Episode #96 - Tom Court

Tom Court (00:01.81)
For a while now. It's good.

Luc Moore (00:04.59)
We're just starting to get to know them a little bit more. Met Taylor last year when we went to AWSI. Great dude. And Matt, our team member, it's hilarious because Frank rides loves North and Matt loves Duotone. So we always have this interesting inner dialogue between our team members and stuff.

Tom Court (00:28.294)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (00:30.383)
So many good companies that they're producing awesome gear. We'll put it to start off with that, it's a, dohton's definitely pushing some good stuff.

Tom Court (00:35.75)
Yeah, definitely. mean, come-

Tom Court (00:41.584)
In the end, competition is good for everyone, you know? Like when it comes to that sort of thing. mean, was riding, mean, Duotone was north anyway for quite a while. So when I joined, it was north. So I feel like I rode for north for half of my career and then Duotone for the other half, you know? But it's the same. It was the same company and the same people.

Luc Moore (00:46.113)
I think so.

Luc Moore (01:04.718)
Yeah. Um, you've been at this for a little while, man. Um, do you want to kind of walk us through a bit of that? Those early days? I saw like your, I think your first video on YouTube today and, uh, like your gap year video. That was pretty sick.

Tom Court (01:18.44)
Yeah, yeah, I guess I've been we we we started already. We're uploading something. We're rolling. OK, yeah, I guess my yeah, my first my first video was quite a while ago. It was back in the day as that. Yeah, back in the day, as they say now. And it was something that I always wanted to do. I didn't start filming at the same time I started kiting, but.

Luc Moore (01:25.026)
Yeah, we're rolling, yeah.

Luc Moore (01:36.686)
20 years it said.

Tom Court (01:48.249)
I always wanted to represent kiting well and show what was possible with kiteboarding and it's pretty much started for me in my gap year, yeah, from going to university here in the UK and taking a year out and spending a whole year traveling, chasing the world tour at the time, riding freestyle, kiteboarding and making videos and trying to kind of show people that it was possible. Actually,

mostly inspired by the guys in Maui back in the day from watching all the old windsurfing videos and the guys learning to kitesurf on Kite Beach in Maui. yeah, kind of the video side of things came from you guys.

Luc Moore (02:30.208)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (02:35.834)
sick, yeah shout out to Maui Foyle House here for our little studio while we're, while we're at here. But how did you even get interested in kiteboarding back then? Cause that was, that was pretty early on.

Tom Court (02:47.194)
Yeah, initially my parents took me out of school when I was, when I think I was eight years old or something like that. And my dad always wanted to go and windsurf Hoockeeper in, in Maui. And, then that, you know, that was, that was the beginning of the journey really. So they took me out of school for a holiday to Maui and we ended up there in 98. And it was sort of the time that

You know, Robbie and Flash and Lou and all the original OG kiders were learning and just playing around with Whippaker classics and like the first ever sort of, guess, commercial inflatable kites. yeah, that was where I saw it first. And my dad sort of bought, I don't know who bought the kite off, like Dave Nash or something, you know, old school name on the beach.

right there in Spreckelsville and he just got straight on a two-line kite and started learning. And that was where I first saw it and that was where the idea was sort of seeded for me. So it was right at the start of the whole thing really. So it was good. It good place to be.

Luc Moore (03:55.542)
How was, yeah, 100%, how was riding those two lines in those early days of kites? must have been insane.

Tom Court (04:03.866)
Yeah, it was, it was, I remember every time you went out on a two line Whippaker Classic, you kind of crossed yourself on the beach beforehand because it was, you never knew whether it was going to be your first and last session at the same time. It definitely wasn't as safe and as approachable as a sport as it is today. And you had to have a very, yeah, innovation mindset that you were going to go out and just, yeah, I remember it being a

a scary concept going for a kite surfing session, you know?

Luc Moore (04:35.903)
Looking back, did you see that progression move quickly or how did that progression go? Because you got to see it almost from that beginning.

Tom Court (04:46.096)
Yeah, was it was very it was an exciting place to be right at the beginning of the sport with so much energy from everybody in it like every everybody that was doing it at the time was was an innovator of sorts and and with a sort of progression mindset. So it really did progress quickly. You everybody was a dream. Everybody was trying different things. And in many ways, it's sort of what we see now in wing foiling and

you know, new mini kite wings that coming out and you can kind of see the enthusiasm for the development of these sort of crazy ideas, let's say, that sort of will eventually seed something new and a new direction for a sport. And kite surfing was very much like that at the beginning, you know, everybody trying different board shapes, different kite styles, different line lengths, different bars.

Luc Moore (05:17.26)
That's right.

