Episode #82 - Cash Berzolla

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. This week we have Mr. Cash Berzolla joining us from his home in Maui. We caught up with him just before the holidays and enjoyed a fun conversation about 2024. We discussed filming of his movie South Africa and discussed his next steps for 2025. So we do hope that you enjoy this episode. During the episode we ask for feedback from the community.

[00:00:27] Cash wanted to know where would you guys like to see the next movie shot by Armstrong feature himself? What kind of conditions do you want to see? All of that in this episode. So send us a DM, let us know what you would like to see next from those guys and we will filter it on to the upper ups at Armstrong. Last week we had Roo, the founder of Tonic and IK Surf Magazine on the show. We had the pleasure of talking with Roo about his free magazines by the way.

[00:00:56] You can download the app and make sure to check them out. And we also found out what they have to offer. So we do hope that you enjoyed that episode as well. Now I want to take this opportunity to thank our team. I know you guys have heard this every episode, but they are the reason that this show keeps on going. We have Frank that helps out with media and consulting. We have Matias, which helps with guest outreach and guest relations. And we have Stefan on audio mastering.

[00:01:24] A big thank you guys as this show would not be possible without you. Next, we are just wrapping up our second season. So we want to say a big thank you to North 4 for being incredibly supportive this year. And I just recently started pair winging and I used the 1230 and you know what? It was great. It was a great time. Pair winging is difficult, but it was a great time. So I want to say a big thank you to the team over at Densys for sending this pair of wing out for testing.

[00:01:53] So far, I'm very happy with it. We will be releasing some reels and a little bit of information about the Roger Pair wing soon. So stay tuned. Lastly, I wanted to mention that we have a trip coming up in May. I know you've heard it a few times, but check out wing life podcast dot com forward slash trips and check out our trip in Bonaire. It's going to be an amazing time. So if you're looking how to learn the sport or get better, make sure to check that out.

[00:02:19] So now without further ado, I do hope that you enjoy this show with Cash. When you see a swell and everything is lining up, you know, the winds there and the waves are potentially there. It's kind of a scramble. Chasing swells is a bit of a challenge. Weather systems and swell charts are always changing and everything has to come together to make it happen.

[00:02:44] The reason I fell in love with foiling and all of its aspects is because it gave me a new way to look at the ocean. It's a blank canvas and free riding is really the pinnacle of that. Alright, my friend. Welcome back. Thanks for having me back. It's good to be here. Army gave me a nice hat. What is this? I like it. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah. I wanted a pink one, but I guess you guys were keeping them for one of your staff trips or something.

[00:03:13] Yeah, they're trying to savor that as much as I can. The pink ones are in high demand. I know. So I was not able, but the blue one is quite nice anyways. I guess the last time I saw you was at AWSI back in September. Yeah. AWSI was great. You know, the event went really well. We aired the Cash South Africa movie. I think you were there at the premiere at the movie theater. So that was awesome.

[00:03:40] First time for me, got to check some boxes and, but the event was super fun. I think we got some light wind. It's always kind of light, but we did a lot of pump foiling and flat water starts. And it's just so cool to see all the gear there and meet all the people part of the industry. So no complaints. And yeah, it was a fun event for sure. How was releasing your first movie on the kind of big screen, if you want to say, because it just like exploded across the industry.

[00:04:08] It was, um, it was interesting. You know, I, I've never been a part of anything like that and it was just amazing. And the love from everyone that was shown towards me, it was incredible. And I really couldn't have asked for anything more and just super grateful that it happened that way. And yeah, Armstrong absolutely destroyed it. I think there is some technical difficulties with making the, the premiere work at that movie theater is like a shut. It was kind of shut down and they were reviving it basically.

[00:04:37] So there was some, uh, technical workings that had to go into that. How was shooting that thing? I don't know if we talked about it last time, but how was putting that whole thing together? Cause some of those ways like it's playing, I'm teaching up at a school here. And cause I think I posted a story about it. The movie has been played like every other day on repeat. It's so cool. It's so cool to see it, but those things were absolute monsters.

[00:05:06] Like how, how was filming all that? It was insane. You know, we had like the craziest, most perfect crew of filmers, you know, Slater Naborski and Gumby who lives down there in South Africa are just incredible filmmakers. And honestly, I gave them the reins and they, they took over and they could see it from the beginning. So they made it work and, um, which allowed me to focus on my riding and basically surviving the big waves that South Africa had to offer.

[00:05:35] So I think just the team that we had was so incredible that it came out, um, better than I expected. Obviously you guys planned this around a forecast that you saw coming. Yeah, we had, I think we had maybe month or two, two month window to head down there. And, um, we let, um, we gave, we gave it all up to Gumby.

[00:06:02] He was, he was in charge cause you know, he lives down there and he knows the swell and what's good. And, um, we kind of just kept looking, kept looking. And finally at the end of our window, he's like, okay, this is the one, you know, I kept pushing it back. I thought this fall isn't good. The wind's not right. And, um, finally it was at the very last, I think week or two of that, of the month that he's like, this is the one. So we flew down and we thought it was going to be big, but we didn't think it was going to be that big.

