Episode #83 - Benjamin Castenskiold

This episode is brought to you by Villa Carina Apartments in beautiful Bonaire. 

On this episode, Benjamin Castenskiold, the youth world champ race U14, youth vice world champ freestyle U14 and
male grom athlete of the year joins us to talk about:

- The early days, when he found wind, when he started winging and how his progress went
- His family's lifestyle, spending 6 months in Tarifa and La Ventana, Mexico
- Dedication: His hours on the water. How much time does a top level athlete need to put in to be a successful
- Who he trains with and his family support
- His sponsors and how he loves being part of the Cabrinha and Dakine family
- His latest moves and goals for 2025
- Breaks down the double backflip, the 1440 and the equipment he uses to make it happen
- His participation in large events like the Defi Wing in France.
- The send-it mindset, shutting down the mind for a few seconds and the confidence required (not overthinking)
- And Much more.

Visit: https://www.instagram.com/freeliving8/

Watch full episode on Youtube

Creators and Guests

Host

Luc Moore

I started windsurfing in 2012, a year after my brother and I visited Kauai, Hawaii. In 2009 I was involved in a fatal motorcycle accident that required two intensive surgeries to stabilize my pelvis. Three years later, I was still heavily engaged in rehab, but I had been cleared to walk by my orthopedic surgeon, so we finally decided to visit the islands. My brother had just started windsurfing, so we started looking online for gear for him, and we came across a woman selling late her husband's equipment. She recounted to us that his life had been spent on the ocean. As a pro windsurfer, his love and passion for the sport were undeniable. At that point, I thought I could try this sport and carry on his legacy of love for the water and wind if I worked hard enough. Initially, I couldn't ride with my harness on without experiencing terrible low back pain. I was terrified of the water, knew nothing about wind, and if I got moving at any speed, scenes of my accidents would replay in my mind, which lasted for years. It took a lot of work to differentiate fact from fiction. To add to this mess of emotions, numerous specialists and acquaintances had repeatedly told me that I was now broken. I could never jog pain-free again, let alone enjoy pain-free sports. They told me to accept that as my truth and to move on. My mom and brother helped me keep going as our shared passions, and family support helped me overcome obstacles. The pure joy I felt with my continued progress on the water helped those wounds begin to heal. In time, windsurfing felt so good physically and psychologically that it would bring me to tears on the water. I would spend hours practicing the basics and quickly improve. This sport was one of the catalysts that helped accelerate my healing process. When my skills had reached the great lake level, I started sailing with my neighbour Danny. He is one of the best windsurfers in eastern Ontario and travels worldwide, pursuing his passion in his spare time. In 2018 when Wing Foiling first came out, I quickly felt like this sport would take my love for wind and water to the next level. Our Co-Host Tom helped me find gear and gave me my first intro lesson! I quickly picked up the sport and learnt the basics. I then contacted some kite schools on Vancouver Island (Elevation Kiteboarding & Windrider Kiteboarding) and started teaching for them! Shortly after, Tom and I created the Wing Life podcast to help share our stoke and knowledge of wind sports with others.

What is Foil Life Podcast by SFT?

Welcome to the Foil Life Podcast by SFT, the official podcast of the Surf Foil World Tour! Join us as we dive into the exhilarating world of foiling, covering five core disciplines—pump foiling, surf foiling, e-foiling, wake foiling, and downwind SUP foiling—plus the dynamic art of wing foiling. From expert tips, exclusive updates from the Surf Foil World Tour, and inspiring stories of athletes, innovators, and passionate riders to gear release and review episodes where we talk with top brands about the latest innovations hitting the market, we’re your ultimate source for all things foil. Whether you’re honing your skills, planning epic foil adventures, or geeking out on cutting-edge gear, tune in for unmatched stoke and insights.

Luc Moore (00:00.715)
people.

Luc Moore (00:04.463)
And 100%, 3%, Benji.

Luc Moore (00:17.384)
so your internet, are you on cell service or internet?

Benji (00:21.146)
I'm on Starlink.

Luc Moore (00:23.08)
Okay, it's at 1 % uploaded hmm. It's uploading slow. I wonder

Benji (00:29.975)
and

Luc Moore (00:33.367)
It should work, though.

Benji (00:35.544)
it says zero percent now no no no yeah yeah

Luc Moore (00:37.135)
Oh, there you go. It's up to 1428. Sweet. All right, we'll see how goes. How old are you now? Are you 14 or still 13? That's crazy. Crazy. All right. And how do you like to be called? Benjamin? Benji?

Benji (00:47.262)
I'm 13.

Benji (00:51.663)
Yeah.

Benji (01:00.174)
Whatever you like. Doesn't matter for me.

Luc Moore (01:01.966)
That's easy too. All right. Well, my friend, thanks for coming on the show. We've been talking about it internally for a while and we've seen you ride and absolutely sensational. So we just want to invite you on, have a little chat.

Benji (01:12.932)
Yeah.

Benji (01:21.017)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (01:22.894)
Cause I don't know, was talking to Tom Hartman, GWA and you're training with Chris. I think you're going to be a contender.