Tom Court (05:40.777)
So every session was seeing some sort of development some sort of You know rolling up the tips to kind of make it four lines or you know riding Pickle fork wakeboards or trying boots or straps or strapless It was like every session something was was had never been done before that was being tried so I had that feeling about it of you know constant change which I think was a was appealing at the time and it really felt like you were

at the start of something that could become anything you wanted it to be.

Luc Moore (06:12.428)
Yeah, like kind of complete freedom and untapped potential. That's pretty sick. When did, I guess the idea get deeper into you actually wanting to sink more of your life into this was just that gap year and stuff like that at uni or, or when did the potential of turning pro go?

Tom Court (06:29.572)
Yeah, mean, the gap year sort of turned into three pretty quickly. I can't say going back to university was my first priority at that point. mean, I guess doing that much traveling and seeing different places in the world really opened my eyes to sort of the possibilities that were different to the possibilities that I had at home here on the Isle of Wight.

Luc Moore (06:35.606)
Yeah, I can hear that.

Tom Court (06:57.83)
I think it just, yeah, that age at that time and also having parents that were sort of open to the idea of doing something different in life really, you know, seeded me on that path in a way. I mean, I still kept on with my, you know, education and my typical path. Yeah. Thanks to my mom pretty much that kept me going down that road for as long as I could or as long as I needed to. And then, yeah, I sort of, I guess it really...

Luc Moore (07:17.817)
Nice.

Tom Court (07:27.076)
It really started by me wanting to use kitesurfing to travel and explore the world and use that opportunity and that sport to explore. I think pretty much since that day I've almost, I've probably been on a handful of trips that I can count that haven't been to do with kitesurfing. So everything for me shifted in that direction and that became my priority. So every trip was about going to a place that was good for kitesurfing.

Luc Moore (07:47.191)
Hmm

Tom Court (07:56.445)
you know, or following an event or a competition or going there for a reason. And when I decided to take a longer gap year and not go back to university, I used that opportunity to broker a deal with with boards and more, which was, you know, North at the time. And, you know, because I had a few other sponsors beforehand, but I hadn't really, you know, I wasn't at the age where it was appropriate to take it seriously. Or, you know, I didn't I didn't really kind of treat it seriously. But when I

took time out of my education to do it. I treated it very much like an internship, And that was sort of when I started my video production company at that same time and took it quite seriously from a competition standpoint as well. it shifted from something I was really interested in that I really enjoyed into something that I would treat a bit more seriously and go towards and see where it went. I didn't have necessarily a...

Luc Moore (08:29.198)
Mm-hmm

Tom Court (08:54.216)
an end goal in mind, just thought I would take it a bit more seriously in my life.

Luc Moore (08:57.993)
And you've been with boards and more ever since.

Tom Court (09:04.872)
Yeah, so that was in 2005. So guess it took from essentially 99 or 2000 when I first got a kite in my hands to five years later when I met the Baltimore team out in Fuerteventura, coincidentally on the beach, and then ended up competing with them in the World Cup out there. And at that point, that was 2005. And that was my first entry onto the team. with Sky Solbach and Jaime.

and some of the original voice.

Luc Moore (09:38.426)
Yeah, the OGs. man, that's awesome. Did you kind of, was that just a really big surprise that kind of hit you? Like, you ever anticipated entering down this kind of path compared to traditionalism kind of thing?

Tom Court (09:51.195)
No, never really. I think it wasn't even in the conscious mind space at that time. I I'd grown up as a young, young kid watching, you know, RIP and the Maui productions and Lead Hamilton doing crazy things on Jaws. So, you know, I had the vision that people were doing that. But I didn't have the idea that it was a potential career or even a possibility when it came to

Luc Moore (09:57.191)
Yeah.

Tom Court (10:20.676)
something as a job, know, like I guess, you know, outside of the system, wasn't that opportunity painted in this country at all. it really, never headed towards it like it was going to be my full-time career initially until I kind of made that step to take it a bit more seriously.

Luc Moore (10:43.945)
Well, it's one of the like, there aren't that many people right that are able to do this full time. There's so many different pieces that tie into it financial and like, so how can you maybe tell us a little bit how you were able to put those pieces together? it a combination of a bunch of things?

Tom Court (11:01.896)
Yeah, was definitely a combination of a bunch of things and a bunch of people that helped me out along the way. Definitely my parents, kind of, I guess, believing in the idea that I was shooting for, know, me being a vocal about trying to do it and explaining it to people around me. And quite honestly, at that point, was more prize money in competition. So like, you when I moved from being British champion,

So which I got, I got junior champion and I got, you know, top flight champion. It was called at the time, which was sort of the adult champion. was sort of hot on the heels of Aaron Hadler at the time who'd won it the year before. And he then moved on to the world tour. So I had him sort of, you know, literally a year in front of me paving the way. And he was sort of almost world champion. I think by the time I moved from the UK onto the world tour.

