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We caught up with James Boulding after the release of “English Game of Thrones” to get the low down on kiting in England and a behind the scenes look at the filming his latest video.

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How old were you and where did you learn to kite?
I was 17 when I learned to kite. Kiteboarding wasn’t really big at all at the time, especially in England. However, there were a few windsurfers and thrill seekers getting into it at that time. I learned on the West Coast of England around Liverpool and then spent the next three years after that at university in Newcastle, up in the northeast of England. It was pretty freezing most of the time but I definitely got hooked straight away even though it wasn’t the easiest conditions to get out in.

What was your inspiration for this video?
I just wanted to show off my home country, there’s lots of great British kiters, but they’re always abroad kiteboarding. The funny thing is when we’re all home, we actually love kiting here, the conditions can be amazing when they’re on.

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What’s the kiteboarding scene in England like?
It’s a pretty solid scene, but you have to want to kite pretty bad to kite in England. You can’t be frightened of the cold or you’ll be waiting weeks without wind. Because England is an island, we have coastline absolutely everywhere. There are tons of amazing locations all around the country and they all have their local crews that get out there when it’s windy.

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Can you tell us a bit about your recent trip to England?
It was a 2 week trip. I spent the first traveling around the South Coast with Anders showing him a bit of England and enjoying some of the British summer and then Alberto came in for the second week. For most,  we were just sightseeing and being tourists, getting up and out of the house to explore the countryside. We surfed quite often and had a couple of great days down in Cornwall. We just spent a lot of time waiting for the wind to come in the forecast and then made sure we would be ready for it when it arrived.

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Had you kited these spots before, or were some of them new to you?
Two of the spots were totally new to me, although I knew of them, my plan was to spend a lot of time in the North of England but the wind was so bad we actually went south to Cornwall where it’s great for surfing. We thought we might as well stay active and get out in the water still even though there wasn’t any wind. Luckily, we scored some good surf (not in the video) for a week before we got a windy session in.

What was your favorite spot on this trip?
Westward Ho! The beach that looked like it went on for miles! The thing I love about the British coastline and its beaches are so large there’s never any worry about finding space, we get huge tidal patterns so there’s so much to offer on each state of the tide. At Westward Ho we finally had one full day of wind and made the most of things, getting out and about and filming most of the trick parts in the film. We also got some sun which made the footage come out so much better and added variety to the some of the other more gloomy sections.

What’s your favorite thing about kiting in England?
It’s always different, and you can pretty much take your pick for conditions, waves, flat water, kickers.  It really has got everything, and add to that some amazing backdrops.

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Photos by James Boulding and Anders Krüger
Click here to watch James’ latest edit: Game of English Thrones

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