Alvaro "Tiger" Onieva Recaps his Year: Grasshoppers, Monkeys, C-Kites, NYC, and the Dali Lama

By Stacey Fonas

Posted Tuesday 23rd October 2007

After a noisy, hectic, and energetic ten days, Alvaro Onieva has left the (Delray) building.

It's been a crazy season for Alvaro: 9 stops on the PKRA World Tour and 3 stops on the Spanish National Championship, not to mention that the last seven weeks, he's been on the road nonstop: from a week of photo shooting on the Best Odyssey in Los Roques, Venezuela, to the 8th stop of the PKRA in Brazil, with a brief stop at the Best R&D Headquarters in Taiba for more photo shooing, then onto Chile for the final stop on the PKRA World Tour, then to Delray, to NYC, and back to Delray again, where he hung out with us in the office, went kiting and cabling, and learned some useful new lingo that I'm sure he'll take back to Spain with him. But now, he can finally return to his home in Malaga, and get caught up on his life for a few weeks. More than just a young punk kiter living in the moment, Alvaro bought a house last year, started a company this year, and - juggling multiple lucrative sponsorships - he seems to have his future well under control.

Before heading out of here on Thursday, I finally got him to sit down with me for a little while to answer a few questions about his life over the past year and where he plans on going next. He kept putting me off, thinking the "interview" was going to be formal and professional, involving a video camera, but when he realized it was just me sitting at my computer typing while he talked, the gravity of the interview suddenly fell into perspective. "Bah! That's it? Just you? Let's do it," he said. Feeling slightly ... reduced, I began my battery of questions.

Tiger on The Grasshopper

Me: So, the Grasshopper kicked your butt at the cable, and you're back in town for your big rematch. How did it go out there on the water?
Tiger: I squashed him! He's run away! He's scared. I mean, where is he ... he's not even here ... he ran off to Fiji to hide!
Video Steve: You could tell when they got to the beach, Andy had "contest nerves." He was watching Alvaro on the water, and was like, "Are you KIDDING me?" So he goes out and starts falling. I told Andy not to worry, that I can make it look better in the video, like he could actually hang with Alvaro, hahaha.
(Andy did go to Fiji, but for a diving trip, not actually to hide. We're just tormenting Andy :-) )

Tiger on the PKRA

Me: For 2007, you're the Spanish National Champion, and you're ranked 3rd in the world, freestyle, on the PKRA World Tour. Are you glad the (competition) season is over?
Tiger: Yes and no. After 9 stops you get really tired of it ... your body feels it, and you need a break, so that you can then go back stronger the next year. The bad part is you don't see your mates. It's like being in school ... the judges are your teachers, the riders are your classmates, and it's fun.
Me: Are you and Aaron friends?
Tiger: Of course, I'm friends with everyone.
Me: What about Bucky?
Tiger Yes, Bucky is my friend too. I like Bucky!

Me: What do you think about Aaron Hadlow?
Tiger: Best rider on the tour.
Me: The Dominicans?
Tiger: They have a hard time kiting in cold weather. They can't move in their wetsuits.
Me: How was this year compared to last year?
Tiger: This year was more intense than last year. We had 5 or 6 competitions with over 30-knot winds ... it was really intense, and hard for me. I'm a more technical guy, so in those conditions, I have more problems. If the wind is strong, I don't have an advantage, like Ruben Lenten has, for example. Lenten's style is different ... less technical but with more power, and that style is more manageble in windy conditions than my style. But overall, this year has been my best result ever in my career: two 2nd places on the podium, three 4th places, one 5th and one 6th ... almost in the top 5 all the time ... so I was pretty consistent throughout the year. I am very happy about this.

Me: How has your riding changed/improved over the season?
Tiger: My riding really changed over the year. At the first stop in Venezuela, I started out very technical, but with normal power ... nothing special. But then I changed my board, and I could go way faster on my new board than on my old custom boards: I could go faster, and get more pop with more power. I could go twice as high, keeping the kite low, with more quality. You could see my style changing in Cabarete, which was right when I got my new board: you could see the progression.

Me: How would you describe your style?
Tiger: Quality v. quantity.
Me: Interesting. Joe claims to be just the opposite: quantity v. quality.
Tiger: What?
Me: I think he's kidding though.
Tiger: Oh.
Me: So, your old board, you were saying. What's your old board, and your new board?
Tiger: My old boards were KC custom boards. My new board is a Balance board. Balance is my new company, and it's all about taking the feedback from the riders, who are on the water every day and know what works, and designing equipment for them. The riders have the last word in the equipment. It's our rider philosophy. I started the company with 3 other partners, and own about 30% of the company, and the plan is to make high-performance gear for Pro riders. Boards first, then maybe clothes.

