Red Bull athlete, kitesurfer Aaron Hadlow is back with a new video; Aspire. Shot over the last year with Andy Gordon it includes some breathtaking tricks and showcases Aaron's skill at a new level. Watch the trailer and read our interview with Aaron here:
How did you start working with Andy?
I first met Andy at the end of 2007 whilst I was on a promo tour around Australia with Jason Furness (my manager at the time), Andy lives in Perth and is a keen kiteboarder but filming was also his hobby. I had seen a short movie he had edited in the past so seeing him down on the beach with his camera one afternoon we asked him if he would be interested in joining us for the rest of our trip.
I hadn't met Andy before or knew much about the him at the time, his last video was pretty unique and he was interested in a new project so that's how it kicked off really.
We headed down the coast and only filmed in a few locations over 3 or 4 days before we were off to the other side of the country.
After a few months with minimal communication I got am email from him with the final edit of InVent, it was a new level of editing, super detailed with crazy effects and totally captured the trip and our personalities perfectly. I got straight back in contact to tell him how amazing the movie was and started organising the next one (ReVolve) straight away.
You mention a story or narrative behind the video, can you elaborate on this, was there a specific focus in mind when making this?
I hadn't filmed with Andy for quite some time after our 3rd movie (Calibrate), during 2011 I had some new products that I was releasing and after 2 years with out competing my riding style had changed, I wanted to show the industry those products and my riding in the coolest way possible.
I felt like it would be a good time to work with Andy and do a cool project with RedBull, these movies are always something special, I like to be innovative and want to take it to the next level and I think Andy feels the same way about his filming and editing.
All the other videos we done in the past focused on getting the best action in the best spots. Along the way funny scenes, ideas and cool locations pop up to add a bit more depth to the movie.
We went to Turkey with the same intention, action has to come first as that is the main content and as kiteboarding relies on the wind we had to make the most of the 2 weeks we had there.
Showing my style and latest riding along with promoting some new products is a nice way to show where I am in the sport at the moment and that is what we wanted to portray.
Andy is super creative and detailed with a funny sense of humour, it is a collaboration and I like the way he reflects that in the finished product so I usually give him the freedom to create something along the guidelines.
I thought it was important to keep the same style as the last 3 movies and it is cool to see how that carries on through Aspire.
What was the biggest challenge when filming this?
Aspire had the largest crew I have ever worked with, not only did we have 3 camera men for our movie we also had 2 guys filming behind the scenes footage, we were usually a group of 8 or 9 so I think traveling and organising everyone was one of the biggest challenges.
I brought Jason along for this reason, I needed him to take care and organise everyone so I could concentrate on riding and getting the movie shot. Featuring him was also good, he was in the first 2 videos, I have known him for years and he has played a big part in my career, reintroducing him into this movie was logical as he is the perfect guy for me to chat to for the interview sections.
It is always hard to keep everyone out of each others shot and getting from place to place was never easy, 2 weeks goes quickly on a shoot like this so fitting everything in and moving around the whole country to get the right conditions was difficult.
Also organising and setting up the rail and kicker gave us a lot of problems, the rail was one of the biggest I have ever seen in Kiteboarding so that was obviously a serious mission to put in place and ride. It had to be set at the right angle to the wind so riding and getting technical on it was a huge challenge for me.
Did you do any additional training or preparation for the film?
We filmed this mid season so I was on my way back from the States where I rode in 2 competitions and shot another movie in the Dominican Republic. Aspire is full of wake style tricks and rail riding, I was luck enough to be at events pushing myself against some of the top rider for a month prior to shooting, that left me motivated and in good shape to film the movie with Andy.
It's important to be fit and recover well during the shoot, being the only rider in the video takes it out of you, you are on the water a couple times a day and the pressure is on you to ride at your very best almost everyday for 2 weeks.
Is there anything you wish you could have done?
This trip didn't run as smoothly as I would have liked, chasing the wind, riding the rail and a few mishaps with camera equipment all added to an already difficult project but that is to be expected and always how it goes.
I was really happy with the out come of the movie and I think we got more than enough footage to make Aspire even more amazing than the previous videos but one part I would have liked to improve from a riding point of view was the rail, it would have been nice to have had more time to practise on it before filming and maybe if I were to do it again I would have changed the shape of it a bit.
How has the project evolved as you and Andy have worked together?
It is amazing to have somebody who is so into kiting and able to shoot and edit like this, he understands what my best tricks are so I don't need to advise him too much on that, he focus's on finding those tricks which have been shot from the best angle, it is a compromise between the quality of the shot and the quality of the trick.
I was confident Andy would create something I would love so from the first version to the final one there are only a few tweaks and changes. I change some clips and then the team add their input to make sure the sponsors and everybody involved are happy with it.
What's next, do you have any key goals, or is their something you discovered in making this that you'd like to push further?
The next video will have to be incredible to top this, if we do another I would really like to step the quality up with Slow Motion cameras, use heli's more often and go to some more really beautiful locations.
I also learn't a lot about organising, preparation and how we all work best together so if it happens again I'm sure we can only improve.
I think to move forward you can aim towards videos like Art of Flight, with the help from RedBull I was able to make Aspire and hopefully I get the chance to do something like this again and even better.
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