degreeThe Dying Feudby Sam Baldwin

Board?by Steve Cave

Make a Wake Upby Niall Cinneide Lets Go Fly a Kiteby Bruno Legaignoux

wind.water.land.ice.

APRIL 2010 $14.95 US $21.95 CAN

Contents

Columns

Articles

3Live it UpSeparate yourself from the harsh reality of our economy and go have fun globally.

5The Dying FeudWhat really separates snowboarders and skiers, or brings them together?

13Board?The style of skatboarding is forever changing, what’s next.

23Make a Wake upExpressing yourself and living life through the sport of wakeboarding.

33Lets Go Fly a KiteThe evolution of boarding sports and its newest addition.

11Skate ItLearn to be a pro in skating on the new game for Wii and Nintendo DS.

21Ride for ReliefPro boarders from around the world ride to support and recognize the victims of Haiti by raising money and awareness.

29Tantrum to BlindNeed a new trick to learn? Find out how to execute our trick of the month and your possibilities from there.

1 DEGREE

Execute

Global Financial Crisis, Recession, Depression, cut-backs, layoffs, retrenchment, unemployment, low dollar, strong Euro...there seems to be more and more reasons these days not to travel overseas and chase snow. Yeah, it's true, a trip to The States will cost you 50% more than last year, and the Aussie dollar to Euro is hovering around 50 cents. And although domestic Aussie airlines have cut back on the fuel levy due to lower oil prices, the drop is yet to make it to international airlines, so you're still going to pay through the nose just to step on a plane. And yes, i've heard that work visas to the USA are harder to come by this year. Yep, it's gunna

cost you more...but think about what you'll miss if you don't hunt the snow this year!

Everyone is stuggling - including the ski resorts themselves, which have had to cut back many workers' hours and lay off lots of staff due to dwindling numbers. But there is a benefit to this - less punter on the snow clog-ging up lift lines, and there hasn't been as much demand for short-term and rental property, so if you're willing

to pay cash and hunt around, you can still find yourself a sweet deal on snow accommodation.

Yes, it's probably going to cost you more this year...but the good times of last year were just a bit of luck. I can remember in 2002 the Aussie dollar was only worth US$0.49! But just think about what you'll be missing by not heading overseas this year - all the pow, park and pipe you just can't get in the southern hemisphere.

Like the Mastercard ad: priceless!

So, work out how you can get overseas, even if it means you go for a shorter time than you normally would, or you have to call in those favours and get back on the couch surfing program. Trust me - you'll never forgive yourself if you let a little thing like money get in the way of a snow holiday. Take a look at this picture taken

exactly twelve months ago in St Anton for some inspiration to book that holiday.

...see you on the slopes...

Live it Up

3 DEGREE

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T h e D y i n g F e u dSnowboarding vs Skiing

by Sam Baldwin

5 DEGREE

This is one of the politer exchanges that have occurred between skiers and snowboarders over the last 20 odd years. It all started in the haze of the 1960s when some American dude named Sherman Poppen of Michigan, conceived the idea of riding a single board down the slopes after seeing his daughter balancing on a lone ski in the back garden. From the depths of his tool shed, Poppen created the “Snurfer”, a binding-less board of plywood, with a leash attached to the front, to which the rider held onto as he rode the snow. He sold the idea to a manu-facturer, and half a million Snurfers left the shelves in the 60s and early 70s, giving rise to a new form of snow sport. Many riders including the now legendary Tom Sims and Jake Burton devoted themselves to the development of this new practice, pouring new ideas and technologies into the design and construction of boards and bindings, eventually giving rise to the snowboards that we ride today. However, in those early days, skiing was still very much an elitist sport. Seen as expensive, and catering largely to the more wealthy citizens, resorts weren’t about to let this new, dangerous craze into their exclusive runs. The young snowboarding crowd just didn’t fit the demographic that the resorts or their skiing customers wanted to see on their slopes.

Cast into the Wilds So, right up until the late 1970s, snowboarding was cast out into the wilds. Outlawed from almost every resort across the globe, these renegade riders were banished to the backcountry, where a hardcore few continued to develop their skills and cultivate the sport away from the limelight of the world’s groomed pistes.

