February 9th, 2010

Love him or hate him Tweak is known for his no nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is comments.  Recently he was upgraded from Core Whore to forum moderator and he wasted no time in making it known that lame threads would not be tolerated.  But who really knows Tweak?  Come with us on a psychedelic journey to find out who the fuck is TWEAK?!

Alright, so everyone knows you don't put up with shit on the Scoop, period. Lets get deeper.  Lets get a name. Maybe a nickname so people don't try to track you down and physically hurt you.

Haha, I have a few nicknames with a few different people, Tweak is what a lot of people know me as most. People online know me as this, some people at my local know me as that to.  Rowdy is another nickname that alot of people know me as within the kiteboarding community at home and around the place.  Biggie Spins or Big Al is what I'm known as by the crew at the local parks back home and a few other mates from around the place.  My real name is Alex... Just if anyone actually wanted to know for once hahaha.  So yeah things can get confusing at times haha.

Okay, great, now let's build the network. Who are your bros, your crew? Why do you bother hanging out with those losers?

Good question haha.  In the beginning my crew was all the older guys at the beach because they were the only ones that kited, guys like Ian Graham, Ash Wooley, Dave Hegerty, they were the original crew back in like 2000-2003.  I was stoked when one day along came this little butternut haircut kid (ala Butters from Southpark) called Shaun aka Happy. At first I was like "who the fuck is this kid" but like everyone else he slowly grew on me and we became great mates. At first I was pretty far ahead of him in the skills department (which by todays standards is pretty lame haha) but I taught him everything I could and In no time we were pushing each other to try new stuff and do it legit. If you saw us ride back in the day it would be pretty obvious we rode together, we did pretty much all the same tricks haha. 

Thats the local scene as far as kiting goes anyway. I started skateboarding a year or two ago now after I decided I was over surfing in the cold one winter and I now have a great crew to hang out with whenever I'm down the park. Unfortunately it is a lot better than the crew I have at the beach at the moment, which consists entirely of me hahaha.

As for the rest of Australia it's actually pretty crazy there are so many guys who are or were into wakestyle that I'm probably gonna forget to name some. Off the top of my head though I would have to say the Melbourne crew were probably the first guys I met and the ones that really made we wanna get into kiting and ride wakestyle. Guys such as:

Booney, Balls, Bill, Warts, Tapeworm, Spaz, Norts, etc...

All these guys that were killing it way back when Mark Shinn was winning world tours by taking his board off.  Gotta give these guys big props.

This leads me to Tannum... What more is there to say really.  I met these guys not that long after the Melbourne boys, I was like "where the hell do all these good wakestyle dudes come from?"... "Tannum" was the answer I got.  After my first trip to Tannum way back when I was like "Shit I gotta move to this place, it's freaking awesome!".  Seriously at the time I first went there there probably would have been 20-30 local crew all riding boots, drinking beer and just generally being sick counts… guys like:

Cam B, Cam P, Ricky J, Zac L, Blake T, Josh K, Gavin C, Tony P, Nath P, Jesse, etc...

These were my sort of place's, so it's no surprise that most of these guys are still some of my best mates and every time we catch up again it's like I never left.  I guess I can't forget the new WA crew either because these guys are lads just like the rest of us they just weren't as fortunate as the East coast when it came to solid crew to ride with. Guys like Charl, Abel, Ginge, Simon etc.. all top lads.  Oh and Gabi and Ben Winding from South Australia, two of the radest people you could ever meet!  Oh and Dre, Moe, Greggy Jr, Stone, these guys are all time, nicest blokes you could ever meet and they all throw down! Wish I had a chance to hang out and ride with these guys more.
p.s. Yeah I did it, I dropped some names.

What's the motivation when you're tearing someone up on the Scoop?

Hmmm, I wouldn't really call it a "motivation" as such but more of a "procrastination" hahaha. Basically I started posting and stirring people up to get out of doing study, really I could blame 99% of my shithouse grades on the scoop haha.  I guess just sometimes I like to tell everyone how awesome I am to... Did you know I am awesome by the way?  Because I am.

Give me a list, from most to least, of sports you think should influence kiting.

This is the way I see things and it's entirely based on what I like doing most and what I can do mostly in my area, so here goes:
Skating, wakeboarding/ cable, snowboarding, surfing, razor scootering, Froot booting, Goat boating... (Happy loves to goat boat)

Define the way you see and measure style. (What makes a good style?)

Hahaha, thats a good one, I would like to say I can define or measure style, hell I have probably told you I can at some point haha, but the reality is that style has no measure. You either got it or you don't. I think thats what makes it so hard to judge in comps, everyone always says "Oh that dude was so styley why didn't he win?" But when it comes down to it it's a lot easier to count rotations and multiply the with handlepasses than it is to give points for style...
Myself I like to see stuff that is smooth (not awkward) and just works, its not hard to watch and you just want to see it again, it could be something as simple as a BS 180 but if its got the right stuff I could watch it back a ton of times.

