Starting on a high | James Windsor

LKI’s multi-time World Cable Wake Champ James Windsor is getting right into the thick of the international contest season. After podiuming the opening round of the Plastic Playground series in Thailand, Windsor is now basing himself in Barcelona as the European summer gets into full swing.

Cheers for the chat, man. How’s things?

Yeah it’s all going well hey. I just got to Barcelona last Monday and I’ll be staying here at a mate’s place for the next three months and doing all the European contests. There’re some really good parks here too, so it’s a great place to be based from.

Sounds good. Well your season got started a bit earlier than usual this year, with the first contest in February. Was it weird to leave Australia while it was still summer?

Definitely! Usually the season starts a lot later, but it was awesome to come into a contest with a lot of riding under my belt, as that definitely helped me a lot coming into the first round. Most of the riders came to Thailand from their winter and I think that played into my favour a lot.

Where were you riding mainly back home?

I was at Lake Mackay but I just moved back to the Sunny Coast. I was home for like, three days then flew out, so I feel like I haven’t really moved back home yet!

 That Plastic Playground course in Thailand looked sick. What was it like to ride?

They always have the most insane set-ups. This was the first year that it was an actual series and the first stop was just amazing. There was a mini mega ramp and the kicker to downramp, a full-sized cable, and all of the rails were insane. It’s definitely one of the hardest parks to ride and to start the season on such a technical course was pretty crazy. The atmosphere was awesome too. The whole bankline was packed out with local Thai people who just loved it.

 Was it tough to start to season on such a gnarly course?

Well I was kinda lucky. I arrived there three weeks before the contest and had a lot of time to practice and prepare. By the time the contest came around I was feeling really comfortable.

It showed too. You were shredding on your way to your first podium in a little while.

Yeah it’s been a fair while since I was on the podium, so it was nice to start the season on a high! It’s definitely helped with my motivation this year and to do better at the next contests. It gave me a good confidence boost knowing that all the best riders were there and I could still place and go for the win.

Rad. Well, it’s a three-round championship, with the next round in the UK in July. What are you doing between now and then?

We’ve got FISE Montpellier this weekend, then I’m off to Italy next weekend for the Wake to Paradise contest in Milan, then I have a two-week break. But pretty much, I’ll be busy right until that July round with contests and filming at other cables, filming with Slingshot and the guy I’m staying with. The next few months are going to be pretty packed.

How’s the FISE course looking for this weekend?

They’ve just put up photos of the new course; it looks amazing and a lot different to last year. They always mix it up and you don’t know what to expect until they release the photos, but I’m sure the riding level will be really high. The past four years I’ve finished fourth, so if I could get on the podium this year, that’d be awesome.

Good stuff, thanks for the chat, mate. All the best for the weekend!

Thanks a lot!