Surftrip in Hawaii – the official video – Part I

The Bolt europe team adventure surfing the North Shore
Team Riders: Alexandre "Xaninho" Ferreira, David Raimundo,Jeremy Brasset, Jord Fortmann, Nicolas Pinot, Pedro Soares, Txaber Trojaola.
Where: Pipeline, Haleiwa, Puena Point.
Also some making of moments of our Spring Summer 10 lookbook, featuring our gorgeous models Dominique Fletcher and Brooke.

Alexandre “Xaninho” Ferreira made some big barrels in Pipeline, but it was his first time there. We asked him about his experience:

You were especially anxious about surfing the mythic Pipeline wave. How did you feel when you got there?
I was very happy to be able to fulfil another dream. As a surfer, this meant a lot to me. Pipeline is an amazing wave… even the bravest shiver when looking at it. In fact, I studied the wave during three days, because it was so big that I knew I could not afford making any mistakes.

Not many surf Pipeline for the first time when it’s 4mts high. What was on your mind when you went in? Were you afraid?
Yes, I knew once I went in there was no coming back without surfing, but the waves were so beautiful… The forecast was 10 to 12’, the tubes were perfect, there was no wind and there were about 20 surfers in the water. I had to go in! So I was focussed on two things: riding a tube and praying not to die.

A couple of minutes after going in, you came out scoring one of the biggest waves of the day. How was it?
After listening to many piece of advice and to the incredible stories of our local mentors, Rory Russell and Jonathan Paskowitz, I knew I had to be “away from the pack”, and that meant being to be as far-off as I could on the outside or on the waves’ edges. And the leftovers were not for me, so I positioned myself as close to the peak as possible and, as a true gift, my first wave was a dream.

What about the crowd here? Is it the nightmare we read everywhere?
Yes, there’s a lot of crowd since it’s a global destination and it’s on the itinerary of every surfer, for being one of the best. Nevertheless, January was a good time of the year to be there, after the season’s competitive stress.

Which surfboards did you take with you? Did you make the right choice?
I think I made the most reasonable decision by taking 2 small surfboards with me and buying the others there, which are quite different.

Now that you know what it takes to be a Pipeline Master, which are necessary ingredients to be one?
To be a Pipeline master you have to be physically very well prepared and you have to respect the sea. The rest is up to the wave. Pipe takes care of you.

You realise that the idea of respecting the ocean carries a greater dimension here. Were you more careful about sea conditions than usual?
Absolutely! It was very important for me to spend a couple of days evaluating the sea conditions. Without that kind of knowledge, I would have been in real trouble.

When are you thinking of going back to the North Shore?
I hope to be there by the time that Pipeline Masters begins in December and for the WQS events in the beginning of January.

Hawaii – Return to the source – First Surf

The first day of surf in Pipeline was great with 10-12 feet, but from that you’ll only see photos later. We leave you now with a smaller session in Pipeline, Sunset and Haleiwa.

 Small day in Pipe, but Alexandre Ferreira aka “Mad Xano” got to experience the tube feeling.

 
Txaber Trojaola, our basque rider trying to find way to get in the tube.




Mad Xano dropping in.


Joshua Paskowitz at work in Pipe.

 
Right after coming Indonesia, Pedro Soares didn’t stop and ruled Sunset Beach


Haleiwa pre-session: Left to Right: David Raimundo, Jord Fortman on the wax and the Super model Nicolas Pinot.
 
 
Gege Brasset on his first day at Haleiwa.

 
Jord “Fart”mann on his way to start in Haleiwa

Massacre in Nicaragua - The Trailer

In 11 March 2009, some of the Bolt team riders, were called to Iguana Ranch in Playa Colorado to unveil on of the most intriguing mysteries in the world surf history. Rumors in Europe made us believe that Playa Colorado (named after the river that forms the bank called Rio Colorado) is probably one of the best beach breaks in Central America, more precisely in Nicaragua.

Much has been said and speculated, but till now you didn't have any real proof about these rumors.

David Raimundo, Miguel Ximenez, Pumas and Maria Abecasis were the detectives in charge to clarify what is true and what is myth.

We remind you that they only had 10 days of investigation, but they brought us a lot of insights.