[00:06:30] Like, I mean, J Bay was basically washing through, which I've never heard of. Um, I've never been there before. So, um, you know, I can't really say on it how much it washes through, but it seemed pretty crazy to me that J Bay was just kind of washing through and there wasn't really anyone surfing it. So that was ideal for us. You know, we couldn't have asked for anything more and, um, it just all worked out, but yeah, we did have a window and, and kind of struck it when it was good.

[00:06:59] Yeah. No, obviously a little adrenaline pumping, eh? Cause those things were significant weight and size. Yeah. Quite a bit of adrenaline. Um, it was, it was the end of the day that I think we went out to Jeffrey's Bay and, um, actually got in the water, I think maybe a mile or two up the coast.

[00:07:20] So, um, there just wasn't any chance of me getting out with any of the wing full gear at the, you know, the main spot of Jeffrey's Bay. And, um, that also factored into like, if I fell on my first one, then I wasn't going to be able to get back out and, and, you know, get more footage. So it was a little bit nerve wracking and, you know, step by step, I guess.

[00:07:42] Yeah. It turned out very, very well. And like I said, I get to see it when I go teach. So it's kind of fun, but, uh, congratulations on such an epic year. Um, it's only the second year of the world title. You get to take it home. Uh, how did that whole season kind of feel for you?

[00:08:00] It was super, um, cool, you know, traveling with the GWA is, is definitely something that's unique. You know, you have to meet so many people from around the world that fly into these certain spots. And, you know, I'm very lucky and grateful to say that I have friends from, you know, across the world now from the GWA. So it was awesome. And, um, of course we scored great waves. I mean, Cape Verde was probably the best contest I've ever been a part of, you know, whether that be stand up paddle surfing or winging, it was just most incredible waves.

[00:08:29] The conditions were perfect. Um, and yeah, but the Fred that was firing that, that few days that they had the contest. So it was incredible. Doclo was a little bit smaller, but, um, actually got lucky enough to take the win there. So that, that held my chances. I believe I got second in Cape Verde. Um, so I went into the third event in Brazil pretty well. Um, Malo, who was in first place throughout the first two events actually lost.

[00:08:57] And, um, um, Dakla. So it kind of gave me a little bit of a lead and a little bit more room to wiggle around in Brazil. So, um, that's what helped me take it home. Um, I believe I made, I needed to make quarters in Brazil to win it. And that's what I did.

[00:09:13] And then my mindset was gone and I lost, but, um, yeah, no, it's okay. But it was super interesting. You know, Cape Verde is an amazing place. Morocco is amazing. The people from everywhere are just incredible. And Brazil is, is one of a kind. You can't really complain. So super stoked to, you know, travel around and, and see people like that for sure. So overall heck of a year for Armstrong then.

[00:09:39] Man, they, they are, uh, absolutely insane, you know, between content creation and the gear and the team, it just, it doesn't really get any better. I haven't seen it in any other, you know, company that's in the industry and they're, they're definitely doing it right.

[00:09:56] In my, and I know I'm sponsored by them. So I have a little bit of the, you know, I favor them a little bit, but it is true. And, um, their stuff is great. Yeah. The team, it's mainly the team, you know, if you don't have a good team, then the company's nothing. And their team is, is a plus spot on. It doesn't really get any better than that.

[00:10:16] Well, I like hanging out with you guys. Like when I go down, like there's only certain booths, kind of some of us media people like to go chill at, um, I find army and Cal and everybody else. There's just super friendly, very open, welcoming. And, uh, that's something good for the sport. It's awesome. And obviously continuously pushing gear. And, uh, so that, that, that's actually pretty special. Um, any plans now that you're taking a bit of a downturn, like you got a little time off until the next season starts.

[00:10:46] Yeah. You know, the next competition is in Cape Verde. I think it's in February and, um, you know, we'll see. I'm not even sure if I'm going to pursue the whole GWA thing next year. I'm definitely going to do Cape Verde. Um, just cause you know, that way it was incredible, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do the other two or focus on doing more trips to create content like the South Africa trip. Um, so we'll see. I think that's kind of my goal is to create crazy content for you guys to watch.

[00:11:16] That is going to be the most interesting thing that, um, we can do to push the sport and just see cool stuff. Um, but other than that, I think that's, that's kind of it. That's my goal for this, this coming year is to create some crazy stuff for you guys to watch. That's kind of building onto what we talked about last time, but you wanted to focus on the fun aspect of it, like what drives you forward. And it's just, it's just fun with my friends and fun continuously pushing that. So that is aligned with you.

[00:11:46] Yeah. You know, I, I kind of have fun doing whatever I do, um, whether that's competing or free writing, which I, you know, I'm very lucky to have that pleasure. And, um, but yeah, the, the content creation and, you know, making short films like the South Africa one is something that pushes me and, you know, I wake up every day excited about. So I think that's something that I'm going to pursue a bit and see what we can do with it. Where would your ideal spots be for that next shoot?