It wasn’t until 1977, that a man named Dimitrije of Salt Lake city, (founder of the snowboard company Winterstick), achieved getting snowboards covered under ski liability insurance, that snowboarding began to become more widely accepted by ski resorts, and this led to a surge in popularity.

But the boarding boom of the 1980s brought with it a very different type of personality to the slopes; droves of teenage skate punks with an accompanying ‘bad ass’ attitude that the average skier didn’t appreciate. This new form of snow sport brought the lawlessness of street skating to the arena of strict slope etiquette. Kids who never previously had any interest in what they saw as an upper class and snobby hobby, were now being attracted to the slopes and becoming obsessed, as snowboarding exploded across North America and Europe.

Instead of grinding a kerb to a pile of smoking rubble on the street where no one would care, this new wave of winter sports enthusiasts were transplanting their accompanying fashions, attitudes and skate tricks to the resorts, sliding picnic benches, parked cars, ski lodge handrails – anything they could get their boards over. This did not amuse the skiers, who saw it simply as reckless vandalism and pressure was put on resorts to do something about it.

“Hey knuckle dragger, pull your pants up, and get off your arse for once!”

“Screw you two plank w*nker, to ski snow is to waste it!”

“Hey knuckle dragger, pull your pants up, and get off your arse for once!”

“Screw you two plank w*nker, to ski snow is to waste it!”

7 DEGREE

The ski resorts were the battle ground and were caught in the crossfire. Whilst they wanted to keep their loyal, typically more wealthy skiing customers happy, at the same time, they could see the huge injection of cash that this new wave of boarders was bringing in.

Some resorts proclaimed snowboarding nothing more than a passing fad. Not wanting to lose custom from their regular skiers, they denied access to boarders, believing interest would soon wane and that snowboards would end up gathering dust alongside mono-skis and other such relics of the past that now hang in winter sports museums or decorate alpine bars.

Other more foresightful resorts realised that snowboarding was here to stay and could be a much needed financial saviour in the waning world of skiing. They started promoting their grounds to snowboarders, creat-ing special areas where snowboarders could perform their jumps and slide their rails without creating friction with skiers. These resorts were soon attracting more customers to their slopes than ever before, reaping the financial rewards, and other ski areas slowly began to follow suit. In the early eighties less than 10% of US resorts permitted access to boarders, nowadays, few exclude it.A Twist Unforseen?

But the skiers weren’t to be left behind in this rapid development. In a twist perhaps unforeseen, the boom in freestyle snowboarding only served to attract more skiers to the terrain park areas. The traditional competi-tion between to the two parties simply motivated skiers further – “if a snowboarder can do it, so can a skier”.

What snowboarding took from skateboarding, skiing took from snowboarding, thus skiers began sliding rails, riding switch and performing huge aerial spins, which served to attract new, young recruits to the skiing crowd. Skiing, like boarding, was once again super cool and a symbiotic relationship was born, with both sports influencing, inspiring, and benefiting from each other.

Of course there will always be some differences between to the two disciplines. Skiing will always be more practical, but many think snowboarding to be more graceful. Skiers can travel faster and with twice the edges have more bite on hard pack and ice, but snowboarders have the advantage in deep powder and slush, where their larger surface area keeps them floating on top.

Trash and Thrash And so the war began; on one side, the traditionally upper class, rich kid skiers, who wanted the slopes free of these rude, dangerous, disrespectful hoodlums with their baggy trousers and “trash and thrash” attitude. On the other, a rapidly growing army of young, enthusiastic new snowboarders, scornful of skiing’s conservative yuppie style, pumped full of teenage angst and revelling in the sport’s rebellious image.Fuelled by propaganda in the snow sports media on both sides of the trenches, it seemed that an essential trait of a skier or snowboarder was to berate the other. For boarders, it was seen as fashionable and a core part of your identify to mock skiers at every opportunity, with one piece ski wear being a favourite target. Skiers were equally guilty, believing that they had more right to the slopes, claiming that boarders didn’t follow the laws of the piste, scraped off all the best snow, and were a danger to others.

