I thought about jumping over a helicopter, some gnarly bridges and pieces of land to fly over. But that doesn’t really cut the deal for me, well the heli would be sick but after some investigation it’s just not that smart.

So I was thinking of making a mega loop, but when it’s on it’s halfway through the loop I want to yank it back the other way.

This will make the kite stall and have me freefall for a second. I’m fine with that, but what’s important, is to get the height and confidence to the max.

I always heard about this spot Pozo in Gran Canaria where it gets super windy and some good waves roll by from time to time.

Before I knew Red Bull was backing this stunt up and the On The Loose crew flew out to Gran Canaria. No one of us had ever been there so it was a bit of a gamble.

The forecast looked quite promising, but it’s windy there most of the time anyways.

We met up with Bjorn Dunkerbeck as he’s from there and knows all about the right conditions on the island. So he showed us some nice places, unfortunately the waves weren’t that big.

I mean, the wind was good, there wasn’t even a beach, the sand was blown away by the non-stop strong winds. So a rocky beach and strong winds are not the best set-up for kiteboarding. Although the locals were all rocking it pretty nicely, I mean I saw guys that were in their 40’s and they were still pulling some nice loops.

They just learned how to deal with it, that’s great, but as a holiday destination for beginner kiteboarders I would suggest something else.

Anyways, the stunt I was going to try. Yes! The first day out was pretty strong winds and the waves were ok…As the forecast seemed to improve I just focused on getting dialed in with my new 2011 gear.

My new boards are pretty dope, love the new Lunacy with it’s channels and concave set-up. Then the kites, I was riding my 7mtr Fuel on 17mtr lines which felt good.

I was only able to pull some big mega’s on that, but for the stunt I needed a 5mtr.

So I tried that out and it felt pretty good, got some biggies in there for sure.

We had booked a helicopter to capture the stunt from a different perspective. Unfortunately my ankle was killing me and the wind and waves weren’t as I hoped for. But I know that I’m comfortable enough to search for the right spot to rock this move out.

We didn’t get the stunt done, but I’m sure we got a nice section out of this trip.

Our good mate Gianni Aragno was chilling on an island next to us, so I gave him a call and he rocked up to have a session with us. After that we went to have some fun at the go-kart track.

He also brought his dj mixer and we had a nice night spinning in Pacha Club Gran Canaria. For me that was a sick experience!!

Aight, enjoy the pics for now. Episodes and highlights will follow in some weeks.

Peace!

Ruben

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12►

When you travel so much you need to make sure you balance things out nicely. That you take your rest when you can and that you’re fit when you gotta rock it.

After a while I just got so overloaded and busy in my mind that I didn’t really get to stick to a plan or have a routine. Everything is a bit all over the place.

So my next trip is on the 1^st of August, then I’m off to Pozo, Gran Canaria. Where the wind will blow super strong and I’m going to push myself for a new radical move.

But spending some time at home is important for me, not having to put your game-face on 24/7. Rest…

I still didn’t even really get time to sort out my life. But I’ll do that next week when I’m back from Gran Can. Now I just had some time to do some wakeboarding, hang with some friends, empty the mind a bit…wash my clothes.

Now all my gear is prepared for a nice week of action. Although, my ankle’s super soar at the moment. Need to have it checked out when I get back…

But this can’t hold me back for now…Booooom, wap out a big fat megaloooop first!!

Aight, wish me luck!

Cheers.

R

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This time it was  the West-Coast that needed some lovin’, so Aaron, Will and I managed our way down to Hood-River. Our mission was to shoot some interesting stuff for On The Loose, and with Slingshot I had several missions going.

Working on some new boards, graphics, testing, photoshooting, filming.

Plus there was a cool throw down event organized by the crew from the Slider Project.

A lot of good riders came down for this event as the Gorge is a fun place to ride and hang out. They had several nice features in the water that were being hit nicely by some of the boys like Billy Parker, Brandon Sheid, Eric Reinstra, Sam Light, Jason Slezak and bunch of others.

The event was just one day and in the morning the wind was nice and strong, but later in the last stage of the competition the wind died out.

Aaron and I managed it into the last 9, were Aaron came out as a winner. Bet he was well stoked, he’s getting the hang of hitting rails well good lately.

So I was actually looking quite forward to go home as I was quite busy and didn’t really get time to recharge my batteries.