Luc Moore (11:42.888)
Wow.

Tom Court (11:58.505)
So he gave up his school education a year earlier than me and progressed onto it. then, yeah, once I moved onto the world tour, there was prize money involved, you know? And every event, I would sort of come, you know, I started coming seventh, fifth, third, you know, podiuming in the odd event. And, you know, to podium at that point, you would win, you know, two or 3000 bucks or more. And even coming seventh, I remember winning...

Luc Moore (12:08.82)
Okay.

Tom Court (12:25.704)
you know, a thousand euros or something for seventh place. So, so for me at that point, you know, over 20 years ago, that was, that was a decent amount of money in comparison to, yeah, in comparison to today. So I kind of beg, borrowed and steal my way between events, you know, although I was flying around the world, I would, you know, find photographers like Toby Bromwich, he still does a lot of, you know, a lot of work within the industry and it's done very well as well as a photographer within the industry.

Luc Moore (12:27.322)
Hmm. That's decent money, yeah.

Luc Moore (12:39.112)
that

Tom Court (12:55.738)
He, yeah, I remember finding out where he was staying and crashing on his couch and really like sleeping in cars and you know, just getting, doing anything I could to, yeah, doing anything I could to save money and to make the prize money just go as far as it would. I, you know, for probably three or four years, I did a world tour on a real budget, on a dime budget, you know, like just, and you wouldn't get the money until you...

Luc Moore (12:59.848)
Getting it done.

Luc Moore (13:20.36)
Hmm. Hmm.

Tom Court (13:23.186)
performed so you'd have to upfront invest the little money that I had saved at the time and then it would either come back in prize money and then or you would get you know you get the sponsor to match your prize money so you would almost double the prize money or you know you would broker some deal that said if I make this effort and I do this you know will you reimburse me afterwards so it was kind of proof proving the point at the time that it was that you were motivated enough to do it and to get there it wasn't like

There was no money up front. It was like, you're putting everything on the line to kind of make this happen. That's what it felt like anyway.

Luc Moore (13:59.486)
Mm-hmm. Well, I think that that guarantees some good results, I guess, for both because you got a full commit, you got a full send, I guess.

Tom Court (14:07.016)
Yeah, you got to commit to it and believe in yourself to the point where you kind of were willing to lose everything at the time as well. yeah, it just, you know, it worked out. I can't say, you know, I came top 10 in the world, overall rankings. And then, you know, I never, I didn't win the world tour, but I did well and I really enjoyed it. And I was definitely, you know, I became

sort of embedded in the scene, I guess. And I got to know everybody all the, you know, at the time it was Hadlow, Lenton, you know, myself, Tom Herbert, like some of the bigger, you know, old school names that are still there today. yeah, was a good group of unique characters to be, to know and to be part of. So it kind of set me well in the industry, definitely.

Luc Moore (15:01.118)
Yeah, I can imagine. Let's talk a bit about your, your video production where you get your kind of creative and they're just fun videos to watch. Very, they're just creative. Where do you always been there? Or is that something that kind of came naturally as you're progressing?

Tom Court (15:16.36)
Well, like I explained, guess, my original motivation was from watching videos, you know, and at the beginning that was VHS, right? So had to wait two years to get a VHS tape from Maui that had been filmed two or three years earlier. So you were watching old news, but those were the things that really inspired me. And I guess that, you know, went through Snowball movies and, you know, all the industries that had a backbone in

Luc Moore (15:22.99)
Yeah, fair.

Yeah.

Tom Court (15:44.473)
know, creative writers making video projects and putting them out as movies. know, the combination of music and the creativity and sort of the storytelling behind it always, you know, inspired me. And when I came to kiting, it felt like kite surfing was a blank canvas and no one was doing it. No one was making movies. Everybody was hustling to try and make events happen or, you know, try and, you know, actually just make it work, I guess. So for me,

Luc Moore (16:02.065)
Hmm.

Tom Court (16:12.564)
The logical step was to make a movie or to start in that train of thinking to get to a point where I can make a movie about kiting and about my life and kiting. And then it was a big progress from building myself up in competition to a point where I could pitch to brands and sponsors and say, I want to take a year out and make a movie.

That was where the free ride project started and I partnered up with James Boulding, Sam Light and Aaron Hadlow and we spent a whole year making a movie that was in 2011, released in 2012. It was like 45 minutes, a whole year of filming. At that point we were like, you know, you had to rent a helicopter to film for an hour and you know, to get a couple of drone shots, you know. So it was like a...

