Nous n'avons pas souvent l'occasion de parler de snowkite. Pourtant, il y a de quoi raconter, car des riders comme Guillaume Chastagnol, aka "Chasta", snowboarder et snowkiter, parcourent le monde à la recherche de spots mythiques. Après avoir ridé l'Etna, l'un des Volcans les plus actifs du monde, Chasta s'attaque à une autre montagne, moins connue et pourtant tout aussi particulière, le Mont Nemrut.

Avril 2010

Avant de faire ses bagages pour la Turquie, Chasta a soigneusement étudié l'intérêt de rider le Mont Nemrut. Et il s'est rendu compte que ce spot est vraiment spécial. 8ème merveille du monde antique, le mont Nemrut (ou Nemrud)délimitait l'est et l'ouest il y a plusieurs siècles et a été le théâtre de guerres sanglantes. Il fut ensuite le symbole de l'unité du royaume perdu de Commagène. Seuls témoins de ce passé, des statues, qui recouvrent le sommet. C'est entre celles ci que Chasta a projeté de rider, au lever comme au coucher du soleil, car le sommet du Mont Nemrut a la particularité d'être ensoleillé du petit jour jusqu'au soir. C'est donc vers une montagne mythique que Chasta a embarqué, avec sa board, son aile et tout son fatras.

Une fois arrivé en Turquie, Chasta s'est enfoncé dans les montagnes pour atteindre le mont Nemrut. Il est situé à proximité des Monts Ankar, en Anatolie, à une soixantaine de kilomètres de Malatya, au Sud-Est de la Turquie. Inscrit au patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO, le lieu est un tombeau et n'a certainement pas l'habitude d'être ridé. C'est l'occasion pour Chasta de faire de belles rencontres avec les locaux, intrigués par celui qu'ils surnommeront par la suite "homme oiseau" .

Après un peu de grimpette pour arriver jusqu'au sanctuaire de Commagène, tout en haut du Mont Nemrut (2150m), Chasta peut enfin sortir son aile et sa board, et le photographe, Erme Ermin, son boîtier. Pour réaliser ce portfolio, inattendu et très dépaysant !

Le trip touche à sa fin. Après quelques bonnes sessions, Chasta était un peu nostalgique : "J'ai pratiqué le snowkite dans le monde entier, sur les montagnes et monts les plus élevés, mais me mesurer au milieu de ces statues immenses à une montagne volcanique de 2 150 mètres de haut, à ce carrefour des civilisations vieux de plusieurs siècles devenu la huitième merveille du monde antique, restera une expérience inoubliable. Le site et les conditions météorologiques sont parfaits pour le snowkite, sans parler de la dimension historique et mythique du lieu. Et j'espère que mon passage sur le mont Nemrut n'est qu'un début, car avec ses trésors historiques et ses merveilles naturelles, la Turquie offre de nombreux sites idéals pour le snowkite. »

Texte : Lucy Paltz / Photos de Emre Ermin (c) Merci à : Red Bull

Pascal news >> The Turkish snowkiting journey

The Turkish snowkiting journey.

Mt NEMRUT.
We were invited, Chasta and I, by Redbull Turkey manager Doga Tek for a photo/video shooting on the Mt Nemrut near the city Gaziantep in the center of Turkey, the Anatoly country.

The aim was to renew the Chasta’s photo/video profile in the International Redbull athletes gallery.

The place, Mt Nemrut, was choosen by Doga because of the very special and famous reputation. This mountain, 2150m high, is an historical place, with huge statues from the Commagenes civilisation 3 thousands years ago. The top of the hill is not natural, it’s actually the King Antiosh 1st tomb. Hand covered of 600.000 tons of stones.

Chasta has been the first snowkiter riding at this incredible place. This 2010 winter is not super snowy in Turkey, so Guillaume had to do his best to express himself on the few parts of icy snow around. Luckily, the wind was here and as well the super blue sky.

A huge team of filmers and photographers had to organize the shooting and that was of course a great moment, driven by Doga Tek for unforgettable footage. Only one day for this session. Super dinner at the Carvanseray hotel in the evening with bbq and all traditional turkish food and atmosphere.

ERCIYES.
So, after this heat, we moved with our friend Murat Bükey, OZONE Turkish distributor, and Volkan Günel, to the ERCIYES mountains, eight hours driving through very nice landscapes, passing the 1,000,000 people Kayseri city.

Very warm and friendly hospitality in the ARLBERGSPORT hotel in ERCIYES by Mr Mehmet Eglenceoglu, www.arlbergsport.com who made his first attempt as snowkiter the day after, managing to cruise around very easy.

Volkan Günel was teaching some new-comers as Volkan is a kite instructor with his www.volkite.com kite school.

Chasta made the show, of course, and we had as well super backcountry sessions in the middle of huuuuge wild landscapes. It was spring time style sessions but very interesting to do as the possibilities around are incredible.

We never forget the help of Murat Bükey who all the time made the things going the best as possible for us. So many nice people met in Erciyes, that was like a dream for the two frenchies here in Turkey.

The journey ended with a night in Istambul, hosted by Doga Tek in the ***Perra Rose Hotel before our flight back to Lyon in the next morning.

I hope my two movies will show a part of our wonderful days spent in Turkish country.
Many thanks again to Doga Tek, Mehmet Eglencoglu and Mister Murat BÜKEY.

Hope to see you all next winter.
:)

Cheers,
Pascal

 

 

hello guys,
A little news with a little video once again from our home spot in Huahine.

 

Well me, Titaua and Kailea moved back to Huahine island where Titaua was born, and where we spent lots of time before Kailea.

I think the wind god followed me from NZ, it was good almost everyday. It’s so good to discover this spot once again with better skill. We rode for hours in such good waves with different wind directions, and I thought the island was small, but actually it’s not, we did some down winders for 20 km on each side, that was just perfect.

Maybe you don’t want to know why it’s a perfect spot, because we have lot’s of flat water, many choices for waves, we don’t have to drive hours and the most important thing, the kiters population is 4.

Yep, not really crowded on week end like at the beach club in Moorea. So now Kailea can learn kiting without ass…. everywhere around her, she loves it.

If some people want to join us before my departure in December for the snow again, just contact me or log on www.chasta.info.

So here we have a video which is pretty mellow, but so nice to see the potential all around. The hard thing is there’s almost no beach for launching, pretty hard for real beginners, but with our Ozone, there’s not any problem.

Can’t wait to try the new ones.

So have good wind
Chasta

 

ouaaaaaa yesterday we got a nice session, no surfers on the spot , just me and Titaua once again with just enough wind with our 13m edge and some amazing barreling waves. I think we stayed 4 hours just non stop.
thanks mother nature for a nice surprise once again.


link