The Kiteboarder Magazine Vol. 10, No. 4

Vol. 10 No. 4 THE LAST FRONTIER LAND OF MANY USES

WIND, RAILS, VODKA THE KUZI PROJECT

$9.99US

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Photos: Whitesell

The perfecT balance of heriTage and innovaTion.

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The powerful profile gives the rider outstanding low-end power and consistent pull over a wide range of wind speeds. Reduced diameter struts were also implemented for increased low-end power, improved aerodynamics and reduced weight. The Swept Compact C outline and three-strut design create a stable and responsive kite. The Park uses just enough sweep to maximize depower and allow for easy relaunch.

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Marina Chang, Publisher marina@thekiteboarder.com Paul Lang, Editor paul@thekiteboarder.com Shana Gorondy Art Director Alexis Rovira Editor At Large Gary Martin Technical Editor Amy Robb Online Media Manager amy@thekiteboarder.com EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS Neil Hutchinson, Stefan Ruether, Rick Iossi, Toby Brauer, Brendan Richards, Matt Sexton, Kevin “Irie Dog” Murray, Kinsley ThomasWong, James Brown, Ginette Buffone, Maui Mike, Members of the Central Coast/Santa Barbara CKA

CONTRIBUTORS Brendan Richards, Craig Cunningham, Packy Cronin, Philip Shearer/www.bigblueunlimited.com, Youri Zoon, Kane Hartill, Seth Warren, Jason Slezak

PHOTOGRAPHY Vincent Bergeron, Erin Loscocco, Adam Koch, Omar Nazif, Toby Bromwich, Quincy Dein, Richard Hallman, Charles Ash, Svetlana Romantsova, Helen Trotman, Jim Stringfellow, Colleen Carroll, Ann Shahova, Gyunai Musaeva, Alexey Ohrim, Nikita Nikryt, Seth Warren, Packy Cronin, Melissa Cronin, MCWalker Photography, Philip Shearer, Scott Dickerson, Alex Fenlon, Andy Witschi, Michael Bula, Barbara Traumer, Sean Mertens, Cherimarie Poulos, Petra Goeschl Thanks to all editorial and photography contributors for supporting this magazine!

Visit us on: www.thekiteboarder.com www.thekiteboarderschool.com www.twitter.com/the_kiteboarder www.facebook.com/thekiteboardermagazine

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NOW IN NEW COLORS!

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contents Features:

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14 KITE FOILBOARDING

44 LAND OF MANY USES

24 FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

56 TURKS AND CAICOS

34 THE KUZI PROJECT

64 ALASKA: THE LAST FRONTIER

Liquid Force designer Julien Fillion scores an early season snowkite session in Canada. Photo Vincent Bergeron

Departments: 12 FROM THE EDITOR

76 EXPOSED

88 ROOTS

20 THE SCENE

84 WISH LIST

90 PARTING SHOT

50 PROFILED

86 15 MINUTES

On the Cover: Niccolo Porcella finds the green room in Hawaii.

Photo Quincy Dein

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FROM THE EDITOR From the Editor A few days ago I stopped by the local beach even though there was almost no chance for wind. I got out of the truck and realized conditions were even worse than I thought they’d be. The surf was completely flat and the tiny bit of wind was gusty and cold. There was not nearly enough wind to ride and it was late enough in the day that conditions were unlikely to change before sunset. Even if the wind picked up the only session to be had would be a cold slog under gray skies. In short, things weren’t looking good.

However, even with the dismal conditions there were two 17m kites rigged on the beach and two kiters in wetsuits standing nearby waiting for just enough wind to get their kites airborne. Another four or five kiters were waiting in the parking lot, willing the conditions to get better. I know you’re expecting me to say that the skies cleared and the wind picked up for a great evening session, but that’s not what happened. The wind stayed light and cold. The two rigged kiters managed to get their kites up but were only able to get in a few miserable downwind runs between bouts of running back upwind. It was so bad that they were drifting downwind more than riding.

All I could think to myself at first was, “Wow, those guys must be miserable.” But when they finally gave up I walked over and was surprised to find they were both smiling. They were actually having fun out there. It was a great reminder that kiteboarders are an extremely passionate group of people. To me, kiters like these two represent what is amazing about this sport. Kiteboarders love their sport so much that even just the smallest chance of being able to ride is enough to draw half a dozen riders to the beach. Once people are bitten by the kiteboarding bug there is no cure. It creates a scratch that can only be itched by spending an unreasonable amount of time in search of the next possible session.

This is a trait I’ve seen among kiteboarders of all skill levels from all over the world and is a reason why I believe kiteboarding has a very bright future. It’s also something that’s easy to forget when getting drawn into conversations about the different disciplines in the sport or what aspects of the sport should be promoted. Kiteboarding isn’t about the gear you ride, what tricks you can do, or how cool you look on the beach. It’s about passion and it’s something all of us have. I’ve been at this sport for well over a decade now and even still I can’t get enough of it.

Being the editor of this magazine has given me more than my fair share of opportunities to chase that passion, but the time has come for me to pass the torch. It’s been an insanely fun ride and a great honor to take all of you along with me as we explored what the sport of kiteboarding is all about. Rest assured that the ride will continue under the leadership of Brendan Richards, your new editor.

I have every confidence that Brendan will do an amazing job and I’m planning to find ways to still contribute to The Kiteboarder, hopefully by sneaking my way onto a trip every once in a while.

As a sport kiteboarding is in an exciting place right now, and I don’t think it has much to do with current gear or the continued progression of all its various disciplines. It has to do with the level of passion that riders bring to this sport. That’s what ensures that kiteboarding will remain exciting, relevant, and progressive long into the future. I can’t wait to see where our collective passion takes it.

Photo Erin Loscocco

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Foils The future or just a fad?

By Brendan Richards

At first glance the resurgence in foilboards might seem like just another kiting fad dusted off and rehashed by the current generation of riders. Judging from recent events in the broader world of sailing, foils are much more than just a fad. Earlier this year the USA Oracle team pulled off the greatest comeback ever seen in windsports while flying their carbon fiber catamaran above the water on state-of-the-art hydrofoils at wild speeds to clench the America’s Cup victory. However, this foil technology is not limited to multimillion-dollar boats.

Kiteboard foil design has itself undergone a major boom in development. Kiteboarder Bryan Lake drag raced the Oracle team on a custom foilboard built by Taaroa, a small foil builder from southern France. A month later Johnny Heineken, a multitime world champion course racer, demonstrated flawless full-foiling duck tacks in a YouTube video that racked up 53,000 views in just under a month.

That viral reach illustrates how the progression in foiling is turning heads. As the world’s top racing athletes and new manufacturers embrace the speed and intensity offered by foilboards it is clear that these long-shafted underwater wings will play a major role in the imminent future of racing while begging the broader question of whether foilboarding will be embraced by the general kiting population this time around.

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Photo Omar Nazif

Photo Adam Koch

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Photo Omar Nazif

lighter foils with thinner high-aspect wings to increase the foil’s overall speed and handling. Since 2009 France has been the epicenter of foil development and foilboard racing. It was photos of 100-plus French foilers on a starting line that inspired the San Francisco foiling scene.

These two worlds were vaguely connected by emails and YouTube videos until October of 2013 when the St. Francis Yacht Club conjured up the California State Foilboarding Championships to capitalize on foiling’s sudden popularity among San Francisco racers. Johnny Heineken and Bryan Lake took first and second on their Taaroa foils. “It was clear that it was board handling that made the difference,” said Heineken. “Although the French racers were fast, they don’t do as much course racing as us. They stage long distance reaching type races with a focus on all-out speed. We are focused on shorter course buoy racing with a lot of tacking. If you keep your foilboard floating through a tack, you can gain ten yards over those who can’t and it allows you to actively engage in course tactics.”

Mango Carafino, a prominent kite foiling pioneer, was living in Hawaii when he witnessed Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama riding massive unbroken swell with a foil on obscure outer reefs. Impressed by the foil’s ability to float over rough ocean waves with silent finesse, Carafino immediately borrowed the aluminum foil from an Air Chair, the only commercial application at the time. He bolted it to a Naish mutant kiteboard, added rigid snowboard boots, and began experimenting with the pull of kites. Carafino’s greatest contribution to kite foiling was when he discovered that the board could be ridden without the large bulky boots. For Carafino, being able to control a foil with straps was like “finding water on the moon.” With his innovative carbon fiber construction Carafino was poised to profit as the popularity of kite foilboarding exploded, except interest in foilboards simmered as Carafino remained the biggest cheerleader turned manufacturer of a seemingly niche and fringe form of kiting. In retrospect Carafino admits, “I never set my sights on designing a foil that would go fast because at the early stages of engineering I was just trying to create a complex product with tiny tolerances that was enjoyable.”

Despite Carafino’s focus on creating user-friendly foils, the widespread popularity of foilboards never took off. While foiling seemed poised to earn a small yet novel footnote in kiting history, the discipline of competitive course racing flourished with dedicated athletes, sponsorships, and races staged all around the world. Although course racing directed most of its technological development towards refinement of a wide-body directional board with long vertical fins, racing’s obsession with speed encouraged small custom foil shops in Europe to build upon Carafino’s early achievements with the intent of pushing the envelope of speed and control.

When it comes to kite racing, San Francisco has one of the world’s largest concentrations of professional athletes. The first San Francisco course racer to embrace modern foils was Bryan Lake in June of last year. Lake remembered seeing long-time Bay Area kiter Chip Wasson competing with early aluminum and carbon fiber foils back in 2005. “They were only competitive in lighter conditions, and even then only on the upwind leg,” said Lake. “Early in 2013 I noticed that French manufacturers were building foilboards that were faster around the entire race course.” Leading custom foil builders such as Taaroa had developed much

The California State Championships demonstrated that foiling already has it’s divisions between foiling for speed and tactical course racing as well as separate entry-level foils designed for freeriding.

Companies like Taaroa are coming out with higheraspect foils which require greater speed to lift the board off the water but are capable of achieving impressive overall speeds with greater control. Damien LeRoy has been spending a lot of time on foils lately and said, “This is just the beginning. There are many variations in foil shape and wing placement depending on the theories of the designer and the needs of the rider.” Most manufacturers offer two or three different wings depending on whether the foil is intended for user-friendly cruising, course racing, or speed. Evan Mavridoglou, North American distributor for Taaroa, said, “Most people are interested in the beginner foils, but they quickly realize that they can’t keep them under control at higher speeds. After two or three months people are selling their older foils and looking for something with higher performance.”

Perhaps a sign of foiling’s newly-earned legitimacy in kiting, for the first time major kite brands like F-One are showing an interest in manufacturing foils. With a naval architect on their R&D team, F-One head designer Raphael Salles has been experimenting with various technologies at different factories, focusing largely on new production techniques for the vertical mast that is crucial for harnessing the foil’s power.

Salles said, “The difference between custom and production foils may be how much a larger company can invest into molds. High technology leads to higher prices, which is another challenge, but if we do our best to keep the retail price reasonable there’s the possibility that it might become a fair part of the sport.” Other traditional kiteboarding companies such as Gaastra, Airush, and Axis intend to offer production foils as well. Gaastra is paying special attention to board development. “Although the shape of the board initially did not seem to be an issue, there is a big difference in how the shape, particularly the width, can help you control the foil,” said Gaastra’s Nils Stolzlechner.

France may be the hotbed of current foil development, but on the isolated beaches of Central California kitesurfing pioneer Peter Trow has been experimenting with foilboards since 2001 when he

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Photo Damien LeRoy

shipped an aluminum Rush foil home after a trip to Hawaii. Originally intended for towing into massive winter swells, Trow used his kite to master foiling during the flat summer months. Trow prefers the lower aspect foils on his Lift foilboard. “I can get a bit more range to ride waves and it’s nice to be able to slow down and speed up as needed,” he said. For Trow the decision between his foilboard or surfboard depends largely on the conditions. “If the surf is good and the wind is light I may go foiling, but once the wind and waves come on strong I switch back to regular kitesurfing,” Trow explained. Trow raved about the feeling of dropping in on a wave, particularly the acceleration that happens immediately as you catch it.