Luc Moore (16:47.686)
no way. Yeah.

Tom Court (17:06.79)
It was a bigger deal. yeah, my original inspiration was behind video. you know, that for me, that was the method of showing it to other people. that was my vision for the sport.

Luc Moore (17:19.557)
And what's that called? was like court on. What was that name?

Tom Court (17:23.72)
Well, no, like so, so then then you've got the evolution of of what's happened in video, right, which includes the distribution of today. So, you know, at that point in 2011, the Internet was a was a lot smaller than it is now. think YouTube, you know, had just begun. It wasn't the same platform that it is now.

And so it was much more about movies and long form production. And you know, could, you could tell as a producer that everybody's attention span was getting shorter and the media was getting smaller and smaller and everything was drifting towards an internet distribution. But that meant less people were making movies. So that's where I started. And then now caught in the act is my sort of vlog series that is on my YouTube channel. And I think I can't remember when I shifted from

Luc Moore (17:49.934)
Mmm.

Luc Moore (18:01.382)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Tom Court (18:16.294)
movie production into like vlog style output. It was probably about probably about 10 years ago now. But yeah, caught in the act is my is my vlog series, which which is a lot more ad hoc film, you know, film what happens in the day and make the mission out of it, tell the story and then and then get it out there. And I put try and out 10 minutes a week of like adventure, lifestyle and sport sports action. Yeah, just

Luc Moore (18:41.101)
Hmm. that's cool. Any highlights of some of the top places that you've been around the world or some of the fun or most craziest adventures?

Tom Court (18:46.31)
doing fun things really.

Tom Court (18:57.328)
Yeah, I mean, it's amazing where it's led me in terms of, mean, kitesurfing as a whole and generally water sports has taken me all around the world. then, you know, now I've got my vlog series, which takes me all over the place as well. I've literally just come back from Honduras, visiting a place called Camp Bay Lodge on the island of Rotan. And, you know, I got invited out there to go and create content there and...

and make some vlogs on the island exploring the place where no one's really kiting and kitesurfing with sharks and doing crazy things that it's hard to get the opportunity to do. all of that comes off the back of the and putting out content and telling the story of what's possible with kitesurfing, which is still the reason why I got into it.

Luc Moore (19:33.752)
Yeah, I just saw that one.

Tom Court (19:54.461)
Yes, I've kind of tried to stay true to what I really enjoy doing. I can't say I fully enjoy or have worked out the vlogging format yet because it's so ad hoc and so spontaneous that it does, it has definitely affected the cinematic production because I would say, know, normally you would consider a video for two or three months.

Luc Moore (19:56.773)
It's tougher.

Yeah.

Luc Moore (20:17.602)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Court (20:21.832)
at least, know, like back in the day. then now, um, you know, putting 10 minutes out a week. uh, you know, 10, a 10 minute considered movie is, you know, quite a considerable production when, when you, when you take into account and a 10 minute vlog is something that you've got to just rattle out and sort of, um, skip, skip a bunch of processes in order to get it out there, but still retain the storytelling and the info and, uh, you know, and the fun behind it.

Luc Moore (20:49.507)
Yeah, I guess it's a mixture of yeah, I guess quick, I guess quick decisions. And yeah, I what you're saying. It is a little bit different though than the long drawn out process might that you would do our good friend who does our audio mastering. He's a videographer and he takes a long time to go through actually everything meticulous and break stuff down so I can see where you're coming from. Yeah, it's just a different art form.

Tom Court (21:10.606)
Yeah, it's a different, it's something I really struggled with initially because obviously, like I mentioned, my background was much more in the mindset of making movies and making, you know, and really considering each shot. So like you'd get to a spot, you know, that's one reason why I got heavily into kitesurfing park and rails and kickers because cinematically,

it was a really nice thing to film because you'd have a kicker, you'd know exactly the trajectory of the trick that you were going to do and you'd understand the shot and then you could frame it nicely and it was really something that was a bit like skateboarding when it came to filming a video, you know? you know, now filming a big air kite video is so crazy in terms of like your framing because...

The tricks are massive. You don't know where anyone's gonna go exactly. You don't know how high it's gonna be. You've gotta get the kite in. There's so much to consider. Whereas initially when we got into wake style, it was much more urban and you could frame everything. And from a filmic sense, it was very nice to capture. And kiting's such an expressive free ride sport that there's so many different genres just in the riding.

Luc Moore (22:18.187)
True.

Tom Court (22:30.224)
let alone in the filming. it was, yeah, it's been an evolution for me to like, a, you know, focus to film, it's definitely pushes you in lots of different directions.

