April 29th: Ewan Jaspan - update from Hawaii / Leucate (France) PKRA Stop #2

Lief dagboek......



The last 3 weeks have been intensely busy for me, travelling through the UK to Hawaii, back to the UK, then driving to France and back, and tomorrow I'm off to Austria for a team event in Podersdorf. Right now I am on Hayling Island in England staying with Sam Light who used to be my team mate, but recently moved to Slingshot.

My trip to Maui was a great experience. It was the first time I had met the whole Naish team and was especially great to meet everyone who works super hard behind the scenes from the Kite team, to the design/online team, the SUP and Windsurf crew and then of course the man himself, Robby.

Its definitely a great insight to see how a brand works, how kites and boards are designed and tested, and the constant chat about what works, what rides well, what needs changing, and seeing how Damien, Lars and Des (the kite crew) work together and with the riders to produce a product that works and is loved by everyone. Seeing all this go down is something I had always wished to see since I began riding, especially being there when a shipment of 2014 product comes rolling in, the whole office becomes a buzz and nobody could wait to go down to the beach and test it. In Maui, wind and waves take preference, the work day seems to revolve around it, which is great as it keeps everyone stoked at work. Working with Damien and Lars on the gear was another dream come true, having any sort of input into the way a kite flies or a board works is another thing I could never have thought possible, and when your opinion is taken in and you see the change made its great as you know that they want the product to work for everyone and not just what they want.

The photo shoot was the first I had done, so a lot of the time is was watching and learning to see how the seasoned team riders such as Kevin and Jesse performed for the camera's, but also trying to do my own thing. Des, the team manager was a great help with this, guiding me as to how it works and giving me the low down on the whole week, so I always knew what was going on.

On top of just the office and the beach Maui is a great place to visit. Its like no other tropical island I have been to, its got everything, amazing beaches, huge mountains, good places to eat and really friendly people, if you want a kite holiday with more than just wind, then its a great place to go.



Straight after Maui I went to the 2nd leg of the PKRA in France. This trip was pretty much the longest I have done in my life. My route was Maui --> LA --> Minneapolis --> Amsterdam --> Glasgow to pick up my gear --> London for a day then drove and ferried for 20 hours to the South of France, getting there the day before the competition. So basically by the time we arrived in Leucate, I was shot, had a super short sleep and then had to be up at 7am the next morning to compete.

The trials were intense in France, seeing how the level has stepped up on the tour, even in the last 14 months since I have been on it, is amazing. The trials in France had 40 people, with only 14 passing through, so it was fairly tough. That was only the start…. 2 hours into the comp the wind reader had a gust of 64 knots, and constant gust readings over 50 knots. I was super overpowered on my 6m torch, with some competitors on 4m kites, the biggest kite we saw all day was a 7m, and those few people were getting blown away to the max. Luckily I had a good heat and came 1st out of 4 in my heat which put me straight through to the main event, some top riders weren't as fortunate. I also started the single eliminations well, winning round 1, but after that the rest of the comp didn't go to plan. The conditions were harsh and riders who were more used to these conditions took advantage and ended up doing well, so I got warm and watched the action.

This stop saw the return of Aaron Hadlow (5x world champion). He was riding amazingly well for his first comp back and got 3rd place, behind Marc Jacobs and Alex Pastor, who both were complete standouts. With so many good riders on tour now its going to be a tough and interesting year, maybe not the easiest year to have my first full year on tour, but I will train hard over the next 2 months before Italy, and hopefully finish with a solid result. My goal at the moment is to be pre-seeded for the event in Germany, and not have to do the trials, that would be a dream.

Its strange travelling around the world after just turning 19, at times its hard being by yourself on planes for days or stressing about where you are going to stay or where to go next, but its a great experience for sure and will keep doing it as long as I can. Its such a help to have social networking sights to keep in touch with everyone at home such as my family, my girlfriend and all my mates, kiters and non-kiters, without being able to contact them, months at a time away would be tough. Its also great how friendly everyone is in the kite scene. On the PKRA there is a super friendly atmosphere and everybody gets on. At the beach things can get slightly competitive, but after a day of competition we all hang out together and get on really well.

So in the next few weeks I'll be training in France again and Tarifa, but in the mean time, get excited about all the new products coming from Naish ;) Will be great to show all the KR members their way around the gear when it comes out!

Ewan