[00:12:16] Well, I don't know. Well, you gotta give me some good ideas. I think I definitely want to do one here cause Maui is incredible. You know, it doesn't really get any better. We have, you know, big waves, small waves, not windy waves, not so windy waves. You can kind of do anything you want here, which is incredible. And the landscape's amazing. You can get really good B-rolls. So, and I'm here, so, you know, it's not really expensive for me to travel.

[00:12:38] So that would be a benefit. Um, that's true. I definitely want to do one here. I think, you know, we need to, we need to go crazy. I don't know. What do you think? Should we go to like Alaska or something? Oh, Antarctica, Alaska. It'd be cold, you know, and I have to tag a few sweatshirts and sweatpants, but, um, that would be interesting. And I seen some tight stuff and surf stuff out there. And, um, you know, if I can muster up the, uh, the, the blood to get, to get cold, I think, I think that would be cool.

[00:13:08] It would happen, but, um, You haven't had to put on a wetsuit yet, eh? South Africa was cold. Yeah. Oh, was it? Yeah. Compared to Alaska, I think it was, it was like a hot tub, but, um, I was in the full suit. Yeah. I wasn't happy about it, but I was in the full suit. It's never fun. Huh? Yeah. I guess we're used to it in colder climate, but I get to ride in board shorts here in Mexico because the water's a bit warmer. Yeah. And it's like, yes, this is fun.

[00:13:35] Yes. It's, that's kind of a game changer. You know, you don't have to like worry. It's another thing you have to put on and then the water hurts even more when you hit it. It's kind of, it stings, you know? I don't know. Yeah. All right. So I'll have to open it up to the community. We need some places for the next movie. All right. Let's do it.

[00:13:55] Yeah, we can get ideas and see, I mean, honestly, where everyone's interested in it. What do you guys want to see? Is it, you know, barrels, airs, big waves, small waves, winging? I don't know. What do you guys want to see? Pump foiling and like down some sort of, yeah, there's so many different options. All right. Well, let's see what comes of it. Looking forward to seeing that one as well. Um, we had some questions from the team. Obviously we saw some jaws action that's starting to light up now.

[00:14:24] Yeah. It's, um, it's a little bit of an untapped area in the, in the foil world. There's a few guys that are boiling pretty big waves. Um, but jaws, Nasrae are kind of just, they're different beasts. And the main thing, the main problem, I guess that we're kind of coming across and I've only done it once. So I don't know as much as other guys, but, um, you know, testing gear is not like you go to your normal beach and you're going to go out for,

[00:14:53] 20 minutes, come in and change your tailwind. Okay. This one's better. You know, with the big wave, you're like, do I want to test this? Because if I fall, the consequences are a little bit higher than testing it at your normal beach or in, you know, a head high wave. So trying to dial in the gear is something that is, um, is coming to be a little bit difficult, um, that we're working around and, and definitely testing, but it's kind of the speed that we're looking for. And, um,

[00:15:23] I don't know that there's just so much that goes into it and there's a lot of consequence, I guess you could say. And as I think that's something that some of us from the outside might take a little bit for granted, hold down period, potential crazy injuries. Is it worth doing that given all the other fun things you can do in shoots elsewhere? Like those, like, is it like, where is it? Um, where's that line that we kind of want to respect?

[00:15:50] Yeah. You know, when I first saw someone, I think toe foiled jaws, I thought it was just, I thought it was so stupid. Like, why would you, why would you put yourself in that spot and risk your life doing that? I mean, big wave surfing in general is just something that's super dangerous, you know, first off, and you add the foil, which is, you know, that knife under your, under your, between your legs, basically. And, um, that adds a whole nother risk factor to it.

[00:16:17] So I thought it was always just kind of like, Oh, you could just do a toaster for paddle. And, um, for me, like that risk is still there. And, you know, we always take into account the risk, especially in big wave surfing, you know, you have to have your outs and you have to know what your, your plan is if something does go wrong.

[00:16:35] So, you know, coming into it, I always, if it's perfect to go toe foil, a big waves, I'll go do it. But you know, if, if the waves are calling for a paddle or a toe surf, then I think you got to do that. You can't like just go out and I'm just gonna, I'm going to push it until, until something does go wrong. So, um, there's a fine line for sure.

[00:16:57] Yeah, that makes sense. And thanks for putting that out there for anybody kind of continuously thinking about those sometimes is just like, we have to maintain that fun respect boundary for all that kind of stuff. Um, talking foils, like how was your kit this year? What are you thinking? Like, I know we can't talk about stuff behind the scenes, which is fine.

