Can we be done trying to go the fastest or get the highest? Can life stop being one big contest of outdoing and one-upping? We never signed up for that. We aren’t in it to win it. We’re just in it. So let’s take a ride in a bear suit, wakeboard behind a horse, or kill a windless afternoon with a piece of cardboard and a grassy hill. Let’s build a boat out of milk jugs and water bottles, SUP our way down a Class III rapid or see what happens when we bolt a wing to the bottom of our kiteboard. While it’s sure to have its twists and turns, detours and dead ends, never be afraid of the road less perfect. It’s the only road that ever led to anything worth doing.

Ask almost any athlete why they ride, and it won’t be for the awards. They aren’t looking to be measured or scored, ranked or timed. They aren’t in it to conquer anything. They’re in it for the ride, the challenge and the rush of finding their own way and doing something no one else has done before. While we’ve had more than our fair share of kiteboarding world championships and trips to the podium, it’s never been about that - they are just cool bi-products of an idea to do something new and different.