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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to the kitesurf 365 podcast.
- [00:04]
B
Welcome back to the show. I hope you all had a great weekend. On today's episode, I catch up with Alex Pastore. This is going to be the second to last episode this year. DK and I have an episode on Wednesday, which is the very, very last techcast. It's not very techy, but you've got to tune in to find out why. Alex Pastore is the 2013 Freestyle World Champion and he steps up and into the CEO role at airush, marking the new beginning for. For Air Rush kiteboarding. Don't forget to follow me at kitesurf365 for all the latest episodes. Ladies and gentlemen, Alex Pastor. Alex, welcome to the show, buddy. Good to see you.
- [00:49]
A
Hey, Adrian, good to see you.
- [00:50]
B
Before we talk about you taking over Air Rush, why don't we go back in time and talk about your relationship with Airash? Starting out as a writer and obviously then having the shop. How long you've been working with Airush? Over the years.
- [01:03]
A
So I started with Airash in 2010, actually. So, yeah, that was many years ago. Yeah, back then I was. It was funny because I. I was writing before for Nash in 2000, 2009, and it was when I went to the PKRA in New Caledonia and it was the first event that I ever won. And yeah, just after that event, I got kicked out of Nash. So it was. It was a bit of a shock for me, right, because I was maybe. I think I was 19 years old and I was like, oh, wow, this is my moment. I finally won an event. Because back then it was only either Aaron or Kevin or sometimes Yuri was winning back then. And yeah, basically got kicked out of a brand that was sponsoring you. And then Erosh came in. But back then it was Mark Schmidt that was the marketing manager and he came to me, hey, Alexey, I would like to have you on the team. And yeah, I felt very good with Eros. And another thing that I felt that with other brands that they. They were not really listening to the writer's feedback about the gear so much. Oh, no, anything you say. They were basically, oh, no, this doesn't sell, or whatever. And with Era, she was the complete opposite. They were like, okay, we will just make the gear as good as possible for you, so please let us know all the feedback. So then I already started working with Mark Pattison on that time and he's still our kite designer.
- [02:44]
B
And then you obviously got into business with Era, starting out the shop. Right. You have obviously The Alex Pastor Kite Club there in Tarifa.
- [02:50]
A
Yeah.
- [02:51]
B
Did that feel like a natural step for you to then become a distributor for them in Europe?
- [02:57]
A
Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, with them. I started selling Eros in 2014. Yeah. It was the year that I got injured after winning the world title. And, yeah, because I had some so much free time as injured, I was not able to kite. And we were thinking about opening a small shop in Tarifa. Kite School. Yeah. From that escalated into having Airash pro center or destination store, as we call it. And yeah, obviously there was a lot of people that started approaching me about the gear. Oh, can I sell the gear and stuff. But I was never the distributor. There was another company doing it. But I think maybe we could have had better chances to put the brand out there if we would have been more involved on the distribution as well, to be honest. So, yeah, now I think it's natural to just do everything. I see that the competition. Most brands are doing one distribution center per continent. So let's say one in Europe, which is the main one. Right. So I think if we want to be competitive, we should do it like that. So this is what I'm trying to set up now.
- [04:11]
B
When you're a team writer, you see the industry one way. You know, then you got into having, you know, the Alex Pastor Kite Club, but obviously opened your eyes to a little bit more of this industry. Have your eyes been opened again with the sort of task that's in front of you now? I mean, is this just a big learning process as well?
- [04:26]
A
Yeah, it's quite a project now, actually. There was like a whole new side of the brand that I hadn't discover until now. And, yeah, in the past couple of months of being, yeah, working 12 hours a day. And when I was not working, I've been on my phone. But then I also have the kids. I'm like, yeah, with my little baby here. And then I'm like, oh, yeah, need to answer this guy. And so it's.
- [04:50]
B
It's.
- [04:50]
A
But I really love this site, actually. This is what. What I really like doing. And sometimes there's certain jobs that you like, right, that you can work as much as you possibly can, and it's not hard. If I had to, to be honest, if I had to, for example, go teaching at the beach, I'll be more exhausted than if I'm working 12 hours a day developing the brand. And I love to develop a good product. We did it in the past with the razor, and now it's. It's Quite cool that I can get to develop the whole range. Right.