Benji (01:29.695)
Yep. Hopefully next year. No, this year actually.

Luc Moore (01:35.983)
Yeah, did you turn 14 this year?

Benji (01:38.446)
Yeah, I turned 14 this year. So it's the year you turn 14, you can compete in the World Cup. So, yeah.

Luc Moore (01:43.488)
Mm-hmm. Are you looking forward to doing that?

Benji (01:47.992)
yes, definitely. I've been waiting for two years now.

Luc Moore (01:49.312)
Yeah. That's amazing. When, when did you start winging or get into water sports?

Benji (01:53.167)
Yep.

Benji (01:58.762)
I started winging like around three years ago. The water sports, that was about... Yeah, four or five years ago.

Luc Moore (02:09.422)
Wow, so it's pretty pretty new

Benji (02:10.338)
I started kiting first, no windsurfing, no nothing, just kiting. And then, well, my dad got interested in winging, right? So he bought a bunch of wing-full equipment and then I got it my first day. And since then, almost every day winging.

Luc Moore (02:25.742)
no way. So obviously you progress super quickly. So kind of a natural, a fairly natural born athlete then. Do you do any other sports?

Benji (02:28.29)
Yeah.

Benji (02:37.274)
not really know that only weighing in kite

Luc Moore (02:40.144)
yeah?

Luc Moore (02:43.873)
All right, all right. Where are you from?

Benji (02:49.274)
Well, I am from Colombia. My mom is from Colombia. My dad's from Denmark. I was born in Colombia. But I don't live there. I mostly stay the whole winter down here in La Ventana and then the whole summer in Europe, around Europe.

Luc Moore (03:06.797)
Okay, so you can get good win seasons wherever you are. nice. Basin Tarifa. no way, another Tarifa wonder. You guys got so many good kids coming out of there. It's unbelievable.

Benji (03:10.584)
Yeah, based in Tarifa.

Benji (03:21.689)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (03:23.443)
Did your dad, was it him that helped you kind of get into wind sports or was it your mom or?

Benji (03:28.322)
Yeah, it was my dad. My dad had been doing kitesurfing for over 20 years. So he really wanted teach me and yeah. Four hours a day, every day.

Luc Moore (03:39.911)
four hours a day every day. So how was your wing foiling progression? Because when I was following you and Chris, like what a couple weeks ago, like you're throwing double backflips now. You're working on 14s, right?

Benji (03:50.295)
Yeah.

Benji (03:58.286)
can do 14's already. Yeah. Yes. No, no, no, both ways. In regular. Yeah. Yeah.

Luc Moore (03:59.605)
You can do 14th both ways. Wow. Okay. Regular. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. What was the first trick that you landed and then how do you find that progression? Cause you've progressed so quickly.

Benji (04:18.266)
Yeah, mean, around, yeah, two and a half years ago, because I was first half a year, know, trying to get my tacks well, you know, learning everything first. And then for one of my first years, was a 360. Yeah, the 360, and then from there on, just trying different 360 combinations, you know, maybe doing it bit higher and tweaking it, and then like landing, like trying to get it smooth in landings. I just...

Luc Moore (04:32.204)
Okay.

Benji (04:48.458)
One trick after another. Step by step.

Luc Moore (04:50.441)
One trick after another. That's fair. When did Cabrinha start to enter the picture or any other brands, for example, start to get their eye on you?

Benji (05:01.754)
I mean, at least, what was it, dad? Dad? Three years ago, right? Yeah, three years ago. Right after I learned to wing, I got really good at it immediately. after that, I got a bunch of calls from different brands and Cabrinha hit the spot and that was the one.

Luc Moore (05:22.741)
They're a good company. What do you like the most about riding with them?

Benji (05:27.246)
I like that it's kind of like a family, the team. We're all just together, right? We all know each other and obviously they provide me with very good gear and I love that. Also the kind. Yeah.

Luc Moore (05:29.673)
Mm.

Luc Moore (05:41.356)
Sweet, sweet, all right. So, and how's winter been so far in La Ventana this year?

Benji (05:49.082)
It's been windy and it's getting cold this past two weeks. It's been getting colder and colder. Today it looks windy but you know cold. I don't like that. But as long as it's windy I'll have to go.

Luc Moore (05:54.826)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (05:58.737)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's true. What are you practicing with now?

Benji (06:07.226)
Right now I'm trying to, I can do 1440s like regularly, maybe 6 out of 10 attempts. So I'm trying to get those 10 out of 10s and also double backflips, I'm trying to get those very, a lot. And yeah, just mostly getting ready for the world tour.

Luc Moore (06:26.208)
Getting ready for the world tour. All right, Tom Hartman, Benji is on his way. Is there a tour stop or in particular that you are looking the most forward to?

Benji (06:31.736)
Yeah.

Benji (06:39.254)
Look at, that's the first one in freestyle. Yeah, very windy and very cold.

