Episode #83 - Benjamin Castenskiold

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. This week we have Benjamin Casanoid joining us. He is a young ripper from Colombia. He spends his winters in La Ventana, Mexico and I've been fortunate to see this kid ride and absolutely amazing. He is the Youth Race Under 14 World Champion, Youth Freestyle Under 14 Vice World Champion and the Male Grom Athlete of the Year.

[00:00:27] We can't wait to see him compete on the GWA World Tour this coming year. We hope you enjoy this episode as we get to know him a little bit better. Last week we had Cash Berzola on the show. We caught up with him just before the holidays and we enjoyed a fun conversation about 2024.

[00:00:48] We discussed filming of his movie South Africa and discuss his next steps for 2025. We hope you enjoy that episode as well. Now, I want to take this opportunity to thank our team for making this show a reality. We have Frank that helps with media and consulting, Matthias on guest relations and Stefan on audio mastering. A big thank you guys. A lot of work goes into each and every episode.

[00:01:16] Next, I'd like to say a thank you to our sponsors. So I asked you to visit winglifepodcast.com forward slash sponsors to see who supports us behind the scenes. Thank you once again to Norah Foyles for all the support and we are looking forward to working with you for 2025. Now, we have some exciting news. We are rebranding to Foil Life. So it's going to be called the Foil Life Podcast.

[00:01:44] This is the last episode of the Wing Life Podcast. Nothing changes. We're just rebranding so we can bring on some different guests and cover a wider variety of topics for you guys and gals. So we are looking forward to this switchover and our first guest is going to be from the Foil Surf Race League. Brian, he is a Red Bull athlete and it's going to be an amazing episode.

[00:02:11] So make sure to tune in for that coming out next week. Lastly, check out our upcoming trips on our website. Visit winglifepodcast.com forward slash trips to see what's coming up for 2025. Now, I hope you enjoy this episode with Benji.

[00:02:36] Welcome to the Wing Life Podcast, where we talk about wing foiling and the lifestyles of those who enjoy this great sport. Well, my friend, thanks for coming on the show. We've been talking about it internally for a while. And we've seen you ride and absolutely sensational. So we just want to invite you on, have a little chat. Yeah. Because I don't know, I was talking to Tom Hartman, GWA.

[00:03:02] And you're training with Chris. I think you're going to be a contender. Hopefully next year. No, this year, actually. Yeah. Do you turn 14 this year? Yeah, I turn 14 this year. So it's the year you turn 14 and compete in the world. Mm hmm. Are you looking forward to doing that? Oh, yes, definitely. I've been waiting for two years now. That's amazing. When when did you start winging or get into water sports?

[00:03:31] I started winging like around three years ago. Wow. But water sports, that was about. Yeah. Four or five years ago. Wow. So yeah, I started kiting. No wind surfing, no nothing, just kiting. And then, well, my dad got interested in winging, right? So he bought a bunch of wing full equipment and then I got him my first day. And since then, almost every day winging. Oh, no way.

[00:04:00] So obviously you progress super quickly. So kind of a natural, a fairly natural born athlete then. Do you do any other sports? No, really, no. Oh, yeah. Only wing and kite. All right. All right. Where are you from? Well, I am from Colombia. My mom is from Colombia. My dad's from Denmark. I was born in Colombia. Colombia. But like, I don't live there.

[00:04:28] I mostly stay the whole winter down here in La Ventana and then the whole summer in Europe, around Europe. So you can get good wind seasons wherever you are? Yeah. Oh, nice. Basin Tarifa. Oh, Basin Tarifa. Oh, no way. Another Tarifa wonder. You guys got so many good kids coming out of there. It's unbelievable. Yeah. Did your dad, was it him that helped you kind of get into wind sports or was it your mom? Yeah, it was my dad.

[00:04:57] My dad had been doing kite surfing for over 20 years. So he really wanted to teach me. Yeah. Four hours a day every day. Four hours a day every day. So how was your wing foiling progression? Because when I was following you and Chris, like what, a couple weeks ago, like you're throwing double backflips now. You're working on 14s, right? I can do 14s already. You can do 14s in both ways? Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. In both ways. In regular. Okay.

