Episode #97 - Lukas Lam

Luc Moore (00:37.068)
All right, Lucas, I think we're good to go,

Lukas Lam (00:40.688)
All right.

Luc Moore (00:42.424)
Think it all looks good. All right, Lucas, thanks for joining us,

Lukas Lam (00:44.657)
Perfect. Thank you so much for having me.

Luc Moore (00:51.042)
Duotone, another Duotone. just had Tom Court on last night, another Duotone rider. And then we have yourself sporting a nice Duotone shirt. I guess you guys like Duotone gear. Pretty cool company.

Lukas Lam (00:56.354)
yeah.

Lukas Lam (01:00.773)
Yeah.

Lukas Lam (01:07.663)
Yeah, they're amazing man. The quality and just how far you can push them. It's amazing. No other brand that I've tried until now has even gotten close to the performance I get out of my stuff.

Luc Moore (01:22.711)
Hmm. How, what was your entry into wind sports for you to be able to make such a bold statement?

Lukas Lam (01:30.541)
Well, it's actually very interesting and I haven't actually met anyone who has like the same history as me. myself growing up in Hong Kong, like I was always like the sporty kind. I was rather thin with a build, but I used to play like I started playing ice hockey when I was four years old and I enjoyed it so much. did like multiple different sports when I was growing up. Like I playing tennis at the same time, doing like gymnastics and stuff like that.

Luc Moore (01:34.338)
Yeah?

Luc Moore (01:51.395)
nice.

Lukas Lam (02:00.079)
until about the age of like 13, 14 where I lost sort of lost interest in ice hockey. And so I changed over to floorball and then I played floorball for a few years, got into the national team and then I found that like what was kind of boring because there's nothing else for me to achieve. So I found that boring. So I quit that. And then I went into like a bit of powerlifting, bodybuilding, type of stuff, which I did for like six years as well.

Luc Moore (02:14.976)
Seriously.

Yeah.

Lukas Lam (02:26.887)
And then like in this, in 2022, I actually, met my girlfriend and she actually got me into water sports, which is really funny because she, she's a windsurfer and her dad is a really good windsurfer. And so like one, one day in like end of 2022, he started, he started to notice like wing foiling and he asked us like, Oh yeah, you want to join us? Cause we back in, back where I'm from my town in Klangford.

We're like in the south of Austria and we have, we have a lake, but there's no wind there. So basically what we need to do, we have to wake up at 4 a.m. drive down one hour to the north of Italy where there's like a really, really small lake, mountain lake where the water is so cold and it's like 5 a.m. super cold. And then there you have like a thermic wind coming. And so

Luc Moore (03:09.793)
Mm-hmm.

Lukas Lam (03:22.799)
Yeah, we just asked if we want to come and try out this wing foiling. And I said, yeah, sure. No, not? Let's, let's, do it. So we went there and you know, my girlfriend, she has a bit of history in windsurfing. So she based, she got the hang of it straight away. And, know, you know, I was like trying to, of course, trying to be impressed a bit like, yeah, I can do that too. Yeah. But then it was like, I was using like a huge wing to, like, start to learn. Like her dad showed me like, yeah, you have to hold it like this and blah, blah,

Luc Moore (03:43.934)
Yeah, yeah.

Lukas Lam (03:52.699)
And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, I got this. then so basically I just took the wing and like, started struggling for like two hours. was like, I can't do this. What is this? What is this? And then I started to slowly get the hang of it, like go slowly up and down and whatever. And, there was like a, a, you basically, you go right into green stuff, you know.

Luc Moore (03:56.908)
Ha

Luc Moore (04:11.573)
Yeah.

Lukas Lam (04:17.243)
And I was like struggling so hard. I was so mad that I didn't get it straight away. Cause I was used to like, yeah, I get sports like this. And then, yeah, so that's basically how I got into win sports. So I haven't been doing them for long.

Luc Moore (04:24.943)
Yeah.

Nice man.

Trying to impress a girl. There's nothing wrong with that. Well, wing it is hard to learn though, isn't it? Like learning how to fly your wing and how to bank it. Like it takes some time. It's not as simple.

Lukas Lam (04:34.863)
Yeah, yeah.

Lukas Lam (04:45.327)
Yeah, especially if you don't know anything about how the wind works. I've never done anything. And so it took me some time to get used to standing with my back against the wind and know, blah blah blah, and holding it properly without getting it pulled over. was getting pulled over so many times, I just didn't get why this wing is pulling me all the time.

Luc Moore (04:51.051)
wind.

Luc Moore (05:11.82)
Which I guess would make you a good instructor, right? Like once you've gone through that difficult learning process, ties into kind of a little bit of what you're doing. We can maybe touch on that stuff a little bit later, but how do you go from, from learning wing-foiling like that to competing on a pro tour and being sponsored like a company that that's sponsoring you now?

Lukas Lam (05:16.187)
Yeah.

