Photos: Liquid Force Interview: Philippe Sirech
BUSINESS UUUUUUUUUUUUUU
TONY FINN - LIQUID FORCE UUUUUUUUUUUUUU
What’s behind the names of the brand you manage ? Liquid Force is a name that was thought up by my co founder Jimmy Redmon and I when we were on a snowboard trip. We wanted something cool and catchy and fun and unique. What can be better than Liquid Force! What are the developments and trends in the next year’s boards ? We are doing so many cool new things, it’s a really exciting time at Liquid Force! Harley has a new board with a great new tail design and amazing shape. Raph has a new boat board that goes huge. We also have new park boards, including more for kids. Basically, we are going for more flex and rebound, lighter and stronger Also, we have a boatload of super amazing wakesurfers!!!
How did you decide who to put on the Team and how it works ? The people who get on Liquid Force need to be passionate about Wakeboarding and love Liquid Force as much as we do. Although we are super stoked for our athletes when they win a contest, in general contest results are not that important to us. I mean, look at our team! We have the best athletes in the world that are stoked to ride and stoked to spread the love! How has the company Grown and changed over the past 5 years ? We have become more and more focused on the customer. We have terrific people who work and play at liquid force every day. We try and get as much water time as we can, and have fun and do R and D. We are constantly trying new stuff that wil make everybodys experience on the water as good as possible!
What are the developments and trends in the next year’s bindings ? We have made our 2015 bindings even more high performance and more comfortable What about Sales and marketing all around the world ? then before. We have an amazing new integrated footbed and a brand new binding OMG, that fun! Traveling all over the place and meeting cool people and going wakeboarding with them! called the TAO where less is more So what inspired you to create Liquid Force wakeboards ? Jimmy and I both had already been wakeboarding for about 10 years when we created Liquid Force. We weren’t stoked on all the water ski companies stuff, so we wanted to create the perfect wakeboard brand where we could innovate, have fun, and ride a lot. We have always focused on making the best possible boards and bindings we can!
What cool things are on the horizon ? It is TOP FREAKING SECRET. But it will be RELENTLESSLY INNOVATIVE!!!
Some words about Liquid Force Free for all and the brostock ? We like to have fun and spread the love for the sport we love. Brostock is the best wakeboard party of the year, and Free For All is where we team up with the world’s best cables and killer sponsors like Monster, Axis, Spy, New Era, Sanuk, Skullcandy and let How does the design process works ? Our designs start in the minds of our awesome team of athletes. We listen to their everybody ride for FREE for a day. Some days, we teach over 300 kids to wakeboard or improve their wakeboarding in 1 day. Its pretty awesome!!!! dreams and do our best to make them a reality!
Photos: Raynald Tanny Text: Philippe Sirech
Jimmy Larriche
FISE
PHOTOS & TEXT: RAYNALD TANNY
MONTPELLIER 2014 tttttttttttttttttttttttttt Every year, the city of Montpellier in France is host to the one and only FISE festival. But FISE is much more than just a sporting event. The principal organizer Hervé André Benoit and all his team go all out to put on an event that goes beyond all expectations for any fan of extreme sports. Within 5 days, over 50 disciplines are represented for the greatest pleasure the riders, as well as for the spectators who come to witness the best in each sport. From BMX, to skate, to FMX and of course wakeboard, the FISE is a concentrated bomb of extreme sports in which the wakeboarding community is proud to be a part of.
A CONTEST A LIFESTYLE A DATE
Steffen Vollert
Interview & photos by Raynald Tanny Photos & Interview - Raynald Tanny
James Wind sor tttttttttttt When passion and progression meet each other
James Wind sor
Hi James, how are you? You recently won the first stop of Triple Crown at Cajun X right? How was it? I’m good thanks, How are you going? I’m doing well thank you! So tell us how was it? Yeah, I was really happy with the win. I missed a few of the WWA/Triple Crown events last season with an injury, so I really wanted to start the season off well. I came back from Europe a bit earlier than I’d planned, and unfortunately missed a few events there. But I really wanted to focus on the WWA WPWS and Triple Crown events this season. Cajun X has an awesome set-up and I loved riding there everyone has really stepped it up again this season, which I’m stoked about. It was pretty special having an all Aussie podium, I was super pumped for Aaron Gunn and Busty Dunn. You went to Europe for some other contests in the past months, where did you go and how were those comps? First comp for the season in Europe was Fise in Montpellier France. It’s my third year at Fise now, and the event was amazing again this year. I still get pretty blown away how good the atmosphere is and how many people come to watch this event. We had such awesome weather and it’s definitely one of my favourite rail events of the year. The whole scene with the BMX, Mountain Biking, Roller and Skateboard contests is insane, there’s always something going on. After Fise I travelled around France a bit, with Raynald Tanny and Daniel Grant, and we had an awesome week shooting, surfing, and visiting a bunch of cables. Then I flew on to Austria and hung out with Dominik Hernler and BP for a few days before Red Bull Wake of Steel. Last year was my first year at Wake of Steel, and it’s the gnarliest set-up I’ve ever seen. It actually takes you a while to take in how different the set up is. With the massive drops and the short pull in the middle, it makes you really work to get every hit perfect. The set-up just gives you countless opportunities to hit it so many different ways. I can’t wait for next year it is such a unique concept and so much fun to ride. You told me that you really enjoy competing. What is the feeling you like the most during a contest? Competition riding just seems to work for me because it pushes me in a different way than free riding does. It’s the vibe I get off the other riders, and how everyone is looking for different lines to change it up. I’ve always really enjoyed the feeling of landing a run that I’m stoked on. During a contest, when the pressure is on, how’s the atmosphere between all the riders? Good? It’s always a pretty fun atmosphere, you arrive at an event and see everyone, and it feels like your home. Everyone handles the pressure differently and after a while you get to know how each rider handles it. But pressure is not necessarily a bad thing…. you need it there to help push your riding. When you’re not on a podium, how do you feel? Are you frustrated, angry or you just don’t care? I feel disappointed with myself for not riding like I would have like to.
Vincent Sudrat - Lacanau - France - Photo: Raynald Tanny
Kaesen Suyderhoud - CWC - Philippines - Photo: Bradlee Rutledge
Dustin O’Ferrall - USA - Photo: Taylor Hanley
Quinn Silvernale - Valdosta - USA - Photo: Ian Zinner