[00:05:27] What was the first trick that you landed? And then how do you find that progression? Because you've progressed so quickly. Yeah. I mean, around, yeah, two and a half years ago because I was first happy, you know, trying to get my tags well, you know, learning everything first. And one of my first tricks was at 360.

[00:06:17] Obviously. Okay. And I mean, at least what was it that that three years ago, right? That's three years ago. Right after I learned the wing, I got really good at it immediately. So after that, I got a bunch of calls from different brands and Karina hit the spot and that was the one. They're a good company. What do you like the most about riding with them? I like that. It's kind of like a family, the team. We're all just together, right?

[00:06:46] We all know each other and obviously they are providing you very good gear. And I love that. Also the kind. Sweet. So and how's winter been so far in La Ventana this year? It's been windy and it's getting cold this past two weeks. It's been getting colder and colder. Today, it looks windy, but, you know, cold. I don't like that. But yeah, life's windy. I'll have to go. Yeah, that's true. What are you practicing with now?

[00:07:14] Right now, I'm trying to. I can do 1440s like regularly, maybe six out of 10 attempts. So I'm trying to get those 10 out of 10s and also double backflip. Kind of get those very unlocked. And yeah, it's mostly getting ready for a world tour. Getting ready for the world tour. All right, Tom Hartman. Benji is on his way.

[00:07:40] Is there a tour stop or in particular that you are looking the most forward to? That's the first one. And freestyle. Very windy and very cold. Mm hmm. Where is your home spot? So you're running out of Tarifa. Are there any other spots that you like to ride in Europe? Have you guys traveled a little bit out there? Yeah, we're traveling a bunch. We did a whole tour with Cabrinha all around Europe. So we went from...

[00:08:09] We left from Tarifa. We went to France. We went to Italy. We went to Switzerland. We went... Where else? There were so many spots. There was just also a bunch of spots around France. We did the Daki Wing in France. I'm pretty sure it's over 400 wingers. Oh, sick. That was really cool. Yeah. What was that experience like? Um... Really fast and really scary.

[00:08:38] Like, you know, if you fall, you get hit by wingers. There's so many. They're like everywhere. Yeah, they're all like involved. It's just one big clump, eh? Yeah. Oh, wow. Wow. How did you do in that one? A lot of fast people, I guess? Oh, yes. Like world champions, everything. And my... There was various races, right? My best one, I think I got 40th or 50th. Okay. I got 400 racers, so I'm pretty happy with myself about that.

[00:09:06] But mostly it was around, yeah, like 80th, 90th. Yeah, there's a lot of crazy racers out there. Yeah. What's your favorite discipline in winging? Freestyle, obviously. You're a bummer at... Are you ever thinking of getting into waves or into racing? Or is it mainly freestyle that you want to focus in? I think this year we're also doing all the wave tour. Oh, really? I think, yeah, Cabo Verde and then, you know, Morocco and all of the ones. Very nice. Yeah.

[00:09:35] You'll be able to do that with your family then? No way. All right. I know we talked with a lot of people when they were just doing single backflips and talking about all the steps. How does one even wrap their mind into doing a double? It took me a while to send it. It did it? Yeah. Because when I saw one of the first riders doing a Chris McDonald, I was just sitting in the camper, right? With all the other Camino riders.

[00:10:02] Of course, I was like, hey, I need to do this. We need to go to a wave spot and do this right now. But once I got there, I was like, I don't know. I don't know, man. Nah, but then after a couple turns, I was like, you know what? Full send. I don't care. Yeah. It is a full send, isn't it? Like full speed. And how high were you guys that day when I was in the water? Probably what? 10, 15 feet at least? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[00:10:32] Yeah, the double back's a super fun and scary trick at the same time. First rotation, not so bad. Does it get scarier within the second or is the whole? Oh, yeah. Because like I normally, at least me, I close my eyes on the first one. And I open them once I'm after the first one because you can hear the wind on your ear. Like, right? So you go for the first one. Then for the second one, you open and you see you're looking down. And you see the water right there. You're like, oh, now I got to go for a second one.