Fuelled by propaganda in the snow sports media on both sides of the trenches, it seemed that an essential trait of a skier or snowboarder was to berate the other. For boarders, it was seen as fashionable and a core part of your identify to mock skiers at every opportunity, with one piece ski wear being a favourite target. Skiers were equally guilty, believing that they had more right to the slopes, claiming that boarders didn’t follow the laws of the piste, scraped off all the best snow, and were a danger to others.Ski Resorts Battle Ground

“ B u t i n t h e e n d , w e ’ r e a l l j u s t i n i t f o r t h e s n o w . ”

The Freestyle Skiing RevolutionWhilst there is still some friction between the two groups, it tends to largely come from older skiers, who the freestyle skiing revolution has passed by. They still see snowboarders as rude young punks, trespassing on their slopes, performing dangerous manoeuvres and generally causing trouble. Many are ill informed, unaware that their own kind are just as likely to be found in the park, going just as high in the pipe, and slaying just as many rails as snowboarders are. They are blind to the fact that without the financial boost that snowboarding brought, which in turn revived the skiing industry, some resorts may not have survived to the present day.

Reports of snowboarders injuring skiers and vice versa, are often used as ammunition by the media to fuel the feud. But very often, in these cases, the underlying reason for the accident is neither being a skier nor a snowboarder; it is simply being a beginner.

People new to either discipline are the most likely to be unaware of the rules and etiquette and will simply have less control over their chosen piece of hardware. I’ve been ploughed down by a beginner boarder and taken out by a beginner skier, but have a little tolerance; we all had to start somewhere.

A Clash of Classes?There is no longer a class boundary between the two disciplines as both skiers and boarders are coming from all backgrounds. There exist both snobby rich kid boarders, as well as rude young punk skiers, so much of the traditional discrimination has left the slopes.

The vast majority of ski areas now allow boarders on the slopes, yet there are still a handful that permit only skiers. They market themselves as being skier exclusive as they have found a selling point for the remnants of the older generation of die hard skiers who still think of boarders as a danger and pine for the days when the slopes were board free. But as these people retire from the sport,and make way for the new wave of younger snow sports enthusiasts, it is inevitable that these resorts will lose their niche market and will have to open their pistes to boarders, or face financial ruin. To limit your ski area to only one discipline is to exclude paying customers, which is simply bad business sense.

So as we leave the tale, we can see that each sport has at some time, relied on the other. Snowboarding on ski-ing, for it was that young Miss Poppen who inspired her father to create the mother of the modern snowboard - the Snurfer, by riding a single ski, and of course for ski resort infrastructure, without which snowboarding never could have grown to what it is today. Yet skiing needed boarding too, to revive its own industry and to breathe fresh styles and ideas into the tired downhill sport.

Fading FeudAnd so the feud is fading. As the older generation hang up their poles, the new generation of skiers and boarders are enjoying the same terrain on the same mountains. The skiers are on their twin tips in the park, going big alongside boarders, and with the aid of fat powder skis, both are riding shoulder to shoulder in the backcountry.

The two sports, which originally brought together two very different types of fashion, style, attitude and per-sonality to the same arena, have now blurred their boundaries to a large extent. What was once thought of as nothing more than a passing fad has dug its edge deep into the pistes of the world, from Austria to Australia, and the park and pipe, once thought of as exclusive snowboard territory, has now become home to skiers too.

Of course there still exists a slim minority of younger skiers who have blindly swallowed the words of their elders, and in the same way that racism is learnt, they have learned to discriminate against all boarders. There are also some boarders who misguidedly think it’s still cool to be seen slating skiers, wrongly believing that it’s still part of the snowboarder’s image.In it for the snow

In reality, the war was never really about snowboards and skis, it had more to do with a clash of classes, an older generation fearing the changes brought about by the younger generation, and that younger generation rebelling - a scenario that repeats itself in many facets of our culture. Indeed, even within the world of snow-boarding itself there are factions; the hard boot carvers vs. the rail jibbers, the backcountry powder hounds vs. the corduroy shredders. Will today’s park rats be complaining about tomorrow’s snow bikers in years to come?