Luc Moore (06:41.376)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (06:45.652)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Where is your home spot? So you're riding out of Tarifa. Are there any other spots that you like to ride in Europe? Have you guys traveled a little bit out there?

Benji (06:48.548)
Yeah.

Benji (06:57.594)
Yeah, we jumbled a bunch. We did a whole tour with Karina all around Europe. So we went from... We left from Tarifa, we went to France, we went to Italy, we went to Switzerland. We went... Where else? There so many spots. It was just also a bunch of spots around France. We did the Defi Wing in France. I'm pretty sure it's over 400 wingers. Yeah, that was really cool. So yeah.

Luc Moore (07:19.402)
No way, you got to do that? That was sick.

Yeah, what was that experience like?

Benji (07:30.485)
Um... Really fast and really scary. Like, you know if you fall, you get hit by a winger. There's so many, like everywhere. Yeah, they're all like in a ball. Yeah.

Luc Moore (07:37.877)
Whoa, I guess you're, it's just one big clump, eh? wow. Wow. How did you do in that one? A lot of fast people, I guess.

Benji (07:45.305)
Yes.

and what yeah like world champions everything and my there was various races right my best one i think i got 40th or 50th out of 400 racers so i'm pretty happy with myself about that and but mostly was around yeah like 80th 90th

Luc Moore (08:08.872)
Yeah, there's a lot of crazy racers out there. What's your favorite discipline in winging freestyle, obviously your bomber at are you ever thinking of getting into waves or into racing or is it mainly freestyle that you want to focus in?

Benji (08:11.831)
Yeah.

Benji (08:17.465)
Yeah, freestyle.

Benji (08:23.514)
I think this year we're also doing all the wave tour.

Luc Moore (08:26.996)
really? cool.

Benji (08:28.098)
I think yeah, Capri Verde and then know, Morocco and all of the ones.

Luc Moore (08:35.07)
Very nice. You'll able to do that with your family then? No way. All right. What's Tarifa conditions like? Do you get a good mix of freestyle and a little bit of wave action there as well?

Benji (08:35.758)
Yeah, so wave and freestyle.

Benji (08:40.964)
Yeah.

Benji (08:47.042)
I mean, really, 3Fest mostly just freestyle because it's kinda flat. It's not completely flat, there's some chop, but it's not waves, or like riding waves. And yeah, it's almost, it's like here basically. Yeah.

Luc Moore (08:56.84)
Mm It's almost like here, right?

Okay, all right. I know we talked to with a lot of people when they were just doing single backflips and talking about all the steps. How does one even wrap their mind into doing a double?

Benji (09:16.014)
mmm took me a while to send it because when I saw one of the first riders doing a Chris McDonald I was just sitting in the camper right with all the other Corvina riders on Corso's I was like damn I need to do this we need to go to Wavy Spot and do this right now but once I got there I was like mmm I don't know I don't know man nah but then after a couple of turns I was like you know what full send I don't care

Luc Moore (09:17.738)
It did it? Yeah.

Luc Moore (09:26.526)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (09:45.202)
Yeah, it is a full send, isn't it? Like full speed. And how high were you guys that day when I was in the water? Probably what, 10, 15 feet at least? Mm-hmm. Okay. And then.

Benji (09:47.684)
Yeah.

Benji (09:54.24)
Yeah, about that. Yeah. Yeah, the double back's a super fun and scary trick at the same time.

Luc Moore (10:04.542)
First rotation not so bad, does it get scarier within the second or is the whole?

Benji (10:08.582)
Luc Moore (10:32.595)
So is that your trick?

Luc Moore (10:37.929)
Did you do that for any of your other maneuvers?

Benji (10:41.976)
what the opening eyes thing. No, not really, just a double back.

Luc Moore (10:44.027)
Yeah. No, just to double blocks. Okay. Do you think that they're ever going to do double forwards or is that just something that's just insane?

Benji (10:52.575)
one of... Yeah, people have done double forwards already.

Luc Moore (10:56.808)
Okay.

Benji (10:58.104)
Yeah, but super scary. I don't know if I want to try it.

Luc Moore (11:01.403)
Yeah, that would be intense. Yeah, that would be absolutely intense. Huh. What other moves then do you really like doing in the water?

Benji (11:10.01)
I love doing Palau's. It's basically a one-handed... You know now with the booms, you can grab more the center of the wing, right? For freestyle. Everybody's using booms now. Because there's new tricks called back mobs. Basically comes from kiting, kite freestyle. You go, you do like a one-handed backflip, a mid-backflip, you do a handle pass, right? So for that you need the boom. You need to always have power in the wing. With the handles, you can't really have power because you're holding up front.

Luc Moore (11:30.534)
Okay.

Luc Moore (11:34.994)
Mm-hmm.

Benji (11:39.236)
So with the boom is really nice. And yeah, I like doing back moves, especially back moves 360s. It's a new trick that they made about a year ago. It's really cool, eh? It's super scary and cool.