After dealing with all the stuff in the Gorge, the boards came out good. Slingshot even had me sit down with this designer to create a custom graphic.

That was sick, the board came out well nice…Will show you soon.

We were staying in a nice house that overlooked the whole spot, so that was pretty comfy.

I’m off…Peace!

Ruben

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This year I drove up there with my mate Jobsie who was definitely enjoying the little roadtrip. Le Touquet is about a 3hr drive from my house so that was nicely done in the sick Seat Leon.

I just had time to go for the Saturday, unfortunately we didn’t score any wind that day.

In the club they had reserved for the night there was room for me to throw down on my dj mixer. I always have a blast when there’s a good sound system to spin some of my favorite Tech House through the club. Seems like the frenchies were enjoying it…

My next mission was driving home on Sunday morning early with a bit of a gnarly hangover. To be able to catch my flight that afternoon to Austria.

I went to visit the Red Bull Diagnostic Training Center, which was a great opportunity for me to get a full body check-up.

My ankle is still bugging me a little, but hey, let’s not talk about that. It is how it is, and I will deal with it.

But yeah my four day trip to Austria was pretty interesting, there they have some really good specialist to see what I need to do to balance my body and mind.

It is great to feel that Red Bull doesn’t only care about branding and marketing stuff, they really care about you as an athlete. They’ve been able to point me in the right direction within a few days, now for that you definitely need to have some specialist in the house.

Which they had, they took great care of me throughout the week and I’ve got some stuff to work on and to think of for sure.

SO my next trip will be to the Gorge with Aaron, looking forward to that. Then one week at home, then we’re off to Cran Canaria. After all that I hope to find sometime for other things. J

Ride hard.

Peace!

R

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So I borrowed my brothers Ipod to have at least some tunes, my good buddy Marco drove me to the airport where I had to catch my flight to Jacksonville, Florida.

Red Bull USA organized a sick roadtrip with Aaron Hadlow, Susi Mai and I to cruise along the East Coast to promote our sport and meet up with the local kite scenes.

Neil Hutchinson is driving us around in this big RV and has planned several stops for us where we meet up with some surf shops to ride and party with the local kite crews.

Because I had missed my flight Aaron and Susi already drove to the first spot and after all that travel I was pretty knackered.

Matt and Dave picked me up and we did like a four hour drive. At 5.30AM I was totally destroyed and needed some sleep. So I got to the hotel and passed out…

Our first stop was Charleston, which is the hometown of our good buddy Davey Blair. He’s been bigging up his hometown for the past years and telling us to come visit.

We finally made it down to Chucktown and he showed us the goods.

The first day we had an epic day of wakeboarding at Thropy Lakes hitting some rails behind the boat. That was awesome…

We scored a bit of wind, it was a bit light…But we all had some fun and there’s definitely a great crew out there.

They also had organized a party at Air Kiteboarding which is a cool shop in Charleston. Some local kiteboarders came down to have a beer with us and grab a few autographs…I tried to dj a bit in the shop but the speakers weren’t the bomb so I had to mug that off pretty quick.

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Our next stop was Tybee Island which was about a 3hour drive…All the people told me that this was a beautiful place and some good kiting.

So when we got to the beach at Tybee we were pretty surprised, it was a nice set-up. A big river mouth with some sandbars which created some nice flat water.

The wind was again pretty light and the current wasn’t in our favor, we made the most out of it tho.

Aaron nailed some good moves and Susi is pushing to land some nice moves too, I love it when she want to ride just as hard as the boys. And she rocks it pretty hard yo.

John  and Mike who own a school and a shop called All Out Kiteboarding there accommodated us pretty good and we all had a really great time down there.

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Onto our third stop which is Saint Augustine in Florida the forecast didn’t look too promising, so we went to the beach and brought out the winch.

We tied that to the pier and quite a few people got some nice runs hitting the shorebreak on either a skimboard or a wakeboard.

Ocean Extreme Sports threw a small party at their shop which turned out alright…Not too many people but we had some good fun.

The day after it was time for Susi to fly to her next stop so Aaron and me decided to check out some Alligators at this farm.

That was pretty funny, those things are freaking huge and their bite strength is ridiculous. Up to 3000pounds…

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Our last stop was Jacksonville, a pretty cool city with some epic spots by the looks of it. Unfortunately the wind stayed out and we just hung at the beach for a while playing some footy and slamming some beers.