The bottom line is, young skiers and snowboarders today don’t care whether you ride one plank or two, they don’t care whether you face forwards or side ways and they don’t care whether you’re a “gay on a tray” or a “two stick prick”.

“ B u t i n t h e e n d , w e ’ r e a l l j u s t i n i t f o r t h e s n o w . ”

visualize

May 9, 2008 - Last year, Electronic Arts and Black Box literally reinvented the skateboarding videogame design with Skate, an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 experience that put heavy focus on dual-analog stick control for its gameplay. What were once automatic button presses in games like Tony Hawk now had to be worked for by flicking your thumbs to pull them off.

Because of the dual-analog focus, it wasn’t surprising to see that the original game didn’t make it to the Nintendo Wii or the Nintendo DS – two systems that lacked the “standard” con-trol offered by the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. But that hasn’t stopped the publisher from trying – in 2008, Electronic Arts will release Skate It, a spin-off of last year’s console design that will focus on utilizing Wii remote and Nintendo DS touch screen for its skateboarding control. The Wii version will also support the Wii Balance Board that will ship with Wii Fit in two weeks.

Skate It will be officially announced and revealed by the com-pany next week at the company’s press event in San Francisco, but we were given the opportunity to grill Skate It’s executive producer Scott Blackwood and get some details regarding the Nintendo spinoffs on the Wii and the Nintendo DS.

by Craig Harris

Skate Iton

Wii and Nintendo DS

11 DEGREE

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Skateboarding was first started in the 1950s, when all across California surfers got the idea of trying to surf the streets. No one really knows who made the first board -- instead, it seems that several peo-ple came up with similar ideas at the same time. Several people have claimed to have invented the skate-board first, but nothing can be proved, and skateboarding remains a strange spontaneous creation.

These first skateboarders started with wooden boxes or boards with roller skate wheels slapped on the bottom. Like you might imagine, a lot of people got hurt in skateboarding’s early years! It was a sport just being born and discovered, so anything went. The boxes turned into planks, and even-tually companies were producing decks of pressed layers of wood -- similar to the skateboard decks of today. During this time, skateboarding was seen as something to do for fun after surfing.

15 DEGREE

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In 1963, skateboarding was at a peak of popularity, and companies like Jack’s, Hobie and Makaha started holding skateboarding competitions. At this time, skateboarding was mostly either downhill slalom or freestyle. Torger

Johnson, Woody Woodward and Danny Berer were some well known skateboarders at this time, but what they did

looked almost completely different from what skateboard-ing looks like today! Their style of skateboarding, called

“freestyle”, is more like dancing ballet or ice skating with a skateboard.

Then, in 1965, skateboarding’s popularity suddenly crashed. Most people assumed that skateboarding was a fad

that had died out, like the hoola hoop. Skateboard companies folded, and people who wanted to skate had to make their

own skateboards again from scratch.

But people still skated, even though parts were hard to find and boards were home made. Skaters were using clay wheels for their

boards, which was extremely dangerous and hard to control. But then in 1972, Frank Nasworthy invented urethane skateboard wheels, which are similar to what most skaters use today. His company was called Cadillac Wheels, and the invention sparked new interest in skate-boarding among surfers and other young people.

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In the spring of 1975, skateboarding took an evolutionary boost toward the sport that we see today. In Del Mar, California a slalom and freestyle contest was held at the Ocean Festival. That day, the Zephyr team showed the world what skateboarding could be. They rode their boards like no one had in the public eye, low and smooth, and skateboarding was taken from being a hobby to something serious and exciting (Read more about the history of Dogtown and the Zephyr team). The Zephyr team had many members, but the most famous are Tony Alva, Jay Adams and Stacy Peralta.

But that was only the first big jump in the evolution of skateboarding - continue to the next page for the rest of the history... The Zephyr team, and all the skaters who wanted to be like them, also made skateboard-ing even more edgy in the public eye, and added a strong anti-establishment sentiment that still remains in skateboarding today.