[00:11:04] Oh, no way. Yeah. So is that your trick? Yes. I love that trick. Wow. Do you do that for any of your other maneuvers? What? The opening eyes thing? Yeah. No, not really. Just a double back. No. Just a double back. Okay. Yeah. Do you think that they're ever going to do double forwards or is that just something that's just insane? One of, yeah, people have done double forwards already. Oh, really? Yeah. But it's super scary. I don't know if I want to try it. Yeah, that would be intense.

[00:11:34] Yeah, that would be absolutely intense. Huh. What other moves then do you really like doing in the water? I love doing palaus. It's basically a one-handed. You know, now with the booms, you can grab more the center of the wing, right? Freestyle. Everybody's using booms now. Because there's new tricks called back moves. Basically, it comes from kiting. Kite freestyle. You go. You do like a one-handed backflip. Mid-backflip. You do a handle pass, right? Okay. So for that, you need to build. You need to always have power in the weight.

[00:12:04] With a handle, you can't really have power because you're pulling up front. So with the broom, it's really nice. And yeah, I like doing back moves. Especially back moves to be 60s. It's a new trick that they made about a year ago. It's really cool. It's super scary and cool. Well, add it in the video B-roll so people can see what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because if you miss the bar, you're going right. And if you miss the bar, it's so scary because you miss it. And then you're like, oh, well, I'm upside down and I have no weight. Yeah. Oh, no.

[00:12:35] Yeah. Oh, my God. It's so painful. How do you naturally... Is sending it something that you build? Is the confidence that you build? Is it there because, let's say, you guys are younger and you haven't hurt yourselves? How does that send come into... Because you have to just go for it in this. I feel like it's just turn your brain off for about 10 seconds. And then the trick. I've never really been scared to send any tricks.

[00:13:05] Well, extend the back flip. That's the only one, really. Yeah. For the rest, you just have to not think about it. I mean, it's water. It can't be that bad. It's going to hurt, but it's not... It can't be that bad. At least I think. But... Yeah. You're young enough. Do you do any cross-training outside of the water to help your body kind of stay fit or stronger to get yourself to get to stuff? Not really. I think I should start, though.

[00:13:35] For a world tour, I think I pretty much... I need it. Start with body weight exercises is what I did when I was 13. And you slowly build your own body strength up. And then you can slowly throw in weights later. But I think that's probably the best bet to do is just start with some slowly body... And then try to mimic what you're currently doing in the water and see what happens. Do you ever do any trampoline training? Or any kind of land-based training before you throw a new trick? I mean, down here, I'm telling you, you can't have trampoline. Because with the salt, they all break.

[00:14:06] But yeah, when I was at Hood River, when I used to live in Colombia, that's all I did, basically. Trampoline and skating and tutoring. That's what is probably helping you now, right? Because you've got a good awareness of your body. Oh, that's super cool. Well, when you're not in the water, what are your other favorite things to do? Do homework and wait till the wind comes in. Yeah, I imagine. Are you doing school here in Mexico? Well, yeah, I'm doing online.

[00:14:36] Online school? All right. So that kind of works well so you can do your schooling and then get out on the water at the best time and kind of come back in? Yes. Oh, that's awesome. I'm assuming a lot of young athletes do that same thing, eh? Most of them are just, you know, their schools, they have an online program. So they do it for them. But now in the world tour. Did you ever think that you would get the opportunity to be on the world tour at such a young age? Like find a sport like this, excel so much at it, and then like get to compete with all these top ranked people?

[00:15:07] I mean, yeah, I was pretty confident I could become very good at the sport and slowly start building up to maybe world champion next year or maybe this year. I don't know. We'll see. Watch out, Christopher. He's coming. Yeah. That's exciting though. That must make you happy and give you a lot of stuff to work towards. Yeah. That's sweet. And it's awesome that you have a supportive family as well in that you live in different locations. That's kind of cool, eh? Yeah. My dad also is all day in the water with me, filming every day. Oh, yeah?