Trow thinks the wave riding side of foiling will remain a niche part of the sport.

“The light wind ability to ride a foilboard with a 10m kite in 12 knots of wind will help it really take off in light wind areas,” he said. Foiling in flat water is not without its hazards, but foiling in the waves offers even more danger. Trow reminisced about a recent crash when he said, “The kite hit the water and the next wave sent the board straight for me like an underwater ax. I did everything I could to avoid getting hit. It barely missed me, but the foil nailed the kite and ripped it in half.”

When Trow was asked if a surf lineup filled with foilboards could cause issues, he answered, “Yes, we should all be very scared if that ever happens.”

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It’s obvious the current breakthroughs in foilboard technology are best suited for speed and competition with the general consensus being that foiling is the future of racing. The choice between riding a course board or a foilboard is already clear for many of the top course racers. Bryan Lake prefers his foilboard when he is racing in rough water and said, “The foil floats above the chop and the energy transfer between kite and foil is much more direct. My bar and lines are completely locked in and smooth with all my leverage and energy going directly into speed.”

Most of the San Francisco racers spent the summer training on foilboards and participating in open events like the Bridge to Bridge and Thursday night races at St. Francis, yet the Course Racing World Championships just happened in November in China. This forced professional racers like Heineken and Lake to put away their foils and begin training on course boards. “It wasn’t like we forgot how to ride a course board,” said Heineken, “but we just needed to get back into the mode, log some serious hours, and focus on getting every half a percent of speed out of our equipment. The course board isn’t going to disappear anytime soon

because if I want the challenge of a large and highly competitive fleet with the most talented sailors and intense tactical racing, course boards are the best option. For those drawn to the innovation and thrill of the fast paced-progression of foilboarding, there will be plenty of venues as well.”

There’s no question the current explosion in popularity of foilboards is due to the recent innovations in speed and handling which have found a perfect niche in various disciplines of racing. However, it remains to be seen if the latest incarnation of foilboarding has any long-term staying power in the broader kiteboarding market. The overall consensus is that foil development is still in its infancy. While the gear continues to be refined for racing, the promise of more affordable production foils and the allure of silently and smoothly floating above the water in the lightest winds suggest foiling might be a compelling purchase for many enthusiasts. The big deterrents for the average kiter remain the current high cost, waiting lists to purchase foils, and the awkward and humbling learning process. However, the ability to shrink one’s kite quiver while eliminating the cost of a monster-sized kite may prove irresistible. If not, there’s always the priceless experience of hovering across the water in 10 knots of wind as your nonfoiling friends watch with envy from the beach.

To watch the popular video of Johnny Heineken tacking his foilboard go to http://youtu.be/GXV3Wdu_Ms4 or scan the code.

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WIND, RA ILS, VODK A THE KUZI PROJECT

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the scene

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1. Gisela Pulido celebrating as she realized she had become the 2013 PKRA World Champion. Photo Toby Bromwich 2. The Best team exploring in Turks and Caicos.

Photo Quincy Dein 3. Pete Cabrinha at the 2013 Cabrinha Kite Surf Pro Maui.

Photo Richard Hallman 4. Alex Pastor celebrating his 2013 season PKRA win.

Photo Toby Bromwich 5. Maika Monroe and Romeo rig up in California. Photo Paul Lang 6. The competitors and organizers of the 2013 Cabrinha Kite Surf Pro Maui.

Photo Richard Hallman 7. Dimitri Maramenides, pole dancer. Photo Charles Ash 8. Colleen Carroll polishes the rail with her hips. Photo Toby Bromwich 9. Robby Naish at the 2013 Cabrinha Kite Surf Pro Maui. Photo Richard Hallman 10. Kari Schibevaag is excited about her new board. Photo Svetlana Romantsova 11. Wait, how’s he doing that? Photo Helen Trotman 12. Need a bottle opener?

Grab a harness! Photo Paul Lang 13. Cal and Tracy Johnson are ready for a cold Pacific Northwest session. Photo Jim Stringfellow 14. Kari Schibevaag having a good time in Tarifa. Photo Svetlana Romantsova 15. Photographer Gilles Calvet 19 Lang 22 16. The podium at the 2013 Cabrinha goes under in Mauritius. Photo Paul Kite Surf Pro Maui. Photo Richard Hallman 17. Craig Cunningham, buggy master.

Photo Colleen Carroll 18. Mika Fernandez hits the eject button. Photo Paul Lang 19. Safety first. Photo Jim Stringfellow 20. Piles of brand new gear just outside the hotel room? Not a bad thing to wake up to every morning. Photo Paul Lang 21. CĂŠline Rodenas all smiles in Mauritius. Photo Paul Lang 22. Omar Nazif in Santa Cruz. Photo courtesy Omar Nazif 23. The F-One crew enjoying the sunset in Mauritius. Photo Paul Lang If you have a photo you would like to see in The Kiteboarder Magazine, send it to editor@thekiteboarder.com.

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5’10’’ 177 x 49.5 cm 5’8’’

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Photo Ann Shahova

FROM

RUSSIA WITH LOVE Wind, Rails, Vodka, and a Visa Nightmare

By Craig Cunningham

When dreaming of new kiteboarding travel destinations I had never even considered Russia.

In my mind it seemed like a gray, gloomy, cold, and harsh place where communism still reigned under a thin veneer of democracy.

All I really knew about Russia was that they were Canada’s longest ice hockey rival and the enemy in Call of Duty. That was until Sam Light came back from the Rail Masters event last year and couldn’t stop talking about how great it was. The word from Sam was that Rail Masters was held in the Black Sea on a huge sandbar with warm temperatures, flat water, and a number of world-class features.

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The Russian kiteboarding scene was growing like crazy while remaining off the radar of virtually all riders in the western hemisphere. Completely unknown to anyone in the North American wakestyle scene the Russians had built a park that would rival the REAL Slider park as the best in the sport.

This was all I needed to hear. I was definitely in for the next event and so were a lot of other riders. Months before the event we all started looking at tickets and logistics and realized pretty quickly that it would be a full-on mission to get there. Long flights, terrible layovers, and a difficult language barrier made planning difficult, but visa issues turned out to be the major hassle for me. This wasn’t the first time I needed to apply for a travel visa, so I expected it to go smoothly. In previous experiences all I needed was a copy of my passport, a passport-sized photo, a travel itinerary, my personal info, and payment. In some countries you can even show up at the airport empty handed and they will issue a visa on the spot. Not so for Russia. To even begin the process I needed an official invite from a Russian citizen stating that I would be staying with them, specifying exactly where and for how long.

This invite also needed to state that they would take care of me, pick me up from the airport, and support me financially if need be. Lastly, this document needed to be stamped and signed by a local official. Konstantin Bobovik, the event organizer, got this letter to me in a hurry, so I thought I was set.

That was until I showed up at the Russian embassy. I waited in line until my number was finally called. At the window I was greeted by a bitter old Russian woman sitting behind the desk.

As she looked look through my paperwork she had a lot of questions for me. “What is this?” she asked while pointing at different parts of the form. The entire document was in Russian and I had no idea what anything said. It was easy to tell she was frustrated with me when she snapped, “What is Krasnodarskiy, Anapa, and Blagoveschenskaya?” I knew the event would be in Blagoveschenskaya, but I had no clue what the other words were. “Well, you need to know the information you are presenting me with,” she said. “You can’t just go anywhere in Russia you’d like. You need to know what these different places are.” The eight hour time difference and language difficulties meant that connecting with the Rail Masters organizers wasn’t possible from the embassy waiting room, so I had no choice but to get in the car for the two hour drive home and come back to try again the next day after sending emails to the organizers.

Konstantin had replied by morning explaining what I needed to know. One word was the town the event is in, another was the street I would be staying on, and the last one was the province.

The next day I returned to Toronto with all my paperwork to try again. I was on a tight schedule as I needed to get the visa in seven business days (processing takes five) so I could get my passport back before my flight to the UK to meet up with some of the boys before heading to Russia. This time I thought it would be easy but the same lady at the counter found another problem with my paperwork. The dates on my invitation letter were from August 12 to August 27. My flights were on the 15th and 26th.

We thought this would be fine since my flights were easily within the dates in the letter, but apparently the invitation needed to have the exact dates of my planned entry and exit from Russia.

Once again I went home and sent an email to the organizers asking for a new invite with the exact dates of my flights. Since I would be flying home from the Anapa airport on the 26th and then have an overnight layover in Moscow they provided two invites – one until the 26th and one for the 27th. This way

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Photo Ann Shahova

Photo Ann Shahova

Photo Gyunai Musaeva

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Photo Alexey Ohrim

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Photo Alexey Ohrim

whatever the woman at the embassy wanted I would be able to provide. Back at the embassy the same woman insisted the visa needed to be until the 26th as the 27th was a connecting flight and not my official departure from the country. She accepted all my paperwork but then said, “I need you to fill out this form that states each time you’ve left your home country in the last ten years.” This was going to be trouble. I travel all year long and live very close to the USA border so I fly in and out of Buffalo, New York, as often as Toronto. There was no way for me to recall every time I’d crossed the border and this form was the final nail in the coffin for my trip to the UK. Time had run out. I had to stay in Canada until I got my passport back and would meet the crew in Russia if I ever got a visa. I drove home upset that day and contemplated canceling the whole trip. But I quickly pushed those thoughts aside. Despite all the issues I still felt I needed to check this place out. There are only a handful of places in the world where you can actually have a full kiteboarding park. I looked at past bank statements and got a printout from Service Canada to try to figure out every time I crossed the USA/Canada border. I then went through my expired passport trying to identify all the old stamp dates and filled out the form best as I could.

Monday morning arrived and I was off to Toronto again.

Three trips to the city and twelve plus hours of driving should be sufficient to get a visa. Surprisingly I was greeted at the Russian embassy by a friendly new face. A young man about my age sat politely behind the counter. When I was called up he took all my paperwork, looked it over, and said, “This looks good, we should have it back to you in three to five business days.” Perfect! I had been seriously doubting if I would ever make it to the Rail Masters. It was time to get packing and let the organizers know I finally made it happen! Five days later I picked up my visa and the day after that I was on a plane to Anapa. When I arrived in the tiny little airport the organizers for the event and a few media people were waiting for me with transportation to the hotel where I would stay for the next ten days. The landscape was barren and it was what I always thought Russia would look like. One thing I hadn’t expected though was the heat – it was 90° F.

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Since I spoke zero Russian other than hello, thank you, and sorry I was pretty stoked that I had a translator with me to speak with the organizers. He told me we would go straight back to the hotel where all the other international riders would be since it was almost time for dinner. It was nice to see some familiar faces when I showed up. Tom Court, Sam Light, and Aaron Hadlow had arrived not long before me and we all caught up over dinner. The Russians love vodka and they love kiteboarding that’s for sure! We couldn’t go out for dinner without the owner of the restaurant coming over and insisting that we polish off a bottle with him. They treated us like rock stars in Blaga, where it seems the whole community is centered around the huge kiteboarding scene.

After some fried eggs, coffee, and blueberry filled pierogis for breakfast the next morning our translator informed us that it was windy and we could head down to the event site. A bumpy five minute drive down the road led us to a kiteboarding paradise. A 12-mile long by 100-yard wide sandbar was littered with too many kites to count. And then we saw the park! There were seven features sitting perfectly in the water along with a cable system equipped with a couple of kickers and a nice whale rail. It was true, the Blaga park was no joke. The wind was pretty light and Tom and I were able to trade off on my 15m Dyno and get some hits while the rest of the riders were stuck on the beach. This wouldn’t be the normal conditions for the trip though. In the short amount of time I spent there I rode every kite I brought (9m, 11m, 14m Vegas and the 15m Dyno). We had wind for every day of the nine-day event except one.

