Life on the World Tour is completely geared towards winning titles, which means every decision is a strategic step towards a single goal. Freestyle competition is a hyper-focused part of kiteboarding””it fine-tunes a very specific set of skills within the discipline””but also narrows your perspective of the sport. After 15 years on the tour, this year marked the end of my competitive freestyle career and the beginning of my next chapter in kiteboarding.
Iceland has always been on my bucket list, yet its inconsistent winds and cold temperatures just didn’t mesh with the realities of the competition-dominated schedule of a professional athlete. But now the beauty of endless fjords, towering glaciers and majestic waterfalls would have to wait no longer. I called on my friends Orestis Zoumpos and George ”˜Lazercow’ Daskalopoulo. Orestis is a high-end commercial photographer and George is said to be as calm as a cow and as precise as a laser behind the film camera (he is also known for bringing only one T-shirt on a two-week road trip). We purchased tickets to Rekjavik for the following week and rented a camper van to explore the craggy nooks of the island nation. To read rest of Greener Pastures, become a subscriber of Tkb Magazine.
Tkb’s Vol. 16, No. 4 winter 2019 digital issue is available now. The print issue will be landing in mailboxes soon!