Luc Moore (11:51.932)
We'll add it in the video B roll so people can see what it is,

Benji (11:54.842)
Yeah, yeah, because if you miss the bar, you're going right, and if you miss the bar, it's so scary because you miss it and then you're like, oh well, I'm upside down and I have no wing. Yeah. Yeah, oh my god, it's so painful.

Luc Moore (12:04.434)
no.

How do you naturally, is sending it something that you build? Is the confidence do you build? Is it there because let's say you guys are younger and you haven't hurt yourselves. Like how does that send come into, cause you have to just go for it in this sport.

Benji (12:27.674)
I feel like it's just turn your brain off for about 10 seconds. I've never really been scared to send any tricks. Well, except a little backflip. That's the only one really. Yeah, for the rest you just have to just not think about it and just, I mean, it's water. It can't be that bad. It's gonna hurt, but it can't be that bad. At least I think, but...

Luc Moore (12:41.841)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (12:50.087)
Yeah, you're young enough. Do you do any cross training outside of the water to help your body kind of stay fit or stronger to get yourself to get to stuff?

Benji (13:07.116)
Not really, I think I should start though for a world tour I I pretty much I need it. Yeah.

Luc Moore (13:13.448)
Mm hmm. Right. Start with body weight exercises. What I did when I was 13 and you slowly build your own body strength up and then, and then you can slowly throw in weights later. But, but I think that's probably the best bet to do is just start with some slowly body and then try to mimic what you're currently doing in the water and see what happens. Do you ever do any trampoline training or any kind of land-based training before you throw a new trick?

Benji (13:24.73)
Yeah.

Benji (13:31.61)
Yeah.

Benji (13:35.066)
well.

I mean down here in Ventana you can't have trampolines because with the salt they all like break. yeah, when I'm in, when I was in Hood River and when I used to live in Columbia that's all I basically, trampoline and skating and scootering.

Luc Moore (13:42.331)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (13:54.439)
So that's what is probably helping you now, right? Cause you got a good awareness of your body. that's super cool. Well, when you're not in the water, what are your other favorite things to do?

Benji (13:56.866)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Benji (14:13.444)
Do homework and wait til Lewin

Luc Moore (14:16.615)
Yeah, I imagine. Are you doing school here in Mexico or is it remote? Online school? All right. So that kind of works well so you can do your schooling and then get out on the water at the best time and kind of come back in. that's awesome. I'm assuming a lot of young athletes do that same thing.

Benji (14:20.76)
What? Yeah, I'm doing online.

Yeah, all right.

Benji (14:28.888)
Yeah. Yes, exactly.

Benji (14:35.202)
Yeah, most of them are just, you know, they're schools that have an online program, so they do it through that. But now in the World Tour.

Luc Moore (14:36.38)
Hmm.

Luc Moore (14:43.184)
Did you ever think that you would get the opportunity to be on the world tour at such a young age? Like find a sport like this, excel so much at it, and then like get to compete with all these top ranked people?

Benji (14:55.886)
I mean yeah, I was pretty confident I could become very good at this sport and slowly start building up to maybe world champion next year or maybe this year, I don't know. We'll see.

Luc Moore (14:59.717)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (15:05.147)
Watch out, He's coming. That's exciting though. That must make you happy and give you a lot of stuff to work towards.

Benji (15:07.962)
Yeah

Benji (15:14.98)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (15:16.026)
Yeah, that's sweet. It's awesome that you have a supportive family as well, and that you live in different locations. That's kind of cool.

Benji (15:20.281)
Yeah.

Yeah, my dad also is all day in the water with me, filming me every day. Yeah.

Luc Moore (15:27.141)
yeah? that's so sweet. I wasn't sure who was filming most of your content, but that's your dad. That's awesome.

Benji (15:31.82)
Yeah, my dad and friends.

Luc Moore (15:35.111)
Nice. And how, how many like, do you have other Cabrinha riders down here with you that you get to train with? I know you're riding with Chris a lot and I think Patrick was down here too, riding with Chris and

Benji (15:43.674)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, he just left, but another Camino rider is Kai C. Potter. He's down here sometimes, playing with me. He lives in San Diego, so he comes down and up. But when he's down here, we both just train down here together. With Chris and everybody, yeah.

Luc Moore (16:00.751)
Okay.

Yeah, no, it seems like it's a nice little family down there for you guys all kind of training and progressing together. Now, do you share your tricks amongst each other? Are there certain things you keep in your back pocket?

Benji (16:07.169)
Yeah.

Benji (16:15.259)
Mmm. It depends. Depends how good the trick is or how hard it is. If it's a really cool trick, I don't say it.

Luc Moore (16:22.918)
Okay. Yeah. All right. A little bit of a nudge, right?

Benji (16:26.767)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Luc Moore (16:32.006)
Oh, that's cool. That's exciting. Yeah. Okay. So your goal next year is to start competing, do the tour, which would be phenomenal. Um, you got a good repertoire of tricks already in the bag. You're working on some other ones as well. So that's fun. Um, just talking Cabrinha gear, like which, what's the main board that you're riding? What wings do you like foils?