The event was run in a jam format with six riders per heat. Two riders from each heat advanced. Each heat featured two or three international pro riders alongside really solid Russian riders that were hungry to knock off some big names. This was one thing that I wasn’t expecting. The level of park riding among the Blaga locals was really high. In Cape Hatteras or Hood River there are a lot of pro riders that can grease up the park but only a handful that can really lay down legit hits. Not in Russia. This park is set up all season and easily a dozen or more riders were constantly putting down solid tricks.

Nobody was going to have an easy time getting through their heats. My first heat was definitely my best of the event. I managed to slightly edge out Hadlow and the top two seeded Russian riders. This put me straight into the semifinals the next day so it was time to relax and kick back with a few beers while watching the other heats from the grandstands.

The next day started with lighter wind, but we were still able to compete.

I started on my 15m to make sure I had lots of power and I was really happy with the result as I managed to win the heat. Then my luck started to change. After a meeting it was decided to re-run the heat and wait for more wind. A few hours later there was enough for 11m kites and everybody was happy. This time things didn’t go so smoothly. With five minutes left in the twenty minute heat I missed an ollie and smashed my board into the side of the wall ride, ending my session. Thankfully I still ended up in second behind my teammate Tom Court and we were both heading to the finals with Sam Light, Aaron Hadlow, and two very strong Ruskies who had managed to take out some international riders along the way. In the finals the boys were shredding and I just wasn’t able to put down the same tricks I did in my first heat. I still had fun out there but just missed the podium with Aaron in first, Sam second, Tom taking third, and me in fourth. I was a little disappointed, but it is what it is and we all partied hard that night. The Russians sure know how to have a good time!

My time in Russia turned out to be worth all the hassle of getting the visa. The event was amazing, I finished with an OK result, and there were a few ridiculous nights to remember for sure. I left Blaga feeling pretty happy about making the choice to come here. Russia was an unexpected experience, especially the strong kiteboarding community and high level of riding by the locals. I was already making plans to come back next year.

I said goodbye to all my new and old friends, checked in for my flight, and waited at the gate for the quick flight from Anapa to Moscow. Two hours later I was in Moscow and one connection away from home.

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After an overnight layover I walked to my gate for the flight to Toronto. The attendant dealing with tickets gave me an odd look after seeing my passport and started speaking to me in Russian.

I didn’t understand anything he said but he was pointing to the dates on my visa while shaking his head. Neither one of us could understand the other and I was holding up the line. I opened a translator on my computer so we could communicate at least a little. Apparently that cranky old woman at the embassy in Toronto really screwed me. According to the words on the screen I wasn’t able to fly. My visa expired the day before. Unlike most countries that would charge a fee for the extra day, I was going to be held, would miss my flight, and had to pay to get a new visa. After five hours I was finally able to speak to someone in English and they informed me that I would need to travel a few

Photo Gyunai Musaeva

Photo Nikita Nikryt

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Photo Ann Shahova

hours in a taxi to get the new visa. This was definitely not the way I wanted to end this trip. It was a mission, but I was able to get it without too much hassle.

Now I needed to book a new flight. A few thousand dollars later I had one booked but had nowhere to go and no way to communicate with anyone. At this point I was not very happy and just wanted to be back in Canada sipping on a Tim Horton’s coffee catching up with my family and friends about this mission of a trip. I messaged the event organizers and asked if they knew anyone in Moscow who might be looking for a guest for the night. An hour later a nice couple picked me up from the airport. These two were really excited about kiteboarding and gave me the royal treatment in Moscow. They took me straight to their favorite restaurant for an amazing dinner and then out on the town for some drinks and a full tour of the city. We even stopped by the Kremlin. It’s really a sight to be seen, comparable to the Kings Palace in Bangkok. After a full afternoon and night of Russian tourism we went back to their place for a cup of hot chocolate (its cold in Moscow) and it was time to sleep. I had a 9 am flight in the morning and although we were only half an hour away from the airport they planned on it taking close to three hours to get there due to the crazy traffic.

After a good rest and a traditional breakfast we were on our way back to the airport. At the check in counter the woman asked for my ticket and the look on her face was not good. I can’t read Russian but apparently Moscow has two airports. The ticket I booked wasn’t for the one we were at. The other one was about four hours away. To top it all off there was not a flight to be found to anywhere in North America for under $3,000 for the rest of the day. Unsure of what to do next I canceled the ticket I had just booked and went back to their home. Looking for a new ticket I couldn’t find anything at a decent price for the next few days and started to stress out as my new visa was only good until the following day. After looking at every travel and airline website I could think of it was starting to look like it was turning into an expensive nightmare. Then the guy I was staying with found

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me a flight to New York leaving in less than six hours for just under $1,500. From there I could easily hop on a last-minute flight to Toronto. Yes! I booked it and we were back on the road and in a hurry to get to the airport on time for what I was hoping would be my final Russian adventure.

We made it with an hour and a half to spare. As I was checking in the woman who was helping me out started having an in-depth conversation with the guy at the ticket counter. I began to get worried and assumed I had another problem.

Instead she was explaining my whole story to the ticket agent and the next thing I knew I was handed a first class ticket to NYC. Goodbye Russia! I had never been so happy to be sitting in my seat on an airplane. Getting home was smooth sailing from there.

As I tell this story to friends I keep hearing the same questions. “Was it worth it? Will you go back?” I’m definitely hoping to go back for Rail Masters next year! The park is insane and the Blaga locals know how to party and are super eager to add more features. Everybody there is excited to help push kiteboarding park riding.

What more could I have asked for? Getting there and back was frustrating and stressful and I hope a return trip goes more smoothly. Most of us travel to have an adventure and I had more than enough of that on this trip. But it wasn’t enough to keep me from going back.

Photo Amy Joseph/ www.centralcoastpictures.com

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A

Successful Failure Interview by Paul Lang | Photos by Seth Warren

Earlier this year Seth Warren and Kirk Hollis traveled to eastern Africa to tackle an ambitious expedition they called the Kuzi Project. In short they planned a self-supported SUP and kiteboarding exploration of hundreds of miles of remote coastline. Both Seth and Kirk had the experience necessary to plan a trip like this and spent months mapping out the expedition. Even so, Seth felt anxious as he began the journey to the project’s starting point in Mozambique this summer.

It didn’t take long for Seth and Kirk to realize they were not prepared for the journey they planned. Difficult decisions were made and the plan was modified to something they felt was manageable. The modified plan was going great until Seth ended up in a life threatening situation, completely ending the trip.

By almost any measure the trip was a complete failure, but there are reasons it could still be considered a success. First of all, Seth didn’t die. Also, he now has the knowledge he was lacking when he first arrived in Mozambique and has a realistic picture of what is possible in the area. He’s already planning to go back next year with a new plan inspired by the events of this trip. We caught up with Seth as he was hard at work editing video from the trip to ask him about the preparations that went into the Kuzi Project, what went wrong, and why he is going to try again.

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What was the original plan for the Kuzi Project? The original plan for the Kuzi Project was a paddleboard-assisted kiteboarding adventure 500 miles up the east coast of Africa from Pemba, Mozambique, to Zanzibar, Tanzania, using the Kuzi trade wind, the strongest of two trade winds on the east coast of Africa.

Why did you pick this part of the world for an expedition like this? I knew absolutely nothing about the area. The trip was proposed by my friend Kirk Hollis while we were on a paddle boarding adventure on the Nile in Uganda. Kirk had previously explored the area on an alleged kiteboarding mission from South Africa to Kenya but was previously unable to kite through this particular area because of its remoteness. He wanted to go back. Once I got the chance to look at it, it definitely seemed like the coolest section of coastline on the east coast of Africa.

What type of planning did you do beforehand? How difficult was it to get two 15’ SUP boards to such a remote location? Even though I hadn’t previously done a self-supported SUP expedition, I have years of experience doing expeditions so I knew how logistically challenging it would be to get everything we needed together and shipped over to Africa. Working on the boards was really interesting. A company called Glide SUP helped me design boards that could accommodate all of the kiting, camping, fishing, and filming gear. It was a huge process to do that, figure out how to ship them and our gear overseas, and get through customs, but we had a lot of help along the way.

Also, it was really difficult to find proper maps. Even once we were in the area we weren’t able to find any! I spent a lot of time prior to the trip looking deeply into Google Earth and considering wind direction, landing areas, camping areas, and anything else I could discern from the geography without really knowing anyone or anything else about the area. We tried to contact several of the private islands for support, but quickly realized that those would be off limits (and guarded by armed troops we later found out). At the end of the day it was a real adventure.

There were a lot of unknowns heading in to the trip. We’d be probing something totally new.

Can you talk about the equipment you were taking with you? All in all we had about 100-150 pounds on each board including clothes, camp stove, hammock, tent, lightweight sleeping bags, sleeping pads, snorkel gear, spear gun, food for up to six days, four gallons of water, kiteboarding gear (board, two kites, bar, harness, and pump for each of us), paddling gear, and camera gear (camera, water housing, tripod, four terabytes of hard drives, iPad, two GoPros, intervelometer, sound equipment, filters, two lenses, and a Goal Zero Sherpa system).

How challenging was it to paddle a board with all that gear on it? We did a trial run of about 15 km from Murreubue to Pemba just to see how the boards would handle. There was nothing dangerous between the two points at all, but at the end there was one major point with significant swell and major rocks to get around. To avoid the obstacles we paddled far out to sea, but once we were past the point and paddling back towards land, we realized the current and wind carried us about a quarter-mile past our takeout. We covered the 15 km in just under an hour going with the wind, but paddling back upwind that quarter-mile took us almost two hours. It really showed us that we were at the mercy of the elements on this. This was actually the first time the boards were in the water so we were really relieved they handled as well as they did!

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risks and maybe a little overambitious from time to time, but he is a dreamer.

The boards were totally awesome. They surfed great and were super fast. The biggest challenge at that point was timing our paddling with the tides. Because the tides were so dramatic, mistiming could have resulted in us being stranded on nasty coral and rocks, so we had to be really careful about that.

You were also planning on filming and shooting photos the whole way. How do you keep electronics dry and charged on a journey like this? How do you navigate? The electronics were in special zip-sealed dry bags and the hard drives were in Pelican cases inside dry bags. We had one hard drive on each board that was identical, so that everything we shot was backed up. The Goal Zero solar panel and battery charged everything. We navigated by screenshots from Google Earth. Prior to leaving I created hundreds of maps with screenshots that mapped out the entire area and kept those on my iPad. We often used a compass and even the wind direction, since it was so consistent. We always knew which way was north based on how the wind was blowing.

What other expeditions have you done that gave you the experience to tackle something like this? Most of my adventures to date have been in whitewater kayaking. I was a professional whitewater kayaker for about seven years. I’ve done kayaking expeditions in over 40 countries and paddled some of the hardest rivers in the world. I’ve done everything from spending a summer in Kyrgyzstan in a 6-wheel drive Russian-issued Unimog to hosting National Geographic shows about adventure kayaking in Sri Lanka and Reunion Island to pioneering waterfall descents in Iceland. I also modified a Japanese fire truck to run on vegetable oil and drove it from Alaska to the southern tip of South America following the endless summer for a year. The overwhelming majority of these trips also included photography and videography components, so I’ve had a lot of experience negotiating camera equipment and getting the shots I need while on location.

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What is Kirk’s background in terms of something like this? Kirk is a Namibian-born South African who has never been out of Africa. His personality is very charming and he’s spent a long time as a raft guide in Uganda. He has that standup, well spoken, and knowledgeable guide personality. He opened a mountain board park in South Africa and was a champion mountain boarder there. He is willing to take

How quickly after arriving did you realize the plan would have to change? Were you worried about disappointing sponsors? Did you have doubts about your ability to accomplish any part of the original project? Before I even left, I started to have a deep-rooted feeling that something was wrong with the trip. It was one thing to sit in my room at home and stew over maps and details for months and months, but once it started to become real and immediate I was suddenly overtaken by anxiety. I equated that to being natural with a trip like this, but it continued all the way to arriving in Mozambique. The first time I stood on the shore and experienced the veracity of the Kuzi trade wind and what it was doing to the tides and the ocean the enormity of the project and how huge of an undertaking it was really hit me.

