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Just Kickin’ It w/ Nate Appel
// June 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Hatteras, Wakestyle
This winter I was keeping in touch with lots of friends using Skype. Skype allows you to talk through text, voice and video chatting. With many of my friends going on surfing and kiteboarding trips, as well as myself, Skype was the easy (and free) way to stay in touch no matter where.
I had been wanting to film a few interviews with friends as a way to contribute to the kiteboarding website KiteScoop.com. With all of my friends dispersed all over the globe I figured Skype was the best interview platform available. So here is the first one… a conversation I had with filmmaker/team rider Nate Appel during the Spring of 2010:
Mirlo!
// June 15th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
Towards the end of last month I becasme the proud parent of an 8-week old black lab male who I decided to name Mirlo… after the surf spot on the North end of Cape Hatteras, Mirlo Beach.
I’ll be training Mirlo for the next two years to become a service dog. After two years he’ll be paired with a disabled person for a specific need and trained for another 6 months specifically for that person.
Here’s a video of Mirlo’s first time in the fuselage of an airplane!
BEST Kiteboarding Demo – May 8th
// May 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
I’m really excited for the BEST Kiteboarding Demo Day at REAL watersports this Saturday, May 8th. If you want to try some of the best kites and boards in the industry… for FREE and hang out with some awesome riders who are really chill, then get to Cape Hatteras this weekend!!
RPE’s April Music picks
// April 10th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized
I’m always on the lookout for new music. There are a few music blogs that I check a couple times each week and I’m always Shazaamin’ songs on my iPhone. I’ve been playing around with a few different embed-able players and here’s one I wanted to give a try. Each song on this list represents an awesome album to go with it. So if you like one song, check out the full album!
I encourage you to just let this playlist chill in the background while you compute… let me know your thoughts and please let me know if you have any music recommendations that you’d think I’d enjoy.
Riding with the Crew
// April 7th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
One of the things I love most about kiteboarding is that your riding WITH your friends. Unlike wakeboarding or riding at the cable park where each rider has their own “turn”, with kiting you’re riding with your friends in a very close proximity, non-stop. Because you’re not waiting for you next turn, you get to be spontaneous and feed off of the energy and excitement of the other riders. This leads to each rider pushing themselves further and harder than normally comfortable… and that leads to progression!
Photo: BryanElkus.com
Fortunately for the Crew at REAL, we get to ride with the top riders in the world for 7 months of the year, in one of the worlds best riding spots. During the winter months each of us head off to different locations… some snowboarding, others surfing and some just working. When we all get to come together that next Spring and we pickup right where we left off. That’s what happened this past Monday.
Photo: BryanElkus.com
The REAL Team headed up to the Slick for a Bryan Elkus photo shoot, accompanied by Sam Medysky (BEST) and Craig Cunningham (Liquid Force). Sam and Craig are good friends that we get to ride with a few months each year, but who we keep in touch with year round. So when we all get to come together after a long winter, no one is holding anything back! Check out BryanElkus.com
The Lighthouse
// April 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
I’d like to think the reason that I constantly take on new projects is because I like to challenge myself… but it may just be that I get bored easily! Since graduating from college a few years ago I’ve moved to an island off the coast of North Carolina, moved up through the ranks with the largest kiteboarding retailer in the world, become a sponsored rider, joined a volunteer Fire Department, written a few articles for magazines and worked on a few video projects on the side. As of April 1st I’m starting a new project, working for a company that my good friend Marc Gutman founded, Lighthouse Conferencing!
I enjoy learning new things, that’s why I joined the CBFD (fire dept.). The aspect that I loved most about college was that you were surrounded by academia… a constant pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment. Needless to say, Cape Hatteras has many amazing attributes, but academia and cultural diffusion are not its strong suit! In my ongoing pursuit to learn, travel, explore the word and myself, I’ve taken up the offer to join the Lighthouse Conferencing team!
I’ll be working remotely from Cape Hatteras and doing sales for Lighthouse. I’ll also maintain my position as a coach for REAL Watersports, my volunteer work with the Fire Dept. and Water Rescue Team as well as pursuing a few of my other projects. I decided to make this move with the hope that I could learn more about business to business sales, travel more and focus on my riding (a true balance of work and pleasure).
If you work for a company utilizing audio conferencing, web conferencing, video conferencing, or webcasting services, then Lighthouse Conferencing can save your company money and allow you to deal with a really cool account manager, ME!!! For a better understanding of what Lighthouse does and how innovative the company is, check out Our Philosophy on Conferencing.
