Richie Jackson is an Artistic Genius

Whatever success he finds in skating is whatever, but mark my words he will be a force to reckon with in Hollywood later in life as his ability to dream up and fully execute completely unique action sequences is going to make anyone in action films want to stay as close as possible.

Spencer Seabrooke Solo Slackline Record

Nerve wracking. Well done Spencer.

Natural Waterslide / Waterfall Jump in British Columbia

Lynn Canyon Park in British Columbia, Canada has one of the world's best natural waterslides.

Spot on Devin! 

Thanks to Devin Graham from TeamSuperTramp (worth a sub) and Torch Paddles for this video!

Tete the Daredevil Tree Climber of the Congo

While many climbers obsess about the math behind our climbing gear, Tete goes way out on a limb, with at most a vine as security, and eventually leaves that behind to engage the bees guarding his honey. Long before the Russian Selfie's and GoPro, men like Tete were making their audience's palms sweat with amazing climbs. 

Honey climber "Tete" climbs 120 foot branch-less span of a giant tree deep in a Congo forest while being attacked by bees and showing no pain.

Sugar is scarce, and honey is nutritious - It's also the mark of a man to show this type of courage.

As Tete says, "To climb big trees, you must empty your heart of fear"... 

Summer 2015 Is going OK...

People are awesome!

BMX Quadruple Backflip, Helmet Cam

BMX Stuntman Jed Mildon from New Zealand's set the record and is the first person to complete a quadruple backflip on a BMX bike.

BMX Quadruple Backflip

Here is some helmet cam footage from Jed completing a triple backflip on his BMX in 2011:

Craziest Wingsuit Flight, 2015

Most Insane Wingsuit Stunt

how do you like me now? goat...

Snowkiter Crashing into Paraglider (Accident Video)

Ugh...

Many of our Canadian friends in the snowkite racing circuit are also world-class paragliders and even manufacturers of paragliding (parapente) wings.

When our favorite hobbies collide, literally, it's expected that the injuries will be severe...

paraglider vs kite crash

In the video below, Gary, with our comrade and video producer Bob Pelletier , is soaring down towards the ice when a snowkiter appears to make a jump without assurance of the safety zone with at least 50 meters down and 30 meters up wind although in this case I would add that the distance should be measured in addition to the length of the lines and in 3 dimensions.

Per Bob, "Gary has been seriously injured, he has for several months without being able to work..."

Watch and learn, stay safe and remember our love of risk is only reasonable until it starts to injure others...

I will follow up within the post once I can regain info for donations.

RedBull Ragnarok KiteRace of Norway is Back!

James Pavoldi

It is on in Haugastøl!

Last year was an amazing event and though light winds kept a few of us anchored nicely for most of the day, it officially made the Ozone Chrono one of the most famous kites on the ice this year after taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place on the Hardangarvidda.

While Ozone definitely had it's moment on the podium, Flysurfer's moment may be a bit more eternal as their team rider, Alex Robin (15th), managed to put together one of the best videos to really capture the vibe of the Ragnarok experience and poke some holes in my tales of lacking wind... As you can see, he managed to find the wind and really run with it:

Inside RedBull Ragnarok 2014 - Alex Robin from FLYSURFER Kiteboarding on Vimeo.

Videographer "Zobless" did the best job of capturing the pain at the first checkpoint. After years of watching Hardangarvidda horror videos of storms and overpowering wind, I remember tearing out of the gate and thinking "my gosh this is going to be easier than I imagined" but man was I forced to swallow a bitter pill when I ended up covered in sweat and making snow angels after about 30 'reverse hot carl' (letting the kite tumble for a relaunch directly down-wind, to the zenith in one terrifying pull) center-line relaunches in light wind. My biggest concern was getting overpowered with a 12M Cabrinha Switchblade but Zobless summed it up nicely - "Cronos (sic) took the lead, most of the others crashed. The wind was light and died a bit more right after start.":

Hopefully the conditions this year are a bit more like 2012:

For those of you arriving at Touriscenter for the party tonight, go outside and take a look at the rocky beheomoth across the street - This was the site of Rueben's 'jump' a few years back... Insane:

The weather on the race day in 2014, was amazing, if your goal was chilling out and getting some sun or a few rojo-vodaks on board. We got a few selfies in and barely had enough wind to get the old Team Whisky Tango flag turgid enough for a moon landing shot.