Luc Moore (22:41.977)
Here, let's talk a little bit about your TV appearance in the UK. So I watched that one. That was pretty sick too. Just how you're able to kind of introduce cutting at that kind of, that's a pretty special moment.

Tom Court (22:53.722)
Yeah, it was. mean, yeah, to another major passion of mine as well as to take kiting into the more mainstream direction, especially here in the UK, because I feel that, you know, like, again, moving back to the States and to Hawaii, you guys have such a good history and a tradition of supporting innovation when it comes to water sports and, you know, athletes getting involved in it. You know, there's so many like, in fact, almost all of the watermen legends.

from back in the day coming out of of Maui and Hawaii and and I it's been a passion of mine to take kite surfing to the mainstream more here in the UK and and to explain to people how good it is for you You know for you and for the fitness and mental health and just how great it is to do So yeah getting invited to to say was it Sunday? Good morning, Britain. Was it good morning, Britain or Sunday lunch or something like that, but

Luc Moore (23:38.946)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (23:49.506)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Tom Court (23:49.539)
mainstream TV here to introduce kitesurfing to the nation and talk a little bit about the Olympics before it was in the Olympics. To just bring it to people and bring the dynamic of kitesurfing to people here in the UK was a great honour and just being in that environment on mainstream TV and becoming a bit of a personality in that level here in the UK has been a great honour really for me.

something I've always been passionate about.

Luc Moore (24:19.661)
Yeah, no, absolutely. Like anybody who's blessed with actually finding a sport or a career or anything that they absolutely love, it's always an honor to be able to add whatever you can to it. so like you don't, countless people have found it and it's completely changed their lives. So it's pretty cool that you're able to do that. I can see that.

Tom Court (24:37.062)
Yeah, mean, yeah, the amount of people I've seen change their lives through kitesurfing is quite astonishing really. I don't know that many other, yeah, I'm obviously I've been involved in kitesurfing for a long time, but I don't know that many other things that have such a profound impact on, you know, where you could live or, you know, what priorities you put first in your life, whether that, you know, like before you know it, you're training your secretary to read the wind forecast, you know.

Luc Moore (24:41.153)
You

Yeah.

Luc Moore (25:05.217)
Yeah, we have a good doctor buddy of ours in Canada who we ride with John Vu and he's been able to organize himself his schedule now to be around the wind forecast because he would always be there in Lake Ontario. It's pretty sick. But yeah, you just kind of organize yourself around it. How was this recent project? Because people can go over to YouTube channel and check out your recent one that you just finished filming. How was it like kiting with sharks or looking at

Tom Court (25:08.464)
Haha.

Luc Moore (25:34.337)
Cause you guys were doing what? Wake foiling with alligators too or something? Toe foiling with alligators?

Tom Court (25:38.057)
Yeah, yeah toe foiling through through mangrove in the middle of the middle of Rotan Island and Yeah, they were mentioning crocodiles the whole time. I was like, there's no way like they go it We wouldn't be here if there was crocodiles, but that was pretty it was pretty Infested or alive. Let's say waters

Luc Moore (25:44.117)
you

Holy shit.

Yeah.

Tom Court (26:00.093)
with everything. couldn't believe the sharks. They were everywhere. I mean, they were only nurse sharks. They were pretty mellow and very friendly. Yeah, no bull sharks. But some of them were like two and a half meters. They're a decent size. the water was just alive. And for me, a lot of kitesurfing is about being...

Luc Moore (26:05.825)
All right.

No both.

Okay.

Tom Court (26:24.1)
in nature, you as a sport you learn a lot from kiting, you really feel what's around you, you understand the wind, you know, you feel what's going on. So, like for me being in nature surrounded by animals and just being involved in it, for me that's the fun of it, know, a lot of the fun of kite surfing.

Luc Moore (26:44.969)
Yeah, it's just being kind of lost in the wilderness and propelled into, yeah, it's crazy how interconnected you have to become just to sense forecasts or see if the wind's going to die. And I think it only makes us better people.

Tom Court (26:58.344)
Yeah, it's a sense that's grown on me over the years and especially as I've learned more and more sports like you know with wing foiling and and all the things you know with hydro foiling especially and also paragliding I do a bit of flying and you the more the bigger your portfolio of these things are that you do the more you understand about the world around you

about the environment around you and the weather and the more keen you are on the forecasting and you're all of a sudden, especially with flying, you start looking at different heights of wind forecast. So then you're looking at the strata of the wind, you know, and you start looking at the birds and more than just the leaves rustling and you start sort of, you come to this very visceral understanding of your environment and over the years as well, you notice changing it a lot more. So I'm quite passionate about.

you know, using sport, not only as something that's good for your mental health and your physical health, but also as education of the environment. Because I think that's, know, unless you use your environment to have fun in, you're a lot less likely to make change that's going to be meaningful in your life when it comes to sort of protecting it.