The crazy wind. The tides. The swells and current.

All those things combined made this a much more complicated project than I originally thought. I had envisioned the trip as relaxed and mellow. After seeing the actual conditions it looked very committing, very extreme, and very unknown. On top of all this, when I talked to the locals I found that our basic needs would probably not be met along the way. Food and water would be super difficult to come by, if not impossible.

Natives in the area drink saline water, but our systems aren’t used to that. There were a lot of factors — big and small — that added up to us not being as prepared as we’d wanted.

I was absolutely worried about disappointing sponsors and media contracts. To go all the way over there and be faced with the reality that it might not happen was really shocking. There were so many people that were behind us on this, and to realize that the plan was not as good as we thought was really tough to digest. To accept that we were in over our heads and create a condensed and safer version of the original plan was a really big step to take. It was a huge hit to my expedition planning ego, but the minute we got to that point with a new plan it was like the weight of the world was off my shoulders. All of a sudden I felt great about what we were going to do. ?

The most exciting thing for me about the trip was getting to spend time in the Quirimbas, which is the chain of islands just north of Pemba. It’s the place where all the sandbars and beautiful beaches are. It seemed like the ultimate place to go kiting and was really where I wanted to explore the most. Most of the danger points were north of there (the border crossing and a lot of areas without potable water), so we reconfigured the route to be through the southern part of the Quirimbas —­about a 200-mile section.

Did you feel relieved to finally be out there once you got going? We weren’t worried one bit. There was anticipation of what was to come for sure, but we weren’t worried. Armed with a ton of local knowledge as well as a connection with a lodge about halfway through the route that would be a key food supply drop, we knew we’d be fine. After the two weeks leading up to our departure we knew that everything was going to be great, and we felt really confident in the new plan.

What were the conditions like? How was the trip progressing? As far as the adventure side of things goes, it was a textbook African adventure.

It was simply amazing. We were pulling up on remote

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islands and areas where we had no idea what we were going to encounter. We had to get permission to camp on all the islands by the chiefs. The diversity of the islands was incredible. There was everything from palm trees and sandy beaches to the darker baobab trees and coral graveyards. Our mission was to try to kite on every island, but we were actually pretty unlucky with the wind. We waited around on one island for two days with not enough wind, and then the next island had way too much wind and was offshore. We also couldn’t leave the camp unattended, so even going off around an island to try and find new kiting locations was pretty chancy and variable. Once we reached Ibo Island we had great access to kiteboarding — both right out in front of the lodge and on remote sandbars that surrounded the island. From Ibo Island forward, all of the best kiteboarding destinations lay ahead. We were perfectly set up to go kiting on all of these different islands for the rest of the trip.

Then you were bit by a spider. Did it seem serious at first? It was a violin spider, which is the African cousin of the brown recluse. It did not seem serious at first. It seemed like no big deal, especially because it’s a very small spider. After about three days though, it started to get infected, so I started a round of Amoxicillin (which is pretty common) and just assumed that would work.

But a few days later, even though I knew deep down that it wasn’t working, we decided to push on with the adventure anyway. We crossed to the next island, and for the next few days the pain was so bad I couldn’t sleep and could hardly walk. On the next island, I worked with a local villager that convinced me the wound needed to be drained, so we tried to cut it open and drain it. This was the most excruciating pain I’d experienced in a very long time. I went in to a state of delirium after that and was completely out of it. When the opportunity to leave the island by boat back to Ibo Island presented itself, I took it.

That’s about the time I developed a fever as the wound went septic. The fever was an indication that the infection was in my blood stream, and I needed to get to a hospital right away. I coordinated the next available flight to get me back to the nearest hospital in the area, which was back in Pemba where we started.

Was it difficult to find good medical care and figure out how to get home? Yes, it was very difficult to find good medical care. I was treated at the hospital in Pemba, and I had been connected with the best doctor, but he was out of town. The person I ended up seeing was great in getting me in straight away, but he handed me off to a nurse that was pretty rough. The best word I could use to describe the situation was savage. Nothing was handled with much sympathy and I felt kind of like a piece of meat on a chopping block.

When they cut in to me I would scream in pain, and they would laugh – no joke. I was in contact with my fiancé every day and she pretty much took care of everything – canceling tickets, issuing refunds, etc. I was stuck in

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the hospital for ten days because of the swelling and pain, so I had to wait for my infection to stabilize a bit before I could go. In the interim, they were pumping me full of all sorts of antibiotics. It wasn’t safe to travel with the infection, but if I’d gone home first I would have recovered a lot quicker and gotten to the bottom of which drugs would help me best versus taking a whole cocktail of antibiotics. In the end though, it all worked out just fine.

Months have now passed since then. How are you now? I’m totally recovered at this point and all I can think about is next year’s project. That said, I’ve relived the experience in so many ways because of all the writing projects, photos, and the video series I’m producing. It almost seems like a fairy tale. At the time it seemed like one of the worst things that could have happened to me, and in retrospect it just seems like a crazy, epic amazing adventure. I remember the good stuff almost more than the bad. I remember the two weeks we were on the trip more than the epic two weeks leading up to it or any of the time dealing with the evacuation afterward. The concentration of life changing, amazing experiences during the two weeks of the trip way outweighed the amount of time and anxiety leading up to it. At the end of the day, it was all worth it.

Kirk stayed in the area when you were evacuated.

What’s he been up to? He got a job as a carpenter in Pemba for a while, and he’s making his way back to be with his family this winter in South Africa. He’s dreaming of a large-scale standup paddling adventure in Asia.

So, after all of this you are going back for another attempt. Will you be approaching it any differently? If I was to go back to the beginning of this, I’d do everything differently. You wouldn’t even be able to recognize this trip. Sometimes with adventures, you just have to try. When you do something like this, it opens up doors for the next adventure. That’s just how it happens, and I’ve lived that over and over in my life. By doing one adventure I’m inspired to do the next. Putting myself out there in the elements gives me the freedom to dream, and when I’m on an adventure, that freedom of being out there is what continues to propel me in to the next adventure. I learned so much about this area on the trip and I know so much about the wind, swells, tides, geography, and people that I would be stupid not to go back and try another project. This one got cut short right at the sweet spot and just as it was beginning to flow, so I have my sights set over there still. The next go around will be an adventure in that area, but this time with an extreme amount of style versus the rugged, unrehearsed style of this last trip.

A video series of this amazing trip will be released through EpicTV. Stay updated at http://www.elementsmixedmedia.com.

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Land

of Many

Uses Words and Photos by Packy Cronin

Whoever came up with the title “Land of Many Uses” for Island Park, Idaho, must have been an optimist. Maybe they had grazing cattle and snowmobiling on the mind because those were about the only uses for this land. Until snowkiting came along that is. I imagine that the early settlers were lured here by its pastoral beauty; by the deep grass and vast meadows. I also imagine that they either froze, went mad, or migrated down to the lower Snake River Valley to avoid the deep snow and incessant wind that is so typical of the winters here. In the days before kiting this was a no-man’s land of whiteouts and vertical snow banks. This was the gauntlet we were required to run if we wanted to ski Jackson Hole or Utah. I can recall driving Henry’s Flats at night creeping along in a blizzard from one plow marker to the next determined to make it to Jackson before morning.

Gnawing at the back of my mind was the thought that this place had to be good for something with all this snow. I now have my own short list of uses for Island Park and snowkiting is definitely at the top.

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Photo Melissa Cronin

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than a wind with the Venturi effect, orographics, and pressure gradients conspiring to blow you away. With everything blowing backwards all the snow that was in the lee is now on the windward side and every drift and cornice becomes a ramp or a wall of soft snow, perfect to press against while getting tugged around by a kite.

Don’t be fooled by the photographs. Blue-sky days are rare. More common are gray skies with flat light and steady light wind. It’s a long ways from anywhere and once you get there it’s side-of-the-road kiting.

And that’s only if you can find a place to pull off and park. You have to be fully committed to go to Island Park. You have to bring everything and expect anything. A skunking is brutal when you figure in a full day of driving. The rewards are equally intense.

One epic score and you’ll be willing to try again and again. For my crew of kiters from Montana this epitomizes kiting for us. It’s wide open spaces with no one around, a raw and unspoiled environment, and unpredictable conditions with the potential for a huge pay-off. Island Park offers powder, wind, and empty space. It’s a snowkiting paradise.

Island Park is situated at the eastern end of the Snake River Plain and butts up against the Continental Divide at Raynolds Pass. Storms roll off the Pacific Ocean and are channeled between the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains as if into a funnel that ends at Island Park. With nowhere to go but up and over the Divide, the storms dump their moisture and blow their way over to turn into the maddening downslope winds that plague the barren east slopes of the Rockies. An annual average of 214 inches of snow means there is plenty of the white stuff to work with. The natural Venturi effect can create wind out of almost anything. Wind and snow are great, but without terrain and access they are useless to kiters.

Island Park is a huge area. It takes 40 minutes to drive from one end to the other. At first glance it’s mostly flat, which can get a bit monotonous for the accomplished kiter. But hidden out in those vast fields of powder are wrinkles in the terrain that offer endless fun for those who know where to look. The local snowmobilers struck a deal with landowners years ago for access. Now they drop all their fences in the fall and it’s fair game to go where you please.

The prevailing wind and weather from the southwest create huge cornices and drifts that build up on the north side of anything that doesn’t blow away. The weather from the south can blow for weeks, often with poor visibility and the occasional rain event.

When the north wind blows it’s really a backwards wind, blowing from the east side of the Divide to the west. It usually precedes a cold high pressure system in the wake of a deep low, with an emphasis on cold. The north wind often feels more like a flow

When that north wind does blow, the wind lip is the obvious go-to spot. It sits right in the middle of this otherwise totally flat valley. It’s a 20-30 foot tall step snaking along for over a mile. The southwest wind builds it into a huge cornice and the north wind has to blow up and over it. The way the north wind compresses as it lifts up and over the lip creates a unique feel with tons of lift and power right along the crest of the cornice. With all this smooth snow and power, speed runs across the top are amazing leg-burning experiences. Boosting from the top is a great introduction to gliding. Popping from below back to the top on the updraft is the icing on the cake, setting you up to do it all over again. Here’s a word of caution: if you bury your lines in the lip you will be helplessly pinned to the underside of the thing while your kite destroys itself up on top. Also, any cornice can break off and bury you. I always approach carefully and assess the risks before diving in.

A memorable session last year started with conditions that could not have been better. We arrived early and watched as the light breeze quickly filled in until we could see the snow blowing up and over the wind lip in the distance. We rigged as quickly as we could, post-holing in the deep snow and launching in the tricky wind on the edge of the valley. I launched and rode in the deep snow to the cornice, where my 10m kite was now really powered up. The sun was shining, the wind was filled in and the powder hadn’t yet blown away. Joe Irons was putting on a clinic. He’s got the most experience out there, and it shows. He rode the very edge of the cornice from one end to the other, grinding the lip the whole way down and back. Next he was launching and drifting in the updraft.

After shooting some of the action I decided to get my fill of the fun. Normally I could not have held onto a 10m in wind this strong, but because the wind was trying to pull me up hill and into a vertical face, it just never seemed to be able to get the better of me.

I was riding the face of the cornice the same way I would ride the face of a wave in strong offshore conditions. By keeping my butt lower than my board I could ride along the vertical part of the wave without getting overpowered. As I was ripping along this endless over-vertical wave with my feet above my head, completely overpowered, I hooked a line on the cornice. I couldn’t see the kite behind the lip, but I knew what was happening. As the outside line dug into the snow the kite looped right where the wind was compressing over the top of the cornice. In an instant my butt wasn’t below my feet anymore. I was sucked up and pinned to the underside of the cornice.

