KNOT FUTURE: AMPhetamine – Alex Lewis-Hughes.
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Get this one on a big screen, and crank up the volume! One of the sports most outspoken and diverse riders, Alex takes you through the lagoons of Brazil for an all-out Wakeskate and Rail riding onslaught. How he had the time to fit this in between judging/running a world tour, designing gear/graphics and filming for various brands recently delivering a full-length feature is anybody’s guess!
Alex:
This edit was so much fun. Having a really solid crew of friends and extended KPL family has kept me motivated and progressing. There are so many talented riders on tour with highly diverse bags of tricks it blows my mind.
Having Karolina, Annelous and Alex all put in the work to help document my riding was a huge gift, I don’t often get to film much because honestly, I don’t have the time or budget to do that.The majority of the project was filmed over a month in Iqcapui at the Kitemansion in Brazil, I wanted to get more stuff there (mainly kicker), but I got injured and put a hole in my bicep and hyperextended my knee. The few air tricks were filmed in Australia on my first two sessions back at freestyle after three months recovery.
Filmers:
Intro kite drone shots: Alex Maes.
Intro riding drone shots: Ewan Jaspan.
Wakeskate long lens: Alex Maes.
Wakeskate surf footage: Karolina Winkowska
Park footage: Alex, Annelous Lammerts, Karolina.
WA housing footage: Karolina.
WA long lens: Lucas Arsenault.
What’s with the name of the video?:
Kiteboarding is like a drug. If you’re a Pro kiteboarder it should be your primary drug. In my opinion we’ve reached a tipping point in sponsorship (and society itself) where the act of whatever you are supposed to be doing (e.g. Kiteboarding) has become secondary to how well you’re consuming and promoting the most addictive drug of our time – Social Media.
If you’re a Pro Kiter and promoted as such, you should be giving the act of Kiteboarding your 100%.
You should be progressing your riding personally and hopefully striving to ride in a way that others before you haven’t. You should be inspiring riders just like you to push the limits and progress the sport.Paying to promote your videos and pictures, buying likes and views to show sponsors how good everyone thinks you are just doesn’t cut it in my opinion. You might be fooling some people out there, but you aren’t fooling any real riders. No one is going to remember that photo/video you posted with your gear that got 2000 likes or 50,000 views, even in a week if you’re not doing anything noteworthy/progressive. The only thing that will be remembered later is the media dedicated Pros created that pushed our sport, defined an era and inspired the next generations to do the same.
Like a Pro, if you haven’t released anything meaningful/progressive in 3 years (in some cases 5, 7, or even 10 years), it’s maybe better to step aside. You’re not that into it anymore.
There’s so much young talent out there right now (more than ever) and ultimately they are blocked from advancing through the ranks because they aren’t known or don’t have a big enough “following” or “social media presence”, or haven’t won enough competitions (which barely even exist now for some disciplines).
The truth is a vast majority of dedicated riders that should be promoted will never get there, the people who are on top now will stay on top because they boarded the train at a lucky time and they now have the budgets to keep the farce going.
As a sport, lets get back to progressing Kiteboarding and supporting a future containing top-level riding. Support Pros and Kiteboarders who are down for Kiteboarding and the progression of it, not Social Media vanity and other meaningless drugs.
If you want any advice about kiteboarding equipment, tricks or camera related stuff, feel free to message me, I’m always happy to help.