The roadtrip has come to an end and I can’t wait to fly back home, where I will only stay for like a day. Then I’ve got to move onto the Slingshot demo/party weekend in France. Then after that I’m going to the Red Bull Diagnostic Training Center to get my body fully checked out and get a really personalized training program.

It’s going to be though as I didn’t really have a routine in the past month but I’m going to make the most out of it. Get that ankle fully healed up and get fit like never before so I can enjoy kiting the hard way again J.

The spots, the conditions, the organization, all the riders, spectators and parties all came together and it was all smiles and good attitudes.

The riding got stepped up and every year it’s cool to see the results, it’s a riders and crew judged competition so the one who shreds the hardest basically gets all the credit. Fair enough, Billy Parker, Aaron Hadlow, Andre Philip and Brandon Sheid were the most outstanding riders at this event. Some new guys like Chad Worrel and Bryan Smith showed us some sweet talent too…

I can’t wait for next years event!!

Anyways, after the Triple-S I had to fly out to Corsica with the biggest freaking hangover ever. So at check-in I managed to break my personal record of checking in time…It took me a good two hours to miss my flight, pay for my luggage, rebook for the next flight. SO I got to Corsica a bit delayed…

The Slingshot photoshoot had already started and almost finished.

I met up with team manager Mira Kwon and the photographers, on the last day we scored some nice conditions and managed to click some nice piccies.

Corsica is beautiful and has got the most windy roads ever, that was a pretty cool two hour race.

After Corsica I went home for two days to sort some stuff out and to attend the Mystic dealers meeting. All international dealers were there and the crew at Mystic gave a really nice presentation at their new HQ. The products are looking tight and everyone was super stoked for a booming and windy 2011…

The party continued and it almost felt mandatory to drink as much champagne as possible. I had to get on my flight in Düsseldorf at like 7AM. So I went home at like 3 o’clock to pack the last things I needed for my trip.

My mate Jobsie drove me to Düsseldorf where we discovered that something had gone wrong with my reservation. I couldn’t get on the flight that morning.

I didn’t sleep and was ready to pass out, but close to that airport there was a festival where a bunch of my friends went to.

Instead of going home, we went to check out the festival. It was epic, some really good music and vibes went down.

Late at night we got home and the next day I had changed my flight to fly from Amsterdam. So I had a good night of sleep, but I had some sunstroke from Corsica and with all the partying on top of it my body was pretty tired.

I was really looking forward to fly to America where Red Bull USA has planned a sick road trip along the East Coast of the US.

Together with my good friends Aaron Hadlow and Susi Mai we are going to hit several sick spots to promote our sport and show the local kite scenes what up.

Will update you again when I find some time whilst I’m on the road.

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All the partying and many hours of riding just does you in at some point, haha…But we’re still going young and strong.

So we got plenty of groceries and sorted the house out a bit…

The sun was setting and the water was calm, the jet ski was calling our names so we went out hitting the rail on our wakeboards.

That was so much fun, all the people hanging out getting drunk and when it’s dark a sick band or dj brings the good vibes to the evening.

The wind kicked in on day five, not in the morning but around 4PM it started picking up and blasting through. All the riders went out and they had taken the middle part of the A-frame out, so that will make riders have to gab it.

That was so sick, everybody was super lit as the wind was quite strong. So full speed kainers went down that session…Good riding from everyone, some nice gabs into presses went down.

Lots of people where on the pier screaming and laughing…That was good vibes.

Ok I can’t deal with typing anymore, I’ll add some pics and catch back with you later.

Adiosso

pic cred: Bryan Elkus – Bryanelkus.com

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On the first day we had registration and got the key to the sick house we staying at right on the beach. Trust me it’s sick, five floors, pool, Jacuzzi and the whole deal.

I’ll click some pics soon, been too busy riding .

Our house is also dedicated party house, which is fair enough of course.

On day 1 we had a nice slick session, tried out my new board for 2011 and it feels freakin sweet! Also my new kites, the 2011 Fuels are flying up to my expectations.

After a little opening ceremony party at Real Kiteboarding where the beer was flowing nicely, we went down to our house to throw an after party.
It turned out to be a great opening party with around 100 people at the house…The Triple-S standards were set once again from the start.

Session report, day 1:

Triple-S 2010 – Session Report 1 from Real Watersports on Vimeo.