New Sticks
// March 11th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized
I just got back from a trip down to Puerto Rico. On my way down I stopped at the BEST Kiteboarding HQ in Delray to say whats up to the crew and grab some gear. It was great to say “Hi” to my family at BEST… I’m stoked to get to ride and promote the brand (I’m really excited about this years gear).
Since Puerto Rico is mainly wave riding on the northside, Evan (who runs US Sales), insisted I bring down one of the new 2010 5’6″ shortstick and she was right! The board was super fun on the Puerto Rican reef breaks… the Shortstick likes to get in earlier on the wave and gives you plenty of time to setup your turn. I took out the center fin and rode it as a twin-fin… I was blown away by how fun it was. The twin-fin setup made the board super loose and great for tailslides! The best part: the BEST Surfboards are built incredibly tough!! I love to throw strapless airs, the problem I’ve had with every other board is severe heal dings and cracking through the deck… but not with the shortstick. I’m really excited to ride this board in Cape Hatteras!
Stoked on both of these boards
Also I got one of the new Balance Boards, the 137 Petr Tyushkevich model. I threw my new 2010 Ronix One bindings on it and was blown away by the POP! These boards have awesome flex for air tricks and when I took off the fins I was able to butterslide and carve like never before. If you get the chance, do yourself a favor and try one of these boards!!!
No more nights in Rodanthe
// January 17th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Hatteras
Rodanthe is the northern most town that makes up the Tri-villages on the north end of Hatteras island.
‘Nights in Rodanthe’ is a terrible movie that Richard Gere and Diane Lane starred in… it got a 23% on RottenTomatoes.com
The house that the film was shot in was located in a high beach erosion area. Thus, after two years of Nor’easters the sand dunes in front of the house were washed back to the road and Serendipity sat in the shore break at high tide. After being declared a public nuisance by the state, and being a hazard to surf or kite near, the house ended up being bought by some Bail Bondsman!?! This guy thought the house had “nostalgia”… and bought Serendipity for a half million dollars!
So, with the house purchased and the ocean going nowhere but up, the house had to be moved. This past Friday was planned as the big move day… the owners even went as far as to bring in the same team that moved the mega tall and heavy Cape Hatteras Lighthouse a few years back. After hitting a few snags the moving company was delayed past the time they had been permitted to move the house (turns out you can’t move an 83,000 lbs house on a public street after dark!?!).
Now the house is once again stuck in limbo. Its been pulled from its foundation and now sits 50ft closer to Highway 12, but it can’t be moved until Monday. To make matters worse there is a Nor’easter that will hit this weekend. We’ll have to see if the house, and the tractor trailer which it now sits atop, can make it through this next chapter in its histroy.
Here are some photos I took on Friday along with a video clip of the house being moved 50ft.
How to prevent a kitemare
// January 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Kiteboarding, Kitesurfing
As with all action sports their is an inherit risk of danger. This danger is greatly reduced as skill levels increase and awareness of the potential hazards become more apparent. Every rider learns these skills through time on the water and occasionally through reading a good article. I wrote this article for Kiteboarding Magazine in the hope that I could make the sport of kiteboarding just that much safer and spread the knowledge I’ve been lucky enough to learn from some of the best in the industry. Here it is, check it out:
Kiteboarding Magazine - January 2010
A very stellar dendrite Christmas
// December 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
I was visiting my family in Chicago for Christmas. See at my place in Cape Hatteras we don’t even have a TV… my parents, they have DirecTV on an HDTV. So when I’m home visiting I indulge in a few hours parked in front of the television. I was watching the History Channel and they we describing the ice crystal structural differences between hard pack snow and powder snow. The snow best know for backcountry powder is made up of snowflakes classified as stellar dendrite’s.
That’s pretty effin’ rad! My Christmas in Chicago wasn’t really full of powder snow… I just thought it was a cool fact too know. It was great to see my family and friends though; celebrate the holidays, and I even managed to have a good ol’ night on the town.
Lastly, I was stoked on the Christmas gift I received from REAL… it was a new Resin8 6’1″ shaped by Sam Egan. In addition I got hooked up with a Dakine Hypno traction pad, and Kelly Slater’s book, “For the Love”. Kudos to my friends at REAL and Happy New Year!!
Photo: Bryan Elkus