Luc Moore (28:10.009)
Yeah, that's a good point because you're creating.

Yeah, an environment where you love being in. So clearly you're going to want to do the best that you can to maintain that. Yeah, that makes sense. That's cool, man.

Tom Court (28:20.911)
Yeah, well think a lot of people are disconnected from their environment increasingly, you know, and I think kite surfing has a big power to just put it in your hands, right? yeah, literally put it in your hands, like life behind bars. But yeah, like I've just one of my latest video projects that's not out yet, but will be coming out on the Duotone YouTube channel soon is...

Luc Moore (28:33.171)
Literally.

Tom Court (28:47.878)
with Lewis Cratham here in the UK and sort of tying to the concept blue range of production that we're doing now. it's all about that, know, going into schools here in the UK, talking to kids about kite surfing and interacting with their environment and showing them the kites in the playground and even letting them fly the kites right there and then, you know, tying it to wind energy and how these things can make.

Luc Moore (28:58.271)
Mm.

Tom Court (29:17.065)
how small things can make big changes. So it's a great vehicle for just engaging people and really bringing positives in almost every way.

Luc Moore (29:30.045)
And that's a cool project they're doing, it's the, can you maybe introduce that a little bit as to what that, cause I know they're using node dies and they're doing all this kind of cool stuff there to be as eco-friendly as they possibly can.

Tom Court (29:41.497)
Yeah. Yeah, Concept Blue is sort of, you know, a construction-based concept with inside the duotone range. And it's basically the same models of kites with the same designs, but, you know, using and evolving construction techniques towards a sustainable method, you know, a more sustainable method. I mean, as we all know, it's easy to say things are green and sustainable, but it's very difficult for them actually to be. So...

It's not a claim that it's a hundred percent sustainable. It's just, you know, it's a project to move towards sustainability when it comes to reducing chemicals used in coloration, putting, you know, partially and fully recycled plastic parts, you know, on all the clips and a bio-based bladder in the leading edge. And just really just trying to, you know, I think reduce the impact that

making kites every season has, you know, in terms of a material effect. So, you know, as more more people kind of move in that direction or more and more customers choose it and choose that line and buy into it, then essentially you're supporting the move towards a sustainable era of construction and allowing Duotone and us to invest in that direction really. So it's kind of like everything driven by the consumer to an extent, but you know, what

Luc Moore (31:05.333)
Mm hmm. Yeah, no, that's fair. How was your switch into wing foiling? Obviously you're still kiting now, but how

Tom Court (31:10.364)
What we're trying to do is not make an effect on the performance of the product itself.

Luc Moore (31:22.364)
How is that and which do you prefer riding on a day or is it both the same?

Tom Court (31:28.937)
Yeah, well for me, I'm like a free rider to my core really and I guess I love all of these sports. I have to admit though, when I did start wing foiling, there was a period of intense hate at the beginning or intense loathing for winging. Especially after coming from kite surfing where a kite is essentially, especially as long as I've been doing it, a kite feels like a superpower, you like you can jump.

Luc Moore (31:46.758)
I hear ya.

Luc Moore (31:55.847)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Court (31:57.8)
30 meters or you can send it in a storm. There's so much you can do with a kite. You can foil, can twin tip, you can surf, you can do all of that. So coming from having essentially a mastery of that into wing foiling was a very frustrating process, I'm not gonna lie. But it brought me closer to the reason why I do all of these sports and that is to learn. And I guess to an extent,

Luc Moore (32:16.509)
no way.

Tom Court (32:27.376)
my learning in kitesurfing had slowed down or evolved. Evolved into like learning different disciplines, appreciating big waves, know, appreciating foiling, long distance. I've done a lot of like long distance foiling around islands and challenges in that regard with kiting as well. But, and then learning to wing fold just brought me really close to the learning process again and right back to square one. And like kind of getting back into the fact that

Luc Moore (32:47.995)
Mm-hmm

Tom Court (32:57.67)
the realization that learning is the important and enjoyable part of all of these things, you know, like, and, when you, when you, when you max yourself out at world level in competition, and you, know, at one point, you know, I'm doing double handle passes and all these things and, and, kind of push, push myself to the physical limit at that age. after that, it's very, it is, could be very easy to

kind of think, right, I've done it now, you know, and then, and then you could drop off the edge of your passion side of things because you know, you've peaked to an extent, but there's always another, there's always another avenue to learn and, and wing foiling just brought me straight back into that. and I think, you know, a lot of people are on that same learning journey and, it's important to understand that, that learning is the real core enjoyment of, of these things, you know, it's not about getting to the, be the best all the time because

Luc Moore (33:33.732)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Court (33:55.448)
after you've been the best. It's a downward slope from there.