Tiger on Monkeys

Me: Talk about the level of riding at the PKRA overall this year.
Tiger: The level has increased a lot ... it's getting really high, and getting harder and harder ... the normal progression. You can basically divide riders into 2 styles: more powered style with more quality (Aaron, Lenten), and the other is to do more quantity, and put the kite high, do a lot of doubles, and basically hang from the bar ... "monkey style" ... (does an impression of a monkey hanging off a bar and makes an unflattering monkey noise). Monkeys will be owning the planet.
Me: Who are the monkeys who will be owning the planet?
(Collective decision made that it would be unwise to name names.)
Me: Describe the "quality" style.
Tiger: It's where you jump with your own gravity. You're not hanging on the kite. You go fast, make a fast cut, get thrown like a slingshot, and have that flow in the air, where you're not feeling anything from the kite.
Me: But then if the monkey style is so bad, how do the Monkey-Style people sometimes do better than the Quality people?
Tiger: They do more QUANTITY. So then it takes over the QUALITY. They do more moves overall, so they end up with a better result.
Me: But you, personally, would never go for Quantity just to win, would you?
Tiger: (Cuts his eyes at me and looks at me as if I'm insane.)
Me: Easy there, Tiger. I'm just asking.

Best of Times, the Worst of Times

Me: What was your worst moment of the season?
Tiger: The heat I lost against Mikael Blomvall ... it was pretty unfair. We started a heat. There were 4 guys: me v. Michael, Rui Miera v. another guy. The heat had been running for 5 minutes, and I was doing well, and I knew I would have gone into the semi's, but the other guy got tangled with Rui, and the judges had to stop the heat. There wasn't a way to continue the heat with the tangled kites there. So we reran the heat, but I was already really tired. I'd put all my energy into that heat, and I'd had 2 or 3 heats previous to that one. I was way downwind, and had to run pretty fast upwind with no help. I was exhausted when I got up there, and they'd already started the heat. I had the same kite that I'd been on before - a 9 - and the wind just stopped. I couldn't do anything. On the other hand, right after that I did the slider competition, and I won it, so it was like a cure for losing that heat.

Me: Best moment?
Tiger: Cabarete ... staying in that house we had in Cabarete, with Chiche Arimbe my African brother. The house was comfortable, right at the event site, and I was surrounded by a lot of good things. Gavin was there cooking us dinner, the Aqua Skipper was there ... and I came in second and had a nice result.

Me: And you got taunted by that fat kid who told you you were going to lose, right before your heat.

Me: Not to mention my all-time favorite moment in the history of competitive kiteboarding, when you broke your board mid-heat during the Finals against Alex Soto and had to borrow a random board off the beach. You couldn't land anything and knew you didn't have a chance, so you just started performing for the crowd, throwing big fun board-offs right in front of the Dominican posse. Everyone went nuts and it was the best display of good sportsmanship I've ever seen.

Gavin: He beat everyone on the tour in Cabarete ... well, all of the tour 'regulars.'
Me: AND he won the Board Off Contest, AND the Spirit Award. So best contest, Cabarete.

Me: Worst?
Tiger: Austria. I lost the first heat against Rocky Chatwell in singles. I came late ... I was in the rider's tent ... and then I couldn't get upwind of the contest area ... which is what you do right before the heat ... ride upwind, then end up in the contest area. It was a tight heat, and the judges couldn't decide who won, so they reran the heat, and Rocky won. It didn't really make sense and I was very disappointed.

Tiger on C-kites

Me: Why can't you ride a bow kite? Why do you need a C kite?
Tiger: Bow kites work well for most of the population. They're good for people that want to do easy kiting, and bows are good for gnarly conditions, like if you have to go over rocks or something ... it's good to have that depower. And for gusty conditions, and like for our photo shoot in front of the Statue of Liberty where they had to drag me upwind with the boat ... the kite stayed in the air and that was good. A C-kite wouldn't have done that. But, the feel of a pure C-kite is necessary to do the high-level tricks that we're doing on the World Tour. We have full power when we edge, and when we pop and go high, the kite loses all the power, so we have time to do the trick with no pulling from the kite, whereas a bow pulls all the time. Then, when you catch the bar and land, on a C-kite, you get the full power back on again.
Me: Seriously, does it make that much of a difference?
Tiger: Yes. On a bow kite, I can only do about 30% of the tricks I can do on a C-kite. With a C-kite, I can do all of them. For example, you can't do double handlepasses with the kite really powered on a bow kite. You can't find the right moment where the kite is completely depowered and there is no pulling. Handlepasses to blind, normal handlepasses ... much better on a C-kite. There are only 3 guys on the tour who ride bows: Cabrinha. They don't have a choice, because Cabrinha doesn't have a C-kite, but they'd all rather be riding C-kites. A bow pulls all the time, from the moment you start until you land, and that's not good for really difficult tricks with the kite low and powered.