In 1978, only a few years into the popularity of this new style of low-to-the-ground skateboarding, a skater named Alan Gelfand (nicknamed “Ollie”) invented a maneuver that gave skateboarding another revolutionary jump. He would slam his back foot down on the tail of his board and jump, thereby popping himself and the board into the air. The ollie was born, a trick that completely revolutionized skateboarding -- most tricks today are based in performing an ollie. The trick still bears his name, and Alan Gelfand was inducted into the skateboard hall of fame in 2002.

Unfortunately, near the end of the 70’s skateboarding faced its second crash in popularity. Public skate parks had been being built, but with skateboarding being such a dangerous activity, insurance rates got out of con-trol. This, combined with less and less people coming to use skateparks forced most to close.

But skaters kept skating. Through the 80’s skateboarders started to built their own ramps at home, and to skate whatever else they could find. Skateboarding began to be more of an underground movement, with skaters continuing to ride, but to make the whole world into their skatepark.

During the 80’s, smaller skateboard companies owned by skateboarders started cropping up. This enabled each company to be creative and do whatever they wanted - new styles and shapes of boards were tried.

It was also during the 80’s that the VCR came on the scene, and opened up the world of skateboarding to any kid, anywhere. Stacey Peralta and George Powell pulled together a team of young talented skaters and named them the Bones Brigade. Stacey had a talent for filming, and in 1984 shot the first of a long series of revolutionary skateboard videos - The Bones Brigade Video Show. The team included Steve Caballero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Rodney Mullen, Stacy Peralta, and Kevin Staab, among piles of other huge named skaters. Peralta made more Bones Brigade videos - Future Primitive in 1985, and the famous Search for Animal Chin in 1987. There are many, many more. Skateboarding began influencing clothing styles, music and culture.

Skateboarding has always been about personal discovery and pushing oneself to the lim-it, but where will skateboard-ing go from here? Wherever skaters continue to take it.

Unfortunately, near the end of the 80’s, skateboarding started to dive in popularity again. Vert skate-boarding quickly lost popularity, and most skaters only rode street. Each time skateboarding has fallen in popularity, it has fallen a little less. But these dips in popularity have huge impacts on pro skaters. Pure vert skaters like Tony Hawk had a very difficult time holding on through the late 80’s and early 90’s. The stress on Tony Hawk was incredible, and he even lost his first wife during this time.Vert skateboarding took a dive in fame in the early 90s, but skateboarding still remained, though it became primarily street. It was then that Mike Vallely and Natas Kaupas came on the scene and pushed street skateboarding even further.

Skateboarding started to grow again in popularity in the 90’s, this time with a more raw, edgy, and danger-ous attitude. This coincides with the rise of more angry punk music, and the general discontent with the current system that raged throughout this time frame. Call it discontent, or call it Post Modern frustra-tion, but the image of the poor, angry skater punk came to the surface loud and proud. Interestingly, this only helped to fuel skateboarding’s popularity.

In 1995, ESPN held their first Extreme Games, in Rhode Island. This first X Games was a huge success, and helped pull skateboarding closer to the mainstream, and closer to being accepted by the general population (read more in the History of the X Games). In 1997 the first Winter X Games were held, and “Extreme Sports” were classified. Plenty of skaters resent the way skateboarding has slowly moved from underground to mainstream. However, the X Games did bring vert skateboarding back into popular-ity. The X Games and competitions like that have continued to keep vert skateboarding popular, even though vert few skaters actually ride real vert ramps. Vert skateboarding has slowly become a much loved spectator sport.

Since 2000, attention in the media and products like skateboarding video games, children’s skateboards and commercialization have all pulled skateboarding more and more into the mainstream. The benefit of this is that, of course, skaters are more accepted, and the assumption that all skaters are criminals is slowly being torn down. Also, with more money being put into skateboarding, there are more skateparks, better skateboards, and more skateboarding companies to keep innovating and inventing new things.

However, there is a large group of skaters who miss the underground days, and who strongly disagree with the way skateboarding has been made more mainstream. One benefit of skateboarding is that it is a very individual activity. There is no right or wrong way to skate. However, if skateboarding is officially classified as a “sport”, many skaters fear that this freedom will die out. There is currently a great deal of concern about skateboarding becoming an Olympic sport (read Skateboarding in the Olympics? for more).

