By Paul Lang and Ryan Riccitelli
Originally Published in the December 2009 Issue of The Kiteboarder Magazine
I can remember the first time Gary Martin, the Technical Editor here at The Kiteboarder Magazine, came home from the first Surf Expo trade show. He managed to get a promo tape from Airush with some of the very first footage of Lou and Elliot and the rest of the Maui crew throwing it down wakestyle. The video had it all, and Lou Wainman and Elliot Leboe made jumping 30 feet on two line kites look easy as pie. Within a few months, that very first footage progressed into the video that changed my life. I have spoken with many people over the years who say that High is the video that grabbed them by the balls and made them want to learn to kiteboard.
There are always unsung heroes hiding out behind the lens, and Chris Tronolone and his crew at Trononlone Productions have been there every step of the way. It gives me great pleasure to tell this story about a crew of regular dudes who helped put kiteboarding on the map. Led by Chris Tronolone, the kiteboarding movies made by Tronolone Productions have been instrumental in inspiring people to learn to kiteboard and in exposing kiteboarding to a much wider audience than would otherwise know about the sport. – Ryan Riccitelli
It’s been almost a decade. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the last 10 years of kiteboarding?
The first thing that comes to mind is growth. It’s amazing, the amount of growth that we’ve experienced in kiteboarding which was just a novelty, and it’s really exploded into a worldwide phenomena. We’ve got a world tour,
guys making free ride videos, and people giving lessons all over the world. It’s gone from a little backyard thing right here on Maui and it’s blossomed into a multinational sport. I’m really proud to have been a part of it.
How did you hook up with Lou Wainman and Elliot Leboe and what was it like putting together some of the very first footage of kiteboarding?
When I first met Elliot, I was shooting some windsurfing, and I was working with him a lot doing testing for a magazine. I first met Lou shooting with Elliot down at Camp One. They would go out, haul ass, and do bump and jump stuff. They would hit kickers and do huge forward and back loops. One day, Elliot called me and said, “Chris, you’ve got to come down and check this thing out, it’s this new thing Lou and I are doing.†I met them down at Sprecks and jumped in the water. They were doing double and triple back rolls and front rolls over my head, and it was amazing. Everything fell into place. We immediately started filming everyday and they had a house right on the beach where we would watch the footage. I knew we were onto something big. Through my affiliation with Lou and Elliot, since I was basically the first to be filming the sport and they were the first radical-style riders, most of the work that would come through would go to us. I was really fortunate, and I owe those guys a lot.
What was your background and had you done anything like this before?
My background as a cinematographer was in surfing and windsurfing. Surfing was a rush, you would get someone doing five-foot airs over your head and barrels were pretty exhilarating. Windsurfing was very exhilarating because they would do really huge airs, but kiteboarding was definitely the apex of it. The stuff that people would do on a kite, even in the beginning, was just mind blowing.
Did you think High, the first film you released, would be as popular as it was? Were you surprised when someone like Bertrand Fleury showed up in Maui because of that film?
I knew I was on to something huge with High because I had distributors knocking on my door before it was even done. As things progressed during the production, filming, and editing of the movie, I was surprised because it seemed like it was really blossoming into something great. When I premiered it in Leucate, France, I was invited to show it at the Cannes Film Festival. Back filming at Kite Beach, I was shooting Awake, and Bertrand showed up and he was speechless. His English was terrible, but he was saying that Lou was his hero and he was here to follow in Lou’s footsteps. This made me feel really proud, and I know it made Lou really proud too. To have people come seek you out because of something you made is a really nice feeling.
check out the kiteboarder for the rest:
http://www.thekiteboarder.com/wordpress/2010/01/caught-on-tape-chris-tronolone/