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King of Kiting - Aaron Hadlow
Since 2004 Aaron Hadlow has been unbeaten in freestyle kiting – but is he as adroit in an interview as he is on the waves? A test at the end of the season.
Recently you became kitesurfing World Champion for the fourth time in a row; you’re winner of Red Bull Kite Punks and Red Bull King of the Air; you were nominated for “Action Sports Person of the Year” at the Laureus World Sports Awards. But how would you best characterize yourself?
Hm, I see myself as someone who follows through with his thing; someone who doesn’t spend much time worrying about what other people think and is cool with that.
One of your mottos goes: “Impossible is temporary.” When was the last time you proved this to yourself?
I actually do that with any new trick, which always looks undo-able at first. And of course, everyone thought it impossible that I’d be World Freestyle Champion four times in a row ...
Considering your fourth title was thought to be impossible, still there must have been something that made it particularly difficult?
It’s not enough just to be in good form. The conditions are always changing and you have to be flexible and able to adjust. On top of that, several of my rivals made huge progress this year. The competition was more dangerous than ever.
Which of your five PKRA victories in 2007 was the most emotional for you?
The last one in Chile: Because I’d been waiting for a win for several races, and because it also meant that I bagged the overall title.
Apart from that, your 19th birthday almost fell on the same day. Can you tell us about any dirty details about the party that followed?
Oh, I only had a night on the town with a few of the guys. Nothing special.
On your website you also recently celebrated another success: you managed your first Crow Mobe. How would you explain to a layperson what the hell that is?
It’s simply a modification on an already existing trick: a 720-degree rotation, where you go from toe side into a frontspin and land backwards and blind.
Please give us a few words of condolence for kitesurfing amateurs: What’s the process for Aaron Hadlow learning a new trick? Is it exactly as hard and time-consuming as beginner moves are for others?
Mostly I talk to my friends about the trick first: is it possible to modify this and that? What do you have to do to make this or that move work? Then I start to practice it, and in the best case I get the hang of the trick after a few attempts. Once, though, it took me a whole year to master it – with breaks, of course, when I didn’t think about the moves during that time at all.
Now that the season’s over, you’ve got time to take a vacation. What does someone like you do, whose day-to-day life might come across to others as a dream holiday?
I’m spending it back at home in rainy Britain. Because I travel the whole year round, I really enjoy being within my own four walls – to hang out with friends and to take a break from kiting.
