2009 Ocean Rodeo Rise Dominates Windfest ‘08

Held annually at Nitinat Lake on Vancouver Island BC Windfest has grown into one of the Pacific NW’s premier kiting events. This year’s event saw competitors from as far away as Martinique, Norway and the UK attend as well as heavy representation from BC, Alberta, Washington, Oregon and California.

Each year Ocean Rodeo hosts a Crew Gathering to coincide with Windfest. Designed to bring our collective circle of riders, dealers and distributors together the Crew Gathering is our way to say thank-you to our Crew and to give them all a flavour of the new year’s equipment.

From the results of this year’s Windfest we can only conclude that the riders enjoyed their taste and that Ocean Rodeo is on track for huge success with its ’09 product line up!

Events for the weekend included: a long distance race; heated border cross races of 4 riders at a time, top rider advancing through to semis and eventually finals; and a freestyle competition.

The long distance race was clearly dominated by Ocean Rodeo’s 2009 line up. With over 60 kiteboarders participating in the race the top 3 spots and 5 of the top ten were won by riders on 2009 Ocean Rodeo Rise kites.

Boarder Cross events were heavily represented by Ocean Rodeo’s Rise and Diablo kites with the final results seeing an Ocean Rodeo 2nd place finish in the amateur division and 1st place finish in the professional.

Finally the freestyle competition was equally well represented by Ocean Rodeo and, when the dust settled the men’s overall Windfest 2008 champion across all divisions was won by Squamish’s Andrew Scott on Ocean Rodeo equipment.

Mark your calendars for next year’s Windfest and Ocean Rodeo Crew Gathering. We’ll be back again next year in full force with the OR girls on hand again to keep the campsite tight and the new gear available to all our Crew to ride and try. The Crew defines our company and its direction and we would like to thank all of you who made the effort to join us this past weekend.

Ocean Rodeo, welcome to the Crew!

Rise Works In Peru's Light Winds

Upon arriving in Peru I was invited by the Chicama Surf Resort owners to check out one of the worlds best surfing point breaks to see if it can be kited. Based on the pictures I had seen of the 150 high cliff right next wave I had my doubts. Not that the bay couldn't be kited, it's definitely windy enough, more like could I get into the waves and ride them under the turbulent winds behind the cliffs. Well I'm sure surfers will be happy to know that Chicama's waves are safe from kiters. Here's a few shots of me setting up and launching the kite.

Unfortunately the kiting shots don't exist as the camera battery died. Suffice to say I could kite just out of range of the breaking waves but actually riding best part of waves is pretty much out of the question except maybe for the largest swells with rare combination of extremely windy day. On that day you would probably be hard pressed to catch a wave free from a surfer so I'd call this wave off limits. With the help of Marino the owner of Chicama Surf Resort I did explore a new place just to the south of Chicama. El Milagro is a mini point point beach break with two distinct sections and slightly side to side onshore wind. It's an easy launch and a big beach. This would be a perfect freestyle wave on a windy day and any size swell. My experience was fun but extremely light winds kept me from staying upwind even with the light wind combo of a 7'6" funboard and 14m Rise. Here's a couple of photos from the day. I ended up showing the Chicama surf resort Guide and boat driver and great surfer, Del Mar how to fly the kite and let him put the harness on get a feel for it. He was stoked but intimidated by the power of the kite.

After the fun experience at Chicama we headed North to Pacasmayo to ride the one of the best left point breaks in the world. We were joined by friends from Florida and new OR riders Greg Meischeid and my son Noah Collins. We met up with OR rider from BC Adam. His strapless back side riding was an inspiration to try new things. Later in the trip new OR team rider and friend Kevin Scholes from Santa Cruz showed with his brand new OR Rise 12m and 16m and his new custom 5' Quad Fin Skim board. We also ended up meeting Fernando DeLa Rasilla, the Argentinean OR distributor and his crew of riders.

