Confessions of a
barrel
Hunter ÂŁ4.50 | issue #8
The Twilight Zone: Flash fun in Brazil // Sardinia: Fine food and fine freestyle //
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How do you test that? R&D insights
SUPPORTED SINGLE FRONTLINE SAFETY (SSF) immediate pressure release and quicker repositioning for relaunch
TECTANIUM® LINES up to four times more stretch resistant, 50% higher break load, 10% thinner and lighter
VARIO WIDTH one bar for all kite sizes
SUPERIOR SAFETY WITH SSF SAFETY (SUPPORTED SINGLE FRONTLINE SAFETY) Exclusive to CORE. When the Rotor quick release is activated, the kite will release all its power, and gently drift with the leading edge facing down and nose to the wind until the front tube kisses the water. The kite will stay in a ‘drift launch position’ (nose to wind) until you are ready. lowest inertia
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CORE Kiteboarding – a Hiss-Tec brand // Fehmarn, Germany T +49 (0)4371-88934-0 // info@corekites.com // 54.445874 N : 11.191058 O
VARIO LINES 24, 22, 20, and 18m freely adjustable
SENSOR ADJUSTER easy and finely adjustable trimming
210g CARBON BAR by far the lightest bar on the marke t for even more direct feedback and steering of the kite
optimized line-guides to 5mm for an ideal grip
improved leverage
EVA GRIP always the perfect grip
TITANIUM CORE extremely stiff and optimized power flow
Titanium Split
Unibody Construction
CARBON BAR EXCHANGEABLE BAR INSERTS super easy de-power line protection
CORE'S AUTO UNTWIST untwisted lines after every rotation A KEY BAR FEATURE SINCE DAY 1!
ROTOR QUICKRELEASE easy and reliable release in every situation SHORT SAFETY LEASH safer and more comfortable
·
TECTANIUM® LINES
THE ULTIMATE. The 'Sensor Pro' represents the pinnacle of what is possible within the bounds of current technology, combined with the unrivalled knowledge of CORE and Carved. The 100 percent Carbon bar, with a Titanium core, features variable lines made with Tectanium®, a unique safety system, consisting of the Rotor release, and the Supported Single Frontline Safety, as well as many more innovative ideas. This is the perfect bar for wave sessions, kiteloops, extremely explosive jumps and for those wanting the most direct and precise steering feedback possible. TheKiteMag | 3
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IN SP IRE Y D B NA TU RE // DR IVE N BY TH LEM E E EN TS // F LY OZ ON E.C
DO-IT-ALL POWERHOUSE DE-POWER FOIL
TECHNOLOGY
LATEST FOIL KITE AND PARAGLIDER DESIGN TECHNOLOGY
ALL-ROUND
FREESTYLE, FREERIDE, AND BACKCOUNTRY MACHINE
RE-RIDE SYSTEM
INDUSTRY LEADING RE-RIDE RELEASE SYSTEM
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OM
POWERHOUSE
OZONEKITES
P H OTO S : W A R E C K A R N A U D / / W I L L TA G G A R T / /
TEAM RIDER:
JOHANN CIVEL
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R ID E R : SKY SOLBAC H / PHOTO: QU IN CY D E IN
WHERE THERE’S A WAVE THERE’S A WAY T H E N E W N EO
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WAV E/ F RE ER I DE
RE LATE D P RODUCTS
P RO S U RF
WAM
W HIP CSC
PROGRESSION Q
S I Z E S 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12
Quality commitment in every detail. WWW.NORTHKITEBOARDING.COM TheKiteMag | 9
COVER This is what it’s about. All of the effort finally rewarded for Rob Kidnie… Photo: Jason Wolcott HERE Somewhere south of Dakhla and a spooky shipwreck session for Kari. Photo: Svetlana Romantsova 10 | TheKiteMag
The Features 052 CONFESSIONS OF A BARREL HUNTER… An Australian nomad: following the swells, chasing his dreams, feeding his obsession. Well kind of. The fact is: Rob Kidnie loves barrels. And he has dedicated a good portion of his life to seeking them out. Here’s his story…
066 THE TWILIGHT ZONE As ever Brazil delivers the goods for perfect freestyle conditions and fulfills all of the requirements for the great and the good of the freestyling world. And as ever Andre Magarao is there to document it. He likes his sleep though, so for 2015 there is no shooting until sunset…
082 H O W D O YO U T E S T T H AT ? Do you ever come in from a 3 hour session and the first thing you think is, ‘well I’m glad all of my kit worked and didn’t fall to pieces’? No, nor do we. You expect everything to function, and it normally does… But why? Time to find out what’s going on at the sharp end of this innovative world of ours.
