The Triple S event started on Saturday, June 4, and it has been crazy so far, even with no wind!
The ppening night kicked off as usual with the REAL patio completely packed with friends, family, and boarders of all kinds uniting to take part in a week-long shred session to push the limits of ourselves and kiteboarding.
Since our first priority was of course shredding, the boys got together and set up the new Best rooftop rail in the REAL Boat Basin, lined up spectators on the side, then fired up the winch.
It’s official first session went down in style: Colorful lights, strobes, smoke machines fogging out the basin, music bumping an energy all through the air, and just when I thought I had seen it all, a fire engine rolled in with people stacked all over it, extended the ladder over the boat basin and proceeded to capture the nights action from above.
After the kickoff session they started the introduction of the invited riders as well as wildcard winners, then on to autograph signing. People lined up to get their favorite riders John Hancocks as well as the rest of the athletes and believe me, it can be tough work signing as fast as you can and with loads of posters rolling down the line. There was no slowing down! Thanks to all of the fans, friends, and family that showed up to make this night so memorable.
Day 2 produced no wind again but plenty of shredding on the John Wayne Rail, Best Rooftop Rail, and the new UFUF (upflatupflat). With the use of REAL’s Jet Ski’s and Davey’s (Blair) winch, we kept the riding going which is helping all of us get real comfortable on the features as well as coming up with lots of inspiration from riding together and sharing ideas. We had a pretty chill second night as far as partying, so we were all ready to shred day 3.
Day 3 was loads of fun and offered the most water time we have gotten yet. We started it up with some pulls into the UFUF and John Wayne Rail, stepping it up each time, presses all the way across reverse presses, ticktocks during presses, gaps frontside, as well as backside,and 450 transfers front and back — it’s definitely been going down and all the riders are looking super smooth.
The ladies were getting full pulls too end to end with presses across the John Wayne Rail and looking exceptional! At the same time this was going on, REAL was setting up the REAL Boat Basin again for sessions under the smoke lights. This time, the UFUF was setup and riders and the crowd alike started to see what was possible and how tech we could get.
With so many styles it was an amazing display of skill, coordination and concentration to visualize the hit, execute it, and then ride away clean into a narrow pocket which is home to a dock full of jet ski’s, high basin walls, and reinforcement poles, all cloaked in almost total darkness as there were just a couple of multicolor lights on the rail.
It was so SICKKKKK. It was mental — and so was the riding. We’re only halfway through the event and we still have wind and waves to ride. This could go down as one of the best Triple S events of all time!