Liquid Force is proud announce the addition of Chad and Eric Worral to the Liquid Force team. Chad and Eric both are accomplished with a kite in hand or ripping the local cable park. These kids represent the new movement in kite and cable riding combining ultra smooth style with powered tricks. Chad at 16 years old and Eric at 14 are going to be lighting the scene of fire.
Most recently Chad was chosen as a wild card entry in the prestigious Triple S kiteboarding contest in Cape Hatteras, NC. Chad quicky proved that he has the skills and the style to impress grabbing the slider podium in 3rd place in the rider judged judged event.
Kitesurf PR and Liquid Force kiteboarding want to make you the next new kitesurfer on your block.
As part of the upcoming Caribbean Kite Racing Championships, to be celebrated on July 9-11th in San Juan PR, KitesurfPR & Liquidforce Kites join in the quest for finding Puerto Rico’s newest Kitesurfer!
From Darren Edwards about Julien Fillion kitesurfing in whitewater river rapids :
“A simple pull down into one of the many seams behind the wave would tangle him irrevocably in his lines, and impede his ability to swim towards the surface. All too often he had been pulled down into the deep blackness of Mavericks’ anterior room, silent, crushing, black.”
Let me start off by saying, this is not a typical article, set in a typical place, or a typical wave, in a typical environment. Or by any means, was this ridden, by a typical rider. First, the place: the Lachine Rapids, on the St. Lawrence River. Picture 2.6-million gallons per second of water pouring over a series of shelves, reefs and rocky outcroppings. This drops 45 feet in less than a 3/4 of a mile creating a series of thunderous, awe-inspiring, chill-inducing river rapids, which definitely would be the last place you’d want to take a kite. But Julien Fillion is probably one of only two or three people in the world with the kite skill and whitewater experience to handle such a gnarly environment.
Dreams. We all have them, and we all work towards them. For most of us, our dreams are based on something that we’ve seen on TV, in a movie or magazine. But for Julien Fillion this dream was something that no one else had done, and no one else had, to his knowledge, even thought of.
From an early age Fillion used the waters of the St. Lawrence around his childhood home in Hull, Que., as a place to grow his water roots. What Fillion didn’t know was these experiences and skills were helping him prepare for his future dreams.
“Two years ago, in order to take my goal to the next level, I teamed up with Corran Addison, one of the godfathers of river surfing,” Fillion said. “Together as a tow-in team we’ve mastered the Lachine Rapids using a Jet Ski to tow into waves just like I do in Hawaii during winter to tow into big outside reef waves, and we have learned as much as you possibly can about these rapids.”
Addison has been tow-surfing the river waves of the Lachine Rapids in Montreal for the past eight years and has over 30 years of whitewater experience under his belt. Addison is no stranger to firsts either; in the late ’80s he held the record for highest waterfall drop in a kayak at 101 feet, a record that stood for nearly two decades. And his extensive knowledge of river waves in a whitewater setting helped the Addison/Fillion team to test and design boards to surf the river waves.
In the weeks leading up to the 2010 Triple S Invitational, LF Kiteboarding and REAL Watersports teamed up to create a set of sliders built entirely of reused materials. Dubbed the Liquid Force Recycled Wallride and Kicker, this short segment covers the concept, building and first session with these unique park style features.
Shot by Nate Appel and Bryan Elkus
Edited By Nate Appel
The eyes are at the beautiful country of South Africa these days. For football fans from all over the world, SA will be the centre of the world for the next four weeks. Kiteboarders have been loving SA for its incredibly perfect conditions for years…
Check out the latest SA kiteboarding movie by Ruurd Vulink, showing some great footage of whats going on the South Africa besides the upcoming football (soccer) world cup.
There are times that you hear about missions that just seem to be myth or even maybe legend. The long drive stories for a 1-hour session. The unheard of countless hours of no sleep to chase the breeze. The overnighter just because someone said that there is the possibility of good swell and wind. Well, Liquid Force west coast rep has shattered the myths and the legends. On a swell hunch and a “looks like wind” he decided to pack up and drive to Punta San Carlos in Baja, Mexico for one session, alone. Yeah that might not sound all that heavy. But here is the reality..He just got back from a 3-day central Baja mission the day before!!! The temptation of the possible magic session magnetically drew him back (and a email from Kevin at Solo Sports saying that it is on). So back in the van he went and drove 7 hours straight, one quick stop for an hour of sleep, and then straight into a magic session. If you are looking for an unbelievable, perfect wave riding conditions and want to run the Liquid Force gear through the paces, reach out to Solo Sports
One week ago we threw the first ever obstacle event in Denmark. It was supported by Liquid Force, Boardpunx.com, Edgeboardshop.dk and our local cablepark in town CopenhagenCablepark.dk, without this strong support it would not have been possible go get the massive UNIT kickers up here and get the winch rolling when there was no wind. The cablepark invited for a nice session sunday when everyone was hung over from the party saturday. A big thank you goes to all those passionate dudes that helped us out!