Lukas Lam (05:33.063)
Yeah, well, think basically anything I do, I like to like put 120 % in there. And, know, I just started waking up at 4 a.m., you know, checking the wind forecast going there and blah, blah, And just after a few, like a few months.

Luc Moore (05:40.895)
Hmm.

Lukas Lam (05:51.089)
You know, the first thing I did when I started winging, I started jumping. I couldn't jive, I couldn't do anything. I just started jumping and I just found it so fun. And so I was like, yeah, yeah, just keep jumping. I don't need to jive. Who needs to jive? I fall in the water, I need to go, I just need to get up. I don't need to jive. And so, yeah, so basically I just started learning, learning. And then we moved, my girlfriend started her uni and I was doing my uni as well. I was studying law in Vienna.

Luc Moore (06:01.26)
You

Luc Moore (06:08.107)
Nice.

Lukas Lam (06:18.939)
But this she had decided to move to Malta where we are now. And I was like, yeah, why not screw it? I'll just come along. So I changed my uni to online and I just moved with her over here. And then we started, we started going out in the water here. And basically, I don't know if you know him, Camille Maniwaki. He's like the number one in racing right now. He, he, he studied in Malta as well. And so we met him here by chance and you know, he was already like,

Luc Moore (06:39.143)
no, yeah, yeah.

Lukas Lam (06:46.681)
really good at winging because he was doing his IQ and whatever. And so he just always dragged us with him in like even in the most insane conditions. There like was three meter waves and we were like super beginners. He just said, yeah, come on. It's no problem. We'll just go with it. Let's go in. Let's go in. I'm like, yeah, sure. And I was just getting smashed by the waves and just nearly dying. And so yeah, we started in like a, like a proper, proper, like not beginner fashion, but we're like, we just got to straight into it, send it, whatever.

Luc Moore (07:11.817)
Yeah, send off.

Lukas Lam (07:16.295)
So yeah, I think that helped us a little bit getting into it. And then, you know, it just started doing some tricks and like I actually, cause I did gymnastics. So I sort of got the hang of like how it feels to be upside down and whatever. So yeah, so just like after like just half a month, I just started sending my first backflips. And I also just started landing them straight like just a month after or something. And I was like, Oh, I could actually.

Luc Moore (07:26.407)
that's where the tie in.

Lukas Lam (07:42.887)
get quite good in this sport. So yeah, that's basically where I started getting into freestyling. And yeah, and just like, yeah, and I just, yeah, that's how that's basically. And now I just keep going and keep going. Yeah. And then I thought like last, oh, sorry.

Luc Moore (07:51.198)
No, no.

Luc Moore (07:56.18)
That's basically what happened.

So what's your, so your girlfriend's dad must be pretty proud then. Girlfriend's dad must be pretty proud then. You kind of showed up to the plate.

Lukas Lam (08:05.963)
Yeah, but not just me. My girlfriend, she does it professionally now too. We're both on tour now. She also did her first comp in Brazil last year. so yeah, basically it's really insane to have a girlfriend who shares your passion and we both have the ability to push each other. if she doesn't want to backflip, then I just tell her, come on, backflip. Like, don't be a... Come on.

Luc Moore (08:09.309)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (08:13.398)
sick.

Lukas Lam (08:34.693)
You know, and then she pushes me also to go.

Luc Moore (08:35.881)
Tom Hartman expects big errors and big backflips. kids, you gotta push.

Lukas Lam (08:42.177)
Exactly, you're not going anywhere if you just keep doing 360. So basically, yeah, it's really a privilege to be able to do a sport with someone you love and then of course, even push yourself because we here in Malta, it's just us now. Like there's a few other wing foilers, they don't do any, like they're not, they're just hobby wing foilers. And so it's just mostly us out there, even in the roughest conditions, no one wants to go.

Luc Moore (08:47.786)
You

Luc Moore (08:59.881)
Mm-hmm.

Lukas Lam (09:11.751)
because it's just, Malta is basically a huge rock. Like there's barely any sandy beaches, so you really have to be careful with your equipment. I've shredded one or 10 wings already. So yeah.

Luc Moore (09:20.934)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Luc Moore (09:27.45)
And where is Malta for those people who may not know about it? Because it's a little tiny island.

Lukas Lam (09:33.063)
Yeah, it's a really small island in the middle of the Mediterranean, just like I think it's a 40, it's like a one hour 45 minute ferry ride from Sicily.

And it's like 300 square kilometers. I'm not sure what it is in feet for the American people. Maybe you can help me out. I don't know.

Luc Moore (09:53.225)
Yeah, that's all right. Well, 1.6, but I'm Canadian, So it doesn't matter. So 300 K, yeah, 300 kilometers. Is that from like tip to tip or is that all the way around?

Lukas Lam (09:57.973)
okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Lukas Lam (10:03.877)
That's whole, like the whole land.

Luc Moore (10:08.115)
Whoa, okay, that's not big.

