Death Of Park

We sit down with Alexander James Lewis Hughes, one of kitesurfing's most outspoken protagonists and discuss his new film, the end of the Triple S and some of the things that bug him about the sport. Check it out here…

Alexander James Lewis Hughes is one of kiteboardings characters, never afraid to tell the truth, check out his Facebook page for evidence of that; he's not only a talented rider but also a videographer too. His latest release Death Of Park features some of the best riders and is filmed in Alex's own unique style. There's more to Alex than just this movie though, so we sat him down to get the inside scoop on the film, the state of park riding, judging competitions, and the biggest problem in kiteboarding right now...

Could you tell us a little bit about "Death of Park"; what inspired you to make that movie? Why did you call it "Death of Park"?

I made the movie foremost because I like making movies! Secondly, because I witness so much incredible riding go down that never sees the light of day, which I feel is a shame, and I'd like other people to see that.

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I called it Death of Park as a joke, the Triple-S competition has come to an end, and people act like it's the "Death of Park", but for me, park and kiteboarding has never been about competitions. When I started kiteboarding, there were no park competitions, and there were no parks! We made that stuff happen ourselves, the same way the crew over at Real Watersports turned their passion for park riding into the biggest kiteboarding event to have ever been run. If you think this is all the "Death of Park", then for maybe it should be, for you. 

What filming equipment did you use to film it?

I used a mix of stuff, but my primary setup was a Zcam E2 with custom 2x anamorphic lenses. I also used a GH5 with 1.33x anamorphic for water shots, and an Action Camera cropped to 2:39 aspect for follow shots.

That being said, I don't think you need all that stuff if you want to make a video. The content and angles are the most essential part, and I believe that myself or anyone could do a similar film with equipment totalling no more than $500 - $800. Obviously, my setup gives a slightly different look and vibe, but I think that isn't the most important part. I use that gear to help keep me interested and to test my skills. I'd rather watch someone with good framing and eye shoot a video with a miniDV camera than someone with an Alexa blowing shots!

Travelling around with kiteboarding and filming gear must be hectic, how do you choose what you're taking on the trip? Have you ever had any gear nightmares?

Absolutely; travelling with gear is the worst! If you thought packing the right kite gear was frustrating, try packing the right camera gear and fitting all that extra stuff into your already-too-small baggage allowance! I'm always going back and forth on what to take, and I'll usually pack several things I don't use! I try to think of what I want to shoot on a trip, and what I want it to look like, and plan accordingly. I've accumulated a pretty crazy selection of stuff over the years, so there's no way I can take it all. 

I've had a few things break! Mainly cameras and monitors from people spraying me with water are probably the most often incidents, but besides that, I guess I've been pretty lucky. I'm usually pretty careful with my gear, what I do with it and where I leave it; I have to be!

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Did you know that the Triple-S was ending? What direction would you like to see Park riding go next?

Yes, I had a few clues! If you consider how long that crew has been running such a full-scale event, I'm surprised they lasted this long. If you've ever been part of an event, you'd know (and if you have, times it by 3 and that's SSS!).

Park will take its own direction as it always has. Personally, I believe that park has never been defined by the competitions. Kiteboarding is a boardsport, and your respect and image are defined by what you do behind a kite. It's hard to believe these days I know!

When did you and Noé Font start Knot Future and what was the idea behind the project?

It officially started around 2 years ago now, but I'd had the idea and name ready for years. I wanted someone else to help bounce ideas off and go through the whole thing with me; doing something by yourself is lonely. Noé is a good fit, we like similar things, but at the same time, we also have different tastes. He's young, I'm older now, he's into surfing, I'm more into skating, we both are passionate about boardsports and various companies and their image, we both like filming and making films, even if we don't like the same films; I think all those things mix together well, and as a team, we have good direction and connections.

You've been riding for Ozone for a while now; what's your quiver of choice and why?

