Aaron Hadlow and Lewis Crathern step in to cover the Ruben Len10 Experience in Tarifa after Ruben broke his leg in Spain. Imagine booking onto a trip with Ruben, only to find Aaron and Lewis in charge!

When Ruben Lenten broke his leg kiting in Barcelona a little while ago, it ruined his meticulously planned itinerary for the year. Worse though was he had a booked up week in Tarifa as part of his Len10 Experience where he entertains and coaches riders who want to live and ride a little like the master.

Step in good friends Aaron Hadlow and Lewis Crathern and suddenly the Hadlew Experience was born. Imagine thinking you are going to Tarifa with Ruben, only to find out you get double your fun with 5 x world champion and KOTA master Aaron and big air supremo Lewis. The big question is though, could they fill Rubens big shoes?

Leucate

I've been visiting Mondial du Vent since 2007, and love it. As usual, I expected a routine trip down to the south of France and some good kiteboarding. If you have a motorhome, I highly recommend you visit this event one day. The campsites are top-class and are located right at the kiteboarding spot. The town itself is a vibrant place during the competition time, everything is easy to get to, and the locals extremely welcoming. As I set off in my van to commentate the first GKA Freestyle event of the year, the last thing I thought I would end up doing was a 6000 km round-trip, which featured a stop in Africa!

This was the first stop of the GKA Freestyle World Tour, and the first time I was part of this team. As I met with more of the members of the crew, I was quick to realise that these were the same people that have been in and amongst the tour for quite a few years; a great move from the GKA in my opinion. All the same judges, Gemma Hamaini, who does so much for the tour, Jim Gaunt from Kiteworld was writing the press releases, Case Productions was providing the live stream, and so on.

All the big names were there in the riders department, including some former world champions that wanted back in from both the ladies and the men division. While we saw one of the biggest lagoons fill up (moon related) at the 2019 Mondial Du Vent, the wind was scarce, and after the competition was on-hold for four days, the decision was made to move the event fifteen minutes south, outside the town of Leucate.

What a decision that was! It was blasting 30 knots+ for two days, which made for a great event, and if you tuned into the live stream, you would not have even known that the whole infrastructure of the event had moved; it was impressive!

It was great to see 'Big Air' naturally making its way into some of the heats due to the strong wind. This is a hot topic right now on the GKA Freestyle, the inclusion of Big Air. Carlos Mario ended up making his way to the throne yet again, and in the ladies department, it was Francesca Bagnoli who claimed the top spot from Mikaili Sol.

I enjoy commentating the live stream. Craig Cunningham, who is a teammate and my team manager, has a very technical and has an accurate understanding of the heats, added to the show, and while I said my goodbye's he mentioned to me "Have you seen Ruben Lenten's crash video?"

Usually last to see what's going on in social media, (for reasons I won't go into) I finally saw the devastating Megaloop/release which had put him in a hospital just down the road in Barcelona.

Plan To Tarifa

At this point, my routine journey back from Leucate had started to change; I had received messages from some of Ruben's clients who had a Len10 Experience planned in Tarifa only a couple of days away. I then heard from Ruben, "Can you cover it? You got to be there soon!".

For me, these are the most exciting moments of my job. Sometimes the typical stereotype of a pro kiteboarder might be that they turn up to events, and hope to live off the prize money. In my opinion, and from my experience of hanging out with riders for over ten years that have made kiteboarding their job, this could not be further from the truth! Many skills are required to cut it, but one that is up there is logistics planning.

After searching every possible route on Skyscanner, it dawned on me that I would have to fly back to the UK without a break, and then rush to the airport to catch a flight to Tarifa. Another option presented itself - drive and deal with it! I am no stranger to long drives in my van and have driven to Tarifa on several occasions, but time was of the essence here.

Fast-forward a couple of hours and the logistics planning had accelerated Mach 10 to provide a great new adventure.

Aaron Hadlow was now in on the clinic; he would fly to Barcelona that evening where I would pick him up, visit Ruben for the evening, and then head off overnight down to Tarifa in Vanzee. Aaron is also a veteran in long drives. "Make sure you got the football", he tells me, which was a crucial factor in fighting off the boredom during petrol station breaks.

We know that strong-wind kiteboarding and Megaloops have their dangers. I know that first hand, but it was quite troubling to see Ruben with all sort of metal through his leg, being assisted in a wheelchair around by his wonderful wife, Nikki. He copped a big one that's for sure and looked like he would be off the water for quite a while.