- [05:29]
B
So well, let's get to the range in a little bit and just sort of keep on now the purchase. When did the opportunity or when did this sort of opportunity start coming to you about potentially taking air Ash over? Did this happen quickly or has this sort of been happening over the last sort of year?
- [05:46]
A
Yeah, so it happened. It started happening a couple of years ago. And yeah, I think a lot of people have noticed that on the last two years the Aerosho brand was like, not there as it used to be. I got a lot of feedback. People asking me like, oh, is the brand disappearing? And. And yeah, I was like always, no, no, I think Sven is then still running it. You know, he's doing everything, but obviously he's cutting off a lot of the marketing budget and stuff. But at the same time, yeah, he was trying to sell the brand. So I started negotiating with him about two years ago with Clinton Sven, the owner of Starboard. And yeah, at the time it didn't make sense because he wanted too much money that I don't think it makes sense with the numbers that he was selling. And so then we will have to get investors. And yeah, I don't think it was a very interesting business. And about six months ago, Clinton approached me again and he told me, hey, Alex, you still want to do this? Now the conditions have changed. We can do this in kind of licensing deal, so we can pay them as we are selling. So. And then after we pay them a certain amount of money, then the brand will be. Will be ours. Right. So when that moment that was like, yes, probably at this time, it was like seven months ago. Yeah, that made a lot of sense. And yeah, it looked very interesting. And yeah, we started negotiating. It took a couple months to close the deal. But yeah, now in beginning of November is when I signed with Sven. Yeah, I think it's a pretty interesting way to do it. And that way I don't need to have a bunch of investors for now. That this was kind of the plan that we were happening at the beginning. And that's something I didn't really like.
- [07:45]
B
It's a big decision to make, right. I mean, you're taking on a lot of baggage, I guess.
- [07:51]
A
Yeah, yeah, it's. It's very risky because, yeah, I'm basically putting on my life savings. Right. And my. But my wife, she. She always supports me with whatever I do. I always do all these crazy things and I like taking risks and she always supports me. So I think worst case, if it doesn't work out, then in a couple of years there'll be somebody else running it. Because brands don't tend to die on this industry. They always find a new person to run it.
- [08:32]
B
Even with a big hole in the side, they seem to keep floating. Yeah, it's kind of amazing.
- [08:35]
A
People are so passionate about kiteboarding that they. They want to keep running the brands.
- [08:40]
B
When I go to Tarifa, I still see the best signs up. I didn't even know Best was around. I still see people selling best.
- [08:44]
A
Oh, yeah, no, but this. This guy, the. The best guy is a Spanish businessman. He's a little bit shady.
- [08:51]
B
No, no shit.
- [08:52]
A
Yeah. He was in the. In the news, like for some corruption with politics and stuff. Yeah.
- [09:00]
B
Did anyone ever come up to you and say, man, this is not a good idea?
- [09:04]
A
Yeah, yeah, many people. But with everything that I've done in terms of business and things like that, people always been telling me that, but I just trust, Trust my instinct. I know that a lot of the times I will crash or I know that at some point I will, but I don't know, I think I just want to run it with. When you do something that you love and you put a lot of energy and you put motivation, and I don't see why it shouldn't work.
- [09:34]
B
You know, Alex, you're. You're saying good stuff to me because, you know, when I speak to Kevin Langaray, man, he's working his ass off for that company, you know, and you've got. I think. I think you're right. You've got to be prepared to put the work in right. You can't just rely on other people to do it. And him and Damien, I mean, even last year I went to the Reading shop in Cape Town and there's Kevin putting on straps, you know, he's putting on straps for people in the shop, you know, I mean, you know, when you are a small operator and, you know, rebuilding, you got to do everything.
- [10:03]
A
Yeah, yeah. I mean, right now we're quite a small team. Basically, we are four people full time, plus the designers. Right. Then we have Mark and we have DK also working with us. So, yeah, we're still six, seven people. Yeah, we're going to have eventually a couple more, but we're probably one of the smallest team in the industry.
