Kenneth Enggaard Kristensen- owner of Aarhus Water sports complex
Shot by Nicklas Dorfer
Introducing Kenneth Engaard The man behind Waterfest Aarhus 2021 and the owner of Aarhus Water Sports Complex. We at foundation caught up with Kenneth to talk about how it was organizing the event and what his future plans are.
FW - Hey Kenny! Hope you’re doing good man! We know you put in a lot of time for this event and hopefully it was a success for you as it was such a rad time for all the riders that joined, would you care to tell us a little bit about the event and what it means for you?
Kenny: What’s up guys! This event was a dream coming true, not only for me, but for the cable and the whole crew who took part in organizing the event. Since I was a kid, I always wanted to host a big international competition, the plan was to call it “Enggaard Go Big” with a giant kicker sending the riders to the moon. This wasn’t the case, but I’m super stoked on how the event and format turned out. Let’s go WATERFEST 2022!
FW - Did you have any goals for this event, and how long did it take for you to put all of this together?
Kenny - The event had four major goals, whereas two of them, were really important for the cable and in general.
1. To establish a greater focus on the worldwide problem of plastic pollution in the ocean, why the event-motto was; When we have fun with the ocean, we also have to take care of it.
2. To prove to Aarhus Municipality that we as an organisation can do much more than be a cable with 1,000+ members, sustainable finances and healthy communities. We are also an event platform, of international nature. As for now we’re only permitted one season at a time, this concern, of not being here the next year, is really har to run a organisation by.
3. To inspire the members of AWC, by showing them what the best Wakeboarders in the world can do on the existing features.
4. To show Aarhus and AWC to the outside world. We’re just a small fish in the big wakeboard industry, but we’re run as a non-profit organisation, everyday just working on pushing the sport and exposing it to more people.
Roughly it took 1 month to establish the event. A lot of planning started in April, but because of Covid-19 and different regulations, we weren’t given the green light until the 18th of June, less than one month before the event was supposed to go down. 1 month of hard work, with a really great team, resulted in a sick event.
FW - How did the name Waterfest came about?
Kenny - Thomas Uncas, a former volunteer at AWC told me last year (2020) to contact Rasmus Brøgger. Rasmus hosted a couple of death diving contests before, with the name Waterfest. The plan was to get Rasmus to Denmark to do a Waterfest Deathdiving Contest at AWC. As ideas kept coming, we thought about bringing more than the deathdiving, also the Wakeboarding, which came easily, as we have the facilities. So this is how it all ended out as Waterfest Aarhus 2021 - Spoiler alert!: Might have a Waterfest(ival) 2022 next year.
FW - Biggest MVP for this event in your opinion?
Kenny - So many great people were involved, riders, crew etc. so to do it in different aspects:
1. Riders - Yannik Paton. Meeting up with Yannik for the first time I was immediately stoked on the atmosphere he brings wherever he goes, super chill and cozy.
2. Crew - Nicklas Dorfer and Emil Lofthus. Nicklas came in from Germany to do all the shooting of footage and editing it as well. His effort at job was beyond what was expected. Emil Lofthus, one of my dear friends and volunteers at AWC put in so many hours of work, basically working all week up to the event with me from 07 in the morning until 02 in the morning, getting 5 hours of sleep and then going again - The week before the event wouldn’t have been the same without this guy working next to me everyday.
3. Goverment Person - Finn Lyck from Aarhus Events. This guy was such a helpful hand with all the permissions for the event, and damn, he even landed a huge fond so we could plan out the event without stressing over the budget. Big thanks to this guy!
FW - We know the after party tends to get crazy with all these wakeboarders at the event. Was there any highlights you would like to share with us?
Kenny - After parties and wakeboarders do tend to get crazy, and this one was definitely one for the books... Or how can you also can say it, the paybooks. Some guys, you know who you are, chose to blow a fire extinguisher all over the bathrooms at the private party place we booked, Institut For (X). Not the best memory of the event, but definitely something which made sure, Waterfest Aarhus will not be forgotten for a long time.
FW - What’s is in store for Aarhus Water Sport Complex and waterfest in the up coming years?
Kenny - Aarhus Watersports Complex, AWC, will hopefully in 2023 establish a Fullsize Cablesystem, manufactured from WakeParX. At this point, we’ll for sure host more and bigger international events to make the WakeScene in Denmark and Globally explode. Our location in the inner centrum of Aarhus really exposes the sport to many people, more than 10.000 different people get affected from the cable everyday - so our plans are big. Cus as you might know, tattooed onto my leg: Go Big Or Go Home. Waterfest is planning on including more different watersports into the event, expanding and yeah for sure, hosting a sick event in Aarhus again next year!
FW - Any honorable mentions or thank you?
Kenny - I wanna bring my thanks to these people: Camilla Roursgaard Christensen (Girlfriend and Board Member at AWC), Rasmus Brøgger (Partner and owner of the brand Waterfest), Fame Ivan Kogen (Partner in Crime - Planning out the wake contest), Laurits Kjær (Friend and volunteer at AWC in charge of the parties), Louise Engelbrecht (Friend and volunteer at AWC in charge of the crew), Emil Lofthus (Friend and volunteer at AWC in charge of the vibes), Johan Sundmark (Friend and volunteer at AWC in charge of Graphics), Markus Batz (Friend and volunteer at AWC in charge of the wake contest).
To end this article off. We have a quote from The 2 MVPs in our opinion. Ryan peacock who manage to make it to the finals at the Death Diving competition sending an under leg clap down the drop, and Pedro Caldas who took the win at the wakeboard comp. This was what they had to say!
Ryan - Before coming to Aarhus I’d said that I was going to do the bellyflop and after doing some test jumps I wasn’t so sure if I was going to commit to doing it, but the vibe and atmosphere with all the boys there on the day of the competition was absolutely crazy so there was no way I couldn’t send it. When the time came, I made it to the top of the board and realized that I had 2 options. 1 jump like a pussy and it still hurt or 2, full send it and it would probably not hurt much more than jumping like a pussy anyways, I got the all clear to jump, took a deep breath and full sent it off the end. It’s honestly quite hard to explain the feeling of acceleration as you’re falling towards the water, but strangely enough the adrenaline rush was so worth it haha! Waterfest 2020 was absolutely insane and I can’t wait to see how it grows in 2021!
Pedro - Describing the energy of the good times I had with everyone is as hard as writing a quote and not sounding stupid. It was a sick send.