The KAOS Boys go surfing!

So it is possible to surf in February after all! The past weekend saw some mellow waves grace the North coast of Devon under blue skies and a gentle offshore breeze. Now don't get me wrong, the water was bloody cold but with my spankin' new Excel wintersuit im happy to say it was worth every penny as after the initial shock i was toasty warm for over 2 hours!!
After a winter spent driving a laptop with only a few days snowboarding, paddle fitness was at an all time low, but me and the G scored some right beauties.
Bring on the next swell....

James on the left, Big Daddy G on the right

trim tastic

Air and Style Quarter Pipe Event Innsbruck

The KAOS crew were at the Air and Style Quarter Pipe event on Saturday night. We were pretty stoked cause this was the return of the Air and Style to Innsbruck and proved to be the worlds next best quarter pipe event to the Arctic Challenge. Also, Queens of the Stoneage were playing and well, particularly their first album and a couple of tracks of the second totally rocked.

We arrived at about 5.30 to some kinda ski jumping venue which was to provide the riders an insane run-in to the the quarterpipe. Unfortunately we were greated at the entrance by the sight of what seemed like half the male event attendees pissing against the fences. One bloke was having a spew in front of us after indulging in too much booze....so you can tell the audience were there for a good time!! With one toilet in the whole place for 30,000 people what did the organisers think would happen? For the girls it was a case of just not drinking anything all night cause the queue was just stupid.

After calming the girls we were with that everything would be ok, we managed to fight through the crowds and find a viewing position where we could see the riding. Immediately we could tell we would be witness to superb riding and some massive slams.

Over the night, the superb riding came courtesy of pretty much the top five finalists. Antti Autti's first hit in the finals was an inverted 7 which i reckon should have given him a place for sure but it seems in this contest, you're better leaving the best tricks to last. Arthur Longo was exceptionally stylie with massive method airs but it didn't get him a place. Peetu Piiroinen used the full width of the pipe to float perfect backside 5's that got him a third. Second went to Scotty Lago with a massive f/s ally-oop 7 on his last hit. Kevin Pearce of the US who is pretty much winning everything he goes in right now won the event with a backside ally-oop 5 which didn't look that special to me from the stands (e.g. comapred to Antti's earlier 7) but if you're hot you're hot and he got the judges nod for the cash.

Special mention goes to the streaker that appeared when the awards had been presented and the champagne was flowing. This bloke came from no-where in is boxers, dropped them and ran around nude until sceurity pinned him down. It was a fine effort on a cold evening.

After all the riding came the Queens. This should have been a highlight of the event except for what can only be put down to poor planning, the band where located at least 50 meters from any of the crowd. So there was no mosh-pit and critically, no energy going back to the band from the crowd. The boys did their best to put on a top show but this could have been so much better if they had let the crowd onto the snow area so they could get up close to the stage. Instead, about 50 industry vips who were all just standing about, got the best views. If i was a Queens fan who had dropped my €45 to see 'em, i wouldn't have been pleased.
So overall, the riding and level of commitment from the athletes was all time but i couldn't help but feel this event could have been so much better with improved planning and fore-thought from the organisers. It's was a long way off the quality Air and Style Big Air event is in Munich.