- [10:30]
B
Right. When you look at Air Rush today, does it still have that same impact that it had a few years ago? And where do you see the brand in the next few years?
- [10:40]
A
What I see is Airash always stands for Innovation. Right. They always have this next to their logo. They always say by innovators, for innovators. Right. And I want to keep it that way. That's a little bit my vision. I think maybe sometimes Clinton had a little bit of crazy ideas about the gear and I necessarily don't have the same and I have different ideas about some things. But yeah, I see that we should focus a lot on the product and keep building better products. And we only launch new products to the market when we know for sure that they are good. Because, you know, as I've also been a retailer, I hate when sometimes brands rush into making a product that is not perfect and then at the end you end up in the shop with a kite that doesn't work. Yeah, this is not how I want to run it. Right. So when we launch, a product is going to be a good product. That's how I see it. If it comes later, it comes later. But it's not something that you're not going to be able to sell in a store or you're going to give a customer something that it's not good. Doesn't feel right initially.
- [11:58]
B
Is the range going to stay the same or you're looking to freshen up the range over the next few years? Because when some people take over brands, they normally trim the line back to something that's a bit more manageable. Have you thought about how you're going to approach that? You mentioned the razor before, a legendary kite. Right. Bruner's still winning world titles on it. Now we going to see different in.
- [12:17]
A
The range of kites for now. I mean, we're just launching the team series kite actually. So as I've took over, we just launched that at the same time. So I'm quite excited about those kites with the, with the new H2 material. So, yeah, we will keep having those team serious kite. We're going to keep having the lift, the razor, the lithium. Yeah, those kites are legendary. And we will have the session and the ultra there also. Airash has a very good range. People really like all the kites. So what I just want to do is kind of continue fine tuning those kites and make them better. I've already ordered prototypes for basically every kite with small changes to see where we continue developing. So basically keep the range with the same amount of kites, something similar, but keep improving them.
- [13:09]
B
The sport's changing quickly, man, you know, and you know that, right? Being in Tarifa, you go down there and it's like, I mean, you Know, used to go to dude, even like four years ago, you would go down to Balneario and I'd know every rider. Now there's so many riders at Balnera who I don't even know of or haven't seen before who are riding their asses off. Do you feel that demand on the pressure for big air kites from your side? Because, you know, I know Clinton was always about freestyling like park and I mean, you're from a freestyle background, but. But you know, some brands you have to change, right. You have to keep up with the times. Otherwise people see those kites in action and they want to buy them.
- [13:45]
A
Yeah. Yeah. So we're definitely putting a lot of effort into developing more into the bigger range. Actually when we had the lift is. Is a great kite. Not sure. Not sure if it's right out there with. I don't know what's considered the best Harlem or. But because I haven't tried that kite. But I've tried the new lift team and I can tell you that that kite is just as floaty. It's. Yeah, it's. It's great for me from an average bigger level, I think the kite's as good as it gets. But I continue to. I've already ordered a couple more prototypes to continue working on it, but I think the kite is great. I would like to see someone's feedback that have tried more. More kites. But yeah, something that I will do. Right. I will have to try all the other brands kite to see where. Exactly where we are.
- [14:42]
B
You're looking forward to trying other brands? I mean, I think some guys enjoy that. Right?
- [14:47]
A
Yeah. I mean it's. It's not really how I like, but I want to. I want to see where we are. Right. I see right now, how can I say if a kite is better or not? I can see the videos of Jason or I can see the videos of Lorenzo and okay, yeah, Jason goes a little bit lower than Lorenzo, but goes much higher than he was going with the previous kite. So this kite is way better than before. Yeah. Because when I go I can do a single kite loop or some basic bigger tricks. Yeah. For me it's great. It's an amazing kite. But I guess we have to compare when we are at the pro level. So.
- [15:28]
B
Yeah, I was going to say, Alex, that goes back to the beginning where, you know, you said some brands don't listen to writers, but sometimes it's actually good to listen to consumer as well. Right. Because as you said, not everyone is a Jason Vanderspae or Lorenzo Casati.