Lukas Lam (10:10.201)
It's tiny, yeah. But like in winter, there are amazing conditions. we, usually, it's more of like a, can't really rely on it, but we have like two weeks of like consistent winds. And then of course we have like a week or two where there could be no wind. But usually you get like around, I'll say like three to four days of like consistent 20 knots. And the waves are also insane because you know, the

The island is so small, usually all of the winds push all the waves over and you have really, really nice waves here. can even go surfing, like normal surfing. There's even a school.

Luc Moore (10:50.567)
Whoa, not bad. All right, so you're going to school. How did Duotone, how did that whole kind of journey start with you getting close to competing? Like not everybody gets there. And I know there's a bunch of people looking more into it now of how they get into it. So what's your journey for that?

Lukas Lam (11:07.535)
Well, for me, was actually in our, in our lake we go to in Austria. We had a, there's like a guy there. He was a, like a professional kite surfing, kite racing, kite racer. And he was sponsored by Duotone. And so he, he's kind of in that niche. So like he always saw us coming there. And like when I started, started doing my first freestyle maneuvers, he was watching me like, and he knew like that I was just doing it for like.

Luc Moore (11:21.35)
Mm-hmm.

Lukas Lam (11:37.799)
three months. And so I just asked him like, yo, yeah, you're sponsored by Duotone. You mind putting maybe a word in to like the Austrian, the Austrian director of Duotone, whoever's responsible for writers? And he was like, yeah, sure, no worries. And then so, so we got that into the, we got that rolling and I got a message back like, yeah, insane how, how, how

how you progress in such a small time, like with no experience. And so we were like, yeah, let's do like a shop deal. We'll start off with that. There's always room to get better, but in the meantime, you know, it's not enough yet to be sponsored properly. But then I was like, yeah, challenge accepted. so basically, yeah, that's...

Luc Moore (12:08.028)
Mm-hmm.

Lukas Lam (12:29.763)
And once I started getting better, yeah, you just gotta never give up. That's what I like. My main focus in life is to like, it doesn't matter where you start. As long as you don't give up, you can always achieve what you want and put your mind to.

Luc Moore (12:51.387)
That's a good point, man. I think that's built from your heritage of ice hockey playing at a young age, right?

Lukas Lam (12:56.835)
Yeah, that's... I gotta thank my parents for that.

Luc Moore (12:58.92)
I was just kidding because I grew up. Yeah, exactly. I started skating at like three years old and it's, I don't know, all those things like, yeah, your parents help set that into you. I think it's awesome that you have that mindset and you guys, you have the support. That'd be a pretty cool experience at your age, like girlfriend and you both competing in the same thing and being able to help each other train. That's pretty special.

Lukas Lam (13:11.535)
Yeah.

Lukas Lam (13:15.141)
Yeah.

Lukas Lam (13:20.688)
Yeah.

Lukas Lam (13:24.357)
Yeah, it's really cool. Like I couldn't think of anything better.

Luc Moore (13:30.312)
So what tricks are you both working on now? If you're allowed to say, cause I know you're waiting on there's a free surf freestyle coming up in Lou Katsune in France, but, let's first of all, want to. Yeah.

Lukas Lam (13:40.066)
Yeah, we're flying.

Lukas Lam (13:45.329)
Yeah, we're flying on Monday. So yeah, we're hoping for some good conditions. It's my first time in LeCat. I tried to get in last year, but I didn't qualify. But yeah, so some more hard work and this year I qualified.

Luc Moore (13:51.559)
Sick, okay. All right, it's...

Luc Moore (14:03.484)
nice, how did you qualify? you send in video? Did you, like, how'd you do it?

Lukas Lam (14:07.471)
Yeah, so basically for anyone who's watching and is interested in starting to compete and how it works, well basically if you're under the age of 18, then the GWA hosts a youth world cup every year. This year it's going to be in Spain, in Costa Brava. I don't know if you're familiar with that place. And basically, no, it's just close to the border of France and Spain.

Luc Moore (14:31.344)
Mm-mm.

Lukas Lam (14:37.191)
there over there. And if you basically they allow all kids from I think, I think there's no age, no, no, starting age limit, but there's like an under 14 under 16 class and then under 19 class where you can start to gain some experience, which is I would definitely recommend that. just to like, even if you not like a elite level yet, just to like,

Luc Moore (14:38.49)
Okay.

Lukas Lam (15:04.615)
If you want to get into this competitive scene, would definitely recommend just like going there and having a look at like how it works and, you know, get a feel of how it works. Then you have to get a trick in like 30 seconds, you know, when's your turn, just to like get a feeling of how competitions work or even, I don't know if, or if you have any national events or something, just go there and just go for it.

Luc Moore (15:24.442)
Yeah, that's fair.

Lukas Lam (15:32.359)
And then if you get to a certain level then, you can like the basically, you, the seeding works like this, that the top 16 or top 18 in the world, they are like already pre-qualified for an event. And then for sort of freestyle, there are 28 maximum slots or seeds, whatever. And in order to qualify, you got to send in four videos with.