Luc Moore (33:59.389)
Mm Yeah, I like that because I teach a little bit out in Canada and stuff. And that's one thing that I make sure to try to tell people is to slow down that enjoy the learning process as much as they can. Because there's so many facets to foiling. There's so many different things you can do. Do you have any kind of idea of where you think the next thing is, is going after pair wing or or what do you think of pair wings? Let's start there.

Tom Court (34:22.8)
Well, think wing foiling hasn't really got to its full potential yet. So, I mean, it's difficult to comment on para-wing. I mean, at the moment I call it kite-bagging. I'm still bagging on it, really. But it will be interesting to see where it goes. I mean, the potential is unbridled, if you excuse the pun. But it's... Yeah, we'll see. I mean, it's been amazing to be part of and to see...

Luc Moore (34:32.956)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (34:43.781)
Hmm.

Tom Court (34:51.73)
how hydrofoiling in general has revolutionized the whole water sports industry. And I've gone from, you know, the sail GP paddocks in Dubai to electric hydrofoil races to wing foil events to, you know, down-winding to, know, I've kind of dipped a toe in all of it. So like the whole, the whole innovation side of hydrofoiling has been absolutely across the board, almost unlike

Almost further than kite surfing, know kite surfing innovated a lot within itself over the years And you know had it touched on other things like the kite touched on a lot of things but hydro foiling has touched on so many things and you know just to understand how to ride the ocean to you know, get the energy from the from underneath the surface, know, as you know, the you know, get ground effect on a plane you get surface effect on a foil and to really master that is is

Luc Moore (35:23.362)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (35:40.892)
Yeah.

Tom Court (35:51.246)
is a whole other journey. You see the guys down-winding with nothing between islands and Hawaii and you're like, know, 10 years ago, 10 years ago that was a dream. It would have been a hallucination. Nobody would have believed it.

Luc Moore (36:05.745)
Well, yeah, I ran into Kane and Gabrielle there, the other day I got really here and then they had just finished cause it's been pretty windy. So they had a couple epic runs this week and, definitely a lot of skill and a lot of training and stuff goes into that. what's, what's next for you in the whole industry? you

Tom Court (36:24.208)
What in the whole industry? Well, I mean, that's difficult to say. Obviously something moving forwards. I guess I'm learning. I'm learning as much as I can in terms of the hydrofoiling side of things. Just getting getting deep into it with the downwinding. I've got a power wing hopefully coming soon. The new Geo 10 power wings coming out. So, you know, everybody's

Luc Moore (36:27.302)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (36:50.637)
sick.

Tom Court (36:53.7)
everybody's jumping into it. So it's hard to know where to go next. For me, obviously, representing it in the best way is where I would like to go forward and bringing it to people in a more mainstream way and communicating these sports, how they need to be to bring it to people that don't do it yet and encouraging people to try it. think that's where I stand.

on it all and I just believe in the future of these things,

Luc Moore (37:24.481)
That's fair. So what kind of advice would you give a young person just looking into one of these sports? I guess they can turn it, turn their life around or they can open their lives to something. But is there something you would want to, as we wrap up here, push off to all of those new kids that are getting to so many new wing foilers at like 10, 11 years old now? It's crazy.

Tom Court (37:44.2)
Yeah, mean, I would, mean, the best advice that I could probably give is just to enjoy it. I think, you know, unless if you put too much pressure on yourself from an early age, it's very easy to lose the fun in what you're doing. Like if, you know, I see more and more kids wanting to get into it from a perspective of becoming a pro or, you know, making it their career and...

you know, that's it's not a bad thing to have that in your mind. And it's amazing that that's even a possibility now. But it can put pressure on you to perform and you can you can, you know, pique yourself pretty quickly into a sort of unenjoyable race to the top if you're not if you're not careful. So I think like, you know, just having an open mind to it all and really kind of leaning towards the things that you enjoy with it.

Luc Moore (38:23.834)
Mm-hmm.

Tom Court (38:37.702)
and enjoying your time on the water without too much pressure. For me, that will lead to longevity and your enjoyment of the overall sport. And for me, that's been the basis of my longevity in the industry, definitely has been linked to my enjoyment and moving in the directions that I think are logical and relevant to progress. think, yeah, it's not always about chasing that.

Luc Moore (38:46.842)
Mm hmm. Pretty and your dad's still into water sports, too.