[00:15:37] Oh, that's so sweet. I wasn't sure who was filming most of your content, but that's your dad. That's awesome. Yeah. My dad and friends. How many, like, do you have other Cabrera riders down here with you that you get to train with? I know you're riding with Chris a lot and I think Patrick was down here too, riding with Chris. And he just left, but another Cabrera rider is Icey Potter. He's down here sometimes waiting with me. And he lives in San Diego, so he comes out and up. So, but when he's down here, we both just train down here together with Chris and everybody. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:06] No, it seems like it's a nice little family down there for you guys, all kind of training and progressing together. Now, do you share your tricks amongst each other? Are there certain things you keep in your back pocket? It depends. Depends how good the trick is or how hard it is. If it's a really cool trick, I don't say it. Yeah. Okay. A little bit. Because you got a little bit of an edge, right? Yeah. Oh, that's cool. That's exciting. Yeah. Okay.

[00:16:34] So your goal next year is to start competing, do the tour, which would be phenomenal. Um, you got a good repertoire of tricks already in the bag. You're working on some other ones as well. So that's fun. Um, talking Cabrinha gear, like which, what's the main board that you're riding? What wings do you like? Foils? Um, right now I'm riding the 2025 code that just came out. I'm riding the 4-2. That is 45 liters. Okay.

[00:17:03] And for wings, my preferred wings are division, the model division. Three meters, three-five, and four meters. Those are my go-to sides. Three, three, five, and four? Four. Yeah. Okay. So looking at the board, um, how much do you weigh? In pounds or kilos? Uh, kilos. In kilos? Or pounds, doesn't matter. 60? Yeah, 60 kilos. So you're riding like 15 under your body weight? I don't know. I don't know how much or pounds. What? Oh, that's okay.

[00:17:30] No, so you're riding about 15 liters below your body weight in kgs. Yeah. So, because when I was seeing you guys, like, those landings can get fairly intense, right? So a smaller board will help because you, because 15 liters below your body weight, like, how much is that sinking when you go to hop on your board? That must be sinking, what, a foot or something? Or? Yeah, how about that? Maybe, maybe sometimes my knees.

[00:17:58] Um, I feel like maybe, um, I need to get a board with a little bit more liters, maybe 50. Maybe for the world tour, I only had a 50 liter. Yeah, because. Landings, is it better? Is it, for landings, is it better with a smaller board? More liters is better for landings. No. Oh, really? More liters. Yeah. Really? Because, so when you land, you know, when it's like, let's say light wind, you don't have much power at landing. So you kind of sink a little bit. To get that perfect, clean landing, you want those liters to keep you up off the water.

[00:18:27] You don't want, you don't want the board to sink. So you kind of want it to be a little bit floater and a little bit of sinker. You have to be in the middle. Okay. All right. And is it easier on body wise if it's a little bit less volume? Like obviously the landing is softer, but then you stick more. Yeah. Oh, so it's a funny balance. It's a fun balance between the two of them. Oh, fair, fair, fair. So what do you like so much about their wings?

[00:18:52] Um, especially with the new 25 wings, I feel like they have, um, obviously added new material. So the wing is way lighter. Um, especially for freestyle, I feel like the vision because of its like visual angle, that will make the wing. That's what makes the wings like a beat, right? The wind kind of hits off the panel and sends the wing to spinning. So for spinning, I feel like it's pretty good for spinning the wing. Also for flip kind of cuts through the wind. Um, yeah. For freestyle, for me, that's my go-to obviously the vision.

[00:19:22] That's what I like about it. And also the mantis, that's for wave riding. It's a completely flat wing. Well, not completely, but it's pretty much flat. So basically for waves, it kind of stays behind you straight. The vision for waves kind of goes a little bit to the side and like, it's like a balance, right? So yeah, the mantis, I feel like I don't prefer for freestyle. I'm just liking it for waves. So the more it kind of flies back and forth, it's easier for spins. How is it back flip and front flip with a wing that does that?