What

Luc Moore (16:23.014)
Mm hmm. so congratulations then. So you're in and do you have to do that for every single event or once you're in, then you get your shot to see where you rank.

Lukas Lam (16:27.303)
Well, thank you, yeah.

Lukas Lam (16:36.099)
No, you have to do it all the time. Unless you finish it. Yeah. Unless it basically works like that. However, you do, however well you do this year, the next year, if you are in the top 18, then you are, then you are pre-qualified. But now in the meantime, if you just start getting into it, then you have to qualify for every event.

Luc Moore (16:39.757)
All the time.

Luc Moore (16:52.879)
Alright.

Luc Moore (16:59.142)
All right. All right. All right. What's your favorite trick that you're doing now? And like, how long did it take you to, learn it and kind of think in your conditions in Malta, or is there somewhere else that you train for tricks?

Lukas Lam (17:12.537)
Well, most of the time I'm in Malta, but I usually go to Tarifa once in a while. just recently just came back. I came back like four days ago. I did a camp with Michi Rosmeier there.

Luc Moore (17:21.039)
nice.

Luc Moore (17:29.347)
Actually, he's gonna be coming on the show soon too, I think.

Lukas Lam (17:31.863)
yeah, then stay tuned for that. Yeah, yeah. But well, basically the trick, my favorite trick at the moment, it's gotta be a front flip, frontside three. It's basically you go up with for a front flip and on the way down, you go into a frontside three. And like, I actually, could do, I could, was able to land this trick like already, I think like one and a half years ago, because you know, the thing is with the trick.

Luc Moore (17:33.815)
Yeah, exactly.

Lukas Lam (18:00.303)
When I was learning a front flip, like the normal regular front flip, because I did gymnastics, I always used to pull my legs together in the air, just as out of reaction. And if you do that, then it sort of spins you around into a 360. So I was able to land it like before I could even land the normal front flip, because I did it into from intuition, like pull my legs together in the air and they would spin me around.

Luc Moore (18:09.647)
Mm-hmm.

Lukas Lam (18:26.319)
And so, but once I started learning the normal front flip where you gotta like go back into the riding position in the air, I sort of, I wasn't able to do it anymore. And like last month I was like, no way, there's no way I can't land this. And so I put my mind to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. sorry, sorry, And I was.

Luc Moore (18:26.873)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (18:37.38)
the

Luc Moore (18:42.532)
You can't hit the, don't hit the table though. Yeah. Yeah, that's okay. So what was happening is you were going into a front flip and doing a 360 at the same time. So like a front flip 360.

Lukas Lam (18:55.911)
Yeah, I was going into the front flip and once I flipped over, pulled my feet together and what that does is like it twists your hips and when you come down, it pulls you to one side. And so you go into the 360 without wanting to do it. And so yeah, last month I was like, I want to land this trick. And so I just started training it and I got it in like...

Luc Moore (19:10.062)
Okay.

Luc Moore (19:15.106)
Yeah. fascinating.

Lukas Lam (19:22.907)
I don't know, 15 to 20 moves and I was like, yeah, finally. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it when I want to do it, not just out of luck.

Luc Moore (19:30.084)
That's the thing, right? You train both tacks, right? Like left foot and right foot and various conditions and all of that to make sure right? shit. What do you think about the double back that like Chris and Benjamin and those guys are throwing? Like, how difficult A, do you think that is to accomplish?

Lukas Lam (19:37.871)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, for sure.

Lukas Lam (19:56.197)
Well, I think that you just have to have the balls to send it and the conditions. think it's not even like, like technically speaking, I don't think it's that difficult because I can double backflip on the trampoline. So, so it's like, I'm familiar with a double rotation. It's just that I've, I've never had like a proper condition to, to send it. Cause like when I want to do it, I want to, like, I want a proper kicker so that I know that I have enough air time.

Luc Moore (20:00.707)
That's what it...

Luc Moore (20:19.747)
Mmm.

Lukas Lam (20:25.201)
But it's just I've never ever had like the conditions where I said like, yeah, this is like a two, three meter wave. I'm just going to send it. I have never had it yet. So I'm still waiting for that, but once I get it, I will send it.

Luc Moore (20:38.787)
All right. Is there something that you'd like to do to kind of obviously you weight train, right? Is there anything else you want to do for your body or for for eating or anything to prepare you for these competitions?

Lukas Lam (20:53.255)
I would lie if I said yes. No, I don't really do anything out of the ordinary. I try to eat enough and train whenever there's no wind. I just try and keep in shape.

Luc Moore (20:56.579)
Cut.

Luc Moore (21:09.847)
You're young enough, I guess it doesn't matter, Especially while you're weight training. like your weight training, I weight training is a massive component to help because for bumps and anything ligament or joint related, having more strength there. And I think it's something that every athlete obviously should do because then bumps and scrapes are just going to hurt that much more.