Now all four lines were buried and I couldn’t release the safety because there was nowhere for the bar to travel. Everything was cinched right up together, me against the bar against the snow, all hanging in the shade of this big cornice. I’ve been in worse situations, and memories of being pinned in a kayak flashed through my mind. This was a bit more comical than life threatening. I knew what was happening up top without even seeing it, and I knew my buddies were up there waiting for a chance to gain control of my

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kite as soon as they could. But the 10m wasn’t giving up without a fight, and it looped tighter and tighter loops until it finally shredded a panel and Hans was able to jump on it. When the pressure relaxed on my lines I was able to extract myself from my divot. I pictured the roadrunner watching the coyote pulling himself out of the hole in the concrete as I finally slid down the face to the bottom of the wave.

to kite is never easy on parents or kids, but the effort was worth it.

We knew this when the day came that allowed all four of us to kite together, hooting and hollering from one end of the valley to the other. Riding together with my wife and kids had been a goal of mine ever since I got my first ride behind a kite. It was definitely a defining moment for us as a family.

I managed to climb up and over the lip with a hand from Hans again and wrapped up the shredded kite. Joe thought it was the coolest thing he ever saw anyone do at the wind lip and kindly offered to tow me back to the road. By this point the wind was in the high 30s and everyone was well overpowered. I made it back to the truck just in time to enjoy a beer with everyone as the cornice disappeared into a haze of blowing snow. It was high-fives all the way around, and everyone agreed that this was certainly a day to remember! If the wind lip sounds a little intimidating to you there’s enough variety in Island Park to satisfy any level of kiter.

One aspect of Henry’s Flats that should attract a more aggressive crowd is the potential to go fast. When warmer temperatures and a higher sun angle arrive in spring the snow crusts up hard enough to walk on, but is still textured enough to grip an edge into. Add super clean wind and wide-open space and the stage is set for epic speed runs. The first time we encountered conditions like this I watched Melissa pass a semi-truck that had to be going 60 mph.

The driver was honking wildly as Melissa widened the gap on him right next to the road. My guess is that he had never even seen a snowkiter before, let alone one that was dusting him in his truck.

I wouldn’t be surprised if someday a land kite speed record is set here during similar conditions.

In the middle of Island Park sits Henry’s Flats. As the name suggests, it’s not big with the hardcore crowd, but it’s a great place for beginners and intermediates with wide-open terrain and gentle wind. My wife Melissa and I taught our kids how to kite there, confident that if everything went wrong we could still pick up the pieces and put them back together. We would ride down in our VW van which would serve as a warm and dry escape from the wind for our worn-out kids. Melissa would hook one of the kids up to her harness and pull them behind her, explaining the finer points of kite handling as they cruised along. Next we would send them off on their own with little 5m kites while I trudged around on foot, relaunching kites and reattaching skis. Teaching kids how

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If you make it Island Park this winter, don’t expect a crowd. Bring a friend, all your warm clothes, and plenty to eat. Expect hard snow, flat light, and light wind. Be prepared for blue skies, deep snow, and strong wind. Most of all bring a good attitude, because with nothing but wind and snow, it’s all up to you.

Island Park was featured as a winter destination in TKB’s Fall/ Winter Travel Guide. The digital guide is available in the TKB store (http://store.thekiteboarder.com) or through the TKB iOS app (http://thekiteboarder.com/app.)

which

are you?

DRY 49 Jason Slezak grabs over glacial ice on a drysuit test trip in Alaska. SCOTT DICKERSON Š 2013 Patagonia, Inc.

PROFILED

Photo Toby Bromwich

Tips:

Alex Pastor Age: 24 Years Kiting: 10 Favorite Spots: Tarifa, Spain, and Cumbuco, Brazil Sponsors: Airush, MINI, ION, and Multipower Sportsfood

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you had already won the world title? After winning the title the last thing you want to do is lose an event.

GEAR I thought if I won the title in Board: Airush Livewire 140 Kite: Airush Razor Pingtan the last two events of Harness: ION Hummer Wetsuit: ION Onyx the year would be relaxed for me. Actually, I just wanted to win them as well! The main reason is not to Alex grew up two hours away from Tarifa feel like my level is going down. Also, the more in Malaga, Spain. When he turned eight you win, the worse it feels when you don’t, he learned to windsurf. Five years later so I wanted to end this year showing that I he was really attracted to kiting and with deserved the title from the start to the end. some small savings his family managed to buy a second-hand kite quiver for him You just completed three weeks of and his brother. When Alex turned 15 he competition in China. What is the riding and his brother convinced their parents scene like there? I was actually pretty to move to Tarifa. Since then he’s been impressed with Pingtan. The conditions were addicted to kiteboarding. Alex has been really good and it was a really fun spot. In competing on the PKRA world tour for Hainan the water is dirty and pretty choppy, but the past six years and just captured his we were lucky with wind, so I was quite happy. first world title this year.

The scene in China still looks to be developing as I didn’t see many local kiters. We had a lot When, where, and why did you start of fun over there, but China has a very different kiteboarding? I started kiteboarding in 2003 culture to what we’re used to. in Tarifa, Spain. I used to go there to windsurf but kiteboarding looked a lot more fun to me Do you spend any time in the waves? and I really wanted to try it.

Not really, but I do appreciate good wave riding. Guys like Patrick Rebstock, Keahi, Ian When did you first get sponsored? I got Aldredge, and Bear all get me stoked when sponsored in 2005. The guys from Shapes I see them killing it strapless, but all I think Boards in Tarifa and Wipika saw me at the about doing is freestyle. beach and I was very young so they started helping me out with gear. The same year I won What do you do off the water to help you my first competition and started getting more on the water? I train at the gym quite often, support. I competed whenever I could, but I was especially when I’m at home. It’s important more focused on studying at the time. Then to have a strong body to maximize your I started getting good results every year and performance and avoid injuries. The level in things just started flowing for me to go on the freestyle is so high that we need to be really world tour. professional on that side. I also try to take care of my diet as much as I can and eat You were crowned the 2013 PKRA World Champion in Pingtan. At the next stop you healthy food. came back from third place to claim first even though you didn’t need to. What kept What are you currently working on? I won’t reveal anything I’m working on until I land it! you motivated to keep going for it since

•P eople sometimes ask me what the secret is to becoming a professional kiteboarder.

I think there is no secret. You just have to love what you do and work really hard to achieve your goals.

• When traveling I always try to fly the same airline. At the end it’s cheaper because you earn more miles and get a higher status on that airline alliance which allows you to carry extra bags, access the lounges, and sometimes get upgrades.

But I can tell you I’m trying to add more grabs to my tricks and do more technical stuff based on wakeboarding tricks.

What is your favorite style of riding? Definitely flat water wakestyle tricks. I love to get a good pop off the flats. My goal is not to land the trick with most rotation, but always to execute my tricks as perfect as I can to make them look easy and fluid and add long grabs if possible.

What is something you do outside of kiteboarding? I really like to cook. I watch cooking shows and try to copy what they make.

Where is your favorite place to kite? I think I’m quite privileged with my home spot in Tarifa. We have all kinds of conditions from really good to really challenging. After traveling all year there’s nothing better staying home and enjoying the family, my house, and my own car.

What is your most memorable kiteboarding experience? I remember I had a great feeling when I won my first PKRA event. It was the last event of the year and all eyes were on Hadlow and Langeree because they were the only ones that could get the title. Nobody expected me to finish in the top three, including myself. It was a great surprise.

You have more opportunities than most to experience different destinations. Is there one place you’re dying to experience that you haven’t been to yet? Yeah, I would love to visit more of the US. Unfortunately there aren’t many events there and I don’t get to check it out that much. I would love to go to California, go snowboarding, and watch some skateboarding events, but unfortunately I don’t have the time right now.

What can’t you live without? Boxer shorts, iPhone, and my car.

now available www.airtstyle.tv

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PROFILED

Photo MCWalker Photography

Raquel Lima Age: 28 Years Kiting: 11 Favorite Spots: Ho’okipa and Kanaha in Maui and Alaska for snowkiting Sponsors: Naish, North Shore Zipline

Tips:

• Always kite with a buddy.

• Check your lines and your safety release before you go out.

• Maui is a great place to learn!

GEAR

Boards: 5’4” Naish Skater, 5’8” Global for big waves, and a 129 Alana Kite: Naish Ride Harness: Naish Alana Wetsuit: Not needed in Maui!

Originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Raquel moved to Maui in 2002 to learn to kiteboard. A year later she went back to Brazil to finish school and then went on the competition circuit earning top spots in freestyle and racing early in her career. With Maui always in her heart and mind, Raquel moved back in 2009 where she currently teaches for Kiteboarding School of Maui.

When, where, and why did you start kiteboarding? I started kiteboarding on Maui in 2002. After I saw pictures of my brother Paul Franco flying through the air over the ocean I was determined to learn.

I moved to Maui and after trying it for my first time I was hooked.

Have any other sports influenced your kiteboarding? I was dropping into half pipes on rollerblades before I started kiteboarding and now skateboarding has been helping me with my strapless riding.

What motivated you to pick up everything and move to Maui?

Coming from Sao Paulo, Brazil, which is one of the biggest cities in the world, Maui was

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like a fantasy land with wind almost everyday, waterfalls, exotic fruit trees, and waves.

Why wouldn’t I want to move?

What riders influence you the most?

My brother, Jim Bones, and Jon McCabe all influence me differently. They inspire me to ride big waves at Ho’okipa, enjoy the ocean everyday, and to go snowkitiing.

What do you think about competitions?

Competitions are great when Mother Nature allows for all the conditions to line up perfectly but sadly this rarely happens.

I prefer to check forecasts and travel last minute when everything looks good.

You just finished competing at the KSP in Maui which has had some growing pains this year. What was the vibe like?

The insanely talented riders kept the action exciting and I was happy to ride at Ho’okipa, which kept me stoked.

What do you do off the water to help you on the water? Eat healthy, yoga, rollerblade, skateboard, and capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, and music.

What are you currently working on?

Big wave riding is my focus right now and I need to be in the best shape physically and

mentally to eliminate any mistakes because I would like to kitesurf Jaws this year. I also have goals to glide down some big mountains at the Snowkite Jam Alaska with the best snowkiters in the world.

What is your favorite style of riding?

Kitesurfing. The energy and power of the waves is amazing. I love snowkiting now too because of the insane hang time and ability to climb huge mountains.

What is something that you do outside of kiteboarding? I play the flute in a band for fun, rollerblade in the half pipe, and love taking snowboarding trips.

Where is your favorite place to kite?

Kite Beach Maui with my dog Jager on my Naish Hokua SUP board. There is nothing better then kiting with your best friend.

Where’s your dream destination? Fiji, Mauritius, and so many other amazing islands.

What can’t you live without? My kites, a jar of Nutella, sunscreen, bikinis, and my kite dog Jager!

Any words of wisdom you want to share with our readers? Life is short, enjoy every second.

• $50/night

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Guide to Baja Businesses:

LA VENTANA DOWNWINDER INN features six rooms conveniently located near great beach launches. Each room has a queen bed, storage shelves, personal refrigerator, coffee maker, and complete bathroom with hot shower for $50/night. Roof tops offer amazing views and the outdoor community dining area has everything you need to make quick or gourmet meals.