- [15:43]
A
Right.
- [15:43]
B
Those guys are very limited stock. And your main consumers are probably just wanting to do a big safe kite loop and feel. Feel safe, right?
- [15:52]
A
Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, that's something that I, I also, yeah, see that on the, on the market, people always want to buy the most expensive. Like yeah, all the brands that are developing these new materials to go that 10 higher that at the end of the day, the end consumer is not going to notice anything and people are paying like 50, 60, 100% more for a kite with an ultra peak leading edge. That's not necessarily going to help them that much. But at the end consumers, they choose what they want and it's not us that we should tell them where they need to go, but we should kind of adapt to the consumer. Same as on the biking industry. People pay a couple thousand more for a bike that weights 50 grams less. Right. So kiting, it's kind of happening in a similar way. Right.
- [16:51]
B
But is that good or bad? I mean, you've been in the industry a long time. Kites have got more and more expensive, crazy expensive, let's be honest, from back in the day as a business owner now, are we pushing this industry in the right direction? Should we be racing to the bottom? I always think that if brands have maybe bury their ego and bring out a great kite at a really good price, maybe doesn't have the same material, it would open the doors to more people.
- [17:17]
A
Yeah, that's something that I want to do as well. So yeah, like Eros was doing that in the past. They had the Eros DNA. Right. So it was kind of similar to lithium kite, typical beginner, intermediate kite, but with lower price. We make a cheaper bag, we make a little bit cheaper material in some places. Less printing, less colors and yeah, let's make a cheaper kind, obviously a lot less margin for the brand. So that's something that we will do for sure. Because I've been getting a lot of feedback that we should do that and that's important. We should have kites for everyone. Right. But I think it's very important for a brand to, to spend the time and money on developing the best kite, the best possible. The kite that going to send you up higher because that's going to help you the development, development of all the other kites in your range, right?
- [18:12]
B
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, it'll follow.
- [18:13]
A
Right now we see the best kite at something that is going higher. But when I, when I was on the eraser, obviously that was not the case. Right. It was kite, that stable that had a lot of slack. When you pop, it's easy to pass the bar and yeah, so there's many, many aspects that you can work on the kite to make it better. Right.
- [18:33]
B
You know, you mentioned Air Rush might have dropped down a little bit in recent years. And I always saw Air Rush, like a lot of the big brands had like a legendary following behind it. You know, people were loyal. They're try. You know, people in kiteboarding are tribal. Right. You know, if you're start on Air Rush, your loyalty, Air Rush, how are you going to get those consumers back? Or maybe people who wrote Air Rush in the past who got disillusioned and went off and bought other brands. How are you going to bring them back to the brand and give them confidence in what you're doing?
- [19:02]
A
Actually, that's something. I was so surprised how many people have reached out to me when we made the announcement video that I'm the CEO. So many people have reached out to me that they're so stoked to see that happening. Finally the brand is back. So I think it goes a little bit in trends. Right. People can feel when the brand is not there and they, and there's a lot of customers that love Airash. They were always buying the Airash kites, always loyal to the brand and they saw that the brand was declining, that they were not investing so much in marketing because they were investing a lot in product, but in product development, but in marketing they were not. And a lot of people see Airash as the big underrated brand. And seems like when I took over, a lot of people reaching out, telling me like, oh, can I get back on Airash? And, and yeah, now we're basically going to try to get a good network of shops there selling our brand and I'm sure when we offer a good service, all the people come back to Erus or I'm not sure if all the people that were on eras before, but we'll get a lot more people riding the in the kites, I'm sure.
- [20:22]
B
Let me ask you about team riders. How much a team rider is going to play a part in Airash through 2026, through, let's say the first year, because obviously there's going to be some year where there's going to be the change of a period. Right. That's just natural. How do you see that happening? I know Brun is riding the razor still.
- [20:38]
A
Yeah.