Lukas Lam (21:12.315)
Yeah, that's true.

Lukas Lam (21:30.427)
Yeah, for sure. think like weight training is like, it's kind of underrated in I think water sports because, you know, I'm not sure how many other people like really consistently also put, go for strength, not just endurance, but I really can't stress enough how important it is to like build a proper frame to have like, I don't know, if you have more muscle, then of course you're not that prone to injury.

Luc Moore (21:48.246)
Mm-hmm.

Lukas Lam (21:59.417)
And also, like, I don't know, I haven't, I haven't like any gotten a serious injury yet, fingers crossed. So yeah, I think that has a little bit to do with having with my background of like proper weight training and whatever. So I think, yeah, I could definitely recommend anyone. Yeah. And gymnastics as well.

Luc Moore (22:19.17)
And gymnastics too. Yeah. Yeah. Like I just started, cause I'm out in Maui for a little while here at the Maui full house. And, I just started training with Sarah Hauser actually, who, um, and absolutely amazing athlete in her company is called N six trainings, N six training.com. And, uh, she trains a lot of the Maui pros like Brazil and a whole bunch of other people here that are

Lukas Lam (22:31.472)
Lukas Lam (22:47.078)
Yeah?

Luc Moore (22:48.013)
that are crazy in the waves. so we're just learning, cause I come from kinesiology background, so fitness training background. So learning to see how she creates these programs for people to be able to prepare you for this kind of conditions or that and breath holding and all that stuff when people start to push it a little bit more. Cause if you're getting into conditions where you have a three, four, five, six foot wave, for example, to throw something, well, you might get held down a bit or you might get washing machined a bit. So, so.

Lukas Lam (22:55.143)
Lukas Lam (23:15.279)
Yeah, for sure. I agree, yeah.

Luc Moore (23:17.026)
There's a lot of stuff to consider. So that's what we're going to slowly do with that, which I think is pretty fun. Do know what your girlfriend's favorite trick is? We're probably going to have to have her on the show now too to see how good of a coach you both are to each other.

Lukas Lam (23:21.147)
Yeah, no, definitely.

Lukas Lam (23:25.947)
Yeah, for sure.

Lukas Lam (23:31.015)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think she just started to learn, she just learned the, think the Palau, that's her favorite trick now, I'm not sure. But she loves that. Yeah. Because she also has a gymnastics background. she's even more flexible than me. So she has more of a advantage there, I think.

Luc Moore (23:44.674)
Nice man. Alright.

Luc Moore (23:55.713)
nice. That's awesome. Besides, let's say being on the water, what do you guys do for fun in Malta? What other sports or hobbies do you have?

Lukas Lam (24:06.297)
Well, we're like people, we can't sit still for like more than two hours. So we have to always find something to do. Well, basically we're still young. We're like 23 and 22. So we can't say no to like a good night out, which Malta is perfect for. I think that's what Malta is known for. yeah, we definitely, we go out sometimes.

I don't know, we go to the beach. The sunsets here are really lovely and it's like super warm year through. So like now it's starting, it's already like 20 degrees. And even in winter, it doesn't get any colder than maybe like 13, 14 degrees. So yeah, we usually go, go to the beach, but mainly like if there's eight knots or more, I would go to the water and just try to fly because that's something I have to do. And otherwise we have.

Both of us have our uni stuff to do, so we'll always find something to do.

Luc Moore (25:07.189)
Yeah, pretty bitch. What are you taking at uni?

Lukas Lam (25:10.223)
I study international relations.

Luc Moore (25:13.998)
interesting. That will be needed in times like today.

Lukas Lam (25:18.819)
Yeah, that's basically the reason why.

Luc Moore (25:24.946)
that's cool. All right. So is it will be your both your first times to France? she was she able to compete at the same contest? For Lucat? Sick.

Lukas Lam (25:33.723)
Yeah, she will be able to. Yeah, she qualifies. She's in the top 18, so she didn't even have to do a video. But yeah, we're both... We're both timing. She's also doing the racing. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I've always heard that LeCat is so sick because it's just, the Tramontana wins there. I think last year they had north of 60 knots. I mean, she's not looking forward to the 60 knots, but it's just the...

Luc Moore (25:41.21)
nice. We're both looking forward to that.

Luc Moore (25:58.097)
Yeah.

Lukas Lam (26:01.389)
You say you got because it's offshore. So it's flat and I know I love flat for freestyle flat. It's just the best thing because it's so it's more easy to land the trick than in waves in my opinion.

Luc Moore (26:13.441)
yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fair. Okay. What kind of duotone kit are you bringing down to compete with?

Lukas Lam (26:16.731)
Yeah.

Lukas Lam (26:21.913)
Well, I'm, actually got my new board now because this show should be, cause I wanted to go a size smaller now. Cause I was riding 55 liters with my 73 kilos, but I saw everyone sizing up and I was like, tried, I tried a bigger board, but then I was like, I don't know. I'm not really comfortable with it because it goes like with the landings. It's more harsh on your knees and I don't want to, I don't want to mess up my knees.