But, with all this history crammed into such a short period of time, it’s easy to see that no one knows where skateboarding will truly go from here. Skateboarding still hasn`t stopped evolving, and skaters are coming up with new tricks all the time. Boards are also continuing to evolve, as companies try to make them lighter and stronger, or try to improve on their performance.

19 DEGREE

4Capture

4With over 200,000 people dead, another 1.2 million homeless, and Port-au-Prince in ruins, Haitians are suffering in ways that we canʼt imagine. There is a strong moral obligation running through my body to help these people who literally have lost everything except maybe hope. With the wakeboard industry being such a tightly knit and privileged community, it is time for us to come together and provide some relief to the suffering occurring in Haiti. Of course there are ways for us to help those in need and still have a great time while doing it.

With that being said, the Orlando Watersports Complex will be open to everybody from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on February 20th. You all can come out and ride the cable, hang out with the pros, enjoy some music, and help us raise money for a worthy cause. Make sure you bring everyone you know. The more people the better. For those of you who are 21 and up, there will also be an after party in downtown Orlando at The Other Bar on Wall Street. With Ryan Davis and Kevin Little from Step Up Productions hosting the party and Bong Vodka contributing to the festivities, this will be an evening that you wonʼt want to miss.

To help ensure the success of this fundraiser, we are asking for a minimum donation of $20 per person for the entire evening. This will include your riding and entertainment at OWC, as well as the opportunity to attend the after party at The Other Bar (assuming you are 21 and up). This, however, will not cover your bar tab at the end of the night, but with Bong Vodkaʼs assistance it should be somewhat reduced.

All of the proceeds from Ride for Relief will be donated to Habitat for Humanity with the purpose of building homes in Haiti. These homes are being erected for $2500 and providing this type of long term relief is one of the most important things that we can do for these families in helping them restore their lives. As a community of riders and friends, lets see how many of these homes we can build.

Ride

For those of you who are 21 and up, there will also be an after party in downtown Orlando at The Other Bar on Wall Street. With Ryan Davis and Kevin Little from Step Up Productions hosting the party and Bong Vodka contributing to the festivities, this will be an evening that you won’t want to miss.

To help ensure the success of this fundraiser, we are asking for a minimum donation of $20 per person for the entire evening. This will include your riding and entertainment at OWC, as well as the opportunity to attend the after party at The Other Bar (assuming you are 21 and up). This, however, will not cover your bar tab at the end of the night, but with Bong Vodka’s assistance, it should be somewhat reduced.

All of the proceeds from Ride for Relief will be donated to Habitat for Humanity with the purpose of building homes in Haiti. These homes are being erected for $2500 and providing this type of long term relief is one of the most important things that we can do for these families in helping them restore their lives. As a community of riders and friends, lets see how many of these homes we can build.

For those of you who are unable to make it to Ride for Relief, but still would like to contribute, please go to the Ride for Relief Donation Page and help us raise money to build these homes.

If you are interested, you can also join the Ride for Relief team, become an advocate for Habitat for Humanity and help us raise more money by asking your friends and family for donations. Go to the Ride for Relief Team Page for more information.

As a community, we are very powerful and have the ability to pool our resources to make this one of the most effective fundraisers that wakeboarding has ever seen. There are families that are relying on our assistance, so let’s pull them from the rubble and help them get back on their feet.

There are more and more developments every day for this event, so keep checking the event description on the Ride for Relief

Event Page on Facebook for the most up to date information on what’s going on.

Pro riders scheduled to appear include…

* Shaun Murray* Chad Sharpe* Trevor Hanson* JD Webb* Nick Davies* Erik Ruck* Phil Soven* Jeff House* Nicola Butler* Dieter Humpsch* Stu Shinn* Andrew Pastura* and many more

Relief

21 DEGREE

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WAKE Up

23 DEGREE

“One important thing for a man is

to make full use of his life, to be able

to enjoy it to the fullest. Another is

to keep his life light, to give him-

self a space for self-expression.