- [20:39]
B
What can we expect from that side of the, of the brand? Because they are the walking, talking, you know, Advertising for every brand. Right. I mean, people look at team riders and they don't know, but you get a good team rider. It's great for sales. It's great to have those people on the beach and showing, wow, I want to be on that kite type stuff, you know?
- [20:57]
A
Yeah, yeah, I, I fully support that view. There's a lot of people that tell me otherwise. They say, oh, no, it's not so important to have a good team writer. Better to have opinion leaders in the, in the beach and stuff. I'm like, I don't think so. I think that people buy a lot of the times kite because they want to be or want to have the kite that their idol has. Right. I. I can see, right. That a lot of people, oh, I want to be on Lorenzo's kite. Doesn't matter. Yeah. I haven't even tried the kite, but I know that kite is good because this guy is doing amazing things with it. Right. So this is a bit of a challenging part now. Right. Because when we're working with a bit of not such a high marketing budget as other big brands. Yeah. We cannot invest on having so many writers because at the end of the day, we cannot give them what they need to be able to travel and have all their expenses. So we really have to focus on having maybe one or two writers and that's it. And then we grow from there. But I just want to make sure that whatever we end up signing, it's gonna be happy and it's gonna be the face of the brand. Right. And I wanna, I want them to feel the same way that I felt when I joined Airash back in 2010. I was kicked out of another brand. I joined Airash and now Airash is fully supporting me, is really putting. Investing that I get the best possible kite. So when I sign a new rider, then I want them to feel that way and I want them to know that the kite is gonna be made to make them ride better.
- [22:46]
B
And then maybe you can sell it to them in 2040, in 15 years time and retirement.
- [22:51]
A
Yeah. The cycle keeps repeating, right?
- [22:55]
B
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what's success for you going to look like over the next two or three years with Airush?
- [23:05]
A
I don't know that we're still here and I'm happy with that. You know, I'm doing this because I. Because I love it so. Not because I want to be rich from it, so. Yeah. But I would like to see the brand growing and. Yeah. And I want to see people wanting to ride the airbrush Kites because we did such a great product.
- [23:30]
B
Freestyle's had some pretty lean years recently. Taiba was actually a really great competition. Finn Flugel sort of, you know, burst on the scene as a sort of new little superstar there. Is freestyle on its way back? Is it starting to. To get some momentum again? I kind of feel like the last couple years of events have started to get a bit of excitement about it again.
- [23:48]
A
I think so. And I was seeing the live streaming tape, and for me, that was super exciting to watch. And the level of the guys, like what Fin is doing, and it's unbelievable. I don't even know how that's possible in.
- [24:04]
B
In straps as well. Crazy. He's doing it in straps.
- [24:07]
A
Yeah, but I don't. I don't take take the credit off because it's on straps, but still doing the rotation. So, yeah, I. I think if he. If he got boots, he will be able to do the same. Same stuff, and probably he'll be able to do it with a little bit more traveling distance because boots give you that right. When you. When you have boots on your board and you can. You can land a little bit faster, as in straps is a little bit more unstable on the landing. Yeah. I'm not sure why Fink still hasn't made the change to boots, but I think it will benefit him.
- [24:44]
B
Yeah, he used. He used to wear boots, but he injured his foot a couple of years ago and started riding straps because he couldn't get his foot in the boot and just never went back. Says he's happier with the crash. He's more confident to try stuff because he. He realizes if he crashed, he just come out of the straps. He's not, you know, you. I mean, you know what it's like, the crashes in the boots.
- [25:00]
A
Yeah. I just need to crash differently. Let go of the bar.
- [25:04]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the freestyle guys kind of feel like Big air has sort of stolen their thunder a bit, but I'd love freestyle to come back. For me, I still think it's the premier event in kiteboarding. You know, I know Big Air might have the well factor, but it's. I mean, freestyle is awesome to watch live.