So I was thinking about going as even smaller size, like an arm of 45 liters. And I've just found the sweet spot there with a smaller 45-liter Skystyle. hopefully, are getting the new, because the Duotone just released the new Carve 3.0. You guys got to definitely check that out. It's a really, really sick foil.

Luc Moore (26:49.813)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (27:00.66)
Okay.

Luc Moore (27:09.714)
Mm-hmm. That's right.

All right, Matt.

Lukas Lam (27:16.455)
Yeah. So basically we both use the 650 square centimeters, which I think it's the ideal, ideal high performance, freestyle front wing. If you're, if you're a bit more heavy, then I would recommend like going for the 800, but for me, the 650 is like the sweet spot. And then for wings, yeah, I'm 70, 72, 73 kilos. Yeah.

Luc Moore (27:38.369)
And you're 72 kilos, so you're what, like 160 pounds, I guess.

Lukas Lam (27:44.955)
Yeah, something like something around that. And I really have no, no problem like pumping out of the water. So like, yeah, that's and for wings, I'm hoping I'm going to pack the 2.5. Like I never use 2.5, not even in 60 knots. I would go for a 2.5 because I, don't know. I prefer being powered on my wing, but just, just to be sure in case I will take a 2.5.

Luc Moore (27:46.91)
Yeah, okay, okay. Alright, alright.

Luc Moore (28:09.866)
Yeah.

Lukas Lam (28:12.517)
And then my trusty three meter where, which I usually use when it's like 30 or around 30 knots. And yeah, I think that's the, I'm like a big wing because look at the conditions there. It's like you either got like 30 plus, or you have like 10 or 15 knots. So, so then I'll have like enough, enough options there to choose from.

Luc Moore (28:18.793)
Alright.

Luc Moore (28:35.616)
Sweet man, well hey, I hope that goes well. Give those boys a run for their money. Make the father-in-law proud. And so on your spare time, you also coach and give clinics as well, right?

Lukas Lam (28:40.931)
That's the plan. Yeah.

You

Lukas Lam (28:54.415)
Yeah, well, basically in summer we worked at the Do It On Pro Center in Limnos, Greece. I can just, it's 100 % recommended because the spot is insane. Like for freestyle, for wing freestyle, like you got any conditions there, because it is an island, there's waves, there's chop, there's even flat for those people who love it. And the water is just so clear and

Luc Moore (29:03.688)
no way.

Lukas Lam (29:24.259)
and it's just picturesque. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for a place to go in summer, to go there, because it's also not packed. It's not like Santorini or something like that, where you can barely stand like this in the crowd. You got nearly the whole bay to yourself. yeah, that's basically where we worked last year. There's also like a...

camp for kids there. It's called the board academy. The owner of sent of the doodoo Tom Pro Center. He also does that. And it's also like a sick, sick, sick, event for like younger kids where who are looking for something to do in summer and like to stay away from their phones. Like they go there for like 10 days. You got to, you go in the morning, you wake up with you, you sleep in tents there. You then you have your wing foiling lesson or you

Luc Moore (29:57.864)
Mm-hmm.

Lukas Lam (30:22.247)
or you went surfing lessons with your whole friends and then you go eat and you go into the water again and basically we taught there it was so much fun and then we said yeah yeah it's really cool to like we love kids so it's really cool to work there and I would definitely recommend anyone who I don't know who has any children or what and they don't know what to do in summer just send them there and I'm sure they'll have the time of their lives

Luc Moore (30:33.554)
yeah, that would be.

Luc Moore (30:51.955)
Boy, yeah, that'd be such a blast, especially given that we were in Pensacola, Florida, just attending an event. And I think the youngest competitor jet was like, I mentioned this last week, but it was like 10 or 11. Right. And he's already, he's already ripping around and Benjamin just turned 14 so he can compete on tour this year. So there's, there's starting young.

Lukas Lam (31:03.949)
wow, yeah.

Lukas Lam (31:10.189)
Yeah.

Man, these young kids, really giving us older guys. I don't want say older guys. I'm in the sport. I'm kind of the grandpa already. Yeah. They're really giving us hard time because they just don't have any thoughts in their mind. They just send it and if they fall, they get back up. So yeah, we have to try and keep up with them. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Luc Moore (31:17.906)
You're already a grandpa.

Luc Moore (31:37.404)
Yeah, that's for sure. Nice. Well, hey, I hope that I hope that goes well. Let us know how it goes. And any shout outs to any of your sponsors or any shout outs to anybody that you want to give.

Lukas Lam (31:44.965)
Definitely will. Thank you.

Yeah, huge shout out to Duotone for their amazing gear. Definitely check out their new releases. And yeah, shout out to the board academy as well for anyone who is looking for their kids to go somewhere or Greece is the place to go and Limnos. Check out their website and otherwise just check me out on Instagram. You can see how the comps are going to go if you're interested. And yeah.