[00:19:52] Do you prefer to oscillate left and right or do you prefer it to be stable? It kind of does that when you have the dihedral angle, right? Okay. When it's flat, it kind of just cuts to the wind straight. When it has this, it kind of goes like this when you're holding by the front handle. So for let's say a back flip, right? You have the wing that's like this. So instead of it being completely flat, it just flip like this. It kind of goes back. The wing kind of hits it and makes it go flip.

[00:20:19] Once you go a little bit back in the wind kind of like pulls it back. And also on the bigger sizes, you have the most dihedral, right? So instead of the wingtips hitting the water, they're kind of more like this off the water. So it does make your tricks easier. Definitely. All the pros on the tour are using wings. Do you know what?

[00:20:42] What do you think you would have to do trick-wise to contend with the likes of, let's say, Chris or come in a high ranking for, let's say, in the next couple of years? I feel like as long as I land the tricks I have right now in the bag, I don't know if I, maybe I can beat him, possibly. But I think, yeah, I can definitely do good in the tour if I can land all my tricks. So then your time spent here is just continuously refining, refining, refining? Yeah. Every day.

[00:21:13] Every day. I guess that's what it takes, doesn't it? Definitely. Definitely. How do you, let's say, mentally overcome a tough day if you fall a lot? Or how do you handle a good day and then back it up with not a good day? Is there tricks and stuff that you've learned to help you with that? No. Just sleep on it and the next day you'll be better. That makes sense. That makes sense. Cool.

[00:21:41] Who's your favorite person to ride with? I guess, other than your dad and stuff, do you have a favorite athlete or people that you learn from? A little mentor and stuff in the water? Everybody. I like riding with everybody. What do you like the most about La Ventana? Why do you guys come here in the winter? Because it's almost windy every single day. And that's what we need. We can't have, let's say, a week with no wind. We need every single day. And down here, yeah, it's mostly like that.

[00:22:07] Here we have kind of, if you go down to South Beach, right, you'll most of the times have a little bit of waves, right? So you can feel a little bit of wave riding. And up here in the campground, you kind of have choppy water for free South Carolina Perfect. So just, there's everything. And the food's pretty good too, right? Oh yeah, definitely. Can't complain at the tacos. My brother and I went to two for one tacos at Los Guacamayas or something last night. And they're like 20 pesos a piece.

[00:22:36] And it's always fun to go out there, to go out there on Wednesday nights. It does get pretty busy. So that's cool. All right. Is there anything that you think, let's say, somebody who is looking at progressing their tricks could help them? I know that mindset obviously is one of them, but just from what I got from the lesson when I was following you guys was just to continue to try new things. And don't be afraid of falling and just keep going.

[00:23:05] And having the right gear, full standing because, also full setting, sorry. And the right gear is also very important because you can't have a set full on your front wing for doing backflips or something. And it's too big, it's just too heavy to block. You need at least that 600, 630 to be able to do it. You can't, it's way more dangerous trying it with big wings and like big foils, big boards, than trying it with some small, perfect right gear. Interesting.

[00:23:33] This is something we haven't talked about on the podcast yet. So what is the ideal setup, for example? Because we can just build it up based on the weight. Somebody must be making food back there. Nice. So what is the ideal, let's say foil and kind of board size? Because you were saying 50 liter would be more ideal for you. Um, yeah. And then, so what, what kind of foil would be the ideal setup for somebody just learning to jump?

[00:24:03] Um, I think depends on your weight, but let's say somebody. If they're your weight. Yeah. If they're my weight, uh, let's say a foil. Yeah. 700 or 650. And the board. Yeah. Around 50 or 60 liter. And yeah, just side and go with the smallest, like the right. You don't have to be super powered to do a bunch of tricks. Some tricks, like let's say 1440s, you need a lot of weight.

[00:24:33] You need to be able to go super high up. Be able to do those four spins. Plus, let's say backflip, you need that much height. So you kind of can be underpowered just to be able to do that flip easier with a smaller weight. Now talk us through that 1440. Like how was that running that thing through the first time? So can say, and this you land. Yeah. I can imagine. I can imagine. How much height are you looking at getting for something like that? I don't know. Probably 15 feet at least. Yeah.

