Matt Montoro
FISE Photos & text - Raynald Tanny
ANDORRA
2014
This is the first year that FISE has launched the World Series, and the wakeboarding category was represented twice in the FISE WORLD. The first was held in the well-known FISE Montpellier, and the second was held in the tiny country of Andorra. Andorra is principality located in the middle of the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, and being in the mountains means very low temperatures…The spot was located at 2000m of altitude in the picturesque resort of Vallnord and the basin was filled with water meant for the snow canons…Which meant that the riders were going to ride in very cold water! The training were on Saturday and it was time for the riders to discover the set-up. The riders were already very impressed by the location, but the set-up really finished them off. There were two pools separated by some really original yet difficult obstacles. There was a 16m down rail, an up pipe and a ledge to wall that changed a bit from the usual set ups. The spot was clean but the slightest mistake was unforgiving…And it was German rider Steffen Vollert who was the first to pay the price.
Ben Leclair
Photos: Yannick Candé Text: Matt Crowhurst
OMG tttttt
FOX PHOTOSHOOT tttttt
Mtn X Wake Sometime in April I get a call from Alex, the Marketing Director of Fox, he gives me the brief of the project and I was pretty stoked to be considered for this trip. Many emails were exchanged, many discussions had and many images shared amongst the team, all of which had the same focus in mind. Could this project be possible? Alex gets in touch with me explaining the concept, there’s a mountain bike rider who’s built a jump across a river on his land and we think you could hit it up in the water at the same time for a great stunt photoshoot. The combination of the two sports would be awesome. Whilst we came to the decision that this would be doable I was still a little nervous about the whole concept. It’s always difficult to see what you have to work with until you have actually seen it for yourself. Yannik Granieri was the legend Mountain Biker on the team that making this whole thing happen and he sent me some photos of the area, the river he’d be gapping and where we’d have to make this wakeboard rail thing happen by hook or by crook. We definitely had a winch so the tow was sorted but without knowing what would be available to make a rail I was kind of fearful that I’d have to be either kicking up a big spray or testing my wakeskate skills – which leave little to be desired. So, neither option was very appealing. Either way, the date was in the diary and we’d been told that some sort of rail or at least material that could be used for one had been sorted in Montpelier. Having been on the Fox team for so long, it was great to finally get out to the European headquarters in Barcelona and meet all the crew that allow us team athletes to continue doing what we do. Before heading North to Provence from Barcelona, we picked up the Simple Winch that had been sorted for the shoot. The closer we got the more nervous I felt, the team had put so much time and money into this project. Despite the ever lingering anxiousness in the pit of my stomach, I was excited for the whole, especially because I’d be working with fella Fox team rider and a huge name in the world of MTB, Yannick granieri. I was stoked to be a part of his project. After the fairly hefty journey from Fox HQ, we got to Yannick’s back yard, which is quite the playground if you’re into anything two wheeled. The only way to get to the river where we would be shooting, was in his 4x4 Suzuki or his truck. As we ventured further into the depths of his woodland playground it became more and more apparent that he had quite the insane set up, all nestled into what seemed to be a mountain range of his own. He has built this Nitro Circus like place in France over the last year or so and it is incredible. It had mountain bike trails, dirt jumps, MX track, FMX track, go karts, a barn with an Olympic trampoline, an air bag and a mini ramp. Definitely gave me a few ideas for the Debuse compound! We arrived at the spot; it was breathtaking and so different to anywhere else I had ridden before and I was pumped to get started. Yannik had put so much work and effort into his jump and it was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was all very much a reality now and the monumental efforts Yannick had put in added even more pressure to my situation, making sure I pulled my weight and came up with the goods. Now we were in situ, could see the set-up and what was needed, the rail provided was most certainly not going to do the job. This meant, that I needed to get my creative juices flowing and come up with something that would at least do justice to the gnarly and gap Yannick would be. No pressure then! With the modular rail totally sacked off now we set to wrestling with the few other options available to us.
