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Wolcott's Ramblings

So here it is. Wolcott's ramblings. SBC Kiteboard thought it was a good idea that i had a little spot all my own on the site. do they know what their getting into? i was once asked by editor John Bryja, "do you know what the shift key is for?" after he proof read one of my travel stories. i explained that i am more of a builder of foundations if you will, not finished homes. im a Photographer, what do you expect....?

what should i talk about? I have been living in Indonesia for over 4 years now and have become a sort of social refugee from my home country. its kinda fun to be a stranger in a strange land. i can just pretend i don't understand what people are saying even though in my wife's estimation, i am equal to or less than a smart ass 12 year old with my indonesian language abilities. i can play the lost tourist card and act like i dont get. just sit back and laugh at all the shit the locals are saying about me, the dumb lost tourist...

enough about that. you want to hear about kiteboarding. well, first off... loose the straps! i never could figure out how to ride with them anyway, better i stick to my surfing background and just go surfing with my kite... what the hell are you talking about you may ask... well... im not sure... i told you i would be rambling....
we get a bit of wind here in bali for a few months but it is pretty crap compared to where i used to live in California. its pretty crap compared to anywhere thats windy enough to kite really. we are in the heart of our "windy season"..... and it has not been windy for almost 8 days now... im loosing my mind.... im sure you thought that after the first 3 or 4 sentences.

so whats new? well, I came back to Bali after being in California and the British Virgin Islands and ended up in the hospital with an emergency Hernia surgery... for some reason, most likely the hospital wanting to separate me from my money, i was told i had to stay for 3 nights in the hospital to recover from what in most places is supposed to be an outpatient kinda surgery... lucky for me... i missed almost all of round 2 of the stanley cup playoffs by coming down with Dengue fever on top of the surgery. what is Dengue Fever? a fun mosquito born virus that tries to kill you.. lucky me, i was already all checked in, so why not stay a while.... i had to stay 7 nights in the hospital when all was said and done . So essentially, my kite season was almost taken from me by a faulty abdominal wall and a virus infected mini vampire bite.... some how, i recovered enough to get on the water thanks to some hernia recovery tips from Sam Medesky. and by the way, im a life long LA Kings fan and guess what! we won The Cup!

im working on a few things for an upcoming issue of SBC kiteboarding. ill tell you a bit about it...

1st. im trying to track down the ever elusive Bear Karry for a feature length interview about why his hair is so red, and about music, and i think i will ask him about surfstyle kite surfing...

2nd. im putting the final touches on s story about a last minute trip i did to south west Australia with Reo Stevens, Ryland Blakeney, Kehai de Aboitiz, Brodie Adlington, and Sean Woolnough. it was a strike mission to intercept a huge swell and a great wind forecast. we had a blast 4x4ing the hell out of a couple of Jeeps and getting some amazing conditions and of course, paying way to much for shitty food. i love Australia

3rd. ill be bringing you another installment of Airvolution with Ian Alldredge.

if you have nothing better to do... check my facebook page out and like it.... if you like it... www.facebook.com/jasonwolcottphotography

im also roaming the randomness of twitter @wolcottphoto as well as he strands of the world wide web at www.jasonwolcottphotography.com

thanks for stopping by and check back soon.

Team USA does 50 knots on the Vineyard!

Arrived in Providence, Massachusetts at Midnight. Took a fast boat to Martha’s Vineyard at 3am, home of the fastest sailor in the world Rob Douglas. Woke up at 6:30am “Java time”, & broke 50 kts at noon! Tested new Cabrinha prototypes in south east wind of 20 to 35kts, rode for 7 hours, and dinner at 8pm! 9:30pm pool in The Douglas Man cave! Tomorrow 4am SUP training, 9 foot swell. More wind forecasted. To be continued. — Damo
AKA Damien Leroy

World Championships T minus 29 days!!

Bruno Sroka crosses English Channel in record time

Bruno Sroka 2012, May 17

6 a.m. Have left the house at about 6 a.m. this morning and headed to Saint Quay Portrieux (Bay of St. Brieuc) for the English channel crossing by kitesurf. At about 10 a.m. was in the water warming up my muscles and getting ready to go for a final destination at bay of Plymouth. Right after departure the helicopter joined us and we have got some great footages for you to offer later on.