Benji (16:32.344)
Only a little bit though.

Benji (16:56.57)
Right now I'm writing the 2025 code that just came out. I'm writing the 42 that is 45 liters. For wings, my preferred wings are the Vision, the model Division. 3 meter, 3.5, and 4 meter. Those are my go-to sizes. With the new boom, obviously. Yeah.

Luc Moore (17:15.781)
Three, three, five, and four. Okay, so looking at the board, how much do you weigh?

How much do you weigh?

Benji (17:25.688)
and pounds or kilos.

Luc Moore (17:27.526)
kilos or pounds doesn't matter. 60, so you're riding like 15 under your body weight. No, that's okay. No, so you're riding about 15 liters below your body weight in kgs. So, cause when I was seeing you guys, like those landings can get fairly intense, right? So a smaller board will help cause you, cause 15 liters below your body weight, like how much is that sinking?

Benji (17:29.562)
And kilos like 60. Yeah, 60 kilos. I don't know how much I weigh. What?

Benji (17:44.503)
Yeah.

Benji (17:51.513)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (17:57.507)
when you go to hop on your board, that must be sinking what a foot or something or?

Benji (18:01.814)
Yeah, about that. Maybe since it's my knees. I feel like maybe I need to get a little bit more leaders. Maybe 50. Maybe for the World Tour I'll need a 50 leader. Yeah, because... Light wind. What? Yeah. More leaders is better for landings. No, more leaders. Yeah. Because when you land, know, it's like, let's say light wind, you don't have much power at landings.

Luc Moore (18:06.936)
Okay.

Luc Moore (18:16.887)
Now landings, is it better? For landings, is it better with a smaller board? Obviously it's, really? Really?

Benji (18:30.682)
So you kind of sink a little bit to get that perfect clean landing. You want those leaders to keep you up off the water. You don't want the board to sink. So you kind of want it to be a little bit floater and a little bit of a sinker. to meet in the middle.

Luc Moore (18:31.14)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (18:44.983)
I see what you're saying. All right. And is it easier on body wise if it's a little bit less volume, like obviously the landing is softer, but then you stick more.

so it's a fun balance between the two of them. fair, fair. So what do you like so much about their wings?

Benji (18:59.501)
Yeah.

Benji (19:06.61)
Especially with the new 25 wings, I feel like they have obviously added new materials so the wing is way lighter. Especially for freestyle, I feel like the vision because of its dihedral angle, that's what makes the wings look like a beat, right? The wind kind of hits off the panels and sends the wing to spinning. So for spinning, I feel like it's pretty good for spinning the wing and also for flips. It kind of cuts through the wind.

Luc Moore (19:22.052)
Mm-hmm.

Benji (19:33.922)
And yeah, maybe for freestyle, maybe that's my go-to, obviously the vision. That's what I like about it. And also the mantis, that's for wave riding. It's a completely flat wing. Well, not completely, but it's pretty much flat. So basically for waves, it kind of stays behind you straight. The vision for waves kind of goes a little bit to the side. It's like a balance, right? So yeah, with the mantis, I feel like I don't prefer it for freestyle. I just like it for waves.

Luc Moore (19:34.414)
So fascinating.

Luc Moore (19:54.892)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (20:02.404)
So the more it kind of flies back and forth, it's easier for spins. How's a back flip and front flip with a wing that does that? Do you prefer to oscillate left and right or do you prefer it to be stable?

Benji (20:12.396)
it kind of does that when you have the dihedral angle when it's flat it kind of just cuts the wind straight when it has this it kind of goes like this when you're holding by the front handle so for let's say a backflip right you have the wing that's like this so instead of it being completely flat it doesn't flip like this it kind of goes back the wind kind of hits it and makes it go flip once you go a little bit back the wind kind of like pulls it back

Luc Moore (20:16.717)
Okay.

Luc Moore (20:21.358)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (20:25.048)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (20:43.052)
fascinating. All right, so.

Benji (20:43.202)
And also on the bigger sizes, you have the most dihedral rights, so instead of the wingtips hitting the water, they're kind of more like this off the water.

Luc Moore (20:54.122)
Interesting. So it does make your tricks easier.

Benji (20:57.112)
Yeah, definitely. All the pros on the tour are using WingSav.hid.lang.

Luc Moore (20:58.66)
okay, okay, okay.

Luc Moore (21:06.67)
Do you know what, or let's rephrase that, what do you think you would have to do, trick-wise, to contend with the likes of, let's say, Chris, or come in a high ranking for, let's say, in the next couple years?

Benji (21:20.689)
I feel like as long as I land the tricks I have right now in the bag I can... I don't know if I... maybe I can beat him possibly but I think yeah I can definitely do good in the tour if I can land all my

Luc Moore (21:39.492)
All right. So then your time spent here is just continuously refining, refining, refining.

Benji (21:44.994)
Yeah, every day.

Luc Moore (21:47.07)
Every day. guess that's what it takes, doesn't it?

Benji (21:48.76)
Yeah, definitely.