Complimentary cars for local transportation and daily downwind shuttle service are also offered. www.downwinderinn.com ELEVATION KITEBOARDING’S goal is that each and every student has an amazing experience when booking their services. From radio-assisted lessons with waterproof radio helmet systems to watercraft-assisted lessons, their IKO certified and insured instructors customize all lessons to their student’s needs using the latest equipment from North and Mystic. www.elevationkiteboarding.com EF BLOCK Building your dream or vacation home in Baja? The patent-pending EF Block transforms standard recycled polystyrene and plastics into durable, fireresistant, and highly insulative blocks that are easy to stack and shape into just about every construction design you can imagine. The EF Block will have an everlasting positive impact on your lifestyle and our environment through strength in construction, thermal energy savings, and the recycled use of materials that would otherwise be sent to landfills. EF Block is quick and easy to construct and, once constructed, various fascias can be applied to customize the appearance of finished walls. www.efblockmx.com PALAPAS VENTANA is located upwind of the main riding area where waves often break when there is swell or a strong El Norte. You’ll know you’re there when you see the palapa roofs of their quaint casitas with large porches, each overlooking the Sea of Cortez and Cerralvo Island. Lodging includes breakfast and lunch served at the restaurant/bar located just above the launch area. Stop in for a killer espresso and WiFi. Sport fishing, whale shark tours, diving excursions, the infamous hot dog tour, and day trips to the island or Pacific side also available. www.palapasventana.com VENTANA BAY RESORT is located halfway between the main town and the hot springs. Offering beachfront rooms and private bungalows nestled in a beautiful desert landscape, their on site private restaurant serves amazing and healthy meals which are

anticipated by both locals and guests alike. Guests can keep to themselves on their private patio or join others for a cocktail at the clubhouse overlooking the bay. The Resort also offers a semi-private beach for launching/ landing, lessons, gear rental, mountain bikes, snorkeling equipment, and kayaks. www.ventanabay.com

LOS BARRILES HOTEL BUENAVISTA is located just five minutes outside of Los Barriles where the wind can be stronger and the waves bigger and better, especially when an El Norte blows through. Just steps from your door is a semiprivate wide sandy beach providing plenty of space to launch and land with miles of open water to ride. A daily shuttle to North Beach in Los Barriles will allow you to downwind back to the property where you can end your day in the natural hot spring jacuzzi or enjoy a drink at the swim-up bar. The family-run resort offers meal plans where you can order directly off the menu, including a take away lunch if you plan to be away for the afternoon.

The host hotel for the 2014 Lord of the Wind, you’ll also be right on the spot to enjoy all the event festivities. www.hotelbuenavista.com VELA KITESURF has been creating and perfecting the windsports resort experience for over 30 years.

Whether you are looking for long tropical beaches with reliable sideshore winds, perfect flat water, or good surf breaks, Vela offers stand alone lessons or packages with gear, lessons, and lodging options at 13 winddriven destinations around the world. The Los Barriles location offers lessons and two lodging options which can include meals or not. If an El Norte is pumping, Vela has exclusive use of a nearby wave spot accessed only with a key to the locked gate and a 4WD vehicle. If you’re into mountain biking, Vela invites you to find better trails anywhere on the peninsula. They also rent boards so you can leave your deck at home! www.velakitesurf.com EXOTIKITE has been teaching kiteboarding in Los Barriles since 1998. An IKO certified/insured school with experienced instructors offering jet ski lessons and rescue, radio helmet instruction, and a guaranteed safe, successful, and enjoyable learning experience, they operate year round. Other services include kite/SUP rentals and tours, snorkeling, surfing, kayaking, and accommodations. New for 2013/2014: The shop and school are now all in one beachfront spot, just upwind from the old school location! www.losbarrileskiteboarding.com

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Photo Quincy Dein

I could see kites from my office and immediately began to wonder what was up. The wind was too light to ride but there were a bunch of kites in the sky and a crowd of people hanging around in a spot we typically don’t ride. Weird. Here on the island of Provodenciales (Provo) in Turks and Caicos we don’t see many kiters without knowing who they are and what they are up to, so my son and I jumped in the truck and went to the beach to investigate.

By Philip56 Shearer | http://www.bigblueunlimited.com

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Photo Quincy Dein

Days earlier I heard a rumor through the island grapevine that the Best Kiteboarding team was in town, but I thought it was just talk.

As I approached this motley crew I realized the Best team was actually on the island and here they were. Idle chit-chat, jokes, and banter soon revealed their mission – to get quality images and video for their 2014 product shoot. Photographer Quincy Dein and videographer Miguel Willis were trying to get some action without much success at this spot. “What’s the game plan?” I asked. After a little prodding it seemed it was to simply wait for wind to show up. It just so happens that making sure people score the right conditions for what they want to do while they’re here is what I do for a living.

“Guys, you need a game plan on these islands,” I said. While we chatted with some of the team the wind filled in a bit more so a few riders hit the water and turned it on for the camera crew. Miguel and Quincy had a game plan and a goal, but they had no idea where to go to find the best conditions.

The banter continued and stepped up a few levels with the arrival of two ripped Dutchmen. I used to play field hockey and soccer against the Oranjes in school and recognized the accents before I saw who they belonged to. Neither one of them needed an introduction. The dark haired one, Youri Zoon, I recognized from the Mystic catalogs and magazine photos. The blonde one, Ruben Lenten, is known to everyone as the megaloop master. With the short light wind session

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The Team Rider View

By Youri Zoon

A few months ago I received an email informing me of our first 2014 Best photo shoot. The original plan was to stay in Morocco after the PKRA event there. Now, don’t get me wrong. Morocco is great, but to be honest I wasn’t really looking forward to spending two and half weeks in the desert. As the dates for the event drew nearer the plans kept changing, settling on spending just two days in Morocco followed by a first-class shoot somewhere else. When I heard the final destination my first reaction was that maybe just staying in the desert would be a better plan.

Photo Quincy Dein Photo Quincy Dein

We were headed to Turks and Caicos, somewhere I had never been. I’ve ridden in the Caribbean a number of times and was skeptical about trying to do a big shoot there. On previous trips to the region I was plagued with choppy water and light wind, definitely not my ideal conditions. But I’m always open to trying a new place, so why not give the Caribbean another go? Then I was emailed a few photos of where we were going and I was hooked. I figured that even if the conditions were bad at least I would end up with a vacation in a beautiful spot.

I met up with the rest of the crew at the Miami airport and then a short one-hour flight took us to our destination. It was dark when we landed, so there wasn’t much to see. It was late by the time we arrived at Windhaven Villas, our base for the trip (a beautiful mansion!), so after a celebratory cold beer I went straight to bed. I woke up early the next morning but stayed in bed. The jet lag was hitting me big time and I did not want to get up! Miguel set me right by making a cup of his famous coffee and I wandered to the beach. As soon as I saw the water I was wide awake. Boom! No Photoshop needed! The beautiful turquoise water and amazing white beaches hit me like a lightning bolt. I had to run back to my room to get sunglasses! It looked amazing and was a truly photogenic location. Unfortunately the wind wasn’t cooperating, so we weren’t able to ride that day.

The next day we set up and waited for the wind. We knew there must be some somewhere, but we had no idea where to look. When we met up with Philip and the Big Blue crew later in the day we heard promises of wind and amazing spots. It was only the beginning of a two-week trip and we had already connected with someone willing to show us all the best spots we never would have found on our own. Things were looking up.

For our first day with Philip we headed out early in the boat to find the right spot to set up. The wind kicked in just as the sun popped out of the clouds so we rigged 11 and 13m kites. The first spot we rode was nice and flat, but the tide was dropping and it was getting fairly shallow and a little dangerous if we crashed. We were on a sand spit island and one of the Big Blue guys walked over to the other side to check it out. After five minutes he came running back like a monkey on drugs. “It’s paradise on the

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Photo Quincy Dein

done everyone was back on the beach. It didn’t take long until we were in a huddle talking about ways I could help the team work out a plan of action. Miguel and Quincy had a lot of questions. “Where can we do this? How can we get that shot? Is there going to be more wind? Are there better spots?” I gave them the lay of the land and the needle on everyone’s stoke meter rose. As we discussed the options for the next day the mood became light and the banter started again. “Meet me at the Big Blue dock tomorrow at 6:30 am,” I said. “You’ll love the light and the tide will be perfect.” The riders seemed a little doubtful about the early meeting time, but the whole crew was fired up to do some exploring.

We have no shortage of wind in Turks and Caicos so we usually don’t have to fret much over whether we’ll have enough or not. But the mosquito buzzing near my ear made it clear that there was almost no wind. That put a lot of worry into my mind. I had just made big promises and bigger claims about how perfect the spots I was going to show them were and now I was afraid we wouldn’t have any wind.

Then the destination complex hit me. Would Turks and Caicos be good enough compared to the myriad of insane places these riders had ridden and shot around the world? If one lets it take over, the fear of not producing the goods for pros easily becomes paranoia.

My big claims were leading to real pressure to deliver.

When I got home I immediately fired up my laptop to check Windguru and second guess my plan for the next day. Typical. I

caught myself and just turned the computer off. The weather was going to do what it was going to do and there was nothing I could do to change that. I consoled myself with the fact that if there was no wind the team would at least get a boat ride and see an amazing location, which was more than they had done on their trip so far. It could only get better from there. With the alarm set I fell asleep looking forward to the next day.

The team arrived dockside on time at 6:30 sharp the next morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Quincy and Miguel led the way.

The boat was racked and stacked with all kinds of boards, kites, harnesses, ladders, cameras, and riders. A short fifteen minutes later we left the dock fully loaded, the 150 hp outboard struggling with the weight. We didn’t have far to go to the first location and the wind was light. I knew what everyone else in the boat was thinking. “Why did this guy make us get up so early if there’s no wind?” I had to keep telling myself, “Don’t worry, be cool, stop stressing. The wind is going to be fine.” Minutes later we arrived in a protected bay, perfect for photos and flat water.

Youri, Ruben, Sam Medysky, and Michael Schitzhofer rigged up, now optimistic that the wind would fill in. Quincy and Miguel gave their orders and double-checked their camera gear. As the early morning sun broke through the clouds the incoming tide arrived with a cool fresh tropical breeze. The riders virtually exploded onto the water.

If you haven’t spent much time around pro kiteboarders most of

other side!” he yelled. The other side was one of the most beautiful spots I’ve ever seen. The wind was straight offshore 11m conditions. The water was glassy. It was one of the best setups for riding and shooting I had ever experienced.

Over the next days and weeks we explored, we shot, and we dined like kings. On the few days without wind we went snorkeling and did all the usual tourist activities. Returning to the mansion at the end of everyday was always a relief. Some people might not believe it, but being on the beach and on the water all day is hard work. Your eyes are tired, the salt creases your face, and you always get at least a little sunburned no matter how much sunscreen you put on. We had most of our meals at the house and almost everyone had a chance to cook. Well, not me as I’m not a very good cook. If you want beans or bacon I’m your man, but that’s about all I can do. My lack of skills in the kitchen means I was relegated to dish washing duty. The high point of our meals was Sam Medysky’s burger night. The boy can cook!

Photo Quincy Dein

Photo Philip Shearer

One day we decided to order pizza to eat back at the house, but Chris Bobryk wanted to go out for a quick solo session. As he rigged up someone shouted, “Be back for dinner! We’ve got pizza coming!” Three hours later it was getting dark and there was no sign of Chris. We were getting worried as he does have a tendency to do crazy stuff from time to time. It was getting later and darker so we put together a mission to find Bobryk. After searching around we had nothing. Now it was pitch black, getting cold, and there was no sign of him.

There wasn’t much we could do so we went back to the house and dug into the pizza. Sam made a prediction that Chris would find his way back, totally oblivious to the worry he had caused. Sure enough sometime after 10 pm he rolled in, looking kind of happy with himself. He glided past us, not saying anything and not even making eye contact. “Hmm pizza,” he said while grabbing a slice of ham and pineapple before wandering over to the shower. We cracked up as he left the room. It was exactly like Sam predicted! We had the entire team out looking for him and all he could think about was that finelooking Hawaiian pizza!

