Elvis is in Bonaire. And Elvis has a message for us: Tricks are for Kids!
Three-year-olds can windsurf. Eight-year-olds can do a world of moves. Twelve-year-olds will blow your minds. Fifteen and sixteen-year-olds rule!
(Check out this excerpt from “ProKids”)
Anybody who follows freestyle knows about Bonaire as a capital of the discipline. Tonky and Taty Frans have dominated enough competitions in enough venues around the world, and Kiri Thode…young Kiri was brilliant BEFORE the day he raised the bar for the entire windsurfing world by introducing nonplaning loops (the Gekko Flaka) leaving every freestyler on the planet in slack-jawed WTF-ment, and he’s only gotten better since. But perhaps not everybody knows that an instructor named Elvis Martinus has been nurturing windsurfing culture for local kids on Bonaire for well over a decade, and freestyle has been a big part of it.
Dasher has been videotaping that remarkable scene for nearly as long, island hopping from his teaching gig in Aruba back in the 90’s to capture some of the early days of this unique culture.
So in 2006 when an all-kid freestyle windsurfing event was announced for Bonaire, Dasher was there, and earlier this year released “ProKids,” featuring way-hot sailing from the littlest of sailors up the amazing talent of windsurfers like Sarah-Quita Offringa, Jaeger Sint Jago, Arturo Soliano, Kiri Thode, and of course Tonky, Choco and Taty Frans. But it’s not a straight portrayal of competition; instead it’s more of a celebration of freestyle windsurfing and kids on boards in Bonaire. It’s a great DVD to get your own stoke going, and if you want to get the attention of someone who thinks windsurfing is for mom and dad, this is the ticket. There’s also a bonus “movie” called Just Tricks, which includes more sailing, a great night freestyle session, bloopers and such. Much windsurfing fun.
You can buy the DVD and get more information on the ProKids website.
As Dasher says, Bonaire rules, and these kids rule! For fun I’m including some stills taken from a video Dasher made of “The Bonaire Kids” back in 1997. Somebody is working on something like a Grubby before Grubbys were invented. And look at those Disney kiddie sails…if they put Goofy on adult sails, I’d buy one.
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