Will post more news later on and will give you more detailed information.

18 p.m. I just broke the record for crossing the English Channel by kitesurf and became the first kiteboarder that reached the Olympic Games city!! So excited and so happy at this moment!

The crossing was quite a tough one. Strong and gusty winds reaching up to 25-30 knots and 3 meter waves in the middle of the channel. The hardest part was to keep my speed and have a boat following me during that section. Unfortunately the currants were going against the wind which made me work even harder. I could see the pilot of the boat making its best to keep up with me but the waves were playing with the boat as a kid with its toy. And finally the shipping tankers. Got to cross those too. As for the kite equipment I was using 13m kite and had my race board. 100 nautical miles I made it in 5hours (still needs to be confirmed by the gps)! This is fascinating, I am very happy!

Never the less it feels so grateful to become a first kiteboarder that reaches the Olympic Games of 2012!! I am overwhelmed!

At the moment heading back to France…this time not by kite! Will post more news and explications tomorrow.

April 22, 2012

Bruno Sroka Kitesurf Champion is going to kitesurf across the 100 nautical miles of English Channel and attempt to beat the world record of 5 hours 20 minutes. To mark the occasion of Kitesurfing’s inclusion as an official Olympic sport in the Rio 2016 Games – Sroka will promote the sport doing what he does best – Undertaking a Serious Sporting Challenge!

About Bruno – Bruno Sroka is France’s number one kitesurfer. He has won the Course Racing World Cup 3 times, as well as winning the European Championship 3 times. He is the first and the only kitesurfer to cross the Cape Horn by kitesurf. He is also a philanthropist&actively promotes the Green Cross, Peace and Sport, l’UNSS, of which he is an ambassador.

Contact press release: pr.brunosroka@gmail.com Follow me: twitter – @brunosroka; facebook – fan athlete page bruno sroka.

Superfly

Superfly Saturday February 19th

Saturday the big day of the superfly! We woke up early Saturday morning and headed to Strawberry reservoir to pump up kites for the best kiteboarding demo with West Coast rep Trisha Smith. Once we got kites set up more and more people were rolling into the event and by now the wind was cranking! Its started out alittle gusty and well soon conditions diminished. We started with our skippers meeting and the plan was to get the coarse race going as our first event. We said 1pm for first possible start for the race but when we sent Jake out to test the coarse about half an hour before the start he was no where to be scene. Mother nature decided she was going to let it snow and snow it did! All riders were called off the snow and to stay near by the tents, and speakers so no one was lost. After 3 hour people were starting to get worried about Jake so Spencer, Buster and Aaron decided go on a search party for Jake on the Snowmobiles. Personally I knew Jake would be fine he’s a wookie and can find his way out of anywhere! Sure enough the guys on the sleds found Jake making his way back to the event site. All were happy that Jake was back and no one else was lost in the blizzard. The event was postponed for the Saturday and pushed to Sunday due to the over welling amount of snow coming down.
Saturday night was the Park City Pub Crawl! Of coarse there had to be a twist! The ladies Lauri and Lia decided to make a contest out of the event. “Best photo of the Best kiteboarding flying fish” So not only was the evening full of bar hopping and beers but now trying to get the general public to put on our flying fish tattoos! Check out all the photos on Best kiteboarding Facebook page! I personally thought I did well I used the Canadian charm to allow me to apply some tattoos to a few cute girls from a few of the bars in Park City!

Superfly Park City TV

Yesterday Jake, Tyler and I had an interview with Park City TV. So we hit the road and drove from Salt Lake City to Park City to meet up for an interview. We just chatted with the anchor about what snowkiting is, information about the 2011 Superfly and about kiteboarding overall. The interview went well! Check out the Vimeo online edition of it.

We woke up this morning and the wind was blowing from 44mph to 65mph so we decided to head up to Lake Creek and hit the snow and get some ridding in before the Superfly goes off. The winds were super gusty but we manage to make do and had a good 3 hour session then packed it in for the day. Tomorrow we begin the set up at the event site so we will be building the kickers and getting the sliders set up so tomorrow should be a big day!