Tiger on the 08 Yarga

Me: You're working on the new C-kite with Peter. What's it going to be like?
Tiger: The C-kite for next year will be totally new ... a true C-kite, not like the 07 Yarga, which was a hybrid. I tried the first one in Brazil, and I think it's a good start. I'll receive the second one when I get back to Tarifa.
Me: How will it be different than the 06 Yarga?
Tiger: I think we'll change the bar pressure and make it as balanced as we can ... a little less bar pressure than on the 06 bar, and the kite will be more square in the arc, closest to the perfect C-shape as possible.
Me: What about a 5th line?
Tiger: I plan to ride it with a 5th-line. I like simple things, but it's harder to make a 4-line kite fly better. A 5th line helps keep the profile. It pulls down on the LE and keeps the kite more in the window which is good. It's better for edging faster and getting that feeling you get from a C-kite: slingshot power, then nothing in the air, then power again when you land.

Tiger in the Winter

Me: What are your plans for the winter?
Tiger: Meet up riders who are better than me, like Steve Jones. I'm not going to do what I did last year, which was to spend the winter training with Gisella. She got better and I stayed the same. I need to ride with people I can learn from. I don't have any definite plans yet ... I'll just leave whenever. Go to South Africa, Australia, and train for next year.

Tiger and Steve Jones

Me: You bought a house last year, and now you are going to go back to buy furniture for it.
Tiger: Yes. I'm going to go to Spain now, work on my company, and then start traveling and training.

Tiger on the Odyssey

Me: How was your trip on the Odyssey?
Tiger: It was fantastic. We worked really hard that week.
Gavin: I made him kite til his hands bled. We were up working every morning at 6:30, and then right back at it every afternoon.
Tiger: It wasn't all fun, but we got a lot of pictures.
Me: What was the highlight of the trip?
Tiger: Chef Nico. And the crew was awesome.

Tiger in the City

Me: Talk about the New York City trip and photo shoot?
Tiger: It was epic. I'd never been there before, and it was a new place that I really wanted to go. I've been thinking about this for a couple of years now ... filming in New York .. and my dream has come true. Everything worked out so well and came together in unexpected ways: I met Joe in Delray for the first time and we started talking and it turns out he had a boat in Connecticut that we could use, and then Gavin came in from Brazil ... everything was meant to be. It was the hardest photo shoot I've ever done. It was very intense. We didn't know the area, and no one had ever really kited there before. There were helipcopters, the coast guard, and we thought we'd be arrested. It was sketchy. But we went out, got some pictures, and it was a perfect weekend.

Me: But you didn't get much sleep.
Gavin: (laughs)
Tiger: No. We were staying at Joe's house in Connecticut, which was about an hour and a half from the city. So after shooting on Saturday, we drove the boat back to Connecticut, then took the train into Grand Central. We got there around 11 PM, and were running around everywhere trying to see everything. We ran to the Empire State Building, but didn't expect it to be open so late, but it was, so we went to the top, took pictures, and then we went to Times Square, which was pretty crazy with all the lights and big screens ... it was really good. Then we caught a cab to Brooklyn and stayed overnight with Joe's friends. We slept for about 3 - 4 hours ... Joe and I slept on the same couch! ... then met Gavin back at Grand Central in the morning. We took the train back up to Fairfield, picked up the boat, then drove back into the city for another day of shooting the next morning. It was an intense, no-sleep weekend ... we had to do everything in 3 days.

Gavin: Yeah, and after the photo shoot, we had to head immediately to the airport, or we'd have missed our flight. Unfortunately, all of our clothes and stuff were still in Connecticut, so Joe called his mom and had her pack up all of our stuff and come and meet us on the freeway ... otherwise, we never would have made it on time. We were passing the phone around, talking to her in turn, saying, "Ok my bag's next to the bed, and I left something else next to the dresser, can you pack all that up? Right, thanks; ok, now here's Alvaro," and then Alvaro would get on and do about the same thing. It was crazy.

Thanks again, to the Ruscito family!