As the trip progressed the team and the camera crew produced better and better material. Philip kept delivering great spots for us to ride. The Big Blue team deserves a very big thumbs up for the huge amount of hard work they put into making sure we got what we needed. One last note to aspiring pro riders: Always make sure you get the attention of the guy behind the camera before throwing down your best tricks. After I landed a sweet and clean 319 Miguel said, “Sorry bro I missed it. Can you throw that raley again?” I couldn’t believe it. “What? Raley? That was no raley, it was a clean and powered 319,” I whined. Miguel just smiled and said, “No worries Youri, I’m sure you can do it again.” I did it again, this time making sure the camera was pointing at me. After not being sure if anywhere in the Caribbean would work for a photo shoot we scored perfect light and perfect conditions. Turks and Caicos completely flipped my ideas about the Caribbean and it’s hard to imagine another location that would have worked better for us. It was definitely better than sitting in the desert for a few weeks!

Photo Philip Shearer

Photo Quincy Dein

Photo Quincy Dein

them are insanely energetic and cannot be held back from getting in the water as soon as conditions are good. With minimal effort Youri was stomping impressive unhooked double rotations while Ruben pulled the trigger on effortlessly smooth kiteloops. It was very cool to see in person. The guys were totally committed and totally dialed in from the get go.

Short hours blurred into long sunburned days on the water. Very soon I had a really good feel of what the team was after. We ended each session satisfied but then immediately began planning the next one. The wind and the riding were only getting better and better as the trip progressed. Each new day we headed further afield in the boat and it allowed me to showcase the best of Turks and Caicos, places only accessible by boat with a guide. Our days were filled with killer backdrops, amazing colors, and top riders nailing tricks. The core riding crew was great. They worked their magic with no fuss and maximum effort while always having a good time. There’s a reason why Sam Medysky has been on so many magazine covers – he was absolutely on point. Other team riders would come and go as needed to get the shots they were looking for. Kites and boards sometimes lay on the beach for hours on end until the sun broke through towering anvilshaped thunderheads. When it did riders launched and rode wherever necessary to seize those golden moments.

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Videographers and still photographers each have different needs. While Quincy was bagging his images, Miguel could only do so much from a static position. All that changed when a certain beach opened up with dead offshore wind. At this spot 300 yards of powder-white sand dips into an endless turquoise sea. It’s just deep enough to run a boat less than 15 feet from the water’s edge. Miguel’s eyes lit up as he backed himself into the front of the steering console for support.

Riders lined up on the video-panning runway. As I hit the throttle fully powered unhooked tricks started happening inches from his lens on glassy-flat water.

We couldn’t get enough. No one could.

While the riders deserve the glory and a fair share of the credit for the images and video this trip produced, I was amazed to see how much work happens on the other side of the lens. Quincy and Miguel are the unsung heroes of this trip. These two worked their craft every day and edited through the night while the riders were sleeping. We spent hours on the boat figuring out angles, locations, and the right light to shoot in. They were up early every day and arrived dockside with as much stoke as they had left with the previous evening.

They managed the different personalities among the team while coordinating everyone to stay productive. Looking back as these islands are hit by another tropical downpour I am so glad I wandered down to the beach to see if the rumor was true.

We all made new friends and I got an amazing opportunity to spread the word and share the stoke of kiteboarding in Turks and Caicos. And isn’t that what kiteboarding is about?

2014 TKB Calendar

Keep track of your schedule and keep yourself stoked for the year!

Available at store.thekiteboarder.com

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Alaska:

By Jason Slezak | Photos by Scott Dickerson

The Last Frontier Kiteboarding is an amazing and dynamic sport that has taken me to many distant places. But one place I did not expect it to lead me was Alaska. When Patagonia’s Jason McCaffrey and I discussed where we should go to test our new drysuits many far off, distant, and cold locations were laid on the table.

Some of them were too remote or too expensive or too‌ well, just plain too cold. And then the idea of a kiteboarding expedition to Alaska came to mind and the planning began.

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A

s a child I had dreams of traveling to Alaska to snowboard the steep, deep, and stable snow of the Chugach Mountain Range. Year after year I watched my ski and snowboard heroes charge the most insane lines in each winter’s new video releases.

But it was not just the riding that drew my attention.

It was the awe-inspiring beauty of the landscape and the remoteness of Alaska. I read something the day we arrived that stuck in my head the entire trip.

“Most places in the United States are surrounded by civilization with small islands of wilderness, usually in the form of parks or Forest Service land. But in Alaska there are small islands of civilization sparsely scattered amongst a vast amount of raw wilderness.” That is what we came here to explore.

On any adventure, especially in a place as untamed as Alaska, local knowledge and guidance is paramount.

We contacted Tom Fredericks, founder of Alaska Kite Adventures for suggestions of where to start planning our journey. Alaska Kite Adventures is at the forefront of kiting both on water and on snow in and around the Anchorage area. Tom was more than happy to help us make the most out of our trip. Our objectives were simple. We wanted to explore the beauty of Alaska while getting as many sessions as possible. He directed us to photographer, boat captain, Alaska surf pioneer, and guide Scott Dickerson. Scott was born in Alaska and has been spending the better part of the past 15 years searching for and surfing new waves along the seemingly endless 34,000 miles of Alaskan coastline while also documenting the beauty of his surroundings through film and photography. After discussing our options we decided to go the water route and made plans to board the M/V Milo, a fishing trawler that has been converted for surf charters, to explore the coastline outside of Homer. Our plan was set. At least that is what we thought.

We quickly found that the weather in Alaska is in a state of constant change. It had been raining for eighteen days straight in the Anchorage area on the day we arrived. This same foul weather system was also going to make it very difficult for the M/V Milo to get to our meeting spot in Homer in time. The outlook was bad enough to make some of our crew drop out of the trip at the last minute. The rest of us were left questioning if continuing on with the trip was a good idea. But each time we spoke to local kiters Tom, Scott, Tony, Dan, or Albert they were not worried about the weather. Instead they were focused on how good it could get and how you just have to be there and be ready for it. So ahead we charged and I couldn’t help but smile knowing that we were about to embark on an awesome adventure of exploration and discovery.

On the ground in Alaska the old plan went completely out the window. We traded in the fishing trawler for a land yacht (an RV), stocked up on supplies (coffee, food, beer, and bear mace), and began our journey along the Turnagain Arm towards the town of Girdwood and our first kiting locale, Portage Lake. One thing that became very evident from the very beginning was that the people who live and recreate here are hardcore outdoorsmen and women who truly love the rawness that exists in Alaska. We were getting emails, text updates, and plenty of communication from all different angles about the conditions and where to be and when. This kite community here is thriving and committed to sessions at each and every opportunity.

The main kiting area here is located along the Turnagain Arm. It’s the Alaskan version of the Columbia River Gorge. It is a unique body of water that is not an ocean, sound, bay, or iver. Yet it surprisingly looks like it could be any or all of these. The Turnagain Arm gets its name from Captain Cook’s exploration through the area in search of the Northwest Passage in 1778. Cook’s men sailed into the Knit Arm, just slightly north of Anchorage. They were turned around at the mouth of the Knit River so they regrouped and tried what they felt was the only other possible route to the Northwest Passage. They were turned around again at a river mouth feeding into the Arm and simply named the body of water Turnagain Arm. As we drove along the shore we were in complete awe of the jaw-dropping beauty of the surrounding mountains. The size, scale, and distances were very hard to comprehend for the first few days. The Arm can only be ridden when the wind and the tides are opposing, which was not the case for us on our first day. We charged on past Girdwood to Portage Lake, a glacial lake at the base of the Portage Glacier. It was reported to have exactly what we came in search of: Cold water, floating ice, and wind.

“ Plans are nothing; planning is everything” –Dwight D. Eisenhower

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“ Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go.” -Captain James Cook Portage Lake is nestled in a valley amongst numerous mountain peaks, each of which is home to various glaciers. The melting ice creates small streams of water that cascade down the hillsides like veins feeding into the heart of the lake. This was our first sight of floating ice and Alaskan glaciers. And as beautiful and powerful as it was there was a sense of sadness after learning that the Begich-Boggs Visitors Center we were kiting in front of was built in 1986 for visitors to view the Portage Glacier up close.

Yet now there isn’t even the slightest glimpse to be had of the massive glacier. Today you may be lucky enough, as we were, to witness the chunks of ice that float through the lake as they melt on their way downstream. We knew about the receding of glaciers before getting to Alaska but had no idea of the scale until witnessing it firsthand.

After taking in the breathtaking scenery one thing filled our senses. We could all feel it, see it, hear it, and even smell it. Wind! Jason McCaffrey and I frantically put our boards together, rigged our kites, threw on our new drysuits, and hit the water so we could get a close up view of the ice and surrounding mountains. There is something undeniable and almost unexplainable about the feeling of freedom and true exploration you can get from kiting a new spot or seeing a body of water or coastline from the engine-less silent power of the wind. This Portage Lake session is one that will forever be in my memory. Riding around the ice, ollieing over

chunks of it, jumping the bigger pieces, and even crouching down and riding through some ice barrels were all part of the fun. We were smiling, high fiving, and buzzing around the ice and shoreline for hours in complete awe that we were kiting in Alaska.

So our plan, which had fallen apart the day before, was taking shape in a whole new direction and we were already reaping the benefits of pushing forward and not giving up. But this was still only the first day.

The Turnagain Arm is an interesting body of water. It is affected greatly by the tides and that is what dictates when kiters can and cannot go out. This was new to us. Sure, we have all ridden waves that are better on certain tides or ridden spots that are more fun at the right tide, but never had we experienced tidal fluctuation like this! The tidal range can be upwards of 35 feet and will generate a Gorge-like effect when it runs against the wind and increases your apparent wind and power. It can also run with the wind and literally take the wind out of your sails while taking you far far away. When we arrived earlier than planned at our meeting spot we were greeted with nuking wind and a huge beach, but no one else was out or even there. Scott filled us in that the tide was going out (with the wind), so none of the locals would show up until the tide changed.

We took some time to hike around and explore the spot. The mud was a thick silt that was part sand, part dirt, and part sediment that would create a quicksand effect if you stood in one place for too long. It was interesting but scary given how quickly the tidal change can happen. There are stories, some true and some legend, of fisherman and tourists stuck in the mud who drowned as the tide rose.

The more we learned about the magnificent and raw world of Alaska the more we realized that it is not a place for the faint of heart or the tentative, but rather a place that keeps you on your toes and forces you to remain ever present in the moment. There aren’t many places in the world where a simple walk on the beach could be life threatening.

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Almost like clockwork the local crew began to roll in at the same time as the tide.

First to show up was Jim Chaplin, a bush pilot and kiteboard fiend. His license plate reads KITER and he told us his other vehicle’s plate says UNHOOKED. Then Albert, an Anchorage business man who excused himself from his work duties for a “meeting.” Next was Jeff Hoke, a fireman just getting off an all-night shift, followed by a few others. These guys wasted no time getting on the water, and we would later find out why. It was an amazing transformation at the spot. The water, which just an hour or so earlier was calm and gently flowing out with the wind, was now rushing back in and the current had created half-standing halfmoving wave trains to slash and air off of. The upwind current was so fast that it was almost difficult to stay downwind.

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here were giant mountain peaks on either side and the sun’s rays were breaking through small gaps in the relatively gray sky like spotlights on the hillsides. The scenery was accented by the small hints of color of the ten or so kites in the sky. I became so lost in the surroundings that I failed to notice that I was the last one on the water. I figured that must be a sure sign to head for the beach but there was one small problem. There was no beach! The area where we had rigged and launched, which was acres and acres of dry silt and sand just an hour or so before, was nothing more than a tiny strip of wet sand only a few feet wide. By the time Jason caught my kite and I rolled up my lines the beach was gone and we were running for the banks of the shore before we became part of the folklore of people who had been stuck in the mud and caught by the rising tide. The diehard locals base their lives around the tides and drop everything to make it happen. Their passion and dedication was inspiring and motivating to make the most out of each session every day.