Utah, Superfly Rail Prep

I arrived in Salt Lake City Utah on the 11th of February. I’m staying with the Buzianis’s (Thanks Lauri and Jake!) Since I’ve been here we have been getting prepped for the big (Bestkiteboarding.com) “Superfly” event for up coming weekend. Jake, Tyler Brown, the Buzianis children and myself have been busy getting the sliders prepped and repainted. We ended up painting the large up, flat, down, flat rail purple with gold and white Best fish! The small flat bar rail we decided to paint red with both gold and white Best fish. So with alittle paint on our hands and a big smile on our face we were stoked after a days work on the sliders!

While us boys were out painting sliders in the snow and sun the ladies Lauri Buzianis and Lia Feriancek were shopping for the “meal plans” for the competitors of the SuperFly event! After pounds and pounds of pork, beef, plates, forks ect ect ect our days have slowed down and now ready to head up to the event site (strawberry) and starting to prepare the sliders and kickers with the snowcat and snowblower.

Related Story: Superfly

Ready for Superfly

Well I’ve just arrived in Utah after 5 days in Whistler. I’d never been to whistler or Black comb and it was well worth the trip. The mountain it self is huge you can pretty well ride all day and never go on the same run, So much variety! The terrain parks at whistler and black comb were also a ton of fun! Lots of single barrel rails with big Ollie on’s, Stair sets and a ton of fun features.
The mountain closes everyday at 3:30pm so once your done riding at the mountain its time for “Euro Après” Euro après is pretty much like happy hour. Everyone after riding meets up at the bar and starts drinking and eating apps. Since this starts at 3:30 in the afternoon by 5:30 everyone heads to the club down stairs! First time ever going to a club at 5:30pm but it was packed! The best thing about whistler was you start drinking early and your in bed by 10 or 11 pm and then up early the following morning to catch some fresh tracks!

Now I’m down in Salt Lake City, Utah staying with fellow Best team riding and good friend Jacob Buzianis. The plan this week is to get set up for the superfly. A lot goes into the event from painting the rails, building/grooming the snow, organizing the food hotel ect. So I’m here a few days early to give them a hand with set up and maybe even sneak in a couple snowkite sessions myself!

Superfly is going to go off!!!

Winter here I come...

After my injury on Maui, I decided it was time to head home to Canada to heal. Once I arrived home I realized that there wasn’t much to do in my small home town of Orillia Ontario. So I moved to the big city of Toronto for the month and worked at “Board Sport” (www.boardsports.ca) During the week I’d work in the shop selling snowboarding equipment, kites and all other sorts of hard goods. Although Toronto was great for work, I missed being outside and active. After seeing the 2011 Banff film festival one evening with my dad, I decided that I’d like to be behind the lens for once and work towards shooting a winter movie incorporating snowboarding at some cool location as well as some snowkiting. So I decided to hook up with Mad snowboards and Trevor Jennings (Smith, Mad boards) to shoot a little snowboarding on the weekends. Once I got my stitches removed January 18th I had my snowboard back under my feet again and got some snowboarding in myself.

Once I had the go ahead from my Doctor (Dr. Tillman) I decided it was time to get back on the road and get a kite back in my hands again. I booked a flight to Kelowna, BC for Feb 1st to visit my little sister Mary Medysky who is attending University there. I haven’t seen my sister now for 5 month so I decided that now it’s a great chance to go and visit her and also get my riding legs back on the mountain. After spending a week in Kelowna visiting and riding I’ve booked a greyhound bus to Whistler BC to spend a few days riding there and catching up with some old friends.

On Feb 11th it begins!!! I fly from Vancouver to Salt Lake City Utah to meet up with the Best Team (www.bestkiteboarding.com) and begin to prepare for the Best SuperFly Open, which is being held at Strawberry Reservoir, just out side of Park City. This year I will be attending several of the USA snowkite Tour stops including Utah, Colorado and Idaho. For the 2011 snowkite season I’ve been luck enough to partner with Flow Snowboarding (www.flow.com) Flow has sponsored me the past few year for snowkiting and have continued to pull through again this year. I’ll be riding the 2012 152 Verve, and a set of M5 bindings STOKED!

Really excited for the next month ahead of me. Its not often I get to spend a lot of time on the snow anymore and as I’m Canadian and always will be, I’ll always love the snow no matter how cold it may be at times! Keep your fingers crossed for snow and wind and lets hope I don’t loose anymore fingers this time around!! haha