On Girls, New Vocabulary Words, and the Dali Lama

Me: Anyone have any questions they want to ask #3 in the World?
Video Steve: Ask him, "Did you get lucky here in the States?"
Video Steve, answering for him: "Yes, I did."
Me: Tiger?
Tiger: I should get a map, and put little pins in the States where I've been lucky.
Me: And how many pins would the map of the States have?
Tiger: Just one so far.
Me: What if your girlfriend reads this, the girl you were skyping before?
Tiger: That was my ex. I'm a free man now ...
Tiger, continues: ... sometimes to understand yourself you have to experiment, if you feel it's right or wrong. After I do something wrong, it eats me inside ... I'm not quiet inside. For example, sometimes you have to piss on Bucky to realize it's wrong. That's life.

Me: I hear you learned some new lingo when you went to the mall with Will (Caldwell) yesterday?
Tiger: Yes ... "milf."
Me: I've never that word before. What's a milf?
Video Steve: Uh, like Keri, if she had a baby.
(Keri, intent on her work, half-looks up, rolls her eyes, and shakes her head)
Tiger: "Mother's I'd Like to ...."
Me: What? WILL taught him this?? But Will's only 16! Does his mother know he knows this stuff?
Video Steve: Hahah, yeah, at lunch I took Alvaro to the mall ... we went to get him a camera bag and to go Milf hunting. We didn't really find any good Milfs, but he found himself a rocking new camera bag.

Me: You're a Buddhist?
Tiger: I try.
Me: What does that mean?
Tiger: I love the philopsohy but I'm pretty bad at it. It's hard to follow. You have to have a lot of balance. I sometimes have balance, but not always.
Gavin: So what's the go with his holiness, the Dali Lama? Why do you follow him?
Me, wonderingly, half to myself: Is that guy still ALIVE?
Tiger: I don't follow anyone, just my heart. I respect him.
Gavin: Why?
Tiger: When I see him I just feel it in my heart, he's such a nice person. No ego ... he only does stuff for people. I could realize that.

On the future of Kiteboarding

Gavin: What do you think about the future of online kiteboarding magazines?
Tiger: They're the future, definitely. They're like a magazine that's alive. You see the sequences, everything's moving around, but it's still like a regular magazine ... you can flip through the pages. Look at this room ... everyone has a computer and you're all in here all freaking day ... that's why it has a future.
Me, under my breath: We don't WANT to be in here all freaking day ... Ian MAKES us be in here all freaking day.
Gavin: Waveriding or kiteracing, what's going to be bigger?
Tiger: Racing, because you can do it everywhere. Everywhere. For waves, you need a good spot, and good side wind ... there just aren't that many wave spots. If the sport is going to be an Olympic sport, the first discipline will be racing. Not freestyle, not waves, but racing. It's a pretty interesting discipline.
Me: Do you race?
Tiger: I tried in Fuerte, and in the Spanish Championships, but I need a board.
Me, half to myself: Tell me about it.
Tiger: I'll probably work with Sami (Gali) to develop a racing board.
Me: Good, get on that quick, because I want one too.
Tiger: (looks at me skeptically)
Me: What ... didn't you see me racing on my speedy Pink Waroo? We have it on video. I'll send you the link. I'm a serious racer. But I agree with you ... I just need a board.

On double handlepasses

Gavin: What's going on with double handlepasses?
Tiger: Everyone (top guys on the PKRA) can do them this year, except me. I do them sometimes, when everything's perfect, but not all the time.
Me: What tricks can't you do that you'd like to be able to do?
Tiger: Double handlepasses with real power, in all kinds of conditions. In Brazil, in the lagoon, where it's perfect, everything can happen, but then when you get to Fuerte and it's 35 knots and you're on a 7 that buzzes around like a mosquito, and the wind is up and down, and it's choppy ... that's a different story.
Me: Where will the level of riding need to be next year, to do well on the PKRA?
Tiger: You'll need to be able to do all the basic tricks switch: slim chance, KGB, front mobe, back mobe, 313s, loop 3s ... all switch. And you'll have to be able to 2 or 3 double handlepasses: double KGB, etc.

Alvaro, Switch Slim

On the Office in Delray

Me: Except for that fact that we have to be here all freaking day, how do you like hanging out in the office and being in Delray?
Tiger: It's awesome. I didn't expect to enjoy it, but everyone is so friendly.
Me: So who's your favorite person at Best?
Gavin: It doesn't matter what you say ... she's just going to put that it's her anyway ...
Tiger: Stacey, definitely, Stacey. She's the greatest person ever in the whole wide world.
(NO JUST KIDDING. I just put that in there, like they knew I would.)
Tiger actually said,: I like everyone here. Everyone's really nice.
Me: Even Shannon?
Tiger: Yes, she's nice too.

For more on Alvaro, click here.