Those that have ever met Ruben, or know him well, will vouch for his positive attitude and even in the state he was in, he was happy. It's almost as if he is thankful for these life challenges, and arguably he has been through a lot more then most.

Ruben's instructions to us were simple. "Have a great time, do what you want and get some beers in!" Not the most challenging job description I have ever received but very important. It was a complete wake-up call to just be ourselves and have a great time.

Top evening, nice dinner, Ruben will be fine, off we go - The Len10 Experience with HadLew had to get going!

TARIFA

Twenty-four hours later, and after a brief stop to pick up filmmaker, Joost Essenburg, we met the guys in Tarifa who we would be coaching. Three awesome lads from Italy, who were keen to get out there in the strong Levante wind that was forecasted! For the first session, and after many confrontations, Aaron and I chose to ride with them at Valdevaqueros, which was cross-off 35 knots, and pretty extreme! We had been told they were at a good level, and what better place to find out than right here! They handled it superbly. From that session on, we knew we could teach them the fun stuff, bigger boosts, grabbed rolls and even mega looping.

We moved our next sessions to Balneario, the famous spot you see in kiteboarding videos just outside the main town. The wind is cleaner there, but you have to be careful during the summer months, as the spot is closed. As our trip was during spring, we enjoyed some great kiteboarding on the flat water with not too much traffic. It was always blowing 30 knots and leant itself for 'Big Air'. Naturally, we could look at the Megaloop, and it made complete sense that the guys wanted to learn this; they were on a Len10 Experience, of course! In general, it is much safer to learn how to loop the kite on the way back down, but it became apparent that there was a demand to learn the full Megaloop. I couldn't believe we were coaching this, and even better, the group were getting it!

Ruben, Aaron and I share the same vision when coaching. We don't just want people to progress; we want to bring the best out of them, and for us, that involves sharing all of our secrets that we have learnt over many years. From grabbing the board stylishly, perfecting the Megaloop, setting up efficiently, and even how to ride around on the water in pairs professionally. It's a great pleasure to share as many tips as we can, and this went on long into the night over beers and great food.

One other value that you can attach to Ruben is that he knows how to do things properly. For this Len10 Experience, the guests were staying in an impressive villa and had arrived ready to give it everything for a great week.

Aaron’s View

"My time spent coaching is limited, in the past, I haven't often found extra time for it, but in the few experiences I have had, I enjoyed it. I like to make sure it is in the right circumstances with the right people, as I want to share that moment when something clicks on the water for the first time.

Progression is what drives me in the sport; I know the unbelievable feeling of landing a new trick, the feeling when all your hard work pays off, or only a small change in technique that makes the difference. That's what I love about coaching; gifting someone this experience and sharing that moment can almost be as good.

During this trip, and being a Len10 Experience of sorts, we worked on kite loops and Megaloops with guys, on the last day Tommy went from unable to land a down loop transition to perfect timing and control in a kite loop. I could see the moment it all fell into place, and I found myself jumping on the water cheering." – Aaron Hadlow

Between us, Aaron and I must have visited Tarifa over 20 times. It is a fun place where kiteboarding has taken over. You will read countless magazine articles for reasons why you have to visit, but for me, it is the way of life there that wins.

Finishing your session at 9:00 PM, you are in no rush! There is time to go home, have a shower, even asleep and then head back out on the town for dinner at 11:00 or 12:00 PM, before moving onto the many bars and clubs. It is refreshing to live like this if you are from a country where last orders for dinner are at 8:45 PM, even in the middle of summer! Tarifa always stays open as I was reminded during the Saturday night of the clinic - coincidentally my birthday!

During one of our final sessions together, Aaron shared his photo-shoot skills with the group, and we got some real bangers from the guys. Worthy of pages in magazines!

On the last day away from home and after we had said our goodbyes, I decided I had to take the van to Morocco for the afternoon. It's just a crime if you are that far from home not to say you drove in Africa.

Sometimes in life, you need to strip things back down to the basics, to your absolute pure passions. Being on the road, following the wind and sharing the love for the sport are essential values embedded deep within every kiteboarder. It felt so good to be back at one of the worlds top kiteboarding spots and during a strong Levante forecast where everyone progressed well. Thanks, Ruben for the opportunity, Aaron for joining, Tommy, Inti, Michelangelo, and Joost for filming. Look at our faces - That's #TrueKiteboarding.

Videos

HadLew Experience Tarifa 2019
By Lewis Crathern

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