Team Whiskey Tango, Red Bull Ragnarok (Jim Pavoldi and Jeff Bartkowski, USA)

The weather on the Hardangarvidda can change pretty quickly. After the race was over, I went back alone to an area on the opposite side of the road past the yellow lodge I knicknamed the "Hardangarvidda Hideaway". Heaven by the way, comes with tracked vehicles and the owner of the rig below was en route to a reindeer hunt and took some time to tell us a few stories... The sunshine we enjoyed here over some bananas and yogurt would be nothing but a memory in pretty short order...

Hardangarvidda Hideout, complete with heated troop carrier...

It didn't take long for the weather to change... The photo below was during a full day solo after the races where a tiny storm blew in and was enough to get visibility down to Game of Thrones / WhiteWalker creepiness levels... In the video, you can see that it's pretty easy to get disoriented and I noted that soloing definitely requires not only GPS, but a good map (with contour lines) and compass as this is not a good place to get lost and a 'crows flight' egress may not be possible... I took one surprising slide down a  pretty big slope, ass backwards, as I had no idea it was coming... Visibility was poor, but if I were focused I would have seen it coming...  Instead, I was fixated on wind speed as it was dropping fast and I didn't want to tent inside the kite if I got stranded out there as I reckon I was about 6 miles in and definitely was not going to hike out in the dark in ski boots.

Jim Pavoldi, Solo Snowkiting in Norway

Jeff is in Paris now, having just proposed to his (as of now) fiancee and en route to Oslo as we speak. The proposal didn't delay him, but Air France's decision to lose his brand new Chrono definitely had some serious curve-ball potential. I am shanghai'd in New York City right now, en route to Miami and chewing through my lips with regret at not being able to get on the snow with Red Bull for 2015!

Good luck competitors!

Race vest, badge and 'proofing' transponder for the gates..

Bring me back some cod shingles!

Update - The official 2015 teaser video and event description... Good luck out there today!

"The name "Ragnarok" stems from an incident in Norse mythology, describing the last battle between the good and evil Gods, where only the heroes of the battlefield survive. Red Bull Ragnarok imitates this myth in the respect that only a mere few snow-kite heroes will succeed. Endurance is paramount, and only the toughest riders will successfully complete the course.

Red Bull Ragnarok will take place on the plains of the Hardangervidda, a vast area with ideal conditions for kiting. The race format will be a mass start, where each participant must complete five full rounds of the chosen course (one lap = 15-20km) using only their kite, and either skis or snowboard."

Team Whiskey Tango Elects Frankie MacDonald as Chief Weather Resource during 2015 Cup du Quebec Kite Race!

The Whisky Tango snow-kite crew, Americans Jim Pavoldi and Jeff Bartkowski, are extremely exited to have been invited to Quebec for the 2015 Cup du Quebec snowkite races in Pohénégamook, La Baie (Fjord-du-Saguenay), and Lac-Mégantic.

This is a great opportunity to catch back up with local heroes of the Fjord like Alexis Leblanc and host / kite designer and adventurer Benoit Tremblay of Concept Air and hopefully get some post-race revelry with the maniacs from Wax Team.

As the WT crew will consist of two Yanks we decided to get our weather warning in English and have selected Frankie MacDonald (AKA DogsAndWolves) as our honorary Chief Weather Resource for all our 'Fully Nord' kiting this winter.

Frankie's forecast and warning in the video below for this weekend (Feb 15, 2015) are a great example of his energy, and enthusiasm for weather prediction and weather-risk alerts. As most our activity is during heavy wind and often while while wearing hats or helmets, we have found that Frankie's volume is ideal.  As these races will be on February 21/22nd, 28th, and March 14/15th, we will look forward to any forecast Frankie produces especially if they'll have an impact in the areas of QC that we'll be riding.




I have spent the better part of 10 years working with over 300 local news broadcasters and over 500 meteorologists at ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates all over the US and I can say that Frankie's updates are by far the most engaging and his heartfelt warnings should be heeded.

Keep up the good work Frankie!

Frankie's 'signature phrase' t-shirts are now for sale at Lost Cod Clothing Co

JP

Behold the most intense long-boarding video ever.