And what will make these things

possible is sports. Through sports,

one can share your passions and

unconscious desires refected from

your every action.

25 DEGREE

One relatively new board sport - wakeboarding - originated from Orlando, Florida. This newest craze will surely attract sports fans and players alike. For fearless and fun-loving individuals, it is a greatway to experi-ence life in another perspective.

Feel the adrenaline rush as you learn and master the basic, intermediate, and more advanced tricks. With wakeboarding, acrobatic exhibition will never feel the same way again as you perform these crazy tricks.

Wakeboarding was created from a combination of water-skiing, snow boarding and surfing techniques. As in water skiing, which most people are at least familiar with, the rider is towed behind a boat, or a cable skiing lift at a speed of about 18-24 mph. The main difference is that instead of skis, the boarder uses a single board (like a snowboard) with bindings. The boards are shorter in length that a snowboard (typically 130 - 147cm) and wider (up to 45cm) as well as being convex (tips 15 - 25cm) rather than concave as a snowboard.

The boat used in wakeboarding is similar to a water ski boat except that the rope is normally mounted on a tower about 2 meters above the water line and the boat is also weighted and trimmed to give a high wake. The wake can be used to perform various jumps. Steering the board by a combination of direction and cutting the edges into the water, therider can move outside of the wake, and then steer rapidly in, hitting the wake and launching themselves into the air (with various degrees of success).

Tricks are performed on the surface of the water as well as in the air. Generally, launching oneself in the air and going inverted is some of the most spectacular tricks that can be performed, known collectively as inverts.

To someone not familiar with the sport, hearing someone speak about wakebordig might sound like another language. To most, as with many freestyle sports such as snow boarding and surfing, there is almost a separate language of terms to describe various tricks, like Tantrum, Elephant, Whirlybird, etc., depending on how good (sick) arider is. In addition to the names of each move, there are plenty of other wakeboarding terms used that you should know about.

Getting hooked on this kind of sport is really as great an experience that a sport-minded individual would ever have. The sport is growing in popularity, as it is fairly easy to pick up, but offers a wide opportunity for self-expression.

Give yourself a little extra blood rush - this sport will give you satisfaction that you cannot otherwise experi-ence from other sports. So give it a try or you’ll be missing the great opportunity it offers.

27 DEGREE

Footwork

Newest Tricks:

Wakeboarding: The Tantrum To Blind is a difficult trick that requires finesse and skill, and it’s quite difficult to get consistent. However, it’s difficulty makes it a trick that is well respected by other riders, and it looks quite good as well.

PrerequistiesBefore trying a Tantrum to Blind you should be able to do the following things:1. Have a strong wake-to-wake Tantrum where you can get good height2. Be able to do a Backside 180 where you land wrapped

Performing the trick

Tantrum to Blind #1 Approach the wake with enough speed to take your Tantrum wake-to-wake. You don’t want to go real far, it’s easiest to learn this trick landing on the downside of the wake.

Tantrum to Blind #2 Stand tall and wait for your pop so you get maximum height. Keep the handle in tight to your body as you take off, you’ll need it in close to your body for the whole trick.

Tantrum to Blind #3 As you take off, you want your back to face a bit more towards the boat then on your normal tantrum. This helps you get a little less rope tension when you land.

Tantrum to Blind #4 You don’t want to spin to blind too early, so wait until you’re on your way down and you’ve spotted your landing before starting to turn. Keep the rope in tight to your body to make it easier to spin to blind.

Tantrum to Blind #5 As you land, keep the rope tight in the small of your back, and try to land with more weight on your toes then your heels. Get your shoulders over the toeside edge of your board, and pass the handle after you’ve landed firmly.

Style additions1. Learn it switch2. Once you’ve got it down, take it super big by taking a big hard cut at it.3. Grab it Indy.

Moving OnThe Tantrum to Blind helps you do the following tricks:1. Switch Tantrum to Blind2. Indy Tantrum to Blind

Tantrum To Blind

29 DEGREE

Lets Go

b y B r u n o L e g a i g n o u x

Initiated by the “Surfrider Foundation Europe” the event

motivated hundreds of beach clean ups around the world

with the goal to educate local people and kids about

the pollution of our waterways and to raise awareness.