Honestly, the AMP; even if I didn't help design it! It's the kite I've been looking for since the beginning; I know it sounds lame, but it's the truth! Its medium aspect design makes for a super mellow stable kite that has a versatile enough performance to be good for almost anything I want to do. It's crazy that I actually prefer it to foil on over any of the other LEI Ozone models. The 5th line plays a big part in it all and is hugely underrated as a design aspect. No bridal design, however complex, will replace the performance attributes of a correctly tuned 5th line kite. The stability, smooth flying, and easy relaunch characteristics that a 5th line gives are hard to give up for the benefits of laying out one less line (basically no quicker for me anyway). If I'm looking for the utmost performance for unhooked tricks, I will choose a 5th line kite every time.

What's it like judging the Kite Park League? How do riders know what tricks score better with the judges and what is it that differentiates them from other riders, in your opinion?

Riders know what scores better because they live that life, they are out in the park riding with everyone, all the time. They know what's harder and what looks good and they've seen the scores from previous events. Judging is never an exact science, and sometimes there are inconsistencies and mistakes. For the most part, riders know what to expect at a KPL event more than any other event, in my opinion, because we all follow a deep-rooted culture and history of boardsports, tricks and their progression, not just some random scoring criteria. It's all subjective at best, but if you've got the right people in charge, you know they are at least doing the best job they can do, and that's what matters most. 

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Judging friends, or even a girlfriend, must be tricky; how do you manage to keep things separate? Who's the worst person for arguing against a score? 

For the record, I never judge my girlfriend, but doing so would usually only lead to a negative for that person in my opinion. People have brought up the fact that I often score Ewan Jaspan the lowest of anyone, and I'd attribute that to having seen his riding the most. There's something about seeing someone ride more that gives you higher expectations, even if it's only subconsciously. Then again, the other option could be having a less experienced judge that might not recognise various technicalities or tricks correctly; it's hard to say what's better. I lean towards hiring judges with the needed knowledge foremost before I consider anything else. Unfortunately, we are such a small sport that it's impossible to get anyone I'd consider qualified that has no ties to various riders or brands; that's in any discipline.

In general, the riders who are the most competitive, argue the most; not always, but it's a fairly solid rule! Competitions are totally against my view of what boardsports are actually all about, I only do it all because I know it's some kind of necessary evil to help those uneducated people understand better what's happening and motivate people to push the limits more.

We know you are passionate about the environment, what changes have you made in your day-to-day to help?

Good question! I try my best to refrain from using use single-use plastics, not taking away coffee cups, not buying products in excessive packaging, walking, skating or taking public transport when I can; there's a lot of things you can do if you just try a little.

I'm not perfect, far from it, but the important thing is I'm thinking about it and trying to make some kind of change. The craziest thing for me is when you get negative feedback from people for trying to inspire or educate others to do the same. "You hypocrite! You fly on planes" or "Your kite gear is polluting more than anything", etc. To me, this just shows people feel threatened and embarrassed by their own actions, and the fact that they are likely not trying at all. How can you be angry at someone for trying? Just like Climate Change, if we try and it doesn't do anything other than make the places we live better to exist in, then what's the issue? Are those people who do more than us any better than us? I've thought about it, and they probably are, there are tons of selfless humans out there who are better than me, and I salute them.

You're not afraid you give your honest opinion, which is refreshing to see in an industry where so many tows the mainstream line, let's take this opportunity to get some honest answers in the magazine…

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What's the biggest problem with the kitesurfing industry right now?

Hahaha! "Problem" is a big word.

Personally, I'd say the biggest problem is the same problem as with anything else in the world right now; Denial. Failure to accept expert opinion or advice. We seem to be living in a world of fake news, we have Prime Ministers ignoring the opinions of the best scientists in the world in favour of their "beliefs". To me, this is just mirrored in the kite space, people won't listen to those with expert opinions, whether it be pro riders or those doing the sport with countless years of experience. Instead, you have under experienced people spruiking their opinion and downplaying the role of pro and experienced kiters in every avenue of this sport, from competition to equipment design and choice etc. Some people might not agree with me on this one but ask anyone else who's been kiting 20+ years and tell me what they think.