On this trip we scored one good swell and lots of fun size waves before and after the best waves. While the wind never got solid 10m or 12m strong for me, a few friends who are lighter were able to ride their 10m and 12m and stay upwind but not all the way up to the main point. Getting upwind and staying up there in light winds requires some extra effort or a little bigger kite or a bigger board. I choose to take advantage of both for the light wind days and use my 14m Rise and 7'6" Mini Tanker. To my surprise this combination allowed me get out earlier, stay out longer and ride more waves. Sacrificing some performance on the wave face but ultimately having more fun than I could imagine. When traveling it's always better to get your waves in then sit around in the hotel watching perfect waves peel off the point. I'm totally impressed with the 14m Rise for wave riding. It's fast enough to generate apparent wind by pumping it and big enough to drift downwind when riding down the line. This kite not only has low end grunt, it can handle some strong gusts with ease. Note the lack of texture on waves and lack of white caps in the ocean. You can park the kite and make hard square turns to keep the lines tight and this to me is the essence of wave riding. Staying in the critical part of the wave and looking for opportunities to get covered if you've got the balls.
Overall the Rise works in light winds and waves.
If you are interested in attending a wave clinic in Peru in 2009 drop me a line at kc@kitehawaii.com

Aloha

Kite - SUP Freestyle.

OR Sup Kite, originally uploaded by ocean rodeo.

Patrice Guenole (France) a pioneer in the rapidly expanding SUP market, and team rider for OR, has been pushing the freestyle envelope in the REALLY big board category. Using his standard 10’ GONG Stand up Paddle board, Patrice is nailing all the classic long board surf moves, with the added power of the kite. Is this the birth of a hybrid SUP/KITE discipline?

jeremietronet.com update - Ocean Rodeo Demo in Spain

source: www.jeremietronet.com




First of all I wanted to share with you a cover of the french kiteboarder magazine with a special pic.

Half water, half air with a nice nurse shark in the bottom ! The picture was taken in the Grenadines.
I am just back from a small demo trip in Spain .... only 7 days between Malaga and Tarifa, kiting on the costa del sol.

I left Nice Airport on thursday ( France ) and flew to Zurich where I had to catch an other plane to Malaga in Spain.

Alberto the Ocean Rodeo dealer in Spain www.boardriderscompany.com , came to pick me up at the airport.
I was super hungry, so we went straight to a nice restaurant right on the beach, Los Salamos ( one of the kite spots there) to eat some local specialities and check the wind. I also met Jema, Alberto's girlfriend , she also works with him.

The wind wasn't so good, so we decided to go to the cable park in Marbella. The place is very nice, and there weren't so many people around.

The cable is a very good way to train kiteboarding and wakestyle tricks, but was much more dificult than I thouht .



Back from the cable we went to have dinner with some of Alberto's friends and we went out.
Spain is famous for parties.... and I know why now!



We had some great fun hanging out with Jesus, German and the others.

It was a very busy first day.

The next day we stayed home to rest from the cable and the party. All my muscles were stiff.
The Saturday we saw that windguru forcasted some Levante for Tarifa so we hit the road and arrived in Tarifa. It is one of the most famous spots in the world with many kiters from all over Europe.

As soon as we arrived, the various windmills were turning very fast because of the strong Levante.



We headed to Val de Vaqueros, the best place in Tarifa to kite with the Levante .

The spot is very nice but choppy and full of people, kiters and windsurfers.

It was blowing over 40 knots and very very gusty .. impossible to do some handle passes.

I went out on my 8 diablo c kite and it was a nightmare, I could barely hold on to the kite in the gusts and it was to risky to jump high or do anything because of the hundreds kiters and windsurfers in the water downwind.

It wasn't the best session ever, especially when you come back from the Caribbean and the easy spots ... but it was a nice day !

That night we decided to go out for a while and discover ( again) how crazy the parties are down here.

The next day, the Levante was still blowing strong, so we decided to go to Canos, an other spot more to the west where the wind is a bit weaker.


I went out on my 8 and 10 but the gusty and the wind didn't allow me to train properly and land some new tricks. I could play around and do what I already knew .

Sunday night was the football match between Italy and Spain, we were eating in a restaurant when Spain won the match. It became completely crazy in the streets and it was a great excuse to go out again .

We went back to the hotel early this time and drove back to Malaga the next day.

The Poniente was blowing between 15 to 20knots down here so we went straight to the beach pumped up the kite and did a nice demo.


The night was the St Jean, so again, a party was organized right on the beach with big bonfires until the day came.

The last 3 days we haven't been very lucky with the wind but it was an opportunity to speak about communication strategy to represent Ocean Rodeo in Spain.

I am now in France where I finally got my new passport that I can fill again with brand new customs stamps from all over the world .