As a great eco-citizen weekend of global scale, dealing with the

problem of macro-waste and dedicated to the protection of our coast,

our lakes and our rivers, the Ocean Initiatives weekend 2010 took

part this past weekend from March 18th to 21st.

It seems that while Thai coconuts are a delight in one way

they are a curse in another as plastic straws are used for

the countless number of coconuts consumed.

Fly a Kite

As great eco-citizen weekend of global scale, dealing with the problem of macro-waste and dedicated to the protection of our coast, our lakes and our rivers, the Ocean Initiatives weekend 2010 took part ths past weekend from March 18th to 21st. Initiated by the “Surfrider Foundation Europe” the event motivated hundreds of beach cleans ups around the world with the gol to educate local people and kids about the polution of our waterways and to raise awareness. The Ocean Intitiatives event has been organized for the past 15 years and finds more and more supporters every year.

A great example was set by some of the PKRA world cup riders and the local staff of the Intercontinental Hua Hin Resort Kiteboarding World Cup in Thailand when they all joined the Ocean Initiatives weekend with a beach clean up at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday the 20th of March. While the meeting point was the competi-tion site, a large area of Hua hin’s beach was cleaned when a total of 33 motivated beach-cleaners split into 2 groups to collect trash to the left and the right of the world cup area. Even a waste truck followed the diligient trash collectors to relieve them of their heavy burdens whenever their bags were filled up.

33 DEGREE

With an immense oversupply and usage of plastic bags presenting a big problem in Thailand and most parts of Asia it was no surprise that many plastic bags were collected during the clean up. Quickly it became clear that straws and plastic cups are also a serious threat to Thailand’s environment as they were the main trash items collected along the beach. It seems that while Thai coconuts are a delight in one way they are a curse in another as plastic straws are used for the countless number of coconuts consumed.

The Hua Hin clean up was also supported by the town’s mayor who came to the beach to thank everyone that had participated. In his speech he made clear to the local people how important it is to keep oceans and beaches clean and to take actions towards a cleaner environment. Both, the mayor and the riders that had joined the clean up set a great example for the people in Hua Hin and might just make a difference to the future of the town and their pollution problems.

Co-organizing this clean up marked Kristin Boese’s first project for the “Surfrider Foundation Europe” for which she officially became an ambassador just 2 weeks ago. Becoming very aware of the problems that the pollutions of oceans, beaches and rivers poses during her travels around the world Kristin wanted to help the environment as much as she possibly could and when launching KB4girls, a non-profit clinic tour for female kiteboarders, put a lot of thought into how to support female kiteboarders and the environment at the same time. Getting together with “Surfrider Foundation Europe” offered a great opportunity for both parties.

Kristin Boese says: “I was looking for a way to do something positive for our oceans and beaches with KB4girls and as I had heard of the great work of the Surfrider Foundation I got in contact with them to see how I could help. From the beginning they were very open and I am honored to have become an ambas-sador for such a great Foundation. While the beach clean up in Thailand was my first project with them, Surfrider Foundation Europe will supply educational materials for all our KB4girls events and in return we will donate the registration fees to them. I am very positive that together we will raise a lot of awareness about the water pollution around the world and hopefully inspire kiteboarders and local people to change their environmentally unhealthy patterns.”

Xavier Giamporcaro, Partnership and Development project manager of Surfrider Foundation Europe: “Surfrider Foundation Europe’s aim is to defend oceans, coastline, waves and the people who enjoy them. As a kiteboarder, Kristin Boese is well aware of water pollution as she spends most of her time in the water. Joining Surfrider as and ambassador, Kristin will support our educational campaigns and help us keep the oceans clean by raising awareness on the beaches around the world. We at Surfrider warmly welcome her!”

Sincere thanks go out to everyone that was involved in the clean up and made a difference on the beach of Hua Hin and the local people.

35 DEGREE

find which sport you are parallel with

37 DEGREE

learn it. ride it. live it.

what’s your degree?