Interview Marcus Flash Austin

Yea sure, if I find a financial backer willing to make that vision of kiteboarding into a reality, then that would be great. I would be very excited if people wanted to ride the Flash brand, and I think that competition in the market place is a good thing.

8. Over the years, we have seen some different movement, like big air, wakestyle, strapless, un-hooked. What could be the next Kiteboarding new school movement?

Well it really is hard to say, not only are the tricks getting more complex, but also the sport has a unique ability to diversify. So I think it is both, not only will the tricks get more and more complex, but also people will be very creative in evolving their own unique style. There are so many styles, that offer so many different possibilities, and on so many different levels, that it is difficult to define. Kickers and sliders will probably become more prevalent I am sure, but who knows maybe people will go back to free-riding on a mono-ski like Cory Roeseler used to as-well. I think as people start to care less about what is trendy, that a lot of people will prefer to be unique and ride with a different style than everybody else around them. So in that way, I know that kiteboarding has an innate ability to keep re-inventing itself.

9. What are you up to when not kiting?

I am probably going surfing, here in Maui when there is no wind it is good time to go surfing. Surfing, skimboarding, and skateboarding are some of my favorite cross-training sports that I can easily do here in Maui. I am a pretty dedicate water guy, so needless to say my life can resemble something like a circular paradox, surf, kite, eat, sleep, and then get up the next day and do it again. After I go kiteboarding I like to hang out with friends and watch other people kite and just do whatever. Sometimes in the evening you can find me on the couch feeling like road kill.

10. 13 years on, would you do it again?

Of-course, not only has kiteboarding changed my life, but it also fulfilled a lot of my childhood dreams. Kiteboarding has been like a great gift to me and in my life, as it probably is for anyone who (like me) has an unquenchable desire for kiting, surfing, or any kind adrenaline or free-riding type of sports. Some friends and I were talking about it the other day, and we came to realize that if I tried to compile that amount of time I have spent catching air, or flying through the air, or even just riding waves these last 13 years of kiteboarding, it would really add up to a lot. Living a life as a kiteboarder/kitesurfer has truly made me a richer person on the inside, and given me fulfillment and an appreciation for the things that I truly value. After a day of kiteboarding my priorities can shift, and some of the problems that I had taken so seriously before, seem to be somehow more or less trivial. It's just that good, I call kiteboarding one of the greatest gifts of my life.

11. How's the kiteboarding scene on your home spot ? Do you ever wish beach where un-crowded as they use to?

Sometimes it can be a little difficult to find a parking space, but that's no big deal. I am thrilled that kiteboarding is access-able and been able to touch to so many people, in so many places in the world. When I started kiteboarding, it was several years until I heard of anyone else doing it. There was probably just a few kiteboarders spread out in different parts of the world . For a long time, I really just wanted to go kiteboarding with just even 1 other person. Back then I could not have imagine that there would be as many people that are kiteboarding today, much-less kiteboarding becoming a legitimate sport. What was at one time like a distant dream, today has materialized beyond my wildest imagination. And so I am thrilled that it has reached so many people. I talk to people for hours, time and time again about how kiteboarding has influenced them and made their life a richer life. I kinda' think that in some way, in some really good way we have changed the world.

12. Did you ever had a session on an old kite and board over the last few years? ( I mean like a proper 2 lines Wipika Classic and a modified surfboard)

Yea, from time to time I try an old board or kite. I still have a lot of the old gear we used to use, and it always a offers good perspective to how far we have come. And it makes me wonder, if we have come so far in such a short time, then how much better it will be in the years to come.

13. Anybody you would like to say thanks to?

That would be a really long list, my successes have been realized by the giving and support of so many people, I can't even begin to describe. Of course first would be my mom. For so many reasons, some of which as single parent raising two kids she not only worked really hard to provide for us, but she also made sure we lived on the ocean and had all the skateboards, surfboards, skimboards, and everything that helped build the foundations of my waterman lifestyle of today. I tell my mom all the time that I had such a great day today surfing and/or kiteboarding, and that it was made possible because of the way she raised me as a child to have that kind of connection to the ocean. Second would be my mom's friend Bruce who taught me how to surf when I was young, he was such a great inspiration and a mentor. Then there's my friends Chuck and Robin for all their help and stoke in the early days of my kiting. They really believed in me and in kiteboarding way before it was an actual sport, I owe them so much as-well. My friend Joe Kool, not only because he believed in me, and in the sport back when people said that it would never go anywhere, but also because of his devotion and vision of kiteboarding, one day becoming one of the greatest sports. Just like Jeff Timpone of Timpone surfboards who shaped some of my first kiteboards totally for free, completely out of the goodness of his heart. He donated his time and money to help me and the sport, at a time when there was nothing to profit form it, even in the slightest. I meet people and get e-mails on almost a daily basis, of people telling me how much they love the sport of kiteboarding, and telling me thank you for my contributions to the sport. So I want to say thank you to them for that recognition, it is really nice that people don't forget that in the early days it was not so easy. We were creating something new and had no instruction manual or anything like that to tell us how to do it or what to do next. I wouldn't want to forget all the other people that supported me and the sport when it was nothing but a distant vision, like Roberto Ricci, Uwe Sasse, Don Montague, my friend Bare and Green Horn. The list of people I owe mountains of gratitude to, goes on and on... it would be difficult to do it justice in a single page.