James Kelly's Fastest Longboard Crash, ArborCollective

This video, published by ArborCollective may be interpreted as 'content marketing' but I assure you it is of the highest quality not only in capturing the risk and excitement of James Kelley's unbelievable ride and crash (reported at over 60MPH) but also in spectacular videography and editing as well as a fresh soundtrack ("Jim" by Swans) to accompany the video and make it even more intense.




I do believe this level of extreme video production quality is the future of media and will move niche entertainment into the bigger-screen mainstream.

I have been longboarding around NYC and I can honestly say I never even imagined riding like James Kelly. Well done team Arbor, keep 'em coming!

Climbing the masts of sailing ships while at sea!

This will make your palms sweat a bit!

Here is climber Roman Saitov ascending all 190 feet of the the mast during his 4th year at the Murmansk State Technical University of Marine Engineering.

Cliff Jumping in Lake George! Jumping the Calf Pen by Boat or Bushwack

Cliff Jumping On Lake George, The Calf Pen

Jim Pavoldi, 2014

The Calf Pen is one of the best cliff jumping spots in the Adirondacks and is although it's usually approached by boat it's fairly easy to hike into the calf pen without a boat and actually makes the jumps that much more rewarding!

The Extreme Video News crew was at the Calf Pen the week before 4th of July 2014 and got some great footage (below).


 A few notes on hiking to the Calf Pen - Although there seems to be a cowpath that follows fairly close to the water's edge, it's better to 'stay high' even as much as 150 or 200 yards east of the shoreline for 3 reasons -

1) There does seem to be 2 areas posted as private property

2) The waters edge does get dicey and steep right before you get to the calve's pen and fallen logs and small, slippery edges can make it a head-ache especially if you're travelling with a leashed dog.

3) There's a small (and beautiful) stream with a ravine that may be easier (when the water is high) to cross at an altitude of about 80 feet off the water rather than close to the water.

Cliff  Diving in the Adirondacks, The Calf Pen of Lake George

A word of warning - A lot of great divers congregate at the rocks and will often perform not only from the top of the cliff but from the top of the tree! Many of these jumpers have skills and an understanding of the risk that the average jamoke in a rented pontoon simply does not possess. If you are jumping for the first time, stay low and work your way up... You will undoubtedly make a few mistakes and it's better to learn from them on the low cliffs rather than from the top.

In the past few years, we've been a part of two rescues where the jumper has gone unconscious, we had a member of our crew break two ribs, met a pro diver who broke his tailbone, and have heard several tales of people falling off before the jump simply getting two close to the edge.

Jumping from the Tree Branch at the Top of the Calf Pen

In the video below, the Extreme Video News crew shot footage of a maniac doing a back-flip from the top of the tree above the highest jump spot about 6 years ago - DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS UNLESS YOU ARE AN EXPERT.



Although we've decided not to publish the actual coordinates or directions and trail names as we prefer to deter those less prone to exploration, the map to calf pen below will give you a basic idea of the general area (centered):

Hiking to Calf Pen Map

No helmet + no knee + no elbow + no palms = NO FUN

Perhaps I am just getting old but after taking the longboard to the Catskills this weekend I realized that elbow protection, knee protection, and a helmet are important but for heaven's sake at least wear some quality palms before doing any high-speed boarding or you'll end up like this dude taking a longboard fall straight on at 40 MPH(video):

How to Snowkite Jump (part 2) - Endless Winter Continues with Alexis Leblac

Snowkite Jumping; Big Air Sessions with Alexis Leblanc

Another extended snow kite jumping session with Alexis Leblanc kiteboarding in Fjord Saguenay.

April 19th is still plenty cold enough in the Canadian Nord to keep it going.

The following video shot in Chappelle Saintt-Cyriac, QC, Canada is another great example of Alex's skill in getting huge air and in framing his shots in a way that 'shows' us where is kite is during these jumps and gives the South-of-the-Border US snowkiting crews something to keep us grooving through a hot spring.




Alex's videos are available to chrome-cast which is rare as they're all set to real music so it's worth just setting them up and watching them on the big screen with the volume cranked up. He's got a ton of fresh content since his last upload showing the Canadian transition from ice, to slush, to water.

