Consider it a genuine conversation with a friend. Xander Raith aka Zane or @zane_slanders tells me why he loves being at home so much and why we might need eyeball replacements before 30. Remember this is Knot an interview.
*Please embrace all grammatical errors. The conversation wasn't edited to maintain the genuine purpose of the matter.
Hello Z. Free to chat?
I might be in bee world with darf, but give me a try whenever…
(20min later)
Hello boi,
Hello boi, what can I help with?
What were you doing before I called you?
Trying to fix my compressor so I can get the dust of my board for glassing.
So how is it to be home for a while? Just spit it out, don’t overthink it.
Obviously I love being home. It’s stee the surf has been insane and on days when the surf is junk the wind has been pretty good. I have been wave kiting more in the last month than my whole life lol Also good to chill with the fam and the dogs and shaping a ton.
Wow okay. I was wondering if you had been kitting recently
but I see you've been getting cheeky sessions.
Not kidding I have been in the water almost every day haha. My wetsuit has been wet for the last month because it never dries fully from so much use lol. I have started just filling a cooler with warm water and tossing my suit in the cooler on the way to the beach to heat it up. The water is still freezing.
I’ll pretend you didn’t just rub that on my face like that. I can imagine... Are you on 6/5 booties, gloves?
Yeah head to toe 6/5.
Rode my new board again yesterday and it was pretty fun.
I tried a punt, but I was too much over my heels
I think I need to grab…
Yeah sick! Shaping is pretty fun, how has that been going?
It’s super sick, but I definitely left too much foam in the nose
and the deck ended up being way flatter than I anticipated.
But I guess it works for my skill level lol
Yeah its not easy to achieve what you’re looking for,
shaping boards is definitely an art.
Please hold,
I have to show you something but you’re not gonna like it...
First barrel I have ever made and this is the only picture that I know from the session.
Woah, that’s epic! I see the new board is making barrels, I’m jealous haha
Also pumped it isn't broken yet
I've been taking it out in big surf and it’s been holding up
Damn Im so hyped for you, I got slammed pretty hard at the skatepark today.
Feeling a bit rough now, skating is a bitch..
I wish you been here for the sesh you would have absolutely tossed. Not kidding there were some insane lefts, but I kept pussing out bc the drop was super steep.
Oh damn stoked. many people out surfing? I bet not why am I even asking
Pretty much the whole island, it was about as good as it gets I reckon.
Hopefully more photos emerge…
I hope to witness that one day. Tell me about kitting in waves, how is your spot like and
what are your thoughts on it coming from snowboarding?
I’m the youngest kiter by like 20 years, but the crew here is sick. All the guys ride strapless and only do downwinders so it’s pretty ideal. I would say there are about 5-10 local kiters haha. I am one of them. Small crew. As far as tricks, I’ve been trying airs and riding unhooked in the surf. It’s been fun trying to punt, but not good enough to film yet. I have also been trying a few different boards and the difference in performance can be maysive.
Yeah for sure, its funny how many different kinds of surfboards there are specially with kitting where we can pretty much ride on anything.
When you compare anything to snowboarding, or any other board sport for that matter,
they honestly are nothing alike, besides standing sideways. Wave kiting is sick tho, and when it works it’s super fun, but it’s nothing like snowboarding and people that say surfing is like riding pow on a snowboard are wrong. End of story. So what have you been up to are you done with school yet?
Yes. It’s so surreal. I’m like a different person now. Not as moff. Much better for health.
Darf and I yesterday:
Darf (dad) just ordered a bunch of new bees because ours died over the winter and they are all stuffed in the shaping room with a heater on them haha
No way thats insane! Looks like you’re going on a trip to mars. Whats the story behind that?
The bees are a passion project for my dad lol. He also has really bad allergies so the local honey has been helping him become immune to the flowers on the island. It’s crazy how much honey the bees produce... we have buckets full of it in our basement! What have you learned during this quarantine?
That my computer and phone sucks and I spend too much time on them.
I can’t wait to get back to doing my things and not just work in the computer…
Trying to save my eyes for the future, but they are probably already toasted.
Myself included, Im hoping for eyeball replacements before 30
By 30 hopefully they will have zoom lens eye replacement. Put binoculars out of business.
Hahaha fair enough. It'd be rude not to ask; How was your snowboarding season? Did it even happen this year?
This season snowboarding was so short I feel like I hardly rode. It was still super fun tho. Filmed a lot of back country and made some fun jumps, but nothing crazy.
Spring is usually when things ramp up in snowboarding, but hopefully next year at this time I will be snowboarding somewhere and not quarantining.
Well I think this concludes our “interview” haha
It was an honor sir.
I’ll send you some random photos of what I’ve been doing since I got home.
The compressor is ripping by the way!
Haha cool! Sounds good, talk soon.
Ccs.
Cheers, chat soon!