[00:17:21] But, um, any kind of things that you're excited for coming up next season for, for gear wise? Yeah. You know, they don't really tell me anything behind the scenes anyway. So I think we're good on this. I can't, it's probably for the best cause then I can't leak anything. So, um, I think we're good. We just came out with the HA 480, which is like the low end of the HA range, which I've, um, I didn't think I was going to like it at first. Honestly, I was, I was toe falling on the MAs only just cause you know, that's what I wing

[00:17:50] on and they turned really good. And then I got on that 480, I think this past week. And I was just amazed. Like it has the turning ability of the MAs, but it has the glide and the low end of like the HAs. So it's a super friendly foil and it just create like the glide on it is mental. They keep coming out with insane stuff. They came out with the 120 tail, which is super small.

[00:18:12] I haven't tried that yet. So I can't speak on it, but, um, from what Jeremy and Oscar have said, um, they're, they're not on anything else. So, you know, that makes me think I have to get something else, but I honestly like my one 80 and my one 40. So we'll see. I heard it's great, but, um, I haven't tried to get the HA 480 again is insane. Um, but for my quiver this year, it kind of depends on what I'm doing. Um, if I'm winging, I'm, I'm a hundred

[00:18:42] percent on that MA 625, almost a hundred percent of the time. Um, if I'm going to go for a cruise, you know, light wind cruise, I'll put an HA on and just go cruise around. But, um, for the MA and the waves, I'm going 625, always run a 60 fuse. I think I run a 60 fuse with about everything. If you're looking for a general, I know a lot of people going in there and they're like, what do I buy? I don't know what to get. Like, you know, you can't get everything. Cause there's so much stuff.

[00:19:09] If you get a 60 fuse, you're going to be good for anything. You could wing, you could get prone, you could downwind, you do anything. You get tow, whatever you want. So I like that. It's a good medium. Um, been using it for everything. Then for the mass, I kind of change it up depending on how big the waves are. I go up in mass size. Usually if I'm winging, I'm on a seven, nine, five, the performance mass.

[00:19:35] Okay. But, um, if I go tow, I'll go up one to the eight, six, five. And if it gets bigger, um, to the bigger ones, like nine, three, five or 10, it's a nine, three, five. It's a nine, three, five and a 10, three, five. Um, obviously that's just a little bit gives you more room for air on a bigger wave.

[00:19:51] Yeah, I think so. That's, um, what I go into it thinking, but still, we're, we're still playing around with it. And, um, who knows in a year I might be like, you know, I want a smaller mass for a bigger wave. Cause there's less track. Yeah. I don't know. Well, I think I heard like, I must've seen this video. I guess you haven't leaked it yet, but you were like foil sliding like half the way down jaws. I don't even know. Like, I think it was yesterday you went out on that, right?

[00:20:18] Hmm. I mean, AI is getting really good. You never know. I'm really leaning towards more AI doing everything and me sitting in the couch, um, you know, watching game of Thrones. I don't know. There you go. There you go. I haven't seen that video. Um, maybe, maybe the boys and girls at Armstrong are working away playing with, you know, chat GTP or something and, and getting me to look good on a jaws. But, um, I haven't seen that one yet. That one hasn't happened.

[00:20:46] All right. All right. Let's talk to Kyle about it. So overall though, uh, awesome season, good experience. Fun to take all that stuff in. Yeah, it was an amazing year. Very lucky and, um, looking forward to next year. Let's. Let's make it better than this year. Something fun to look forward to. Uh, Frank wanted to also know like kind of off the beaten track when you're not on the water, what else are you doing?

[00:21:10] Frank, that is a good question. Um, you know, I do a lot of eating. I like to eat, um, big foodie, but other than that, sports wise, um, I play a little bit of pickleball, you know, for the haters out there. Continue hating. It's fine. You know, I like to pickle a little bit. Um, when I see my mom, I get my, my butt.

[00:21:31] Kicked in tennis. Um, I've never won in my 18 years of existence. So, uh, yeah, it's getting tougher and tougher to sleep. I'm going to get her one day, you know? So, um, what else, you know, when I get the chance, I like to bowl. Um, we don't have a bowling alley on Maui. It's the one downside of Maui. You know, if you're not going to come for any reason, it's because we don't have a bowling alley. I guess that is true, isn't it?

[00:21:56] Yeah. It's not ideal, but, um, like to bowl. What else do I do on my street time? Um, I just learned how to play ukulele. The guitar is too hard. I'm struggling on guitar. Um, I guess that's not really a sport, but, um, you know, taking away at the, at the ukulele strings. Um, let's see. I was really into skating. I don't see it anymore because the ground is too hard for me. Um, it always ended in blood and tears. So we stopped that.

[00:22:25] Um, skating's fine though, right? It's kind of it. It's super fun. You know, if you're good at it and you don't fall as much or you wear a ton of pads, I was always like covered in pads. Um, so that was fun. And then surfing just took over, but, um, yeah, that's kind of about it. I mean, when I get the chance, I'll go snowboard. Um, but it's, it's, it's one in a million. It just doesn't happen all that often, but when it does, I'm very excited about it.

[00:22:52] Does anybody ever snowboard Haleakala like up there? Is there any, you know, I'm, I'm sure a few people I've rode, you know, five feet. It's not like when it snows, it's like, Oh, there's, you know, three feet and I could go, you know, snowboard for a hundred, a hundred yards. Um, yeah, there'd be a lot of rocks involved. I'm sure that I'm sure people have. I guess it would be a fun little run.

