Nico Lerchenfeld
BATTLE FALLS Photos & text - Philippe Sirech
2014
FLORIDA
The grand final of the 2014 wakeskate tour was held at Battle Fall in Groveland, which is situated only half an hour away from Orlando in Florida. This 4th and final stop was held on a pool gap bilevel with a Sesitec system 2.0 at Reed Hansen’s property. It was a dream set up for all wakeskaters around the world and their backyard was actually voted one of the best backyards of America. There were a lot of pro wakeskaters present for this final stop and they could be seen discussing their runs around the pool gap. There were also a lot of wakeskating enthusiasts who came out to enjoy the show, the mini ramp and a pool especially designed for pool parties. The event was held over 3 days. The trainings were on Thursday, the qualifiers on Friday, and the semi finals and finals were held on Saturday. The qualifying rounds started with 5 heats of 6 riders for the men and 1 heat of 8 riders for the women. Léo Labadens and Clément de Prémonville came from France especially for this event but unfortunatly Léo didn’t make it pass the qualifiers and Clément neither as he injured his meniscus. German rider Luka Seuss from « the bricks » didn’t go through either, as the level of riding was just insane. Only the best riders made it out of the qualifying rounds and only 12 riders made it through to the semi finals.
Ben Horan
For Austin Pastura, the youngest of the Pastura family, it was a Frontside al flip up and tail blunt lipslide down. Travis Belsito , put down a frontside flip and kick flip over the rail on the way down, it was just insane... Mr Ben Horan did a varialflip and tail blunt with a shuvit out. Our host Reed Hansen landed a Fronside flip and shuvit lipslide 180 revert. Even Gambetta did a Frontside flip and shuvit gap. Oli moore landed a bigger spin back, and shuvit in 270 blind on the rail. And last but not least Nick Taylor, with a Backside Flip on the way up and a frontshuv boardslide backside 270. The semi finals were over and the judges now had to choose 6 riders to go through to the finals, which was not an easy decision to make as the level of riding was out of this world! After an hour of deliberating, we finally had our 6 finalists. Yan Leconte from Québeq , Austin Pastura, and Ben Horan made up the first heat, and Nick Taylor, Reed Hansen and Andrew Pastura made up the second heat. And it was on for 45 minutes of free run per heat. The level of riding just kept getting higher and higher after each passage, and the realtime display of each rider’s score put pressure on the riders to do even better runs. It was Nick Taylor’s turn to take the lead and he held his lead right up until the end with a Backside flip switch frontside flip down, and hardflip frontshuv bordslide backside 270. He was followed closely by Andrew Pastura in second and our host Reed Hansen in third position. Battle fall was a memorable stop on this 2014 tour with the participation of 46 guys and 8 girls. Thanks once again to the Hansen family for organizing such an awesome event on a dream set-up in Groveland and I can’t wait to see what the 2015 wakeskate tour has in store for us!