Luc Moore (32:18.173)
For sure, for sure. So what is your Instagram handle?

Lukas Lam (32:21.763)
It's underscore LucasLam underscore.

Luc Moore (32:25.277)
Okay, and this place in Greece, it's L-I-M-N-O-S, right? So I'm, cause I'm, I'm going to add this to the video, but here we're looking at the Duotone Pro Center in, in Limnas. That's a massive, beautiful bay.

Lukas Lam (32:30.118)
Yes.

Lukas Lam (32:36.549)
Yeah, that's the dude. Yeah, it's so beautiful really. It's so nice.

Luc Moore (32:46.205)
Wow.

Lukas Lam (32:48.239)
You have to go there one day. Yeah, it's, it's perfect. It's a perfect spot for like either, either wing kite or Windsor.

Luc Moore (32:48.701)
Nice sandy bottom. Yeah, I, that's on the list.

Luc Moore (33:00.029)
RuneKite or Windsurf. All right, no, good to know. We haven't been to Greece yet. And it's definitely on the list of places to head off to. Yeah.

Lukas Lam (33:05.445)
You should, yeah. Because in summer it's windy every day, no joke. Like from June to September you have wind every day.

Luc Moore (33:14.877)
Whoa. All right. What are those camps that you were mentioning? What's a website for that?

Lukas Lam (33:20.195)
It's a board academy dot PG. think it's.

Luc Moore (33:23.581)
Board Academy, Board Academy.bg.

Lukas Lam (33:30.663)
Just give me a second, let me look for it.

Luc Moore (33:33.852)
Sure.

Lukas Lam (33:37.455)
Yeah, it's wordacademy.bg.

Luc Moore (33:41.272)
interesting. All right. I got to translate it to English because I'm assuming it's in, it put it in Bulgarian. interesting. All right. So there are 10 day surf camps.

Lukas Lam (33:45.903)
Yeah, this is in Bulgarian.

Lukas Lam (33:53.222)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (33:55.068)
and children aged.

Lukas Lam (33:56.721)
For ages from 6 to 20. So all of it. Yeah.

Luc Moore (34:00.559)
no way. beautiful.

And how long are they? They are...

Lukas Lam (34:08.593)
They're nine or ten days, I think. Ten days. From June to September.

Luc Moore (34:12.582)
Nine or 10 days. cool. So you get...

So get to go there, coach, teach, hang out with them, get some good riding in. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And train at the same time.

Lukas Lam (34:20.473)
Yeah, and train, of course. Yeah.

Yeah.

Luc Moore (34:28.476)
All right, we'll add this to the show notes. So boardacademy.bg for folks tuning in and that'd be pretty fun. All right, so 8.30 we're starting with physical exercise and games, breakfast, windsurfing, lunch, rest, windsurfing.

dedicated bathroom breaks. You got to hold it all day. Then you got dinner. It's strict Bulgaria. And then on the beds depending on age. All right, that's sweet, man. Is there anything else? Yeah, anything else that you're looking at any other kind of cool places I mean that you'd want to go to or that you're really looking forward to seeing this year on tour?

Lukas Lam (34:46.861)
Yeah.

Lukas Lam (34:57.723)
Yeah, it's really, really cool for the kids.

Lukas Lam (35:09.479)
Definitely the Canary Islands this year. I'm looking forward to Grand Canary and Big Air. That's where my place is. I really want to compete in Big Air this year. Last year I wasn't able to because we already said that we're going to do the coaching. But this year we've got our tour stops and then after that we're going to go back to Limnos to train and teach.

Luc Moore (35:12.422)
Hmm

Luc Moore (35:31.884)
sick. What have you calculated some of your big air jumps? Like, what do you think and you'll be able to do comfortably?

Lukas Lam (35:37.111)
Yeah, I have. did, I think the, I can easily reach, I think 11 meters it was, but that wasn't in like full, full condition. So I think if I, if I go for a big enough wing in like the proper, proper kickers from, from Pozzo, I hope to be going like 14, 15 maybe. Let's see. Let's see. That's, that's what my goal is. I'll be happy if I, if I reach that.

Luc Moore (36:00.668)
That's like, that's 45 feet. Eh?

Lukas Lam (36:03.717)
Yeah, that's... yeah.

Luc Moore (36:07.004)
How is obviously you got very good body awareness from your from gymnastics, right? But how are the landings and flying through because obviously it's kind of a arc trajectory. It's not straight up straight down.

Lukas Lam (36:20.647)
Yeah, it's not that bad actually, because if I go for big air, then I take a big enough wing that will like, when you fly up and you're up there and you're on your way down, you just sheet in the wing and because it's that windy and you have a huge wing, you sort of sail slowly down and it's not that bad. Of course, when you're up there and you're like at 35, 40 feet, it looks

It looks insane, but you just gotta hang on for real life and sure enough you're gonna land once.