Everyone know's you're a loudmouth dick on the forum. What's Tweak like when he's NOT on the computer?

Hmm thats a hard one, how do I describe myself? Can anyone really describe themselves?  In my opinion I'm mostly pretty chilled, I'm not gonna go around fighting people and I'm not gonna go around yelling at people for wearing straps etc... If you came up and had a chat with me I doubt it would even click who I am.

Lets get a percentage breakdown of a normal day in the life of Tweak. Percentage of time spent on the Scoop? Time spent in the water? Time spent doing other sports? School? You get the idea. And that shit better add up to 100 or you're a retard.

I was never that great at math, but here goes,
Time spent on the scoop: a lot maybe 40% or something stupid hahaha
Time spent on water: maybe like 5%
Time spent skating last year or so: 25%
Time spent doing school: 10%
Time spent with my girl: 20% (she is there when I am doing most of that other stuff aswell though haha)

Okay, moving on. You got a free 1 way ticket to anywhere. Where do you go? Why?

Shit dude, Its like spin the globe... I got so many good mates from around the place I wanna go meet up with I wouldn't know where to begin really.
Tahiti, Sweden, Denmark, Antigua, Florida, DR, Indo, CWC, Shit... I hope I get some money one day haha.

Lets take a look into the future Where is Tweak in a year. In 5 year? In 10?

1 year:  Back in WA helping out with the Core event

5 years:  Back In WA overlooking the core event staying in a penthouse room in some sweet hotel hahaha.

10 years:  Shit thats scary dude... Hopefully still kiting and shit, maybe have my own house on my parents farm overlooking the ocean or something... sipping on a few brewskis with my girl and a few good mates... who knows.

Ultimate goals? Forum? Kiting? Life?

Shit, I dunno really I guess you could say I kinda go with the flow... Lots of people say "shit man you always get so lucky with things" I dunno, maybe I am lucky or maybe it's just that the bad things don't really phase me that much so the good things seem to stand out more.  I would love to have a serious input into a kiting brand one day, actually make sure some sick wakestyle gear comes out and make sure it's not a dud. At the moment I think this is something that is seriously lacking within the sport.

You're known for your talent of coming up with good nicknames for dangle kiting. Sky faeries, Fruit Loopers, etc. Give us your favorites list.

Hahahaha, man this is something that just happens, I can't remember them all but heres a few for your next post;
Cloud climber, cumulous catcher, nimbus snatcher, froot looper, cloud merchant, 12, o'clock hero, Lunch time bandit, Hungry hungry hippo, Time traveller...  Harder than I thought haha I can't think of them all, it's usually pretty spontaneous.

Obnoxious Attitude = Tough Love or Pure Hate?

For sure there's some tough love in there... real tough love. Pure hate for claiming wakestylin strapazoids though.

At night, when the demons come, what do they look like?

Not sure what you mean? white-ish?

Alright, that one was a bit over the top. Lets tone it down a bit. I've heard you talk about cheap gear for the masses. Give me more info. What's the idea? Do you think it will ever happen?

The idea is this, If you get cheap kites and boards happening you get more kids involved, if you get more youth involved the sport progresses...  Right now if you went down your local you would probably lucky if you saw one person under 30. If you go to the skate park your lucky to see one person over 30... You tell me where the progression is best.  Cheap gear will progress the sport.

What's it going to take to change the direction the kite industry is going?

Who knows... A lot? haha. Im not sure to tell you the truth, but in my eyes it has to start with the media and comps. At least if we get that stuff right the brands and company's supporting the sport have something to work off.

Alright, this IS the Scoop, and we can take it as much as we dish it, so lets get the thing you hate the most about KiteScoop.com.

People giving props to lame vids just because the dude is in boots... If its shit, boots aren't going to make it any better.  Oh and people posting pics/vids in straps, No one cares about it so don't post it. I'm considering just deleting those types of vids/pics soon instead of clogging up the Latrine.

Now lets balance it out so we come out of this looking good, what's your most favorite thing about the Scoop?

Having a place that all the bro's can hang out, share stories and vids and generally just talk utter smack... Priceless.

Okay this shit is starting to run long. Give me a quote. A tag line. Sum up this interview in one sentence.

"Just like a pelican i'll put you under my spell again". QUAS.

Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day of verbally and mentally abusing lame forum commenters to talk with us.

No worries mate, now fuck off. smiley face, smiley face, winkey face, 8 ball, shocked face, question mark.