Ben Horan
Photo: Philippe Sirech - BSR - USA
Hi Chandler, can you introduce yourself in a few words, age, size ,weight, etc…. ? Hi I’m Chandler. I am 18 years old, I am 5’9, I weigh 185 pounds, and I like to wakeboard. How long have you been wakeboarding, and where did you start? I’ve been wakeboarding for 5 and a half years. I first rode at McCormick’s Cable Park and have been riding there ever since. Why did you choose Wakeboarding as your main sport? I chose it because of the freedom you have when you’re on the water. It’s so much fun to ride the cable with your crew. I also think the feeling you get after landing something new is the best feeling in the world. Which rider inspires you the most, and why? Honestly, riding with people at my home park inspires me the most. They all push me more than anyone and riding with them always gets me stoked on wakeboarding. Can you tell us more about your home spot Tampa ? McCormick’s is a very low-key, chill cable. Everyone there has a great outlook on riding and the conditions are always great. I have more fun there than anywhere else. What is an awesome spot to you? Tell us the one ! An awesome spot is somewhere with super legit rails and awesome people to shred with. Right now, I think places like CWC and the Bricks are really pushing riding with the features they’re building. More advanced and challenging features will definitely result in better and more progressive riding. How was your season? Tell us more about your multiple titles, USA England, Brazil….? I am very happy with my season so far, but there is still always room for improvement. This is my second year going to international stops and it has been awesome to travel and see the world while riding. In the last two years I’ve traveled to China, Australia, Abu Dhabi, the Philippines, Thailand, England, Brazil, and all throughout the USA. I never imagined I would get to see all those places through wakeboarding. I am most proud of my wins in Triple Crown and Points Chase, but I’m also real excited that I am on the podium more consistently in both Pro Men and Features at all the stops. All the riders are so good - it is hard to podium. What are your objectives for The WORLD in ABU DHABI ? The obvious goal is to get on top of the podium but I’m also trying to get some good shots from the park in addition to the competition. The combination of the openness of the land and the bright sun makes for some sick lighting. It is such an amazing place. What is your goal for 2015 ? For 2015, I want to start putting out more videos. It’s starting to become more difficult to differentiate yourself from everyone else on cable. I am hoping to build different things and start winching more to make videos that aren’t repetitive of everyone else’s. You won the Pro mens features division of the Triple Crown at BSR this year, do you plan on being pro in the future? Winning the overall features title this year was incredible! The race for the title this year was tighter than ever and several could win it at the final stop. It was awesome to come out on top! I definitely hope to continue my professional career in the future. I know that I can’t wakeboard forever, but I want to do it as much as I can for as long as I can. Tell us which sponsors thrust you now ? I don’t know about thrusts, haha, but I am very thankful for the support from Liquid Force, LooseKid Industries, Smith Optics, Muscle Milk, SOS Surf Shop, and McCormick’s Cable Park. They help me continue to wakeboard and I am thankful for the opportunity to be a part of such awesome teams.
Do you train a lot alone or with friends ? Name them! I do a little of both but I definitely prefer riding with friends! Riding with friends keeps it fun and motivates me to try new things. I love riding with different people because you get to see different styles of riding. But I ride with Jon Dickey, Alex Graydon, Yonel Cohen, Julian Cohen, Chad and Justin Worrall, Justin Lee, and the whole crew at McCormicks. I love riding with them because they push me and we all have similar outlooks on riding. What’s on your mind when you’re riding, what are you thinking about? When I’m riding my mind isn’t on anything but my riding. Wakeboarding is an escape from everything else for me. All I focus on is having fun and putting style into my riding. How much time do you spend on the water on a week? I probably ride about 4 or 5 times a week. I ride whenever my homework permits. Do you have a personal trainer and a manager, or are you searching for one? Right now I do everything myself but when I need help my parents are always there for support. I’m not searching for one but I’m open to any attractive girls that want the spot. Can you tell us about your time schedule on a usual week? Details please? My schedule is kind of crazy. On a normal week, I get up early, have a good breakfast, and leave for school at about 6:30 am. I am in class until 3:00 PM. I usually head straight to the cable from school and ride until dusk. Then I get home and work on schoolwork as late as I need to. If we don’t have school, then I’m at the cable. I’m fortunate that my home, school, and cable are all within 5 minutes of each other. Contest weeks are never the same and I usually miss the whole week of school for travel. What is your favorite trick and which one are you working on at the moment? Lately I’ve really been enjoying going big off kickers and grabbing for as long as possible. I love doing smaller spins with long, clean