[00:23:18] We do a lot of grass surfing. Um, yeah, that's a good one. I did that as a kid a lot. Grass or you take a boogie board and just run down a hill. Oh, nice. There's a little bit of water. It's good. Yeah. That's kind of steep. Yeah. Well, there are some decent steep slopes there. Yeah. Well, I mean, we got two big mountains here. Kind of works. So exciting stuff coming for next year then. Um, that's really fun. How's dad doing?

[00:23:44] He's good. He's working away. You know, he doesn't stop working, which is good. You know, I, I, um, I'm happy for him, but he, he works a lot. So yeah, he's doing good. He's still bald. You know, one day his hair is going to come back. I don't know. We'll see. There's has to be something eventually that'll come up for that. There's yeah, I've been like debating, you know, I think I keep seeing all the people go on Turkey or something and get their hair redone. Maybe for Christmas.

[00:24:10] How's your hairline? Is it starting to, is it starting to climb or is it not bad? I don't know. I haven't really looked. I'm kind of scared. Yeah. I haven't, haven't, haven't taken a peek under the hood quite, you know, quite a while. As of now, it's, it's good. I think if I continue going to super cuts, um, I will have no hair left. So we're, we're going to have to make a, an adjustment here soon.

[00:24:33] All right. You're going to let it grow a little more flowy. I was talking to Fabi, right? He rides for it North and he was saying he loves that longer flow look. Cause it adds to the spray when you're going off like top turn. Yeah, he does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's sick. I can feel that. You know, I think a little bit of the, you know, party in the back could, could help out with some maneuvers or speed and that matter.

[00:24:56] I've never been the guy to go mullet. I've never, I've never done it. You know, I've cut my hair and like, you know, on the way to finishing it was mullet, but I didn't keep it for a day. I just kind of felt it out. I was like, not Aussie enough. Can't do it. Well, if you go like, we should do that next year. We'll have you back on. We'll plan it. I'll grow one out. They can get the best mullet.

[00:25:23] Mullet comp. I know that, I know the Florence brothers do like their youth comp every year. We can put that out there. We could put that out to the community who can grow the best mullet and have the best ride. I feel like Fabi would just win off rip. You know, you just enter and win. That is true. I mean, I could be persuaded. We'll see. Yeah. I have to talk to the boss about that. I, you know, my dad is super into the long hair and my mom's like the opposite end of the spectrum.

[00:25:52] It's just, it's it. She's like, cut your hair. And my grandparents too. Yeah. You know, cut it, make it firefighter cut. Nice, nice and tight. We're a longer hair family as well. Like my brother grew pretty much down to shoulders. I had mine that long before I like two months ago. And then one night I just shaved it off. This is the first time I've had like hair like this in 10 years. Yeah.

[00:26:20] But it is a fun, different feeling. Both are fun actually. I mean, I think if you're in a colder climate, more hair, but warmer climate, we might have to grow it out for that, you know, northern kind of fear trip. Well, when you come up and do some like Alaskan content. Yeah. Yeah. Gonna need to grow out a crazy mullet for that. Throw some grizzly bears or something in there too. Yeah, stay away from it.

[00:26:49] Nice. All right. So you got some fun stuff coming up for 25. Any trips coming up in the near future before Christmas or after Christmas? Not that I know of, you know, I could get sprung somewhere, but I don't think so. Yeah. No, not before Christmas. I think in March, April, we're doing a mental eye trip actually. Elevate Adventures, we're doing like a little bit of a camp.

[00:27:17] Yeah. It's gonna be on a boat in the mental eyes. So looking forward to that. That's gonna be super fun. But that's kind of about it for my travel schedule as of now and in the coming months. I'm here for about a month. So looking forward to that. Yeah. A little downtime. And like you were talking before, you just wrapped up school? Yeah. Yeah. I wrapped up school this year and took a gap year to do the GWA and travel a bit.

[00:27:45] And then we're looking at uni for next year. We'll see. Maybe it'll be online so we can continue to travel a bit. But I'm not sure. We're still figuring it out. What kind of degree or what direction are you going in? I applied to some business stuff and a little bit of engineering. I think the backups were engineering, but mainly business, which comes from my dad's super into business.

[00:28:11] And there's always been an entrepreneur and creating companies and stuff like that. So that's kind of where the idea sparked, I guess. Does that engineering aspect of like how heavily are you involved with Armstrong into that foil design, giving comments, giving feedback? Is that something that you enjoy doing or comes naturally to you? Yeah, I really like it.

[00:28:35] I wouldn't say it comes naturally because, you know, I say one thing and Army kind of nods his head and is like, OK, yeah, that's not true. But, you know, I like to do it and I do give feedback. I don't I'm not really heavily involved in the design process as of now. But, you know, if a foil gets sent my way, I do give feedback on, hey, the foil works. That's that's kind of the best you'll get out of me. Like it turns good. You know, I like it.

