Last week, as I continued my recollection of what I think are some of the best kite videos of all time. I realized something. For various reasons a big part is no longer streaming on the internet. We could blame Vimeo for this atrocity, but that's not why we're here. James released "The New Age" under his label Steez Productions. I was fourteen years old at the time and along with many others, they were a huge influence on how my kiteboarding developed. So given the circumstances and confused by the absence of Steez. I hit up James about the matter.
—Noe
*Please embrace all grammatical errors. The conversation wasn't edited to maintain the genuine purpose of the matter.
Hello JB!
Tio, whats cracking my man
I hope everything is well... crazy times!
ye times are rough, I hope the uk gov let people get out on the water soon.
I was on a mission browsing the internet and I can't find "The New Age". I'm making a little compilation of the videos I used to be hyped on when I was younger
it got taken down when I didn't continue paying for vimeo plus
so annoying, they try and get rid of loads of your videos to get you to sign back up.
might be able to find it if you want the source file
I'm building a bit of a website for knot future and i'd like to have a bit of a wall of fame with all the best videos, that one should be in!
oh yeah vimeo is a bitch
ye, I sacked them off from that day onwards
I have the video file if you want it, or i can also stick it on YT as well if that helps
Could be cool if you're keen to have it back online, you'd think once something goes online it would be there forever right? what a joke...
you'll have to add a note that I picked that song before anyone had heard it!
i know, that was the first place i heard it on and probably why the video was so good at the time. it would still be a banger edit if i remember right; tack before he was tack and you, b scheid haha I used to froth on that, what a crew.
just watching it again now
feels like so long ago
yeah I remember i liked the song so much i ended up downloading the video on my phone to listen to it on the way to the beach.
Anyways... how have you been? are you at home?
ye, im back in the uk, left maui early when things started getting a bit crazy
ugh I can imagine
Craig keeps telling me he's been surfing and its pumping everyday in Portugal
We have to go back
ye looks like Craig has got the life going
definitely keen to get back there at some point when things open up again
I hope the uk gov let people get out on the water soon.
would be fun, get aaron to come down as well like that one time
he's too busy building his house haha
yeah I bet! i should give him a call haven't heard much from him lately When was the last time you were in the water?
had a good week of swell before I left maui in feb
i haven't kited in a few years now
my back has been a huge problem so stopped me doing a lot
does it do well in the surf?
no , doesn't do well for anything, i'm waiting for an operation but the hospitals aren't doing any at the moment
no shit! matey thats big
all shut off for covid cases, hoping things will open up in the coming months so I can get scheduled
fuck sorry to hear that. I guess its a good thing in the longer run right?
have to see how it all goes really. miss the kiting and surfing for sure, hopefully one day try and get back with out the problems they cause...
Surf trip is in the charts to celebrate your new back after surgery then!
there you go, just uploaded it
shot with the trusty 7d mki I think
fuck yeah JB!!
that's epic
we'll see if it survives the copyright claim
Looking for "The New Age" earlier I found this quote;
“Style is individual but Steez believes the importance of it is fundamental in pushing the sport in the right direction. It’s their goal to make things easy on the eye and legitimate for the right reasons”
Ten years later I think, this quote is still relevant.
Jeezuz, did I write that bio? Sounds very self-indulgent. I think we were all pretty bullish back then about being a ‘free rider’ and the differences that brought against the normal ‘PKRA’ rider.
Whats the story with Steez productions?
I suppose it was my journey into making films and what I wanted to make. I had decided to spend the winter in west oz in 2010 and wanted to make a banger season edit. I ended up breaking my ankle after 2 weeks which sucked but I still ended up making a video with the footage which did pretty good ‘Directions'. In the end I decided to stay there anyway and make some videos for friends. That season really sculpted what I liked watching in the kite industry and it ended in me shooting the core jam video. Hanging out with guys like Rowdy, Cam Prest, Sam, Dre, Azza, Tom and the boys to work on the Core Jam sparked off a drive to produce media different to what was on offer at the time which was mainly PKRA content. Back then social media wasn’t what it was today and there really was a lack of different content about.
What video was to you, what The New Age was to me?
Autofocus was the movie I watched over and over and I think all rail & free ride guys looked up to. It was so far ahead of its time, If you released it now it would be a banger hit. Nowadays there’s just so much amazing content out there, some of the films guys put out have amazing storylines and the production levels are insane. I’m blown away by a lot of it but I do kind of miss the RAW stuff that you got back then where it was all about the riding. That’s what pushes other riders to innovate. Autofocus was just a solid crew of riders setting up stuff and spurring each other on and it was all about the progression.
Tell me something you've learned during this quarantine?
If you want to have something in your life that isn’t there already plot a plan to get it and put that plan into action.
Damn right!
gotta get back to it, take it easy buddy be fun to share a surf in the future at some point for sure!
talk soon JB and thanks for the upload! oh and take care of that back!
These are some of my James Boulding favorites...