Luc Moore (37:02.694)
And obviously if you let go at 40 feet, that'd be a little bit of a drop.

Lukas Lam (37:08.047)
Yeah, it happened once or twice, I have to say. Yeah, but the most important thing then is like just kick the board as far away as you can. And then like, as you would do in cliff jumping, let go of the wing and just make yourself as small as possible and pencil in the water, then you're fine.

Luc Moore (37:11.269)
Did it?

Luc Moore (37:23.951)
Just pencil.

Luc Moore (37:28.537)
And obviously you're not strapping. Are you strapping the wing? You're not strapping the board.

Lukas Lam (37:35.363)
No, no, no, no, strap. No, no leash on the board just so you can kick it away. I never use a leash. I would, if you do freestyle or anything, I wouldn't recommend using a leash ever because it's just the most like the thing that's the thing that, you know, the foil is the sharpest part of the whole foil as a whole equipment. And if you lose the board somehow during your trick and you have a leash there,

Luc Moore (37:59.237)
Mm-hmm.

Lukas Lam (38:04.027)
then will ricochet off or bounce off the leash and it will come back flying towards you and you just don't want that happening because then you're going to turn into sushi.

Luc Moore (38:15.643)
Yeah, yeah, it's sushi pretty fast. Sushi pretty fast. All right, cool.

Lukas Lam (38:16.258)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So just make sure to keep the leash off and just kick the board away from you. Then you're going to be good.

Luc Moore (38:25.689)
All right, so when you're 40 feet up, all right, that's fine. And then obviously you're leashed to your wing because you want to keep that thing around because that thing will fly away. Sick, Sick. Well, hey, I hope that I hope you get in because we want to watch that one because that one's crazy to see what you guys can do. And I know there's a bunch of bunch of kids looking forward to doing that one. And as the grandpas man, you guys have to represent you have to represent.

Lukas Lam (38:30.629)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you want to keep that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you want to keep the wing.

Lukas Lam (38:43.065)
Yeah.

Lukas Lam (38:49.348)
Yeah for sure.

Exactly, exactly. We gotta show them that they're the small ones.

Luc Moore (38:57.595)
Yeah, you gotta respect your elders,

Lukas Lam (38:59.687)
They have to give us a few more years. Yeah, exactly.

Luc Moore (39:09.722)
Nice. Well, hey, thanks for joining us on the show today and just chatting a little bit and getting to know you. And we're looking forward to having you back on and following your journey through GWA. And we'll have to invite your... Yeah, absolutely. We'll have to invite your girlfriend on as well and she can let us know how her training journey is going and looking forward for you both doing really well. Yeah, that's sweet. Yeah.

Lukas Lam (39:21.253)
Man, thank you so much for having me.

Lukas Lam (39:30.865)
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure she'll love to. Yeah. Thank you so much, man. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you and also what you do, bringing more regular people or just like water and sports enthusiasts closer together and just like getting more insights into what goes on behind the scenes of like riders and I don't know which other people you have on the show, but just like getting more insights there. really, really...

Appreciate what you're doing man for the whole community.

Luc Moore (40:02.244)
Yeah, we got a pretty passionate team of four of us and like we're passionate writers out all the time. Matt and Frank who do all the background work are just super stoked at all these stories. I find that anybody who like has a regular job for example, or who isn't competing, it's cool to hear your stories and cause you guys are, it's such a special time in your lives to be able to do all this stuff and why not put it out there and let other people hear it. So that's what we're doing.

Lukas Lam (40:29.639)
Yeah, really cool man, really cool.

Luc Moore (40:33.112)
Nice. Well, hey, enjoy your trip. You must be packing soon. Monday's coming up. Last minute panic.

Lukas Lam (40:37.957)
Yeah, I'll pack last minute. I'm sure I'm gonna forget something. So thanks to Do-It-Totally-If-I-Forget-Something.

Luc Moore (40:47.449)
Our family, like it would be the Sunday before a trip and it's like you couldn't talk to anybody because everybody is still panicked and trying to get all their stuff organized. Yeah, that's classic. Yes. Yeah. Passport, driver's license if you need one, one credit card and lock your credit card when you're traveling through airports if you don't need it because there's so much stuff going on now.

Lukas Lam (40:57.421)
yeah, yeah, the most important thing is that I don't forget my passport. I forgot my passport so many times.

Lukas Lam (41:07.629)
Yeah. Yeah.

Lukas Lam (41:13.879)
Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah.

Luc Moore (41:16.195)
Hop on your app, lock that sucker. But hey, hope you really enjoy yourselves there and let us know how it goes and we'll be in touch.

Lukas Lam (41:21.329)
Thank you so much, man. I will, I will. We'll be in touch. Look forward to being here again.

Luc Moore (41:28.099)
Cool. All right, everybody.

Lukas Lam (41:29.935)
All right.