Luc Moore (21:53.261)
How do you, let's say, mentally overcome a tough day if you fall a lot? Or how do you handle a good day and then back it up with not a good day? Is there a tricks and stuff that you've learned to help you with that?

Benji (22:08.0)
No, just sleep on it and next day you'll be better.

Luc Moore (22:13.207)
That makes sense. That makes sense. Cool. Who's your favorite person to ride with? I guess other than your dad and stuff. Like do you have a favorite athlete or people that you learned from a little like mentor and stuff in the water?

Benji (22:15.513)
Yeah.

Benji (22:26.552)
I like riding with everybody.

Luc Moore (22:27.551)
Everybody nice. Yeah. What do you like the most about la ventana? Like why do you guys come here in the winter?

Benji (22:35.706)
And because it's almost windy every single day, right? And that's what we need. We can't have, like, let's say a week with no wind. We need every single day with wind. And down here, yeah, it's mostly like that. Here we have kind of like, if you go down to South Beach, right, you'll most of the times have a little bit of waves, right? So you can train a little bit of wave riding. And up here in the campground, you kind of have choppy water for free, it's kind of perfect. So just, there's everything.

Luc Moore (22:45.164)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (22:59.81)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (23:03.798)
And the food's pretty good too, right?

Benji (23:06.221)
yeah, definitely. We need lots of that.

Luc Moore (23:07.331)
Can't complain at the tacos. My brother and I went to two for one tacos at Las Guacamayas or something last night. And they're like 20 pesos a piece. And it's always fun to go out there to go out there on Wednesday nights. It does get pretty busy. So that's cool. All right. Is there anything that you think, let's say somebody who is looking at progressing their tricks could help them?

Benji (23:16.536)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Luc Moore (23:34.762)
I know that mindset obviously is one of them, just from what I got from the lesson when I was following you guys was just to continue to try new things and don't be afraid of falling and just keep going.

Benji (23:44.824)
Yeah, don't be afraid of falling and having the right gear is also very important. If you have, let's say, a 1200 front wing and you're looking to 360s and you're backflips, that's going to be very heavy and very much more difficult to land. Because you're have that big flow with tons of lift when you land. And also it's just, you can't go fast before takeoff.

Luc Moore (24:09.379)
I think your audio just changed a little bit. it your headphones still or? there you go. Yeah, that's better, it's better. Okay, no, that's okay. So maybe let's say that again. So for somebody who is looking to improve their freestyle or get into freestyle, do you have any tricks or tips that you've learned that would help them?

Benji (24:13.924)
Wait, this is better now? There you go, yeah, sorry, I my headphone off.

Benji (24:29.466)
having the right gear full standing because also full standing, sorry and the right gear is also very important because you can't have the said 1200 front wing for doing backflips, let's say and it's too big, it's just too heavy, too blocky you need to have at least that 600, 630 to be able to do it you can't it's way more dangerous trying it with big wings and like big foils, big boards than trying it with some small perfect right gear

Luc Moore (24:59.06)
Interesting. This is something we haven't talked about on the podcast yet. So what is the ideal setup, for example, because we can just build it up based on the weight. Somebody must be making food back there. Nice. So what is the ideal, let's say foil and kind of board size, because you were saying 50 liter would be more ideal for you. And then so what, kind of foil would be the ideal setup for somebody just learning to jump?

Benji (25:12.9)
my mom

Benji (25:23.779)
Yeah.

Benji (25:29.49)
I think depends on your weight, but let's say somebody...

Luc Moore (25:37.427)
If they're your way, yeah.

Benji (25:38.425)
mid-size if there might wait let's say a foil yeah 700 or 650 and the board yeah around 50 or 60 liters and yeah just try to go with the smallest like the right you don't have to be super power to do a bunch of tricks some tricks like let's say 1440s you need a lot of wind you need to be able to go super high up to be able to do those four spins

But for a safe backflip, you don't need that much height. So you kind of can be underpowered just to be able to do that flip easier with a smaller wing.

Luc Moore (26:15.306)
Now talk us through that 1440. Like how was that running that thing through the first time?

Benji (26:21.303)
Stoked. Stoked and sick and dizzy when you land.

Yeah.

Luc Moore (26:29.673)
I can imagine. can imagine. How much height are you looking at getting for something like that? I don't know, probably 15 feet at least.

Benji (26:36.578)
that fifteen twenty feet maybe this depends on best yeah definitely and you cannot bail you bail and you will die

Luc Moore (26:41.075)
Mm-hmm. So just looking at the right ramp, fully loaded, and then kicking off, going as high as you can, and then starting your rotations from there. All right. All right. Yeah, like, obviously, you just got to commit through the whole thing, don't you?

Benji (26:59.46)
Trust me, I've done it before.

Luc Moore (27:01.121)
Have you? was that landing?

Benji (27:04.506)
Well, I have scars all like on my knees and stuff from the foil. That's just from not full standing, yeah.

Luc Moore (27:14.547)
Any kind of injuries so far, even other than cuts and bruises, like those things still really hurt.

