Updates from AKONITE

kevincalvez · Frontside 180 Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 298 City: France

Okay, so today i just went to the brand new akonite shop in paris, and i had a talk with the boss (alex) and apparently, the company ain't dead... In fact, they made 50 Bi level (my 41'' pro model) and 50 pierre atruz as well (42")...
So now, they are about to put the graphics on 'em then they will be ready to be on the market... You can purchase them on the website www.akonite.fr in a couple of weeks, the website is still in construction....

I will keep you update when i hear more about the product...

Any question? go ahead

electricsnow · cassette Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 10755 City: Jefferton

If you don't mind me asking, what is your boss' last name? And this is a serious question too. I'm only asking because there's this french alex I know of...not personally, but whatever. Long story!!

kevincalvez · Frontside 180 Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 298 City: France

His name is alexandre Fougea...
(Were you thinking there were only one alex in france?) Laughing

electricsnow · cassette Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 10755 City: Jefferton

hahaha, seriously, I thought most frenchmen were named "pierre." so then the name Alex HAD to be rare!! Laughing

No, there's this guy named alex barnoin (sp). I tried to talk with him a couple of years ago...there was a communication barrier so I never got what I wanted. I thought it would have been interesting if he was your boss.

NotSoBueno · Backside 180 Joined: 16 Oct 2005 Posts: 1806 City: SoCal

Hmmmmmmm wonder what it was that electricsnow wanted but couldn't get due to a 'communication barrier' ? Crazy Eyes

dudufigueiredo · Posted: Mar 08, 2008 12:25 am Post subject:

Is it going to have that same graphic that Guto made for you some time ago??

http://a-r.deviantart.com/art/AKONITE-Kevin-Calvez-PRO-MdL-44499222

kevincalvez · Frontside 180 Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 298 City: France

dudufigueiredo, Yeah, it's gonna be that same graphic... And pierre's pro model graphic is gonna be different.

DMoneyy · Backside 180 Joined: 27 Dec 2007 Posts: 1576 City: SK 941

NotSoBueno, hahahaha

kevincalvez · Frontside 180 Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 298 City: France

electricsnow, By the way, Alex Barnoin is known to be one of the first guy to take off the bindings on a wakeboard, and ride on it... Back in the 90's
He IS the first wakeskater in france, and maybe in the world, who knows?! Laughing

stompin9s · Posted: Mar 08, 2008 10:35 am Post subject:

messer. byerly...

kevincalvez · Frontside 180 Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 298 City: France

stompin9s, when?

electricsnow · cassette Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 10755 City: Jefferton

kevin, that is basically why I wanted to speak with him. He's got a really thick accent though, and he's not very good at speaking english, and I don't know any french. I tried to get someone else to talk to him for me, but it just didn't work out.

Yeah, I don't know when scott started wakeskating, but messer was definitely doing some bindingless riding in the mid 80s and started shaping his own boards in the 90s. erich and josh smith are other people who were doing stuff as well....along with a bunch of other floridians as well.

I know very little about alex, but that article said he started to ride bindingless (they did not call it wakeskating) because he hurt his knee, or some such thing...Unless he was wakeskating well before that article, i'd put him at wakeskating in roughly 1994. I only say this becuase I get the impression he was a serious wakeboarder otherwise, and eventually went back to it if I'm not mistaken.

And there's really no way you're going to pin point the first wakeskater, or a number of obscure firsts. What's your definition of wakeskating, and what constitutes a wakeskate? A surfboard behind a boat with a rope? A chopped wakeboard or a hand shaped board? Or something that begins to possess more unique features, like concave, kicktails, etc?

I would, however, put Alex as the first wakeskater I've seen in wakeboarding magazine, which was from the first issue of 1995.

Regardless of where he is, or where you want to rank as being the "first" at whatever...I just think it's really cool that he was on his own program at the same time that someone like jason (and others of course, but I always mention jason because he turned it into something) was on his program, albeit in a different country and doing different things.