Second Home

I’ve been going to Brazil for the last 12 years. In the beginning, it was just quick 10-day trips. Then I started organizing camps and staying longer to train. After finishing university, the trips just kept getting longer – and now I’m spending around three months there every year. For someone who travels year-round, three months in one place is a lot. That’s actually why we called this video ‘Second Home’ – because it literally is the place where I spend the most time each year. Life there is just so good. I love it. It’s simple in the best way. The rhythm changes depending on whether we’re shooting, competing or running a camp, but the base dynamic is always similar: wake up early to the most complete breakfast, get some work done before the wind picks up, grab whatever groceries we need. Then, depending on conditions, we decide where to ride, load the buggy, grab an açaí on the way, and get ready for a long beach day.

At the spot you meet everyone, sometimes more international riders, sometimes more Argentinians – depending on the time of year. We all push each other, film, ride and just have a good time. To close the day we either go out for dinner – the classic is Petit – or organize a big dinner together. Most of the time that means super fresh red tuna (it’s crazy how good and affordable it is there) or a proper BBQ. Over the years we’ve definitely seen change. Every spot is getting more popular. We were lucky Taíba had a late bloom; it only really started getting busy in the last two years. Luckily everyone is obsessed with Big Air, and around October when most Europeans arrive, the wind gets a bit lighter there, so they usually head further north.

I made this film with Nico, a Swiss rider for Duotone France. He’s been competing in the Kite Park League since 2016. He’s also a great foiler and wakeboarder, and he coaches the French and Swiss wakeboard teams. On top of that, he’s a school teacher. Since KPL Palawan he’s appeared in many magazines with his signature switch nose press. He finished 7th overall in 2023 and 3rd in Mendoza, Argentina. We met through KPL, but it wasn’t until we shared a summer in Hood River, living the camping life, that we became really close friends. Since then we’ve shared trips and amazing memories. He’s come to visit me three times in Argentina and I’ve done the same in Switzerland. We share the same values and enjoy life in a similar way – that’s what made us close and turned the friendship into a real brotherhood.

Our last project together was in 2020, when Nico came to Argentina just before the pandemic. We made a film called ‘El Nihuil’, where we drove from Buenos Aires to a super remote spot in Mendoza to build a kite park and ride cable, trying to show the similarities between both sports and the vibe of the place. Since then we’d always talked about when we’d do the next one. After I visited him in Switzerland last March, we decided to switch things up. Instead of staying in Hood River, we went to Brazil earlier, in July – during Nico’s school holidays. It was such a good call. The wind was great and almost nobody was there, just a few Brazilians. That gave us way more freedom to experiment with features and have cleaner backdrops. In October, if you’re not riding at 6am, you’ll probably have a thousand kites in your shot.

Concept-wise, we wanted to continue exploring the similarities between kite park and wakeboard, but also showcase the extra freedom that a kite gives you. That meant hitting waves, riding through sand, using natural beach and lagoon shapes to create different hacks.

The main riding concept was to build as many setups as possible. We didn’t have crazy amounts of time and the crew was super small, so moving stuff around wasn’t easy. But we managed to create a different hack every day or two. That forced us to not get stuck chasing one single trick. Every setup had to flow, you needed to score multiple clips before moving on. The filming was intense. We had an amazing time, but we were shooting all day and reviewing clips every night – two full weeks non-stop. We had a clear core idea, but everything evolved during the process. Building and fixing features took time. Some setups didn’t work. Others worked way better than expected. Conditions changed. We left wave kickers for too late and then had no wind on low tides. But the core idea stayed the same: two friends pushing what they love about kiting and enjoying the process, trying to reflect what true kiteboarding means to us.

Park has always had a place – not because of how big its following is, but because of the tools and skills it gives you. You’ll notice there aren’t that many pure park riders, but most of them have gone deep within the companies they work with — Noè Font, Ewan Jaspan, Sam Light, Craig Cunningham, Sam Medysky, Chris Bobryk and many more. The reason is that riding park and creating content go hand in hand. You develop a real understanding of what looks good behind the lens. You learn how to sell the idea of building features. In KPL you work as a team, talk to brands, understand what they want and what you can deliver. And you build a strong network – especially with Hood River being the mecca and AWSI happening there.

As a discipline, it’s definitely not as popular as 2016/17, when park was the main show and had more media and money than King of the Air. But everything moves in cycles. We’re all chasing progression. Big Air deserved its push – kite design and materials evolved and it was time to take it further. Now it’s reaching a plateau. A lot of riders look similar: mega-high loops, board-offs, spins, disappearing far in the distance. The same way freestyle became hard to follow for the average viewer, Big Air is starting to get there too. Park, on the other hand, is easy to watch. You know the rider is going to hit that feature – not somewhere 300 meters downwind. There’s much more room for individuality. Style differences are huge. It may be harder to impress than jumping mega high, but it’s easier to create a signature.

If you want to get into park, first thing: feel your board. Riding isn’t always about edging hard and building tension. Learn to ride flat. Feel the rocker. Switch edges. Learn ollies. Do it unhooked. Once you get that, get your friends together and build something. With one rail you can do so much. Progression is endless – just start.

Anyway, back to the film. Another big element was music. Nico is also a DJ, so he mixed the entire soundtrack. That was his creative contribution to the film’s look and feel. Martina Marcet (Tini) handled all the shooting, and together we shaped the final cut in the edit. Tini is a professional filmmaker. She studied filmmaking at the New York Film Academy in Miami and has been working in the industry for about seven years. She’s worked on a full-length feature film, plus commercials and music videos for well-known artists in Argentina. What makes her special is her background in directing and art direction. She has a really strong visual sense, but she also understands camera work and, importantly, kiting itself. That made a huge difference on this project because she could read the conditions and anticipate the action. She really helped shape the visual identity and brought the whole project to life.

One funny moment, looking back now, happened about a week into the project. We were already stressing because the end of the trip was getting closer and we were still missing a lot of setups we wanted to build. That day we arrived at the lagoon ready to do some CrossFit park movement. When we got there, we were in shock – the rail was gone. The plastic sheet for the kicker was gone too. We thought everything had been stolen. We couldn’t believe it. Just before we completely lost it, I noticed a bit of metal sticking out of the sand near the shore. The rail was still there, same with the plastic. The mega full-moon tide had washed everything out of place. Luckily nothing was gone. After about an hour of digging and repositioning the rail, everything was ready again for another day of riding.

There was another really memorable moment that actually appears in a few shots in the movie. Nico crashed, and somehow his kite didn’t fall into the water or onto the sand. It just kept flying away. Instead of stalling or dropping, it powered up and started drifting downwind. I immediately went after it, looping my kite with my boots on through the sand for what felt like forever, probably between 800 meters and a kilometer. I was always just close enough to think I’d catch it, but never quite able to fully stop it. Every time I thought I had it, it would power up again and keep going. Finally, at the very end, it hit a sand dune. That impact slowed it down just enough for me to grab it and shut it down. At the time it was stressful, but looking back it became one of those moments that perfectly captures how raw and unpredictable those days were…

I like to say a big thanks to Dustin Bradford for hosting us in his amazing house in Taíba (which he rents out if anyone’s interested), the Petri family, Santi Cisneros, Pato Rodríguez and Flor for all the help moving the rails, and Lineup Posada for storing them and making logistics way easier.