[00:25:03] 15, 20 feet. Maybe this depends on me. Does. So just looking at the right ramp, fully loaded and then kicking off, going as high as you can and then starting your rotations from there. Definitely. All right. And you cannot bail. You bail and you will die. Yeah. Like, obviously, you just got to commit through the whole thing, don't you? Trust me, I've done it before. Have you? How was that landing?

[00:25:28] Well, I have scars all like on my knees from the foil. That's just I'm not full setting. Yeah. Any kind of injury so far or even other than cuts and bruises like those things still really hurt? Yeah. Not really, but no, I haven't had any injuries. Beautiful. Hopefully not in the future. Yeah. No, absolutely. That's awesome. Footstraps. I'm thinking about starting into footstraps. Finally, any pros and cons of footstraps and you're just riding small waves here?

[00:25:59] Because I kind of saw Patrick get stuck in them once and he had a pretty good face plant. But that's a conversation you get when you get older. I'm sure your dad would be having the same conversation as me. Is it worth it? Is it not worth it? What do you think? Um, I feel like for waves, if you're trying to get those sharp turns, footstraps are definitely worth it. Because you can kind of lean on the board and kind of pull the board towards the turns. Right. And, but if you're not looking to do the sharp turns, I don't think footstraps is needed because you can get stuck in them.

[00:26:28] And if you fall, that's kind of painful, but not good. Yeah. I've seen some. How do you set up yours? There's some guys that like them super tight, super wide, so you can kind of wiggle out of them. Do you have like a preferred method for setting yours up? I like them not too tight or not too loose. I like them so I can get out of my footstraps if I'm in trouble, but I also like them so it's not, my foot doesn't come out of the straps. Just depends the size of your foot. All right.

[00:26:57] So you're doing school online, any kind of, what grade are you in now? You're in grade nine or 10? What? I'm an eight. You're in grade eight? Yeah. And are there any other, your close friends like from Columbia or from other parts that are into water sports like this? Or was your family more, I guess coming from Tarifa in that area? Yeah. I know. It's just, it's just my, just my dad. Now I'm missing me. Yeah. Any other sports he does? He's a big kiter. He's a big kiter, a winger. He started with windsurfing.

[00:27:27] But no, any other sports that I know of. No. All right. That's cool. I'll have to meet up. Be nice to meet him. Nice to meet him. Uh, is there anything else that you want to talk about, about Cabrina or just even about the lifestyle to help other kids kind of get into this? Um, I just want to thank Cabrina and Dakine for supporting me over these years and giving me all the gear that I need and obviously very good gear. Uh, and yeah, whatever you want to talk about. Dakine.

[00:27:55] So what gear are you riding for, for Dakine? I'm riding mainly wetsuits, foot straps, and just, yeah, that's basically it. Um, because Cabrina has bought the wind part of the kind, right? So right now I just have the foot straps and obviously wets does the wind part of them. Okay. How do you like their wetsuits? I'm riding mystic right now for the first time and, uh, it's their higher end line, the majestic, I believe. And I really like it. It keeps me warm here.

[00:28:24] Um, how are the Dakine suits? Oh, I love my, like, I too. They're super warm, super warm. They don't stretch out easy. Um, they're really tight. Right. And so no water comes in. They're like super tight on the, uh, how do you say it? Oh, on the cuffs? On the cuffs. Yeah. They're super tight on the cuffs. They have like those little gummies, whatever they're called. Right. So they hold your arms pretty tight. So you don't have no water coming in anywhere. And they're like, they're really durable. They don't break. Nice. That's important.

[00:28:52] Cause you don't want to replace suits too often. Yeah. Um, are, are we able to ask what your next big move is? Yeah. I gotta see what, how do I move yet? Or, or, or if you can't say it, is there a general direction? Do you think people are getting into triple backs or are they just going to do a combination of doubles into something? I think doubles into something. I've got it close to doubles into 60. Um, but I don't know about triples. Triples is a lot, a lot of back. No kidding.

