Protest Cable Call 2012

Teva at the Cable Call

The Teva boys and girls are all over the place at the Protest Cable Call. They've got a free create-your-own-shirt booth, a professional photographer and they are giving away lots of goodies and stuff. We had a little chat.

What's up?In the past years, we've been focusing more and more on our action outdoor sports collection. Our Gnarkosi wakeskate shoe was a big hit and we're building on that success. In the coming season we'll be presenting a new wakeskate shoe, the Slimkosi, which will be like a crossover Gnarkosi/sneaker. We're really looking forward to launching that shoe, things look promising. We'll also add a new color to our Gnarkosi shoes. Dark grey and lime green is a wicked combination.

The Teva Blue Line is here at Nieuwegein for the second season now. Has it worked out the way you hoped it would?Definitely! A lot of people really like the 2.0 system, it's very popular. Every Friday we're having the Teva Blue Line Sessions, which is a fun and easy way for wakeboarders and wakeskaters to session the Blue Line and have fun. And as you can see we've put a new kicker on the normal cable way course, so we're also quite happy with that.

Apart from wakeskating, what are your plans with Teva for the upcoming year?We're currently creating a total new shoe especially designed for running off-track, it's called Teva Sphere. We think it will be a game changer in the running scene. You might say we have high expectations of it, but we strongly believe it can change the running scene in the same way we changed the sandals scene 28 years ago.

Shopping street Protest stand

Suddenly we're at the shopping street and standing in front of the Protest Boardstore Utrecht stand. Hello!Hi! You are probably going to ask us how we're doing and stuff, right?

Well erh, yeah, actually I was.We are doing very fine! Thanks for asking. We've had a lot of fun during the day, loads of kind people and a lot of funny conversations. It's almost like our normal working day when we're in the Protest Boardstore in the center of Utrecht..

So, what's different then, here at the Cable Call shopping street?We're selling a lot of different stuff now. We're selling nice warm Protest sweaters and T-shirts for only 5 to 10 euros. We've also got samples of all kinds: backpacks, softshell jackets, boardshorts, bikini's... all under 25 euro, so it's really cheap. And there are the sunglasses and poncho's for 1 euro each, they're really popular since rain and sunshine are both present here today. With a little luck, we'll only have to sell sunglasses tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Chatting with Jobe

Last year we spoke with Jobe, who were focused on improving their wakeboard bindings at the time. In the past year, Jobe worked hard to expand their range of boards and to get Jobe more popular around the world. We spoke with Henk van der Werf (marketing) and Niek Huiskes (shaper).

Hi guys, what's up?Hi! All is good, we're very happy. Weather is nice, lots of nice people who visit the shopping street and have a chat, business is going well... and a lot of our riders are competing at the Cable Call, so we hope they do a good job.

We've heard that you recently opened up a Jobe flagship store in Orlando. What about that?That's right! In Europe we're one of the biggest suppliers of watersports gear and equipment. We're now expanding to other continents because we want to see more people having fun on Jobe boards. Orlando is like the worlds wakeboard utopia. Everyone is wakeboarding, there's a lake around every corner, gasoline for the boat is a lot cheaper, the sport is far more accessible in Orlando than anywhere in the world. So we figured: we have to have a flagship store overthere!

We wanted to check out the new sample boards for the 2013-2014 season, but they're not here. Why's that?Next week we're going to be at the Surf Expo in Orlando, which is the biggest watersports trade show worldwide. Our sample boards have already been shipped.

What could you tell us about next year's boards?We're really stoked about our new boards. We've got one wakeboard designed for boat wakeboarding and two boards especially made for cable wakeboarding. We've done a lot of research, tweaking and tuning with our riders. Austin Hair aided a lot in the development of the boat wakeboard, CK Koester assisted in creating the cable wakeboards. It's awesome to work closely with our pro riders to create the best wakeboard on the planet. Julian Cohen, his brother Yonel Cohen and Rocco van Straten are new riders on the Jobe team. We're proud to have them on board and are looking forward to work with them in this way as well.

Thanks guys! Anything else you want to say?
Please tell everyone to get their free Jobe cap at our shopping street stand, or to just come over for a chat.

Apenstreken in the house

From 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., we've got two dj's providing good music for everyone. They're Tim and Ben from Apenstreken.
Hi guys, how are you doing?
Yeah we're doing good. The sun is shining again and so are we, haha. We've only got one problem, there's this wasp which has been annoying us for about two hours now. It's kinda scary.

What kind of music are you two playing?We're playing tech house and deep house, which is perfect for this event and this atmosphere. It's what we like to play most of the time, so it's awesome like this.
(check out a mix by Apenstreken in the Soundcloud widget below this post).

In the meanwhile, the wasp has found a nice cup with a splash of coke in it and starts drinking. Ben takes another cup and ends the life of the wasp and ends this interview in one hit.

Check www.apenstreken.nl or http://soundcloud.com/apenstreken

Below: Ben van Wijk and Tim Janssen in their improvised riding dj-booth car. Missing in this picture is Apenstreken-member Gilbert Smink, who is currently relaxing in London.

This is Joey. Please help him.

Boys and girls, meet Joey. Joey is the manusje-of-alles as we call it; he's here to do all kinds of small stuff. As you can see, he picks up all the garbage everyone is leaving on the ground. He has mastered the art of picking up garbage with this anti garbage stick: once he even caught a fly with it! Talking about a professional.

We do have one question for you guys, though. Please help Joey out this weekend. When you see him, give him a pat on the shoulder and say "Hi Joey, you're the best manusje-from-alles!". Thanks.

Oh, and throw your garbage in the bins please.

Poetically handsome

Cable guys are ready

We spoke with cable guy Sjors on Friday.

"Well, it's only 4 p.m. and we've already got everything set up. The cable is tuned and running smooth, Down Under is ready, the big tent for the party is there, the shopping street is already set up, the atmosphere is good, riders are relaxing or riding the cable... I can't wait for the weekend to begin!

Cable guys: Sjors van de Kerkhof & Arthur Bek

Welcome CK Koester

During the 2010 Protest Cable Call finals, Jobe teamrider CK Koester messed up his knee. Now, two years later, we are happy to welcome him back!

It's Okay. It's THE ARC

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Got your tickets yet?

Nick Davies back in business

You might remember the Protest Cable Call in 2010, where Nick Davies made it to the second place (just 5 points behind Tom Fooshee). Last year Nick couldn't compete because of a nasty injury. Now he's fully recovered and sending it, as you can see on this pic below. He'll be competing at the Cable Call next week. Keep an eye on this guy.

For more info on Nick Davies and his injury, check out the interview we had with him last year.