Day two, waking up with the biggest hangover in a house that’s basically partied out. We drove down to Real and they told us that the plan was to do a sick downwinder from Planet of the Apes, a spot 12km’s upwind.

So at two o’clock we all gathered there, pumped our kites, jumped in our bindings. But it was sooo freaking windy that most of us were fully overpowered on their smallest kites.
I was riding with Aaron, Billy Parker, Jason Slezak and we all had a mental session…We did like a two hour down winder and stopped at some epic flat water spots along the way.
The locations are so unique and fun to ride, perfect flat water behind grass islands and some canals.

Throwing down Mega Loops in boots, pretty gnarly if you wipe out…

Although everyone was pretty destroyed from the first night we got some cool footage and we were pushing it for sure. Aaron was owning that shit, super over powered and still able to throw down his sick unhooked moves. Respect!

So after riding out all the energy and finally getting rid of the hangover we got to the beach. We all needed some food, water and beer. That’s how it goes yo!!

After a few beers and seeing the sun go more and more down we decided to hit the rails up at the slick. We didn’t have much energy left, but then we slammed a Red Bull, went up to the slick were many spectators sat on the pier to check out the action which was going on till deep in the dark.

Everyone was throwing down on the rail and had a good time. I was stoked to be hitting a rail again as that had been a while.

At one point someone gave me a beer when I was kiting and I actually hit the rail with a beer in my hand and took a zip while sliding along. That was fun!!

Aaron had a pretty bad wipe out after doing a 360 over the a-frame…He did a faceplant slammer and got concussed, he couldn’t remember what happened for a while and was asking the same questions over and over again. Booooom!!

The sun was long gone and we were all still out there throwing slides, it’s sooo addictive and fun…You just wanna go again and again…

So I’m going to put some disinfecting shit on my blister which is starting to hurt…

Then check out the conditions for today and make the most out of it.

Session report, day 2:

Triple-S 2010 – Session Report 2 from Real Watersports on Vimeo.

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It goes on auto-pilot actually, but it’s just sooo much shit.

I’ve got to take my kiteboarding gear, so that’s: Lunacy, Darkside, A pair of Boots, All sizes Fuels, Wetsuits, Harness, 3 Control bars, Stickers, Boardshorts.

Once I’ve packed all of that together I move on to throw all my clothes in my travel bag.

Then it’s turn to pack the hand luggage with all the electronics and breakable things. I like to party, so I bring my new DJ mixer with everywhere I go. You never know when the shit gets loose…Haha!! Now I just have tot arrange decent speakers when I get somewhere. I’m working on it…

Anyways, after a 7AM workout on the beach with the personal trainer (Yvo) I made myself a nice breakfast. Then I headed to the airport in my Seat Exeo, check-in went pretty smooth. Online check-in is always worth it, I could go straight to the front and within a minute I paid 150,-euros for my boardbag. Then I proceeded to the gate…

Had a smooth flight down to Chicago, just waiting for the rest of the On The Loose crew. Aaron Hadlow, William Milne, myself and producer Cornel Bunz will create some nice content.

The things I’m looking most forward to is settling in the house, unpacking all my new 2011 gear. Meeting all of the crew and riders down at Real Kiteboarding.

It’s always good vibes going on around there and having such a great location with all the rails and kickers in it is going to be a blast.

I can’t wait to ride with the boys again, Aaron Hadlow, Andre Philip, Jason Slezak, Dylan Thompson, Davey Blair and the other shred heads!!

Tonight we’ll arrive at Norfolk airport, rent a car and drive 3,5hrs down to Cape Hatteras where shit’s going down yo!! J

Keep ya in the loop…

Peace!

Ruble Duble…

This time it’s on a larger scale were Red Bull Media House has stepped up to the plate to make a tv-series out of On The Loose.

This will first broadcast every Saturday around 22.15PM in German speaking countries like: Switzerland, Austria and Germany on ServusTV. I’m super stoked we’re getting the support and structure we need.

This way we can show kiteboarding and it’s lifestyle to a broader audience. Make the sport grow and get things flowing nicely.

It won’t be long until we’ve got new footage on here with English voice-overs and everything.

So stay tuned for the new Ontheloose.tv webisodes and in the mean time Aaron and myself will keep you in the loop with our travel stories/pics and vids.

Rock hard!

Ruben