[00:29:22] Cause there was triple attempts in windsurfing, I think, but they all ended pretty badly. Yeah. Yeah. Like pretty badly. So you would do one rotation, two rotation. And then as you're coming down, spin. No, it would be just into a combo. Uh, you know, you lay back up in New York 360. You do 360. Okay. Yeah. Well, the wind this week, I think we had a couple of big days. It's 16 to 20. It is getting a bit colder though, isn't it?

[00:29:51] We're getting a little spoils here with this heat. Yeah. And it's a bit cloudy. Cloudy as well. But, um, I give a little shout out to Alex, my neighbor here, his son, Santee got your two and a half meter. I believe he bought that off you. Oh yeah. Yeah. My dad told me. Yeah. He's such a, he's 13 as well. So he's just getting into it. So he was super stoked to be able to meet you and everybody else down there. And thanks a lot for like being, um, giving tips and being like, there's some athletes

[00:30:21] that are, that are just more naturally like a friendlier and giving out information. And I know you guys are down there. So it's cool. Cause you never know what that's going to do for, for somebody that that's might compete or might just have fun. So do you enjoy that? Always happy to help. Do you enjoy that aspect of things? Do you enjoy that aspect of kind of helping and being a bit more in the spotlight? Yeah. I don't, I like helping people. I mean, it's always nice, right?

[00:30:47] Giving people information about what they need and gear and yeah, just always happy to help. Any trips that are coming up that you're really looking forward to after you leave here? Any trips? Oh, after I leave in, no, actually in a week, I'm going up to SD San Diego. I'm going to go pick up some gear. 2025. Yeah. Ooh, we probably can't talk about it, but that'll be pretty. It's out already. Oh, is it out already? Oh, sorry. Okay. So what are you picking up?

[00:31:14] I'm picking up just a bunch of wings, you know, around, I don't know how many, but it's like a ton of wings and just different sizes and stuff. We're not here for all the time. Do you go through wings often, like gear often trying these tricks? Like, is it almost how hard is it on the equipment? Oh, really? Almost never. I never rip wings anymore. That'll get destroyed anymore, at least. Did you at the start or was that the wing and the materials are so much better?

[00:31:43] No, just, I never really crashed that hard anymore. Sometimes, but like barely. And no, no, I didn't use to or do rip many wings. A couple of times I have, but not often. Yeah. So are you going to get out there today? Anything you're going to practice specifically? Well, right now I'm looking outside the window. I'm right now on the beach, right? I'm looking out and it looks like it's 20 knots.

[00:32:10] So yeah, I'm probably going to 3-5, I think, like in about 40 minutes. Okay. All right. All right. Just going to try everything. Define everything. See what happens. Okay. That's pretty exciting. Well, hey, thanks for coming on. That's the one thing. Like I saw the, it does take a lot of patience, doesn't it? And just to continuously jump and jump. But I saw you guys.

[00:32:39] Anyway, super impressive what you can do. And I'm super excited to see you at the point where you can now get into the tour and compete and have a great time on there. I think that's going to be such an amazing experience and it's going to be really fun to see you rip against everybody else. Represent for the local team, you know? Well, thank you for having me on your podcast. It was really fun and hopefully I'll see you in the water today. Yeah, I think my brother's here for like four or five more days.

[00:33:06] So we're going to go and I'll probably down, I normally downwind to just South Beach and play there and I climb back up. So I'll see you around. I think you climbed up to, you were up at Latuna a couple of days ago, weren't you? Yeah, we went to pass Hot Springs. Oh, that's what it was. Yeah, okay. Because there aren't very many, because people throwing flips in this area of town. It's mainly for the South. Yeah. It's mainly beginners up here.

[00:33:35] But anyways, thanks Benji and I'll see you in the water. No worries. Thank you for having me. You're welcome. Awesome. So how can people follow you on Instagram and get to know more about you? Free Living 8. Yeah, just there I have all my stuff, all my posts, all my tricks, all everything. And yeah, we really appreciate you to follow. Sounds good. All right, Benji. Thanks, buddy. And we will see you soon. Thank you.

[00:34:04] All right, everybody.