- [25:21]
A
Yeah, I think both. Yeah. Watching the live stream in Brazil is so cool because everything is so close together. Right. You can really focus on the trick. And yeah, obviously when you watch bigger, you see everything a little bit more further away because you need to zoom out more. So, I don't know, you see it so real when you watch on tv. But then if you're Watching a lagoon or in Balneario, when we had the, the freestyle competition there also, I think it was awesome. Very, very cool to watch. Obviously. Yeah, I'm more of a freestyle guy, so I like to watch more freestyle. But I also really enjoy watching bigger.
- [26:01]
B
Is there any young Spanish guys coming up in freestyle? I mean, I know it's difficult and you know, I know they see Balneario and the Seawats action and they want to do that. Right, but is there any, any of the guys who are still passionate about freestyle and Tarifa and going down to the lagoon and training and trying to come out of Spain as a up and coming rider?
- [26:20]
A
The one I see more now is Rafa, but I guess he's already like 18. Rafa Montero?
- [26:26]
B
Yeah, Rafa. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [26:27]
A
He was, he's even. He was competing in Brazil and he does a bunch of the world tour. But I see that the new generation unnecessarily in Spain, but there's a lot of these kids from Australia. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually was coaching them a couple times and they, they're super focused on freestyle and I see that there's a whole new generation that is focusing on freestyle also because obviously they, they also follow fling Finn Flugel and they follow a bunch of guys and then.
- [27:02]
B
Yeah, I hope Finn, because he's such a bubbly little kid, you know, and he's got a great personality. I hope he, for sure he's going to stick with freestyle because he loves it, right? But I hope he excites people about freestyle again, because that's what you need, right? You need it. You need someone young who's going to excite people and bring a bit of sort of rock star behavior back to it. You know, it can't be carried on by the Jean Marie and those guys. I mean, you know, those guys are getting older now, you know, it's. It's tough, you know, and you need these young guys to come in and like what Andrea and Lorenzo did for, for. They came in, they brought this whole new excitement and they just. A swarm of kids just wanted to be like Andre and Lorenzo.
- [27:37]
A
Sometimes it's all it takes is the new generation to come in and choose the path. Right. I think Finn is gonna do a bit of everything, right? I think he.
- [27:49]
B
Oh yeah, for sure.
- [27:50]
A
He's so talented that he can be like Maxim. He can be working on two disciplines or even two sports at the same time.
- [27:58]
B
I was surprised that he didn't make king of the year this year, actually. I really thought Finn could have made king of the year. I mean, he's ranked in the GK Big Air. He's second in the world in the Hydro 4 Big Air. Yeah, he's. He's a. He's a super talent, you know. I know. I. I agree. I think he can. He's. He's going to be a big player in this industry and I. I'll be excited. He used to ride air rush kites too, right? Yeah, actually, Finn's an interesting one, bro. He. He can ride air rush kites while be sponsored by other brands or vice versa. He just has this ability to do whatever he wants. I don't know how he can do it.
- [28:28]
A
Yeah, because he's so talented. So brands kind of like everything, right?
- [28:33]
B
Let him get away with murder. Yeah, cool. Well, Alex, thanks for coming on, brother. Look, congratulations on taking over Airash. I mean, it's an. A legendary brand with a great legacy and I love what you're saying. I love the passion you're bringing. Good luck for 2026, mate. It's going to be an awesome year and I can't wait to see what you and the team bring out. And if you were air rush rider back in the day, go down to the demos around and jump on the gear and check it out because it's still great gear and it's. It's awesome stuff. So thanks again for coming on and congratulations, brother.
- [29:02]
A
Thanks. Hello, Adrian.
- [29:03]
B
Hey, guys. I hope you enjoyed that episode. Don't forget, if you want to support the show, the easiest way is to support us for free. Rate us on Spotify, share them in your local WhatsApp groups, or just simply tell your mates. If you do want to support us more regularly, head over to portraitkite.com and check out all the madness there. We're an independent media company trying to tell the stories of kiteboarding the way we believe this should be told. These projects are funded by people just like you. And if you believe in what we do and you want to support us more, head over to portraitkite.com the podcast will always be free. If you want to find more episodes just like this one, use the search button at kitesurf365 to search your favorite writer or topic. And we'll be back on Wednesday for the very last episode with dk. Merry Christmas, everybody.