grabs. I started doing back-handed nose grab toeside backside 1s and also wrapped back-hand nose grab heelside frontside 5s. But giant methods are by far my favorite thing to do. A lot of people talk about “zeach” and “zeaching”, what do you think about that? The talk on zeaching is healthy for the sport. Doing a legit rail hit makes it more challenging and look clean. I also think that being legit also helps to separate you from the rest of the riders in wakeboarding. Don’t just focus on landing the trick, focus on making it clean and look good. By doing so, you will improve your riding and style tremendously. Are you more a rails, kicker or air tricks rider? I definitely hit rails the most out of the three disciplines. However, I try to stay consistent across all three. I think there is more opportunity in the sport if you are able to perform in all three disciplines, and honestly, I just enjoy riding and love the variety. How do you see the evolution of wakeboarding? I feel like wakeboarding is continuing to go in the right direction. Having so many different views and opinions on riding within the industry definitely makes it difficult to progress the sport. Also I think that the sport is becoming quite repetitive in the tricks and videos that people are doing. Riders need to start working harder to do things that differentiate themselves from the norms in wakeboarding. The videos that Raph and Dylan Miller dropped this year are great examples of differentiating yourself from the rest of wakeboarding. Their videos had many ideas that have never been seen before in wakeboarding. Cable parks should also start adding more advanced features in their lakes to help in evolving the sport. One reason why I think wakeboarding is becoming repetitive is because the rails from park to park are very similar to each other, meaning that the riders have done nearly every hit possible in these features. If parks start putting in more unique and challenging features such as more pipes, handrails, etc… then these rail hits that riders do on every day rails will become more challenging. I think that if people work collectively to build more unique, challenging features that differentiate themselves from everyone else, then the sport will continue to move in the right direction. Ok thanks Chandler, is there anything we should expect from you for this year? This year I’m hoping to put out a lot more videos with many different people. I like group videos because they allow for people to see multiple styles and hits in just one video. I also want to start winching more. Winching allows you to hit features that are not available in wake parks and will help push my riding on more difficult features. Who would you like to thank anyone apart from Unleashed? Thank you first of all for the interview and shots. I love the magazine. I would like to thank all my sponsors for helping to keep me riding every year, all my friends that I ride with for pushing me and keeping me in check every day, and most of all, my family for their support and love. I would not be wakeboarding today without them. THANK YOU!!
Photo: Raynald Tanny - Tampa - USA
Photos: Nora Poulain Itw Raynald Tanny
OMG t
WINCHING tttttt
WITH ttttttttttttt
VINCENT SUDRAT Hey Vincent. So, it looks like winching has been your great passion this year. You’ve been shooting heaps of gnarly spots lately, can you tell us how you find all these cool spots? Hey Raynald! Yeah this year we’ve really tried to get out there as much as possible and we managed to organize some good and not so good weekends. We usually find our spots by using Google map or just by walking around some of the streams that are not too far from my house, but sometimes the visibility isn’t that great and you can get some nasty surprises…For example, we found a cascade with a perfect wall but there wasn’t anywhere to set up the winch… Do you look for big gaps or do you prefer more technical spots with nice ledges? I usually hit whatever I can find, but it’s much more common to find big gaps so I get super stoked whenever I find a nice ledge. I always try and motivate everyone to set everything up so we can all hit it as soon as possible!! Can you ride a spot by just putting the winch down and hitting it, or does it need wax and kickers to be rideable? You need to put some wax on the ledges depending on the type of concrete they’re made out of, because sometimes you can get surprised or do the best nose press of your life. We find all sorts of spots, some that don’t need anything and others that just need a kicker to make all the difference. A rail and a kicker are always necessary if you want to hit as many spots as possible. When you find a spot, do you go and check the bottom first or do you just go for it? It depends which spot we’re ridding at, but it’s always safer to go check the bottom! Does winching really destroy your boards? Yep it really does, but I guess that’s the price you have to pay! Have you ever heard of a skater complaining because he destroyed his deck on a gnarly concrete ledge? Some people compare the Castor Crew with the famous American riders from Shredtown. They must be a massive inspiration to you, is it their video edits that motivate you or have you always had a ‘street’ vision of wakeboarding? Yeah of course, Shredtown are a huge source of inspiration for me, just like Raph Derome is. But ever since I started wakeboarding, I’ve always gone winching with the hopes of finding that perfect ledge or gap.
