Check In: Joe Battleday

We checked in with everyone's favorite presser Joe Battleday on his switch to DUP, the coming contest season, his sponsorship with Red Bull, and more.

Go-to grab?

Melon, its the only one I can do haha

Why did you switch to DUP?

My time at LF had come to an end and DUP was the obvious choice for me, they’ve been killing it for the past few years and feel like they are putting a lot of love into wakeboarding that probably a lot of other brands aren’t doing. Honestly though I just loved the boards straight away, I always said I would just carry on riding my old board if I didn’t find something I really enjoyed riding and as soon as I jumped on the Chill V I was pretty well set on riding for DUP.

Were there any other brands that showed interest?

Yea for sure I had chats with a few different people and tested a couple different boards out. But as I said it was really just about finding a board that I loved riding, and none of them really gave me that feeling until I jumped onto a DUP and straight away had some good feelings from a couple of their boards.

You didn’t go to Lao this year, what’s your thought process when it comes to deciding which contests to do?

Really I just love competing and in the past I’ve kind of just done as many as I can, this year is a bit of a slow year for me, I have some other priorities at home that I really want to focus on so I’ll only be doing Mash this year. I think now a big thing for me is focusing on comps that I can ride exactly how I want to ride and still maybe have a shot at doing ok, that kind of sounds cliche maybe, but I think now more than ever tech is kind of king but I think Mash usually provides a pretty good canvas to put your own stamp on a run.

Is it pretty wild to see double rewinds now being done in contests?

Oh man that’s honestly crazy haha, I went through such a battle landing that and kind of couldn’t comprehend ever doing it in a run, I guess that shows the level wakeboarding is at now, or just the level the Stuckey’s are at haha.

Best press right now?

Guy and girl. Guy, I would say Pedro or Jules, I feel like they are always pretty locked, girl would have to be Rivers for sure.

What was your time like on red bull and hows your relationship with them now?

Well it was kind of the dream really, they sponsored me when I was 16 and they were the first sponsor that allowed me to travel doing what I loved, and then the support off the water was crazy to, they went above and beyond to help me through the worst injury of my career and that in itself was priceless. We didn’t end on bad terms but there isn’t a relationship there anymore.

We ever gonna see more snowboard clips?

Haha maybe, I actually have not snowboarded much at all, my girlfriend sometimes does the snow season here in Aus so I’ve been down a handful of times to see her and have lucked into a couple good clips, but I would love to spend some more time on a snowboard for sure.

Thank you’s?

Big ups Steve at Follow, he has always looked out for me big time. Also shout out to DUP for bringing the stoke and love to me and wakeboarding. Last but not least Shape for letting me design and ride my own feature, that was definitely a dream as a kid so I appreciate that a lot for sure.