my tricks a little bit more downwind. The only problem was that the sun was low and I never thought of that and they didn't saw my moves, because of that. It's good to know this, and it was a good training. I ended up second this heat and after that there was no wind anymore so I was not able to improve my result.

After the competition we didn't had a lot of wind for the first 2/3 days. We watched some movies and relaxed in our rooms or at the swimming pool. The last day we went to Sambil for some sushi and some shopping.

Yesterday we kited again with 9m2. The wind was back and it was super! I was on the water untill 6 a clock. Today the wind is picking up again and at 1 a clock I will take the boat back to Coche. And hope I can ride my 9m2 and Etienne arived and is bringing me my m6 12m2.

Update 5
The last few days the wind was really strong. We where riding overpowerd with our seven. One time in the evening the wind picked up to 35 knots with tops of 42 knots. The sand was flying and you where not able to stand on the beach because you where getting a free scrub massage. It was just going BIG and doing some sick kiteloop.

Today, one day before inscription we go to Sambil, the big shopping mall with the perfect suhsi. We will eat some sushi and relax a little bit. Just change you're mind.

Tommorow there will be the inscription and the day after the trials. I have to qualify so I hope I will and go to the main event. Everything can happend and we will see it all the day after tommorow...

Want to stay up to date? Check www.caribbeanwinds.com

Update 6
Qualifiers (April 26)
The PKRA starts and first thing on the program are the trials. I need to do the trials and my first apponent is Grathem (Airush, ENG). I had a really sick heat and landed all my tricks really clean. Best trick was a mobe 7 with my kite really low en powerd. I advanced and the I was up against ripper Luciano Gonzales (Takoon, DR), a guy how is kiting way before I even heard of it and a guy I really respect. It was him or me how was not going to the main event and could pack his stuff and go home. Lucky for me I was riding really well and landed some sick tricks like a really high downloop front mobe, front mobe to blind and a mobe 7. Now I'm in the main event and I'm really happy about that. Tomorrow I'm up against old King of the Air Tuterai Montaron (Airush, French Polonysia).

Single Elimination (April 27)
My first heat was against Tuterai Montaron. I was a little bit nervous but I was riding on my m6 12m2 and had good power and I was able to stay upwind and make a lot of nice power moves. I went trough. Next up was Janek Koreycki (Naish, Poland). I was still riding on my m6 12m2 and the wind dropt a little. I was not really powered up but I was able to do all my moves but at the end of my heat was out of the competitiion area. I came back to the beach and I saw that I one so I was really happy... Then I was against Mallory de la Villamarque (North, French) and the wind dropt even more so I didn't had enough on my 12m2 anymore. Mallory did more and won the heat. I ended up 5th in the single.

Double Elimination (April 28)
The wind was light again and because I ended up 5th yesterday I don't have to start straight. After 2 hours of waiting and helping other people I was up against Cesar Portas how was working on a come back. He was ripping and I had a really good heat but he did more tricks and won. I dropped down till 9th place.

I'm really happy with the result and this is just the first round of the other 8 that are comming. I hope I can improve this result for the next PKRA stop wich will be in Belgium.

Update 7
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY... DEAR RANDY... HAPPPPPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOOO MEEEE......

Last Sunday (30th of April) was my birthday and this was the first time I celebrated my birthday without my family and in a foreign country. The day before my birthday there was a big party from the PKRA and  we had a lot of fun and we where dancing a lot. At 12 o'clock Mallory and Phillipe trought some drinks over me as a happy birthday gift and from Pauline I got a big kiss and a good dance!

The next day it was really my birthday and from Tuterai and his mum I got a really nice pear for arround my neck. It's a pearl from Tahiti and it's really sick! Thanks a lot for that. Then my last gift was from Pauline. She gave me a sick birthday cake wich she brought from France and kept untill my birthday. It was a brownie cake and it was still tasting good. Really sweet present!!

I had a really good birthday here in warm Venezuela and I got one year older again(19 now). Let's hope that it's at least as nice as the last year!

I will stay here together with my girlfriend (Pauline Boussard) for 14 more days. We will do some photoshooting together with Regis Mortier (www.regismortier.com, www.kitephotostock.com). At the same time I will try to get some video footage together so I can make a (small) movie from Venezuela.

Update 8
The last few days we did a lot of tripping. A few days ago we went kiting on El Yaque. Together with the guys from Kitesurf Magazine France and SkyRiders we went 3/4 km upwind to a small beach and from there we started with a downwinder back to El Yaque. It was sick!

The next day we stayed on Coche to shoot some pictures and we had some nice results.

The day after we went to Cubagua. Cubagua is sick, but I mean really sick!! The water is so blue and there are rocks in de background and there is a old wreck in the water. Unfortunately there was no wind and we couldn’t kite. We did some fishing without any result. Then we decided to go wakeboarding wich was a really cool idea. At night we went back to Coche and we where freezing our ass off….

The last two days we went kiting on Coche and the wind is sick! The wind is so steady at the moment. Perfect for our twelve’s. There are just a few guys over from the PKRA (Jo and Mike) but there is a lot of fun, riding together and pushing it harder….

Last night we shot some pictures with Nando (italien guy). There some nice ones, I hope I can show them to you later...

Tomorrow the forecast is looking good and where going to tape some video. I hope I have enough footage after one session to make a small movie for the web….. We will see!!

Update 9
It was 6 a clock in the morning when we woke up. The water was not working at our place so we went to the sea and washed ourselfs there. Then we arranged a cab to the airport. When we arrived there we where lucky and we where able to get a flight earlier. Ariving in Caracas our original flight was overbooked so we had to fly with Air France (wich has a lot better food). We where flying straight to France instead of going to Italy wait there 4 hours and then go to France. The extra bonus was that we got a ticket for 250 euro discount with our next trip with Alitalia, sick! Then we arrived in France and there I was able to get my flight to Amsterdam 5 hours earlier and I was back home 12 hour earlier then planed.



Further there are two more movies on-line wich you can find at the news page..