Ruben Len10
| Height | 180cm / 5.9ft |
| Date of birth | 30th of March ’88 |
| Weight | 71 Kilograms / 156 Pounds |
| Hometown | Noordwijk, the Netherlands. |
| Started | Kiteboarding since 2001 |
I always lived close the beach and loved to be in the sea.
After I saw kiteboarding for the first time in my hometown I started flying small kites with my friends. We had a lot of fun, I was on the beach as much as i could…After some experience with the small kites on the beach, my parents bought me a real kite.
This was the beginning!
My first equipment wasn’t the best, so it took me quite a while to get on the board and be able to ride. But as soon as I got my first four-line kite I was able to jump.
The adrenaline I got of kiteboarding was insane, I could let go all my energy and feelings in it. Something you can do by yourself, as hard or relaxed as you want…when the conditions are good, you’re just in your own world.
After a lot of practice and time on the water I got in the Philishave Coolskin team. This was a team with a coach, Stef de Jong, former Dutch Champion. With Stef I traveled to some places to train and he made me ready for the WorldCups. It was the right moment and support that I needed to learn quick. I liked competition riding…
Results got better and better, in 2004 I was ranked third in the PKRA (Professional Kite Riders Association) World Tour. That was insane, winning the last tour stop of the year in Brazil.
My first Victory! That gave me motivation to train hard and do better in 2005…
In 2005 I won several tour stops and ended up 2nd overall. An awesome year for me, I really learned a lot, traveled my ass off and kited as hard as I could.
It was a good year for the sport as well, Kiteboarding is the fastest growing water sport in the world and it’s progression is unique. The equipment is getting much better and safer.
Kiteboarding is still young so it’s still finding it’s ways here and there. People can step in on a discipline on how they want to ride. Freestyle and Waves are the two main ones and they starting to look better and nicer each day!
In 2006 just before the first tour stop I had a bad crash which left me with an ankle injury.
That put me up with a lot of frustrations and stress…I wanted to ride, hard, but i wasn’t able to.
After a long recovery and a lot of thinking I had a different view on what I wanted. Competitions didn’t matter to me anymore…I just wanted to ride, for myself, try and make the sport look good and extreme. I started to put out more movies and just had fun riding and traveling, no pressure…That made my riding better, just pushing myself to the limit!
Maybe I’ll get back into competition riding when there’s a better/different format so we can really see what’s going on!
In the year 2007 I got more involved with testing and developing products. I really enjoy working on products and making shit work!
Slingshot has been supporting me from the beginning and I’ve been riding their gear for so long. They gave me the opportunity to help develop the Fuel, this is a c-shape hardcore to the bone kite which is made to perform Freestyle tricks.
So after testing some prototypes, tuning them in, we had a great C-kite on the market. This kite gave me the opportunity to go bigger then ever. I set a name for myself with my signature riding style…Full power and huge kiteloops. On the web people were reacting really good on my movies and stuff, so that’s an awesome support.
LEN10 – Adrenaline Driven
After all this, both of my sponsors Slingshot and Mystic gave me the opportunity to develop some products under my own brand LEN10. I’ve been enjoying creating this with the crew at Slingshot and Mystic, they put in great effort and energy. With Slingshot I’ve been able to rock out a Freestyle board for several years now, the Lunacy. People love the board and give me great comments. As the sport is growing fast and we need to really keep the sport core I have been able to create a LEN10 wakestyle specific board with Slingshot. The Darkside! This way I can focus more on riding bindings and style tricks out more when the conditions are epic.
Mystic has been on top of their game over the last years and is getting globally known for developing killer products, which I really appreciate as they help me a lot with my stuff too. All the hardware is professional and super good quality but also with the clothing range they’re stepping it up. Be looking out to the new LEN10 products coming out…
I’m super stoked the way it goes, like this I can ride the way I want to and as hard as possible. At Ontheloose.tv you’ll be able to follow my trips, filled with great action, lifestyle and meeting up with friends.
Thanks to all the people who’ve been supporting me!!!
Peace!
Ride Hard