[00:29:04] It's either I'm going to ride it, you know, every day or I'm not going to ride it. So, yeah, a little bit of feedback here and there. Probably 80 percent of it is not used. But hey, it's we'll send them this. We'll send them this. We got we got massive pull in the industry. Of course, we can make a big change. Yeah. Did it happen? I want to come out the new foil. Yeah. Listen, I could say that for 80. I designed it. Not in design.

[00:29:34] I don't do any of the designing. But yeah, they do send over feedback and let the boys and girls know what they what I think about the foils and stuff like that. And I think they do appreciate it because they have so many riders. I think Oscar in Australia is super into it. Like he sends back a lot of feedback and they actually use quite a bit of it. So I think they do do use quite a bit from their riders.

[00:29:58] A lot of the times, though, it's hard because some of the riders are, you know, really advanced. So what they're looking for isn't what the general public is looking for necessarily. But the feedback is definitely used and needed for sure. Let's talk about this new little Wave 360 thing that we just saw out there. We saw Kane do it like maybe I don't know a little while ago. We saw it pop up on Instagram. You're ripping it now. How's that little thing feel?

[00:30:28] Yeah, you know, I think we're going to call the Candy Kane. It's it's going to make a resurgence and be popular. The Candy Kane. It's I mean, I've seen a few guys do it. Kane does the best. He did it proning on Kauai. I think that was the video you're talking about. It was just stupid. It was super good. And I've been trying it a little bit toe falling. Didn't really want to try it, but ended up trying it anyway. And it worked somehow. Going to give credit to the HA 480.

[00:30:58] Plug. And but yeah, it's harder than it looks. It's really hard, actually. Like the foil does like to make a tight turn, but it's really tight turn when you have to know power of your wing and use the power of the face and project out and then be able to circle. And it is a lot like if you don't have the right gear, you're not it's not happening.

[00:31:24] You need to have the right the perfect gear to have that projection and glide and then be able to turn at the same time. So it's an interesting maneuver. And it's definitely up there on the level scale. You know, it's a hard one. So it's not too easy. You know, it's like, oh, I could do it. And then just fling it out the back. Did that a few times. He's a little Jedi, though. Yes. He's a master.

[00:31:49] You know, if we put him in a cloak and cover his eyes a little bit, he'd be a master for sure. Have you gotten I know this is off Armstrong topic, but have you gotten to try his new foil at KT? I haven't. My best friend, Otis Buckingham, though, I don't know if he's been on the podcast yet, but he rides KT foils and has, you know, only good things to say about them. And I know I think I think Kai's been riding them a little bit. But Otis in particular has been loving them.

[00:32:19] Of course, Kane was, you know, a main designer in those. And, you know, if the wizard designed it, they're there. I'm sure they're good. I haven't tried them yet, but they look pretty solid. Yeah, I didn't get the chance in AWSI, but I should be in Hawaii in the new year. I think I'm finally getting my butt back over there. So I will have to come out and test those things out and get some winging in and stuff. And actually, I just want to windsurf. Want to windsurf Kanaha or something.

[00:32:47] Get some baby waves on an old windsurf. That would be super fun. The windsurfing scene is still kicking here. I heard. You got a few windsurfers. He'll keep it particular, but Kanaha's got a few as well. Nice. Yeah. Okay. Well, what's on the agenda for the rest of the day? I know you're just starting. Yeah, you know, I'm going to let my toes thigh out. Thaw out? Thaw out. Not thigh. Thaw out.

[00:33:14] It is unreasonably cold up here in Kula right now. So, and then I have, you know, just because I know you guys want to hear it. I got a dentist appointment today. Yep. Big news. Getting the teeth checked up on. Are you getting some gold plated for your victory? Like GWA right across the three teeth in the front there? You know, I was thinking that, but I was like, you know, while you guys are under the hood, just give me the full Monty. I want the full diamond.

[00:33:43] Like I want all of them, you know? And I don't want to be able to pop them out. I want to eat with those suckers in. All right. Because I, like you're launching your rap career. Like that's the next thing. Like after, like I saw that, that you had this massive parade down, like in the middle of Pai either, like started Mama's Fish House and stuff. Like you had your parade and stuff for your big victory. That was for my music video. Okay. And that's the next thing that nobody knows is coming out. The rap career. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know the rap career. I got these bars. I'm the new M&M.

[00:34:13] Can I say? They already know me. I was on anyone's Spotify rap, you know, you know the rules. Yeah. That is what it is. And you know what? Winging, it was a good start. Thank you for giving me my kick out into the mainstream. Yeah. Good run. It's over. Now I'm going to put all my wing foil and soiling followers onto the new 2025. No, it's going to be 2026. Rap genre.

[00:34:43] Yeah. It's going to happen. All right. Well, when you do your introduction for this episode, you can do a little, you know, intro for us. I mean, if you put up a beat, you know, maybe I'm going to, I'll mumble rap to it. Okay. Well, we'll, we'll have, uh, Frank's our rap expert. So we'll have him create a little beat for you. We'll send it. We'll keep it off. We'll keep it off the air. Yeah. We'll do that. This has got to be like behind the scenes, you know? Yeah. You have to subscribe.