With the kiting shut down for the day we joined Jeff and his crew back in Girdwood for one of my other favorite pastimes at the Aleskya Mountain Bike Park. Jeff, Lynsey Dyer, and a few of their friends were gracious enough to let me join them on a few lift-accessed and gravity-fed laps down some fun and challenging terrain. Just like everything else in Alaska the biking too proved to be extra grande. In the 25 or so years that I had spent dreaming of coming to shred the mountains of Alaska I had never thought it would end up being on a downhill bike! Our day ended in the bar at the lodge listening to a local band while sharing stories of deep winters, big waves, good dirt, and strong winds. As smiles grew wider and eyes grew heavier I realized we really are all from the same tribe in search of the same thing. It doesn’t matter if it is on snow, water, wind, waves, dirt, concrete, or something else. We all just love to shred!

We awoke the following day to a beautiful misty Alaskan morning. The ground was wet with dew and the morning fog lay thick in the cool valleys. We ventured first to Portage Lake hoping for another session there but found not a breath of wind and mirror-like glassy water. With no wind forecasted for the Arm we opted for a hike to Byron Glacier, one of the lower-elevation glaciers. It felt great to get amongst the snowfields and see the massive debris fields from past avalanches and piles of giant boulders from rock slides. One thing is for sure, which was said repeatedly on this trip. Alaska makes you feel small.

We continued our no-wind exploration on a few-hour drive past the dead end that forced Cook’s men to “turn again” so may years ago to the mining town of Hope.

Hope’s main industry is still gold mining, but a recreational whitewater rafting scene appears here every summer. The town itself is small. There is only one bar, a small café (attached to the bar), and a town hall (next to the café attached to the bar). It is so small that the town actually shuts down for the winter! But before it does the locals throw one raging party and we just happened to be in town for that special night. There were RVs lining the street, a small tent city near the edge of the river, and a rocking band made up of local residents that played until the bar closed its doors. Then the band and party continued around a fire under the clearest, most star-filled night sky I have ever witnessed. We were honored to get to share in this night with the people of Hope, but the following morning would lead us onward towards more adventure.

We got an early call from our friend Jim, the bush pilot, informing us that the conditions looked good in Seward about two hours south of where we were in Hope. Not only did the kiting conditions look promising but Jim was offering to fly us from the Seward Air Field to the glacial lake and ice field of Bear Glacier.

There was no way we could turn down that opportunity so we pointed our trusty Sun Seeker RV south and headed for Seward.

We made quick work of organizing our gear and loading the plane. Jim had to make two trips because of the amount of gear and people we had. Scott

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and I went first so we could assess the conditions and get set up. Videographer Buster Tronolone and Jason came on the second run. The flight was incredible with breathtaking 360° views. As we rounded a corner we got our first view of the Bear Glacier. It was stunning! A flowing river of ice descended down from the mountains all the way to the sea. The contrast of the deep blue ocean meeting with the grayish-green glacial lake with only a thin ribbon of black sand separating the two was highlighted by the bright aquamarine tint of the white icebergs and glacier walls. As we repeatedly circled the potential landing strip for our sea plane landing, of which this was my first, I asked Jim what he was looking for. He calmly spoke into the mic which resonated through my headset. “We need to look out for small pieces of ice. We don’t want to damage the pontoons or we won’t be able to take off again.

And I have never landed anywhere with this much ice.” Before I could process what he had said we touched down on the surface of the lake as smooth as could be expected in 15-knot wind chop and taxied to the shore to unload our gear.

The wind was by no means perfect. We were surrounded by mountains, some of which were covered in trees while others were sheer rock. The river of ice that made up the Bear Glacier was super frigid as was the water in the lake it fed. However, the ocean just on the other end of the lake was not nearly as cold as the lake water. Mix in the katabatic winds that are created by the glacier’s heating and cooling and you have a very strange mix on your hands. Needless to say the wind was not what I, or anyone else for that matter, would call steady or consistent. It provided a unique challenge and forced us to really read the spot and the ever-changing wind conditions.

Not to mention that it was absolutely gorgeous and riding around giant icebergs in the freezing water made me us all feel, once again, very small in this very big land. We stayed at Bear Glacier until sundown while basking in the beauty and reminiscing about the endless adventures we had encountered over the past few days. As we watched the moon rise up over the mountains in the distance we solidified that this may have been our first trip to Alaska, but it surely wouldn’t be our last.

On our final day we headed north away from Seward, past the road to Hope, past the turnoff for Portage Lake, and made one last stop on our way to Anchorage before catching our flight home. We put on our drysuits again, grabbed a few stand up paddleboards, and joined Lynsey for a bore tide session. We were short on time and knew this decision could very well make us miss our flight, but we were too close to scoring one last unique Alaska session to pass it up. As Jason and I followed her into the chilly outgoing tidewaters of the Arm we couldn’t help but be a bit skeptical of what we were getting ourselves into. The bore tide is something that occurs in the Turnagain Arm twice a day with the incoming tide.

Some days are bigger than others. It creates a wave six inches high to over six feet high depending on the tidal change and the moon phase. On this day the water was glassy and calm with absolutely zero wind and the wave was forecasted to be about waist high.

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We waited in the mud flats in the middle of the Turnagain Arm as the tide went slack and everything became calm and still. Like clockwork and right on schedule we began to see water splashing against the rocks off in the distance and hear the rumbling of moving water as the wave rolled towards us.

Our excitement grew as the water around our feet began to rapidly suck out towards the oncoming tidal wave. We waded our way into the middle of the channel until we were about knee deep as instructed by Lynsey. Now we could see the shape of the wave with a right hand open face on one side and a left on the other. We waited until the last second, pushed off of the bottom, and jumped onto our boards. We were all up and riding for what ended up being a 15-minute surf on a perfect peeling waist high wave! Then as quickly as

it picked us up, it rolled out from under us and the ride was over, leaving us right back where we had hopped in the water.

Quickly getting out of our suits we said our thank yous and goodbyes and began racing to the airport. It had been a whirlwind trip filled with adventure and exploration with great planning but little to no plan. Like a real-life “choose your own adventure” novel each decision we made opened up opportunities that otherwise would not have existed and each person we met along the way added his or her own special part to make this a truly remarkable experience. As we rushed through security and onto the plane with only minutes to spare we sank into our seats with smiles wide and heads filled with images of beauty and awe which will have to hold us over until we can return. And return we will because there is so much to explore in Alaska, the last frontier.

For more information on receding glaciers all over the world watch the documentary Chasing Ice (currently available on Netflix). If you are interested in kiting in or around the Anchorage area look up Tom Fredericks and Alaska Kite Adventures (http://www.alaskakiteadventures.com). A very special thanks goes to the entire Turnagain Arm kite crew for all of the information and for showing us an amazing time!

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FREEDOM OF THE HILLS Brandon Clifford finds wind, snow, and solitude high above the treeline deep in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado. Photo Alex Fenlon

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THE PIPE PROJECT “I’m normally very wary of self-made rail projects,” said James Boulding. “They often take a surprising amount of time, money, and effort and it’s easy to end up with a project that turns into nothing but a bunch of worthless wood, screws, and pipes. Building this rail in the middle of the Egyptian desert where building materials and power tools are very scarce was really tough to pull off but the reward was well worth the effort.” Photo Andy Witschi

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FLASHED With sessions stretching past sunset, photographer Vincent Bergeron pulled out a flash to capture Eric Rienstra taking over the sky above the Ta誰ba Lagoon in Brazil. Photo Vincent Bergeron

SUNDOWNER CĂŠline Rodenas uses up the last bit of wind and light during a sunset session in Mauritius. Photo Paul Lang

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GO BIG OR GO HOME Epic Kites founder Dimitri Maramenides decided not to go home during a small storm in Nags Head, North Carolina. Instead he decided that the 27-42 mph wind created perfect conditions for testing a new prototype kite. Photo Charles Ash

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wish list

1. best

2. gopro

3. ion

4. liquid force

7. patagonia

5. mystic boarding

8. prolimit

1. BEST KITEBOARDING WAIST HARNESS — Redesigned with a thermoformed liner for better fit and support and a new spreader bar for improved comfort without your wetsuit. $149.99, www.bestkiteboarding.com

2. GOPRO HERO 3+ BLACK EDITION — Features video resolutions up to 4K, 12MP photos up to 30 frames per second, built-in Wi-Fi, SuperView, and Auto Low Light mode. Waterproof to 131’. For the TKB Review visit www.thekiteboarder.com/2013/12/gopro-hero3-review or scan the code. $399.95, www.gopro.com

3. ION FUSE DRYSUIT — For the cold-water crowd. The Fuse is completely waterproof and flexible with a detachable hood. $749.95, www.ion-products.com

4. LIQUID FORCE SUPREME IMPACT VEST — Impact protection, confidence-building flotation, and unrestricted mobility. Reversible from black to high-visibility green or blue to be easily spotted. $149, www.liquidforcekites.com

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Scan for the TKB Review.

6. promotion

9. slingshot sports

5. MYSTIC BOARDING MAJEXTIC D3O KITE VEST — From catching an edge to a kiteloop gone wrong, this kite vest will drastically reduce hard impacts and provide some flotation with a lightweight, noninvasive feel. $179.95, www.mysticboarding.com

6. PROMOTION STORM 5/3 FULLSUIT — A very warm and flexible suit that will last for years. $339, www.wetsuit.com

7. PATAGONIA LINED BEANIE — Durable and quick-to-dry.

All-day comfort. A 100% polyester fleece lining wicks moisture and feels smooth against bare skin. $39, www.patagonia.com

8. PROLIMIT PREDATOR HARNESS — Uses hybrid technology of a molded outer skin and a stitched inner floating pillow.

Medium-height back support. $209, www.prolimit.com

9. SLINGSHOT SPORTS ALL IN — A fully-padded coffin bag suitable for day trips or airline travel. Stuff all your twin tips into this 152 cm baby. $139, www.slingshotsports.com

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15 minutes

Brendan Shnurr braves the cold for a late-season session on Lake Erie. Photo Michael Bula

This issue’s winning photo (above) takes home a Lined Beanie from Patagonia. Send your photos to editor@thekiteboarder.com to get your 15 minutes of fame and a chance to win something from Patagonia.

Sean Mertens going for the closeout in Oregon. Photo Sean Mertens

Sean Onus in Jupiter, Florida.

Photo Barbara Traumer

Brad Poulos having a good time in La Ventana.

Photo Cherimarie Poulos

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Bobby Bluehouse during a beautiful sunset on the North Shore of Oahu.

Photo Omar Nazif

John Perry throwing buckets in the Gorge. Photo Jim Stringfellow Darren Lee says, “Good day to you sir!� with a tip of the hat. Photo Jim Stringfellow

Britney Todd in Hood River. Photo Paul Lang

Suzanne Kuiper in Mauritius.

Photo Paul Lang Julien Salles gets out of the office and into the surf in Mauritius. Photo Paul Lang

Susi Giannios at Belmont Shores, California. Photo Omar Nazif

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roots

Words by Kane Hartill | Photo Petra Goeschl

This was way back in June of 1999 at Capo Carbonara in Sardinia. Flash Austin and I were there for kitesurf demos at a big kite festival. The Peter Lynn C-Quad kite I’m flying in this photo was really powerful in 10-15 knots compared with the twoline Wipika and Naish AR3.5 kites of the day. They only cost $300 and were easy enough to learn on and relaunch in shallow water. At the New Zealand Nationals in 1999 and 2000 there were 15-20 riders (mostly converted windsurfers) using them.

The C-Quad could sheet out a bit on the handles, but it would only depower by like 5%. Then it was prone to luffing and falling out of the sky. After years of grabbed rotation tricks with this setup it was a huge relief when 4-line bars came along!

The picklefork board was a one-off design by Underground and it was really tough to control the kite while getting into those old Liquid Force Ultra Suction boots. I switched to Wipika kites in 2001 and then rode for North from 2001 until 2005. Through it all I was involved in developing Underground Kiteboards with Adrian Roper (now the designer for Axis).

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Parting Shot Maika Monroe stops to watch the sunset on her way home from the beach in Central California. Photo Paul Lang

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