Benji (27:15.064)
Yeah.

Benji (27:19.506)
yeah, not really, but, no, I haven't had any injuries, Hopefully none in the future.

Luc Moore (27:25.514)
Beautiful. Yeah, no, absolutely. That's awesome. Footstraps. I'm thinking about starting into footstraps finally. Any pros and cons of footstraps when you're just riding small waves here? Because I kind of saw Patrick get stuck in them once and he had a pretty good face plant. But that's a conversation you get when you get older. I'm sure your dad would be having the same conversation as me. Is it worth it? Is it not worth it? What do you think?

Benji (27:43.415)
Yeah.

Benji (27:50.298)
I feel like for waves if you're trying to get those sharp turns, traps are definitely worth it because you can kind of lean on the board and kind of pull the board towards the turns, right? But if you're not looking to do those sharp turns, I don't think foot traps is needed because you can get stuck in them and if you fall that's kind of painful and not good.

Luc Moore (28:11.273)
Yeah, I've seen some. How do you set up yours? Are some guys that like them super tight, super wide so you can kind of wiggle out of them? Do have like a preferred method for setting yours up?

Benji (28:24.492)
I like him not too tight or not too loose. like him so I can get out of my foot traps if I'm in trouble. But I also like him so it's not, my foot doesn't come out of the straps. It just depends the size of your foot.

Luc Moore (28:30.304)
Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (28:37.182)
Okay, no, fair enough, all right. And so you're doing school online, any kind of, what grade are you in now? You're in grade nine or 10?

Benji (28:46.446)
What? I'm at eight.

Luc Moore (28:47.786)
You're in grade eight. all right. All right. And are there any other, your close friends like from Columbia or from other parts that are into water sports like this, or was your family more, I guess, coming from Tarifa in that area? there's a lot of people, but.

Benji (28:49.486)
Yeah.

Benji (29:01.464)
Yeah, I know. It's just for my dad.

Luc Moore (29:05.758)
No way. that's sick. Any other sports he does? He's a big kiter.

Benji (29:12.25)
He's a big kiter, a winger, he started with windsurfing. But no, not any other sports that I know of.

Luc Moore (29:19.776)
No? All right, that's cool. I'll have to meet up. Be nice to meet him. Is there anything else that you want to talk about, about Cabrinha or just even about the lifestyle to help other kids kind of get into this?

Benji (29:23.576)
Yeah.

Benji (29:33.126)
I just want to thank Krabina and the kind for supporting me over these years and giving me all the gear that I need and obviously very good gear and yeah whatever you want to talk about

Luc Moore (29:43.113)
Hmm.

Luc Moore (29:47.593)
Let me think, DeKind. So what gear are you riding for DeKind?

Benji (29:54.114)
I'm riding mainly wetsuits, flipstraps, and just... Yeah, that's basically it. Because... Cabrinha has bought the wind part of the kind, right? So right now, I just have the flipstraps and obviously Wets does the wind part of them. Yeah.

Luc Moore (30:12.703)
Okay, how do you like their wetsuits? I'm writing Mystic right now for the first time and it's their higher end line, the Majestic I believe, and I really like it. It keeps me warm here. How are the Dekind suits?

Benji (30:23.45)
Yeah. Oh, I love my other kind too. They're super warm. Super warm, they don't stretch out easy. They're really tight, right? And so no water comes in. They're like super tight on the, how do you say it? On the cuffs, yeah, they're super tight on the cuffs. They have like those little gummies, whatever they're called, right? So they hold your arms pretty tight. So you don't have no water coming in anywhere. And they're like, they're really durable. They don't break.

Luc Moore (30:26.771)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Luc Moore (30:38.818)
and the cuffs?

Luc Moore (30:52.22)
Nice, that's important, because you don't want to replace suits too often. Are we able to ask what your next big move is?

Benji (30:55.29)
Yeah, I know.

Benji (31:03.226)
I gotta see what- I don't have a move yet.

Luc Moore (31:04.446)
Or, or, or if you can't say it, is there a general direction? Do you think people are getting into triple backs or are they just gonna do a combination of doubles into something?

Benji (31:14.793)
I think doubles into something I've got it close to doubles into 360 and but I don't know about triples. Triples is oof. Salah Salah the backflips man.

Luc Moore (31:20.541)
No way.

Luc Moore (31:25.862)
Yeah, no kidding. No kidding. Cause there was triple attempts in windsurfing, I think, but they all ended pretty badly.

Benji (31:32.942)
Yeah.

Luc Moore (31:34.236)
Yeah, like pretty badly. So you would do one rotation, two rotation, and then as you're coming down, spin.

Benji (31:41.434)
No, it would be just into a combo. You you land and you pop back up and you're 360.

Luc Moore (31:45.177)
You do 360? Okay. Awesome. All right. Well, the wind this week, I think we had a couple big days. It's 16 to 20. It is getting a bit colder though, isn't it? We're getting a little spoiled here with this heat. Yeah, and it's a bit cloudy, cloudy as well. But I give a little shout out to Alex, my neighbor here, his son, Santi, got your two and a half meter, I believe. He bought that off you.