098 FOOD AND FREESTYLE IN SARDINIA Imagine a place where the wind always blows, where the food is sublime, and where you can always find uncrowded freestyle perfection to share with just a few friends... Struggling? Well how about Sardinia? It used to be Manuela Jungo’s best kept secret…
The Regulars 030 In 300 Words…. Kitemares. And lots of them…
036 I’m On It… Mitu on his Pro Model
038 Tangled Lines with Sam Light
048 On the List… Tarifa
104 Technique with Bertrand Fleury
106 In the Pipeline with Ozone
116 Tell me about it… Blade kites
124 Behind the Clip… Tom’s Kitchen IV
132 Meteorology with Tony Butt
134 The Dark Room with Stephan Kleinlein
140 5 things you wouldn’t know about this shot with Ben Welsh
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Another big step ahead for our most successful kite in the range. RELIGION is synonymous of WAVE in the international kite language, and since its first introduction this kite has changed in every version together with the evolution of this discipline. Actually we can say that this kite has greatly contributed to improve the level of many stoked riders thanks to its phenomenal performance characteristic. A bullet proof construction, mixing the body construction between 40% heavy duty Dacron fabrics and 60% lightweight canopy. A unique mix used only in the Religion kites still today, creating a superior crash resistance and a huge lifetime extender. The new MK6 has been redesigned in sizes 8 and smaller based on the huge positive feedback received on the MK5 larger sizes, 12-10.5 and 9. These new design is based on more swept-back wingtips, creating a more stable kite that floats better both in total lack of wind or on the opposite, under extreme strong gusts. This new design, allows also a bigger range of use, both on the hi and low end of the kite, extending the possibility of use practically to any day anywhere. More power, better lift during jumps and an enormous, progressive de-power that will stop the kite power exactely when you need it. Simply a throttle in your hands, gearing up your rides when you need power and completely release it when you use your created speed on the wave. Neutral, powerful and silly fast when willing to get out of troubles on wave sections that close out or when you totally need that extra bost to move to the next section. A perfect kite both in onshore and totally offshore conditions, tested in literally anywhere you could take it.
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12 | TheKiteMag SIZES: 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10.5 / 12
POP 5’4” Freestyle Supershortboard
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C.O.T.A.N. 5’6” Speciality PRO Shortboard
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PHOTO: VINCENT BERGERON
EDITORIAL
AWSI KITEBOARDER OF THE YEAR, BRANDON SCHEID, LOOKING LIKE HE’S GOING IN FOR SOME SCREAMING IN SQUAMISH…
S E A S O N A L M I G R A T I O N S When you spend a lot of time communicating with pro riders it doesn’t take long to realize that – like the weather patterns they chase – pro riders spend a significant portion of their lives traversing the planet, lost in the clouds, as they follow the seasons around the globe…
Another season which blips its way onto the kiteboarding radar at this time of year is Indonesia. It may be less of an event for the kiteboarding masses, but for pro waveriders it is open season on Indo barrels, as demonstrated by Rob Kidnie who has dedicated his life to the hunting of this Big Game of the oceans. We get his views from the inside looking out…
There are well trodden paths, some go in and out of favor (or a switch in the exchange rate brings them in or out of the picture) but there are some spots that are always on the radar. So – from October on – it’s all about Brazil for a couple of months. This we know from our Social Media channels, from the whereabouts of kiteboarding’s finest photographers, and from the content in magazines such as this one: Brazil is on!
Then Manuela Jungo heads to Sardinia where it’s not all about the kiting… A girl’s got to eat… And we also have some incredible insights into the length that brands go to in ensuring that our kit is ready for action and isn’t going to leave us hanging when we need it most. (Although if you check out ‘In 300 Words’ you can also find some heinous kitemare tales where things haven’t gone quite to plan.)
I guess the predictability of these annual migrations could result in a bit of “Brazil fatigue” though, which is why we are stoked at TheKiteMag to be able to work with guys like Andre Magarao who always manages to find a way to make things look fresh and interesting. This year the flashes are bigger and his expectations of the riders more extreme. Complete darkness is no longer a credible excuse for not going big. No chance.
So there is all of that and plenty more within our pages. And you don’t need to migrate anywhere to enjoy it. Just crack a beer and get stuck in...
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Enjoy, Alex
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INTERNALLY IT’S MADE WITH AN ESPECIALLY ENGINEERED QUICK DRYING LINEN THAT FEATURES TWO LAYERS OF FIBERS ON TOP OF EACH OTHER, WOVEN WITH A SQUARED PATTERN DESIGN THAT ALLOWS WATER TO FLOW THROUGH IT QUICKLY TO THE OUSTIDE AND DOWNWARDS. IT’S LIKE PULLING WATER TOWARDS THE OUTSIDE AND CHANNELING IT DOWNWARDS SO IT CAN DRY QUICKLY.