Alberto

Beautiful pictures , trip update Jeremie Tronet

source: www.jeremietronet.com

Linn Svendsen and Jeremie Tronet at work

My trip in Coche was very very Nice, Linn and I spent a month there staying in one of the hotels close to the spot. We went there to get enough freestyle footage for the next movie I am editing now.
Venezuela was the last place we visited in our trip to the Caribbean.

We started in Martinique where we rented a small chalet and stayed a month.

Next we left on a 10 days cruising in the Grenadines on a 46 feet catamaran.
Back from the trip the skipper dropped us off on the island of St.Lucia.
There we met David Hastilow and some local riders who helped us to discover the island and it's various spots.
From St.Lucia we took a plane to Barbados and its nice waves for 10 days.
After St.Lucia we took a plane to St.Vincent, and a ferry to the islands of the Grenadines.

We have spent over 2 months on Union Island, kiting, filming and fishing ... this place is just amazing.

Jeremie Tronet, Sunset KGB in Venezuela

After the 2 months in Union we decided to go to Coche island in Venezuela, it is a very good freestyle spot and the season is going towards its end, so it is less crowded on the spot.


I am now back in Europe for few weeks, my plane landed in Nice on the French Riviera while my girlfriend Linn went back in Norway for a couple of months.
I came here to renew my passport, it was becoming old and the picture was peeling off , so I started to have some problems with the customs offices in some countries.

After this long trip I now have over 20 hours of video and thousands of pictures I have to digitize and select for my next video.
I arrived in France 4 days ago, since then I have spent my days behind the computer waching everything again and again.

Jeremie Tronet, Sbend

I hope I will be able to go kite with some of my friends with whom I started my first competitions years ago ( Adrien Jaujou, etc...). They live close and it will be nice to see them again.
I also spend some of my time visiting some family and friends I haven't seen in a long time before I go back around the world again.

For the moment I am here for the next week, next I might fly to Tarifa for a week to do some demo with the spanish Ocean rodeo dealer Albreto

http://www.boardriderscompany.com/

I will be back in France just on time to maybe get my passport back and "maybe" go on a trip to Peru for 2 weeks maximum to shoot the 2009 Ocean rodeo gear.


After Peru I will fly back to France and then Norway to visit Linn and maybe do a trip along the Norwegian coast. This country is cold, but very beautiful.

Ocean Rodeo team rider Linn Svendsen

Then, mid august, I 'll have to fly back to Canada on vancouver island to the Ocean rodeo head office to work on the gear and for the Nitinat event they organize on a beautiful lake with wild nature and indian reserve. I love this part of the world.



After Nitinat in august ..... many many more destination are planned but I won't start to do the listing, it will be boring for you to read it.

Check out the next The kiteboarder magazine, they just published the Martinique trip on 6 pages with beautiful and interesting pictures. There is also an interview of Linn and 2 pages where I explain how to do a f16!

Jeremie Tronet, sunset Venezuela

You can also check the next Kiteworld where the Catamaran trip in the grenadines should be present on over 8 pages with beautiful pictures !

The world is Huge but you can make it small, travel more !

see ya around !

read the rest of this news on www.jeremietronet.com

Linn Svendsen Blind pass

Jeremie Tronet, Union Island

Jeremie Tronet, Zen pro model + diablo

Hello All,

It has been recently brought ot our attention that one of the knots that tie the trim line on our bars to the chicken loop may not have been tied with enough of a "tail". It is obviously imperative that there is sufficient excess line extending past that knot, otherwise it has the potential to pull through when under load.

The line should extend a minimum of 1.5cm past the knot. If it is less than that it can be corrected quite easily be loosening the knot and pulling excess line through.

Please see picture provided and feel free to contact us with any question or concerns you may have.

Windance and Ocean Rodeo party

John Z and I just returned from a great weekend in the Gorge. We had a fantastic turnout on Sunday at the spit. Fortunately the clouds parted and brought us sun and wind. We had everything from 6 -12m's Rise kites out all day long, and of our course the ever popular Mako Wide. The Mako Surf was also in high demand and was very well received, excelling in the river's chop, gusty conditions and rollers. Dave from Windance Boardshop must have launched/landed over fifty kites!

After the demos we capped off the weekend with a killer party at the River City Saloon. We were all more than stoked on the bikini show, put on by Windance's very own cutie, Amarett. This was followed up by a crazy Burlesque show.

Thanks very much to the Crew at Windance for everything! I'm already looking forward to next trip back to the Hood.

Cheers,

Evan