Now watch it for yourself

Surf in the Desert – Morocco’s Surftrip – The Video, clip I

After the trailer, nothing better than the first movie clip of the surftrip to Morocco.
To remind you, we leave you a short description of this mission:
In this mission, Lightning Team riders will fight morrocan best waves. An authentic espionage adventure that isn’t as fictional as the counter terrorist unit in the 24 tv series.
Our Jack Bauer, the team captain is David Raimundo, but the other unit elements are crucial to discover the best waves to surf in this African surf paradise.
Starring: David Raimundo, Miguel Ximenez, Joana Machado, Maria Abecasis, José Ferreira, Nuande Pekel, Miguel Blanco, João Kopke
Running Time: 25 minutes

If you want to watch in HD or bigger, click here

Somewhere in the desert – The trailer

In this mission, Lightning Team riders will fight morrocan best waves. An authentic espionage adventure that isn’t as fictional as the counter terrorist unit in the 24 tv series.
Our Jack Bauer, the team captain is David Raimundo, but the other unit elements are crucial to discover the best waves to surf in this African surf paradise.
Starring: David Raimundo, Miguel Ximenez, Joana Machado, Maria Abecasis, José Ferreira, Nuande Pekel, Miguel Blanco, João Kopke
Running Time: 25 minutes

Breaking waves in Cape Verde, an artistic perspective by Ricardo Bravo

Wikipedia tell us that “...a breaking wave is a wave whose amplitude reaches a critical level at which some process can suddenly start to occur that causes large amounts of wave energy to be dissipated. At this point, simple physical models describing the dynamics of the wave will often become invalid, particularly those which assume linear behaviour..”

If you think of a surfer and change some words of this definition, you won’t be so far way from the true.
A perfect breaking wave is all a surfer needs to feel powerful and fulfilled, because all the rest are accessories, and even the board becomes minor
Ricardo Bravo, one of the most reputed surf photographers in Portugal took this beautiful pics in Cape Verde, during the Lightning Bolt surftrip one year ago.
There is a world consensus that Clark Little is undoubtly the king in this type of photo, but we were delighted when Ricardo Bravo sent us these pearls.

Rory Russell roadtrip by Jonathan Paskowitz – Part II

Jonathan continues his roadtrip report. After Pukas, they continue to France...

"We got to Pukas and were so stoked to meet our friends there. Rory ran into Peter Daniels a legendary shaper and dear friend who he had many adventures with and Matt Biolas the owner of the Lost Brand and a good friend of mine from San Clemente, California. Not to mention the Puka’s owner son, Miguel. The shop there was amazing, I have never seen such a well run factory anywhere in the world.

We then headed north to Biarritz in France. We had invited the boys to come visit us at the Uncle Zizu surf shop for a little party the next day.
The French surf scene in Biarritz was awesome! The town is amazing, the hotel was beautiful and the French guys that meet us were great, Nicolas Pinot and the French photographer Yves Sobanski.
We went to the Surf Session magazine office and surfed cold overcast waves that day, it was gloomy and very cold but the people were great .
We had a good promotion with an awesome surfshop called More and Less, and we met a great guy from the local paper meet to have an interview. Turned out Rory had met him years and years before at the Pipemasters dinner when he was in Hawaii for the newspaper Sud-Qwest.
We got together later that night with our whole team, the local surfers and heroes like Peter Danels or the world class champion, one of the creators of a famous surf brand Jeff Hackman, and a slew of others at the Uncle Zizu Surf Shop.

We then went to an amazing space where we met one of the premier shapers in the area JP or Jean Pierre Stark, we checked out his amazing shop and met his team
Rory there shaped the first Pipliner board to be made in France ever…. Nicolas and Yves Sobanski were crying, they were so happy!!!!

It was a great adventure and so many nice people along the way.
We said our goodbyes and the boys started their 10 hour drive back home."

Rory Russell roadtrip by Jonathan Paskowitz – Part I

Jonathan Paskowitz, our international brand manager was there and tells us what happened around the legendary Rory Russell in his roadtrip in Europe.

"As I arrived to Portugal a few days before, I went to Porto airport and picked up Rory Russell with the original surf hero from Portugal Pedro Lima, a 75 year old man that is not old. He is full of life and surfed before surfing ever existed in Portugal. Pedro was a diver with Jacques Cousteau and pioneered body surfing in Europe long before there were even surfers in the European community.

We only stayed one day in Porto then drove to Lisbon the next day to meet the press and show the fall line to the Portuguese press and local magazines. We had a great time in Lisbon on the beach on a cliff overlooking one of Lisbon’s premier surf beaches. Rory even went into the water to help some kids surf with Bryan Porter our man from the states. The kids looked like they had a great time and Rory and Bryan we very funny with them. Back to Porto again and we started off on the Rory Road Trip to Spain and France. We picked up the guys Joao Diogo and the Lightning Bolt team riders Alexandre Ferreira and Pedro Soares, our new friends on the next part of this adventure. We drove north out of Porto to the boarder of Spain, rocky green mountains and little villages with farms. Really an incredible rich and glorious view whenever you looked out the window.

