Duotone Magazine No. 06

But that’s what we live for. That risk is when I feel most alive. Being able to control yourself and better yet, push yourself in those conditions allows you to feel something that you can gain nowhere else. I love to see what my body and mind can really do. Everything is mostly mental, my mind has to be ready for the actions before my body is. That being said, any chance I get I’m training, in the gym, out of the gym, at home, wherever. Every day is a day to work on my skills and create more opportunity to get better. James “When riding big waves, especially when you get a good one, time really slows down and all the senses become much more heightened. At the same time it’s hard to feel in control as the ocean really is the one who decides what happens. It’s a different level of adrenaline and fear, nothing compares. On the biggest day you have to have a different level of commitment, if something goes wrong, you have no choice. It’s very hard to describe the feeling of the ocean when it has that much power. I definitely feel an energy in the water when it’s huge that I never feel anywhere else. It makes you feel small and it’s very easy to lose your confidence in these conditions. My mind is always fighting my body whenever the waves are proper big. I don’t do a lot of breath work, but to me the mental preparation is key. This January in Nazaré I caught the biggest wave I ever kited, by far. Not sure how big it really was, however it’s definitely a world record chance. Considering the current world record is 75 ft or something, it was pretty f***ing big!” 83 B I G A I R & B I G WAV E DUOTONE