Tom Court (39:06.482)
top podium spot, it's about finding where you fit and where you enjoy. I think that's a good tip.

Tom Court (39:16.144)
Yeah, well, that's my next journey has been to take my dad away on on a few trips and to do some missions with him. We did the Dakhla downwind challenge last year, which is like 500 kilometers, five days in the desert downwind from Dakhla to Mauritania, to the border of Mauritania through the sort of military zone in the Western Sahara. And that was that was insane. My dad's

Luc Moore (39:22.98)
Sick.

Luc Moore (39:33.347)
Whoa.

Tom Court (39:43.654)
you know, 67 this year, so he's still pushing it, doing seven and a half hour stints on the water, sleeping in the desert with me. Yeah, so, and he came to Honduras as well, actually. So we're doing more and more, you know, and I think that's a key message too, is if you love what you do, you can do it for a long time. And in my...

Luc Moore (39:51.049)
Come on!

Tom Court (40:11.272)
I've seen world champions come and go in the same year and I've seen people adopt into the industry and make a very progressive and fun career out of it. Writers like Ruben, for example, and Haran are still here today and myself and Sam Light and a lot of my peers are still doing things in the industry. So it is possible, but I think to an extent you have to do it for the love.

Luc Moore (40:14.876)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that's what my neighbor also said, who's been

windsurfing since I don't know, probably 40 years, he just turned 65 or something. And he's into freestyle windsurfing now. He's like, I can't go into those massive waves like I used to, but I have to land a few more tricks before I retire this Windsurf sale. So it's pretty sick.

Tom Court (40:59.859)
Yeah, yeah, I think you become increasingly aware as you get older that, you know, every session's a good session, right? Because it's nice to have, you know, it's nice to have those sessions.

Luc Moore (41:07.418)
Yeah, that's fair. hey, man. Thanks for taking the time. know it's early or fairly early morning for you, but thanks for taking the time to come and chat with us. And it's been great getting to know you a bit more.

Tom Court (41:22.97)
Yeah, mate, thanks for inviting me on the podcast. And I'm always stoked to get out there and put out there the joy of the sport and our industry that we've got going on here. It's good.

Luc Moore (41:36.547)
Sweet man. For those at home who are just getting to know you, what's the best way for them to follow you?

Tom Court (41:42.695)
Yeah, follow me on Instagram, CORTINTHEACT on Instagram, C-O-U-R-T in the act. Obviously it's a pun on my name for those of you that don't get it. Because I get a lot of messages about spelling that wrong. yeah, puns aren't too popular. And then, yeah, on YouTube as well, Tom CORT, Kite on YouTube for videos every week from e-foiling.

Luc Moore (41:50.873)
Nice. Really?

That's hilarious.

Tom Court (42:08.752)
racing e-foils to wing foiling to kitesurfing to surfing a bit of everything on there really so yeah hit me up on YouTube

Luc Moore (42:14.947)
Sick man. Sick, well a little shout out to your sponsors then and looking forward to seeing this do its own pair wing. I think Ken's figured out a few things. I haven't seen it yet.

Tom Court (42:21.202)
Yeah.

Tom Court (42:25.486)
Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be interesting. mean, GeoToner are amazing with keeping on top of things, you know, and we've always got, you know, they're always onto the next toy that we can all enjoy. yeah, I mean, I think it's important, you know, all the brands that I ride for actually are very similar in that mindset and attitude that they're doing it for the right reasons and they're making the best kit that they can for.

for the sports that we all love doing. yeah, it's a pleasure to be involved.

Luc Moore (42:58.168)
Have you met Ken in person? Probably, Man, he's got like shoulders.

Tom Court (43:02.714)
Yeah, yeah, I've actually, I actually pulled up to his house, I pulled up to his house in Australia back in the day and my car back-backfired oil all over his driveway and I think it was a, it was a bad start to our friendship.

Luc Moore (43:10.167)
I don't know it.

Luc Moore (43:17.143)
I met him for the first time like two weeks ago and some friends with Alan Cadiz out here and so he introduced me to Ken and just showed up this big guy and just massive shoulders like fuck I gotta start hitting shoulders twice a week now just to catch up with this guy.

Tom Court (43:27.613)
Yeah.

Tom Court (43:33.96)
Yeah, I mean he's an amazing guy. He's had an amazing life and design career as well and he's still on it. it's a good thing.

Luc Moore (43:38.999)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, he's still kicking it. Cool, man. Well, hey, thanks a lot for joining and yeah, man, look forward chatting soon.

Tom Court (43:49.85)
Yeah, speak soon. Thanks for your time and big up everyone.

Luc Moore (43:54.603)
All right, bye everybody.

Tom Court (43:56.681)
Cheers!