Benji (31:56.044)
Yeah. Yeah, way colder. Yep.

Benji (32:06.254)
Yeah.

Benji (32:13.607)
yeah, yeah, my dad told me. Yeah.

Luc Moore (32:17.826)
Such a he's 13 as well. So he's just getting into it too. He was super stoked to be able to meet you and everybody else down there. And thanks a lot for like being, giving tips and being like, there's some athletes that are, that are just more naturally like a friendlier and giving out information. And I know you guys are down there. So it's cool. Cause you never know what that's going to do for, somebody that that's might compete or might just have fun. So do you enjoy that?

Benji (32:24.59)
Yeah.

Benji (32:36.558)
Yeah.

Benji (32:44.078)
Always happy to help. What?

Luc Moore (32:45.714)
Do you enjoy that aspect of things to enjoy that aspect of kind of helping and being a bit more in the spotlight?

Benji (32:49.72)
Yeah, yeah, I don't... I like helping people. I mean, it's always nice, right? Giving people information about what they need and gear. And yeah, just always have to help.

Luc Moore (33:02.471)
Yeah, that's cool. Any trips that are coming up that you're really looking forward to after you leave here? Yeah.

Benji (33:08.108)
any trips? after I leave in no actually in a week I'm going up to SD San Diego I'm going to go pick up some gear 2025 yeah yeah no it's out already it's out already yeah it's that yeah

Luc Moore (33:16.709)
Yeah. we probably can't talk about it, but that'll be pretty. is it out already? sick. Okay. Nice. Okay. So what are you picking up?

Benji (33:29.41)
I'm picking up just a bunch of wings, you know, around, I don't know how many, but it's like a ton of wings and just different sizes and stuff for down here. And for whole tour.

Luc Moore (33:39.901)
Do you go through wings often, like gear often trying these tricks? how hard is it on the equipment? Oh really? Oh. Oh.

Benji (33:46.071)
No, almost never.

Almost never. I never rip wings anymore or... I don't destroy it anymore, at least.

Luc Moore (33:56.359)
Hmm, that's pretty cool. Did you at the start or is that the wing and the materials are so much better?

Benji (34:00.998)
And no, just I never really crashed that hard anymore. Sometimes, but like barely. And no, I didn't used to or do rip many wings. Couple of times I have, but not often.

Luc Moore (34:20.253)
Okay. Well, so you're gonna get out there today. Anything you're gonna practice specifically?

Benji (34:23.918)
Yeah.

Benji (34:28.705)
Well right now I'm looking outside the window, I'm right now on the beach right? I'm looking out and it looks like it's 20 knots so yeah I'm probably gonna be 3.5 I think like in about 40 minutes and just going to try everything, refine everything.

Luc Moore (34:42.845)
Okay.

Luc Moore (34:47.133)
See what happens. Okay, that's pretty exciting. Well, hey, thanks for coming on. That's the one thing, like I saw the.

Benji (34:51.256)
hopefully not crash

Luc Moore (34:58.461)
It does take a lot of patience, doesn't it? And just to continuously jump and jump, but I saw you go anyway, super impressive what you can do. And I'm super excited to see you at the point where you can now get into the tour and compete and have a great time on there. I think that's going to be such an amazing experience. And it's going to be really fun to see you rip against everybody else. Represent for the local team, you know?

Benji (35:15.279)
Yeah.

Benji (35:23.456)
Yeah. Well, thank you for having me on your podcast. It was really fun and hopefully I'll see you in the water today.

Luc Moore (35:25.853)
cool banding.

Luc Moore (35:33.861)
Yeah, I think my brother's here for like four or five more days. So we're going to go and I'll probably down. I normally downwind to just South beach and play there and I climbed back up. So I'll see you around. I think you climbed up to you were up at Latuna a couple of days ago, right?

Benji (35:46.21)
Yeah. All right, well.

Benji (35:50.522)
Yeah, we're going to have to pass Hot Springs. Yeah, yeah.

Luc Moore (35:53.534)
that's what it was. Yeah. Okay. Cause there aren't very many, cause people throwing flips in this area town. It's mainly further south. It's mainly beginners up here, but anyways, thanks Benji and I'll see you on the water and, you're welcome. Don't go anywhere yet because when we press stop, we'll need the recording to upload, but yeah. But so how will

Benji (36:00.384)
Yeah, no. Yeah.

Yeah. Alright, well, no worries. Thank you for having me.

Benji (36:18.587)
okay, perfect.

Luc Moore (36:22.598)
How can people follow you on Instagram and get to know more about you?

Benji (36:27.626)
Free Living 8. Yeah, just there I have all my stuff, my posts, all my tricks, all everything. Yeah, I really appreciate you. Hit the follow.

Luc Moore (36:39.142)
Sounds good. All right, Benji, thanks buddy. And we will see you soon.

Benji (36:41.754)
Alright.

Thank you.

Luc Moore (36:45.308)
All right, everybody.