Friday at the skippers meeting at 11am, the weather was super lame. Cold, raining and no wind. The forecast looked good for later though, so we convinced the 20 riders from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Belgium and France that we should move the obstacles out so they would be ready when ever the wind would pick up. It was a lot of work to get all our stuff in the water, but the riders all helped out with a smile and had a great attitude. The huge full-nylon floating kicker with the dimensions 6.5×2x5m took 16 people to lift of the trailer and still it was almost to heavy to carry the 150m to the “brown lagoon”. The 16m butterbox was easier to get in the water with its 4 modules screwed together at the shore, from where it was rolled into the muddy waters.
After putting the big obstacles out in the water, we added our homebuild ones and now we just needed the wind. Ronni from edgeboardshop fired up on the winch and the riders could try some first hits. Around 4pm the wind slowly picked up and it was possible to stay upwind around 1 hour later.
With this event being a free-session event, everyone hurried into the small lagoon when the wind finally kicked in and actually the brown lagoon has never been so crowded before as that friday evening where 15 riders or more rode at the same time in the 250×50metres of smelly, muddy but flat water. Henning Sandström (SE) showed off some nice grabs when hitting the kicker and did some stylish presses, Jan Schiegnitz (DE) was totally on fire on all obstacles, throwing fat FS 5s and going for 7s off the kicker, Oliver Panny (AUT) did some nice airtricks in the flat water and hit all obstacles with style and ease, Troels Engholm (DK) hit the kicker doing crow mobes and BS 3s and Tobias Hölter (DE) did some of the most agressive and fast presses on the box yet seen in kiteboarding. There was a lot of good action from all the riders and from the smiles you could tell that everyone was having a good time. The wind continued to pick up until sunset where it was around 25knots and when the last kites were down it was totally dark.
Saturday we met at the brown lagoon around noon, we decided to split up all riding into 8minutes heats with only two riders to avoid the riders being in each others way. The wind was light ranging from 10-15 knots, but still it was enough to get a good show going on with a lot of massive riding. At 4pm we packed the obstacles onto the trailer well aware that sunday would be without any wind, again all riders helped out so much that it was a thrill. We were really happy that no-one got injured or hurt during the 2 intense days….
At 7pm we met for the party´n ´dinner at the beach park and got some sweet burgers and well deserved cold beers. The party was a great succes with 150 kiteboards gathered at this nice place right at the beachpark lagoon.
Sunday we met at Copenhagencablepark at noon, unfortunately the party had cost a lof of heavy injuries and lost teeth etc, so not everyone came – but CCP offered all the riders a special session in their nice cablepark in the Copenhagen Harbour and the riders made another great show despite being well hung over.
After the Cable session, all riders voted for their favorite in different categories with the results being:
KICKER
1. Jan Schiegnitz (Liquid Force)
2. Troels Engholm (RRD)
PRESSES
1. Henning Sandström (Liquid Force)
2. Oliver Panny (Liquid Force)
WAKESKATE
1. Torben Kaeding (Liquid Force)
AIR TRICK
1. Oliver Panny (Liquid Force)
2. Jan Schiegnitz (Liquid Force)
CRASH
1. Peter Sands (Liquid Force)
2. Christian Skipper (North Kiteboarding)
OVERALL
1. Jan Schiegnitz (Liquid Force
2. Peter Sands (Liquid Force)
The 3 days of Slide´N´Ride were over and we got through them with succes despite the ghetto-setup and how unorganized everything was. As long as you are with good people you will have a good time! Peter and I (who put this event together) can´t wait till next year where Slide´N´Ride will be better, bigger and even more fun!
The water is cold, oh yeah! but that did not prevent a lot of riders from coming to Copenhagen last week for some slider action. The Slide ‘N’ Ride was full of action and many riders ripped the sliders in the water!
Liquid Force team riders Arla Funk and Brandon Scheid featured on Park City TV!
During a recent photo shoot in Park City, Utah, Liquid Force team riders Arla and Brandon were requested to give a brief history and glimps into the growing sport of snowkiting! LF Teamrider Brandon Scheid – “just a short video that I shot for Park City Television while I was in Utah. Actually turned out great for the conditions, I’m pretty pleased.”
I’ll tell you who he is! Rodger has got to be one of the most stoked and wind hungry kiteboarders on the planet. Dedicated from tip to toe! He can be found searching out wind on any given day in Southern California, and he is always the first one to find it! Roger is the guy you would call to get a quick update from the wind conditions at the beach. Plus Roger has some skill with a kite in the air and board under his feet.
Here are a few shots of Roger getting loose at his local spot, Cardiff Reef.
100% jazzed and happy kiting anything all the time! Rodger is also “that guy” that will gladly always lend a hand…and he will lend you a kite! Feel free if you see him on the beach to ask him to try an LF kite!! Normally he will have an extra one to put in your hand for ride! We are stoked to have Rodger riding LF!