[00:35:12] This is high quality content. Yeah. All right. So follow Armstrong foils, follow yourself. Follow us. Bang. Bang. You'll be in the know. Always on the know. Anything about your team that you want to say? Like, I know you guys have a pretty sweet lineup riding with you guys right now. Yeah. They're all right. You know, I mean, Oscar can't beat me in backgammon. That's kind of all I got to say. You know, he's like 30 and zero. Yeah. Or zero for 30.

[00:35:42] I don't know what, whichever way it goes. Just can't. I mean, honestly, I think he stopped texting me because he just. He's still upset. We talked about that last time. He's still upset about it. He's always upset about it. I mean, once he wins, maybe he'll get a little bit of a. But honestly, he's just so far down. It's so deep in it that I don't think he's going to come back, honestly. Yeah. He hasn't been sleeping at night. It's getting bad. I kind of feel bad for him. But, you know, it is what it is. Game's game. And yeah. And just absolutely destroying him backgammon. Who else? Let's see.

[00:36:13] Jeremy is as big as ever. You know, my neck hurts talking to him. He's huge. You know, the team's great. You know, I have no complaints. And they're all characters in themselves. Army, Nathan, Rob, all those guys that are, you know, creating stuff for us and designing and working behind the scenes day and night are absolutely incredible. And us as riders, I don't think give them enough credit.

[00:36:39] And they're what makes the company go around and work. So we're very thankful for them. And the rest of the team as well is awesome. You know, if you don't have people pushing you, you're not going to get any better. And I think that the team is constantly pushing the boundaries of the sport. And it's cool to see for sure. Yeah. Like just talking about the wave, kind of how tight it was this year in competition.

[00:37:05] Like there was a bunch of like and especially there's some new young groms coming in too, right? That are just going to come into the scene and they're just ready to go. They haven't even hit the age yet. Like out here, we got like Benjamin in Mexico, who I don't think is old enough yet, but he's already pulling like some crazy double backflips, landing them clean and stuff. Like we don't know what this young generation. You're going to be a grandpa like me soon, you know, like as soon as you hit 20.

[00:37:35] What's going to happen? How'd that happen? I'm playing Benzie. No, yeah, the whole, the whole group of groms. And I honestly consider myself to be a grom still too. But yeah, the whole upcoming generation, you know, Benzie, there's so many guys from Tarifa that are just absolutely pushing the limits beyond what I could imagine. And a lot of it is in freestyle, but there are a few in waves that are just incredible and it's cool to see.

[00:38:02] And it's kind of annoying at the same time, you know, just like, come on. Well, that's why I like it better. If you, if you're going and there's a few athletes that I've talked to about this, like the push towards doing some trips, getting some experiences in, getting some content in, like, what do you think is the best to grow this sport going that route? Like, I know there aren't competition is for a select group of individuals who are, who are like following it.

[00:38:32] But I guess that content does reach a pretty wide audience. Yeah. I think it depends on what content can come from those events. Like I have content from Dakla that it's really high quality content and it just, it gets decent views, but it doesn't reach that, you know, other level of audience. Now, like there's, I think one wave I had from Kate Faraday that GWA made an edit from it.

[00:39:01] It went psycho. Like it just went everywhere on the internet and it spread to people who were foilers. And that's kind of what you want. You want it to be reaching surfers and wind surfers and kiters and people just from all around the world that aren't even foiling just to get eyes on it. And that's, what's going to grow. The sport is getting more eyes, more people to see what it really is. Cause it's such a cool sport. Like how could you hate on it? You can kind of do whatever you want with it. And I think once people see that and understand it, you're going to have more people trying

[00:39:31] it and find gear and, and, and just going out in the water in general. And there's just so much content that does come from the GWA and GKA and all those events that are great, but it just doesn't, it doesn't reach that other level of, of viewing. And I think that's kind of what the sport needs. The GWA is great because I mean, for athletes, you're with the best in the world. So you're able to push yourself and grow your talent.

[00:40:01] Um, but in terms of growing the sport, it's not, it's not quite there yet. You know, it's not at the level of surfing where you have thousands of people watching it. You know, it's probably at the hundreds right now, which is cool. Like you have that small niche of people who are really into it, which is cool, but it's not that big. Now, what kind, what kind of, yeah, yet. Cause I know there's so many people on the waiting list to join a wave comp on both the guys and the ladies side.

[00:40:28] What kind of views are you looking at then for something that goes crazy viral like that? You know, I'd like to say in the millions, but, um, I'm just not that popular yet. Um, that's, that's ideal, but you know, I think anything over 50,000 is really good. Like in my opinion, like you see a 50,000 view video and you're like, that's a lot, that's a lot of people. I mean, 10,000 is a lot of people, but you know, once you reached a hundred thousands and

[00:40:53] anything up above, above that, um, that's when you kind of start to realize like, Hey, that's quite a bit of eyes. You know, maybe I put my Venmo link in there. Well, yeah, you get invited to some talk shows, you know, you get to be on the podcast. Yeah. It's good. Especially this one. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Well, man, thanks for, thanks for taking the time to catch up. It's been a bit. Thanks for having me.