Interview: Raynald Tanny Photos: Slingshot - Bryan Soderlind
EVOLUTION
AND NOW J
with Oli Derome J When you started your career of wakeboarder, What do you see as the evolution of wakeboading what did you think about the pro wakeboarder in Canada at the moment? lifestyle? Was it true or totally wrong? Canada has always had a pretty good participation The lifestyle of wakeboarding definitely helped me behind the boat, it has also given rise to it’s fare want to get into it. I first started riding because some share of power house riders, and that since the beolder kids on the lake did it and made it look rad, the ginning. As park riding has been expanding quicfact that I skateboarded and snowboarded only made kly all over the globe, Canada is right up there in sense for me to wakeboard. It was only later on that the mix. It’s a bummer that there is only 2 full size I saw my first wake video and saw the lifestyle of a parks, but on the other hand, there is close to 20 pro rider, my mind was blown! haha The guys that two tower parks which has shown to be a growing rode on my lake looked like they had a cool lifestyle, number every year. when I saw the BONUS footage from movies I thought it was the ultimate. Now that I’ve been involved I guess, before,especially in Canada, kids used to in wakeboarding for about 10 years, I can say that the snowboard or hockey instead of wakeboarding, lifestyle is what you make it. Some guys do every- right? What about now? Kids don’t snowboard thing that you can imagine and more, others like to be or hockey just because they chose wakeboarmore reserved and live a normal life. I personally like ding? Or wakeboarding is still the same small the navigate in between those 2; I guess I choose my sport just a few are involved? moments to get wild more than I use to, but I have had the chance to live this «lifestyle» and wouldn’t want I don’t know of anyone that doesn’t take part in any other sport because they are too busy wakeboarding. it any other way. As Canada has 4 drastically different seasons, eveYou think it was easier for the first generation to rybody has to adapt. As our winters last much lonbe on the TOP and it’s way harder now due to the ger than our summers, there are much more hockey, ski and snowboard enthusiast. On the other hand, huge number of sick rider? they have to keep busy in the summer so spend time I think it is proportionally the same, just on a bigger on the water. scale. There was a smaller pool of riders back in the late 90’s but also less brands and spots on teams. As And now, would you prefer to have a licence in far as being «on top», I think it is the same as well. medicine or a wakeboard world tittle? Competing against Byerly, Murray, Darin Shapiro or Parks while they were in their prime would be just as I wouldn’t of had it any other way! I am grateful for difficult as being in a final with Harley and Phil. Also, where I am and what I have today. The experienthe sport has grown and open the doors to park riding ces that I’ve had along the way, the places that I’ve which has given the opportunity to other riders to dis- seen, the people that I’ve met, the things that I’ve tinguish themselves; being in a heat with Raph and learned and especially all the fun that I’ve had makes it hard for me to regret the path that I’ve chosen. Daniel Grant doesn’t give much room error either! Sure being a doctor would have been a lot easier on Do you remember your first rail? Do you regret my body and would offer a much more stable career, but I wouldn’t be the person that I am. It would that «sketchy» construction sometimes? be easy to say «kids, don’t become a pro wakeboarI remember them all; 1st I hit, 1st my dad help build, der because you won’t have the financial stability 1st I build on my own… most of these firsts were ba- that most people want» but then again, if you get sically the best way to realize that lengths and angles into wakeboarding for the money, you have chosen appear totally different on land during conception it for the wrong reason. Possibly in the future, wathan on water while riding. All that time thinking you keboarding will rise to the level that snowboarding, were building the sickest rail with all of the crazy skateboarding and surfing has reached and it will tricks you were going to do, only to realize it was too offer a career that is more supported. short and transitions too steep to actually do what you had hoped for. It was the best way to learn. There has Until then, it is our job to keep growing and pushing been some sketchy ones along the way for sure, but the sport in that direction whether it is by teaching that only made become a better rider because you had newcomers or showcasing our riding through it’s best form. to adapt and be ready for anything.
GALLERY
«A photography is the fragment of time that will not return...»
Martin Franck
Jesse Darflinger - Atlanta Georgia - USA - Photo: Jeff Mathis
Yanick Paton - Spain - Photo: Hector Urzaiz Calpe
LĂŠo Labadens - Clermont - USA - Photo: Raynald Tanny