You can subscribe to Alex's channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnhA7xjydSpDaIp_EQWiX7w

Skateboarding - How to Stop and Powerslide on a Longboard

Here's a pretty clear tutorial video on how to slide and stop using one handed board grabs to slide and two handed push up slide to stop:



Chris McCurry and Jason Bither have a great collection of longboard how-to videos at SketeDeville - Their breaking section for how to stop a longboard is pretty solid:


If you've been experimenting with the longboard you've undoubtedly found out about 'speed wobbles' - TheGnarDeal and "Downhill/Dashboard Jesus"  put some science to it:



Now that we have the nonsense out of the way, let's get back to business.

Endless Roads 2 - The Island with Longboard Girls Crew is is a bit slow out of the gate but phenomenal once the actually get rolling - around the 8:40 things pick up and by 10:45 mark things get wild! Smoking hot.




With huge fun and huge slides come some big crashes:

EpicTV's Spectacular Episode - Speed Riding an Avalanche in Chamonix

Featuring Speed Riders David Bozon and Nicolas Blanchard.

If you're not familiar with EpicTV take a look ASAP - The production values these guys are bringing to Extreme Video production is unmatched.

Valentin Delluc Grinding the Chairlift Cables while SpeedRiding

Nerve-wracking goodness!




Valentin's other Speed Riding videos are available here and definitely worth a look!

(Also known as "Speed Flying")

Wikipedia actually has a pretty decent history of the sport:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_flying 

How to Jump a Kite while Snowkiting or Kiteboarding - Best "How To" Videos with Easy to See Tips, Techniques, and Instructions.

Over a few years of snow kiting, I have searched high and low for videos the explain exactly how to safely launch and land a kite during kite jumps on snow or water.

For the basics of learning how to safely handle a kite and an introduction to the concepts of kiteboarding, no one is a better teacher than the folks at Progression Sports who have been making instructional kite videos for over ten years.

While the step-by-step instructions from the progression DVD are valuable, I find that something very much like muscle memory can be achieved by watching certain videos in a very conscious way and allowing yourself to 'feel' the moves.

The best video producer found to date that has captured the essence of this concept in kite jumping is Monsieur Alexis LeBlanc.

Alexis has been referred to as the "Canadian Ambassador of Kiteboarding," and one of the most enthusiastic promoters of kite culture, by US snow-kiters Jeff Bartkowski and Jim Pavoldi of Team Whiskey Tango.

As a snow-kiting videographer, Alexis transitions from 1st person POV, to handheld, to the placement of a tripod (like a javelin, often without slowing down!) in the spot where he intends to jump. As an editor he's diligent in removing some of the tack and jibe drudgery and blending in a perfect series of unique jumps for a finished product that truly allows you to 'feel' the moves over and over with a view of the kite to demonstrate the flight path he's taking to make the jump possible.

The following video features dozens of jumps. Make note of the direction of the wind, the direction of the rider, the angle of the kite into the wind, and the path of the kite before, during, and after the jump:



Halfway through this next video you'll see the consistency in the method for this collection of jumps



For true kite addicts, I fully promote following Alexis on his YouTube channel as he uploads new content almost daily.

A lot of people ask how many meters of kite you need for wind of a certain speed to allow a kiter of a certain weight to jump... The video below shows Patrick Blanc tearing it up in high wind and getting massive kite jumps with 4 meter and 6 meter Ozone.  Watch the air Patrick gets with his 4 meter  knowing that it's become a popular size for 'trainer' kites!


Tramontana fuerte I from xevi carrasco on Vimeo.


Jumping your kite can be done safely, but there's no shortage of horror stories of kites getting lofted... Two of the most famous videos of kite-boarders and snow-kiters getting accidentally lofted won't necessarily teach you anything but will burn a few images into your brain that may make the the entire process a bit more exciting as it's like swimming after watching "Jaws"!

The image above is a screenshot highlighting the "NO FUN ZONE" below the feet of a lofted kite-boarder grabbed from the video below:


The other famous video that shows a snow-kiter being lofted comes from Algeria,  where a simultaneously unlucky / very lucky kiter is caught an updraft:




There are of course the extremes in every sport and kiting is no different. I was hesitant to include the clip below as this really isn't kiting anymore, as much as it is "kite soaring" and truly "flying with severe disadvantages" such as without the right tool like paraglider... but it's still impressive:



Have fun!

CineDrones are the Future of Extreme Video.

And AntiMedia is pushing the evolution of extreme production in "challenging" enrionments:


Check out the rest of AntiMedia.NO's footage here