Should we be hung up on Instagram?

Should you be hung up on the Matrix? I don't know! If you want to live in the Matrix, then maybe. As far as I know, kites are still sold to people in the real world, so I'm going put my effort into that for now!

Who doesn't get the recognition they deserve in this sport?

I'd say there are quite some park riders who don't get enough credit. Park, as a discipline, also doesn't get enough recognition. I think mostly because the average person just isn't at a level to understand it. I don't mean to offend the average rider, but if you showed someone doing a back 3 or front 3 onto a handrail, they wouldn't even see a difference, and that's just one small segment of what I'm talking about.

Park is the most versatile discipline in the world, and you need the most skills of any discipline to win a contest or become a champion. Other disciplines are very one dimensional, with only a certain movement or technique being replicated over and over again. Park has so many intricate movements of the kite and positioning to achieve different rail hits or kicker tricks. It reminds me a lot of riding down the line on a wave, un-hooked, except you need to perform various tricks that have their own techniques, which aren't very easy and at the same time there's a big risk you're going to eat it.

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Again, without offending anyone, there have been some well-known pro riders turn up, thinking park would be easy then realising they can't even land on the rail! As an example, one of Ramiro's good friends and talented (now SS team rider) Lucas turned up to Hood last summer and couldn't do a thing, he worked hard all summer and by the end was getting a respectable trick here and there. I don't want to throw Lucas under the bus, because he's actually a really talented rider and made massive progression in such a short time! It just shows you how technical park riding actually is at the top level.

If you want some names, I think women like Annelous and Karolina certainly don't get enough recognition. Both these women have a technical prowess far beyond most other women competing, and far beyond most men competing as well! (Again, that's no offence to other women!) These two are just leaps ahead when it comes to how versatile they are at all disciplines and the level of kite control they showcase. Not to mention both were super competitive and successful in the Freestyle scene and then switched over to park and killed it there as well.

Karolina is the only woman (or man) to have won world titles in two legitimate competitive disciplines, and she achieved both those results at the pinnacle of competition in both scenes (she beat every single rider who currently is competing in the Freestyle scene, except Mika who wasn't there at the time)

As for the men, it's pretty hard to deny the talent of people like Brandon Scheid or Ewan Jaspan. Brandon is so competitive and able to just huck his body consistently bigger than anyone else while throwing NBDs, and Ewan for the fact he's the most versatile and creative rider in the world, arguably in three different disciplines! (That might sound like a big claim, but if you go over all the footage and history, let me know if you come up with another contender for those accolades!)

I also think people like Noé, Alex, Christophe, Ramiro are also massively underrated, those guys are consistently pushing the envelope and making it look good!

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Christophe is severely underrated and hasn't ever got his dues, in my opinion. If I was to only dissect how he won a world title at one of the most competitive points in Freestyle history, that's a legend in itself. Here's a guy that goes out and throws a different heat, often with new tricks he hasn't done in competition, every heat, every event for a year, while everyone else throws the same dull routine heat after heat! Find me anyone else who has done that in Freestyle (or in another sport even). If I was to go back to that year and judge it by myself, he beat everyone by about a factor of 3. Wondering what I'm on about? Find a link of someone else doing a Pete7 off flat with the kite low, and we'll talk!

What's the worst product on the market right now, in your opinion?

To paraphrase the documentary South Park, "There are no stupid products, just stupid people".

For real though, I guess most people expect me to say those wing ding things or something, but honestly I don't think they are a stupid product if that's actually what you are into. If someone told me I should use that to go foiling instead of a kite, then I would say it's a stupid product, but if you actually use it and enjoy it then how can it be a stupid product?

The real stupid products are ones that try and re-invent things or make silly adjustments to stuff to make them incompatible or worse etc. Things like the Fireball, Sigma shape kite, Cuban Fibre LEs, twist quick release, are among the cream of stupid products, in my opinion, there are lots of them!