Anchoring anything in the middle as the water was simply impossible because the river was too deep and flowing too fast, not to mention the fact we’d have to build a floating something from scratch and scraps. The banks to the river had been added to with huge vertical concrete walls so we toyed with the potential of a wall ride of some sort. However, the river was really winding in the section being gapped, and there was no way of getting up enough speed or of getting high enough up the wall to make it look decent relative to how huge Yannick would be flying over head. We were struggling to make it work. However, I was lucky enough to have the entire farm come action sports compound at my disposal so I set to work on finding something, anything, that I could we could build a make shift rail out of. There was a ton of old farm machinery which looked kind of cool but proved difficult to work with. After loads of rummaging and a good amount of stressing, I finally found something with more potential than anything so far – an old water boiler. We mounted it to the wall of the river and I gave it a couple of hits but it just wasn’t working for me. It was never to compare well to the MTB gap. With just siz hours left until we had to start shooting, the boiler idea was scrapped and off I went, now joined by a good few of the team, including Yannick, to find something that would make this shoot all that we knew it could be. As we searched, we realized that this particular farm must have been an old vineyard at some point. What this mean was that a good amount of long metal pipes, used at some point in the whole winemaking process had been left there. Long metal, gnarly, fully legit pipes plus a big old steel tube and I finally had something in mind that I thought would work. The aim was to mount the pipes, at an incline to the bank, rising up out of the water as high as we could get them along the shoreline, with enough room on either side of the rail for me to jib the crap out of them. The difficult part was fixing the contraption to the concrete wall so it would be stable enough to hit. This is where Yannick’s brother, Jerome, comes in without whom none of this would have been possible. He is quite the highly skilled Builder and Carpenter and he literally made it all come together. It took a few hours to get the rail solid, I got one practice hit just before the photographer turned up and then we had to wrap up the work so we could crack on with the shoot. As Yannik’s jump was so risky we wanted to get this done in as little takes as possible. He definitely didn’t want to risk his life too many times and I certainly didn’t want to be making him hit up the gap again and again because I kept fluffing the rail hit. So it would have to be a one or two hit wonder for me even though I’d had only the one practice, the rail was as sketchy as can be and we had to wing the timing to make sure I was in the best position possible on the rail while Yannick was directly over head. You can always tell when you get something right on a board, bike or any bit of kit when it comes to action sports shoots. Reason is, quite simply, there will be a big old roar from everyone watching, most of all the photographer once they’ve check the shot out. For four attempts, there was not even a waver of passion in response to my hits as I struggled to knuckle a solid, locked in jib. The palpitations and pressure was relieved come the fifth hit though, when all the crew who’d brought this thing together erupted as both Yannick and I landed and rode away. I guess this is the way highly specific ‘stunt’ style shoots are when you’re trying to capture never seen before action in a random spot and combining more than one sport. It was certainly a learning curve for me but such a buzz the whole way through. Can’t thank Fox and Yannick enough for making it happen. Here’s to the next trip!
Pole Jam, Tail Grab Place: TND, Damazan, France
Did this trip bring something new to your riding? For sure this trip has been good for my riding. Riding contests makes you learn to adapt quickly on set ups that you aren’t use to riding. It’s so fun to push yourself on new set ups like Fise and Wake of steel. And for your sponsors? For my sponsors I’m sure they are really happy with everything I’ve done this year. I’ve had more coverage than ever, two covers and a bunch of web videos. I’m also taking part in the movie Define Odyssey which will premier in Orlando on the Surf expo weekend. I’m also having two T.V episodes on a sports channel filmed in Fise Montpellier and a week in CWC going out in September. I’m just going to keep doing what I do and see where the future will take me with the sponsors. Is this a trip you would recommend to others? And what advice would you give so that the trip works out perfectly? I would advise everyone to make this trip for sure, one of the nicest places I’ve ever been. The architecture is incredible and has so much history. Then you have a bunch of good places to ride and you can even go surfing when you want a little break from the cables. Even though it’s tempting to stay at one spot and just ride there for your whole trip I would advise to go around the most you can and visit because it’s an all around fun place to see and the people are super cool everywhere. If you were offered a job and a visa in Europe, would you consider leaving your country or would you still stay in Québec ? Depending on what the job is but if it’s to wakeboard for sure I would quit Canada! France has nicer weather, more cable parks, good waves and nice mountains! Plus the food is great and the girls are nice haha! If you had to choose between a wakeboard trip in Asia during winter or a wakeboard trip in Europe during summer, which one would you choose? It’s too different to chose between one or the other. But if I had to choose I would have to take the trip to Asia or Australia during the winter because it’s the only chance I get to ride during the winter. But if my budgets gives me the chance to do both every year it will be perfect! What about the food? I probably ate 258 chocolate croissants during the month I was in Europe. I was addicted to pastries for sure! Hugo’s famous milkshakes with macarons were pretty amazing too haha. I was lucky to live at Slingshot France’s team manager’s house KANAR for a while and he was a great cook! I can’t exactly tell you names of the things I ate but it was always great! And the girls? I love the French accent the girls have in France! It makes them look sophisticated and they look really good too haha. Do you have a funny anecdote from your trip? Well when you fill up a hotel with only riders from around the world who wakeboard, skateboard and BMX, you’re going to see funny stuff all week in Montpellier. But the highlight was probably when we were on the 5th floor on Léo Labadens’ balcony with a water balloon launcher. Great times haha. Have you got other trips planned for this winter? I have no plans yet for the winter, probably go ride in the Philippines again this winter. There will be new set ups to ride again this winter. I’m sure I will figure something out to go ride somewhere with some friends and have a great time! Thanks for answering our questions Ben. Is there anyone you would like to thank for your trip? Thanks to you first of all for this interview and for all the good times on this trip. I have so many people I would like to thank from this trip; Antoine Allaux, Kanar, Hugo Charbit, Matt Montoro and the whole Castor crew! Also ALLIS POSSIBLE for the good times in Paris, I’d like to thank the organizers of Fise for making such a sick event for us. Also all the fun wake parks I’ve been to during the trip. To finish I want to thank my sponsors who support me all year long: O’neill Canada, Slingshot, Dragon, REPUBL1C, Axis boardshops and Boardparks. Merci!
Yann Calvez
Tim Aufdemgraben - Germany - Photo: Chris Lehnert
Antoni Van Der Wekken - Holland - Photo: Dennis Dulko
Kaesen Suyderhoud - Mc Cormicks - USA - Photo: Raynald Tanny