[00:41:21] It's good to be back, back in the studio. Yes, of course. You got a little fan. At least we're both, we're both in the same studio today, right? It's both white. Oh, you got a board. Very nice. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what else we got in here. We got like the, let's give it a look. What can I, can I show or take a, you know, we're taking it on the road. Let's do it. We got, we got some boards here. These are MTO boards. These have yet to be used, but it's coming. This is an old board. We got the artwork.

[00:41:52] Yeah. We're big onto the artwork stuff. Are you guys a dog or, no? Are you guys a dog or cat family? We're not. No? The excuse is we travel too much, but I think, I think we just, you know, had enough trouble keeping me alive. So one more living thing was a bit much. No, we just travel a lot and it's a little bit hard.

[00:42:21] You know, we don't, we're not like super close with our neighbors that we can just be like, hey, here's a dog for a month. So I'm sure I can give it to Otis, but you know, he's never here either. Well, he's too busy ripping, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. He is. Yeah. He's insane. He does everything too. You know, kites, windsurfs, foils. But yeah, super cool. I get them on a podcast. I want to see what he has to say. I'll watch that podcast. See what he says on here.

[00:42:52] Yeah. You see, we're cool. We'll get Matt to reach out, connect with him and get that going. But I'll reach out to you there. Who's the, sorry. Who's the behind the scenes here? We got Frank, Matt. On our, we got Frank who does, do you want me to do my little intro spiel? Hey, we got the intro spiel. We got Frank on media and consulting. We got Matt on guest relations and we got Stefan on audio mastering. Thanks a lot for watching.

[00:43:20] Next, you go into sponsors after that. Wait, Matt. Has Matt talked to me? I think he'd probably message you. Yeah, he's probably message you. Maybe. What was his role again? He is, he knows more people than I do because like I'm incredibly popular with about four friends. So he, he, he does the reach out to everybody and I just talk.

[00:43:46] And then, um, Frank who's doing consulting, he's the one that comes up with these cool ideas and direct stuff and comes up with questions. And once again, I just make it happen. Our buddy who lives out in Indonesia is an amazing videographer and photographer. Um, he put out a couple of movies as well. So he put one movie about, um, homelessness in Ottawa, which is one of the coldest capitals in the world. So we filmed that and he also put in another one when he was in Indonesia. Um, so that's what he does professionally out there.

[00:44:16] And so he does our audio stuff and it's a little side gig for him, which is great. And then I take care of all the editing and that kind of stuff on the behind the scenes on this end. Well, it seems like you guys have a incredible team. Thanks for having me again. Um, Matt, stop putting me on the spot. These questions are getting out of hand. Save it for the subscribe portion of this thing. Yeah. We got to go get you set up with this subscription service or something. Maybe 99 cents a month.

[00:44:46] You can have lunch and breakfast with cash. You throw in a reel or something. There you go. Yeah. That's the way. Virtual, virtual breakfast. Once you get your rims put on today, your grills put on today, we're all set. It's going to be way more entertaining. Podcast is going to be flooding with people because of the grills. Yeah. I can hopefully make my money back on that. Well, I will reach out. I don't know if you're going to be around, but I'll reach out when I head to the island. I think it's March sometime.

[00:45:16] So I'll reach out if you're there. We'll have to get some riding in. If not, we'll catch you next time. But thanks for catching up. It was nice to see you. And good luck with this upcoming season. If you decide to start school this year, I hope that goes well. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. If not, we're going to be waiting from the community to find out what are some of the next spots they would like to see and what kind of movie they would like to see. And yeah, we can go from there. Yeah.

[00:45:45] You know, maybe my movie career will make it and I'll be on Love Island one day. You'll never know. Doesn't The Rock live on Maui? Before I made it. The Rock? Yeah. Yeah. There's a few rocks here. No, like The Rock. Like, you know, like The Rock lives there, right? Oh, Mr. Johnson. Yes. Yes, Mr. Johnson. Yeah. Mr. Johnson. You know, you'd think I'd know that.

[00:46:09] Um, he had some tie with one of the islands. Not going to say it's Maui because I don't know. But, um, I'm sure he spent some time here. Um, yeah. You know, we got Oprah. That's kind of all I know. That's what I heard. Yeah. We're going to lead with that and end with that because Oprah, she's got her own road. Wow. Oh yeah, I did hear that. All right. Well, you know, if she hears this, it'll be great. Yeah. I mean, sit.

[00:46:38] Maybe she can give me the key because that's way quicker. I have to go all the way around. All right, buddy. Nice to see you again. Thanks for having me. Good to see you. Cool. And thanks, everybody. Catch you in the next one. Oh yeah.