The Europeans maps are a joke!!! So hard to read. We missed our turn so many times I thought we would never get there. Mundaka was our first stop and we were trying desperately to get there. Finally after so many turns, we got to Mundaka and found the hotel Mundaka. It was now 04:00 am!!!!

We woke up the next day to meet our Spanish salesman Eduardo, great guy with a lot of style, he brought his charming girlfriend with him and was going to take us to meet a writer from a Spanish surfing magazine as well as a famous surfboard collector in the area.

We headed off for a little adventure in the area next to us in Bilbao. We all really wanted to see the city and have a dinner in the main town, we were really surprised to see the architecture and the modern mixed with the old.

In Mundaka the surf was really small but you could see the incredible potential of the waves there. We said goodbye to our new friends there and dropped into the Mundaka surf shop before leaving on the way up the coast to our next stop France. We would stop on the boarder to see the Pukas surfboard shop on the way.

Rory Russell Roadtrip

After more than 30 years, Rory Russell is back again with Lightning Bolt, a brand that never really left his heart.
And this month, you have the opportunity to meet him if you are in Portugal, Spain or France.
Rory Russell will be on a Roadtrip (20-26 March) together with Lightning Bolt Team Riders Pedro Soares and Alexandre Ferreira (aka Xaninho) and also Lightning Bolt USA Brand Manager Jonathan Paskowitz.

He'll arrive next Wednesday to Portugal, then the team will leave in a Lightning Bolt Van directly to Mundaka on the 21st, and from the 23rd to 26th they will stay in Biarritz

The Pipeliner Shaper didn't come to Europe since 1983 and this is a rare chance to meet this natural born surfer and entertainer.

The Pipeline Surf Legend moved to Hawaii with his family in 1964 and lived on Oahu's famous North Shore for 38 years. He has won several world class surf championships including: two Pipe masters, 1976 and 1977, Waimea Pro in Brazil, 1975; All Japan pro in Chiba Japan, 1976; and Oahu North Shore Lightning Bolt Surf Championships in 1977.
Besides his great achievements in contests, he’s also famous for his entertaining character. Rory has co-starred in such surfing films as five Summer Stories, Sundance, Red Hot Blue, Hot Lips and Inner Tubes, Surf Superstars and he has also made numerous TV appearances including on ABC's wide world of sports, ABC's American sportsman and many promotional appearances in TV and magazines (surfing, surfer, surfing world).
Rory has been involved with teaching people how to surf for 20 years and his students have included Bill Murray who he taught to surf while in Indonesia. Rory's surfing exploits are legendary and his students have a great time in his classes.

Lightning Bolt Team Riders in Morocco

The high level competition athletes of Surftechnique led by two renowned surf instructors in Portugal, David Raimundo and Nuno Telmo, are leaving today for the annual surftrip to Morocco for a week.

Lightning Bolt Team Riders Kristian Sousa, Joana Machado, João Kopke, Miguel Blanco and Maria Abecasis are some of the athletes that are going on this trip.

The main goals of this trip are the training for the upcoming season and to practice in different surf spots.

The group will be located in La Point surfcamp, a famous right wave in a point break.
The photos here are from the 2008 surftrip.
Wait to see what they are doing right now

Lightning Bolt Surftrips – Peru

In the beginning of the year we decided to take some Team Riders to the north of Peru. And that was really a smart decision.

Miguel Ximenez, Pekel, Joana Machado and José Ferreira were surfing the long lefts of Máncora, Lobitos, Los Organos, Pico Point and other spots in the North of Peru for two weeks and they still got time to shoot the Spring Summer 09 Catalogue.

The waves were not so good in the first week, but the second week brought them very long 3 to 5 feet waves, and that was enough to see Pekel’s aerials and the fluid style of Ximenez ready to start the WQS year in Fernando Noronha (Hang Loose Pro)

The team was located right close to Sofia Mulanovich’s residence in Mancora and they experienced a great adventure discovering the peruvian culture and meeting the locals lifestyle not so popular in Europe.

That would be a tough trip without the amazing help and friendship of Marco Ravizza aka Pulpo, the leader of OctopusSurfTours

One of the highlights goes to the presence of Rory Russell one of the first Lightning Bolt surfers and still involved with the brand that Gerry Lopez and Duke Boyd made mythic in the seventies.

Rory Russell, also known for winning several surf championships including two Pipeline Masters (76 and 77) is shaping the retro gun model “Pipeliner” and took some to impress the local surf community His natural entertainer and story teller character delighted all the surf fans in Máncora. Although he’s already over 50, Rory still remains one of the most charismatic and dynamic surfers in the world never missing a party and always surfing twice a day in his 7’6’’ swallow tail.
Check in the blog soon to see more photos and videos.