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www.nobilekiteboarding.com SHOP ONLINE: shop.nobilesports.com TheKiteMag | 17
S UBSC RIBE TO THE K IT E M AG EI GHT ISSUES PER Y EAR (that’s more than any other kiteboarding magazine)
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The Team: Editor: Alex Hapgood (editor@thekitemag.com) Sub editor: Cai Waggett Senior Correspondents: Toby Bromwich, Jason Keller Hudson, Brian Wheeler, Graham Howes Art Director: Jody Ward Assistant Art Director: Dave Clifford Contributors: Jason Wolcott, Svetlana Romantsova, Vincent Bergeron, Toby Bromwich, Josh Pietras, Franck Gazzola, Henning Nockel, Mitu Monteiro, Sam Light, Meerkite, Rob Kidnie, Andre Magarao, Manuela Jungo, James Boulding, Kitesista, Iain Hannay, Yaron Barlev, Tom Hebert, Ben Welsh. TheKiteMag is… WATER BORN Published by M E D I A in Hayle, Cornwall, United Kingdom. Advertising enquiries: advertising@thekitemag.com. All material in TheKiteMag is subject to copyright. Reproduction without the express permission of the publishers will result in prosecution. Submissions: Online: If you have a clip or would like to get something on the website please send it over to us: media@thekitemag.com. In the mag: TheKiteMag welcomes both written and photographic submissions. Photography should be submitted in both RAW and edited format. Please note that the publication of written content is generally dependent on the provision of high quality photography, so in the first instance please send photographic samples and a 150 word synopsis of your writing to: checkmeout@thekitemag.com You can find TheKiteMag on:
WH AT ARE YOU WA I T ING F OR? ! Get over to www.thekitemag.com/subscribe 18 | TheKiteMag
This magazine is printed on paper sourced from responsibly managed sources using vegetable based inks. Both the paper used in the production of this brochure and the manufacturing process are FSC® certified. The printers are also accredited to ISO14001, the internationally recognised environmental standard.
Introducing the NEW 2016 AXIS Kapua. Born from the desire for a feather weight surfboard that can stand up to the punishment of kiting. In an industry first we built this board using a high performance polypropylene fibre called Innegra which has outstanding impact and compressive strength properties. This results in a surfboard that is strong but light, so light that we named it ‘Kapua’, a Maori word meaning cloud. Each board is hand laminated with pigmented epoxy resin, so no two boards will ever look exactly the same. The Kapua also features a carbon fibre patch to further reduce compression under your front foot, which we’ve covered with a trippy white pattern to stop the black carbon melting your wax on a sunny day. Our global surf team have been testing, tuning, breaking and refining this family of shapes until we can’t think of anything left to improve. If strapless kite surfing is your thing, we designed the AXIS Kapua range to be the best thing you can put between your feet and the water. SIZES 6’0” x 18½” x 2¼” 25.3 ltrs Thruster 3 5’11” x 19¼” x 2 /8” 28.1 ltrs Quad 1 5’9” x 18½” x 2 /8” 23.6 ltrs Quad 5’7” x 18¼” x 21/8” 22.6 ltrs Quad 5’4” x 17½” x 2” 19.7 ltrs Quad
www.axiskiteboarding.com
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FOCUS
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RIDER
:
AIRTON
COZZOLINO
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PHOTO
:
TOBY
BROMWICH
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LOCATION
:
MAURITIUS
Airton had the difficult task recently of representing North Kiteboarding at their dealer meeting in Mauritius. Two weeks of chatting, smiling and getting stuck in to some of the well-known waves that the island has to offer – such as One Eye – as well as enjoying a few lesser known spots with just a couple of mates and a photographer… Not a bad ‘vacation’ then. He’s so relaxed in this shot that he’s forgotten the bar…
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FOCUS
RIDER AND WORDS : SAM MEDYSKY | PHOTO : JOSH PIETRAS | LOCATION : OLIPHANT, CANADA This was Noe’s third time visiting me at my home in Canada. We’d had a couple of weeks together working on a rail project with Craig Cunningham but unfortunately we only had two days of wind during Noe’s stay. This shot is from the last day. The winds were light but we made it work. This shot took a couple of attempts to get right – we had to time the take off so I didn’t land on Noe and also so he wasn’t too far away from the camera. After a few tries we managed to get the shot without any serious crashes and then we hit the road to the airport!
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RIDER AND WORDS : BEAU PILGRIM | PHOTO : FRANCK GAZZOLA | LOCATION : CLOUDBREAK There are many perks to the job of being a professional photographer, but calling Namotu Island Resort my office takes the cake. Having access to world class waves right on your doorstep, swimming and shooting in perfect underwater clarity and even scoring some time on the kite when the wind comes up, it makes work that much more enjoyable. For this session Franck Gazzola relieved me of my photography duties and I decided to change my flights and stay a few more days to make the most of a good swell and wind forecast. The forecast really delivered with three days of swell and howling wind. Mid-afternoon Tuesday on the low tide, I scored a dream session at Cloudbreak for 2 hours. All on my own and fully lit on my 6m Noise Pro. It was blowing about 30 knots and there was plenty of wide wash through the sets but nestled between the fat burgers were the hollow inside freight trains. I can still hear the sound of the barrels each time I look through the photos of the session. It was tricky getting under the lip with the offshore wind direction. I got my ass handed to me a couple of times trying to drop in from behind the section. It sure was a memorable session. I scored countless gems, totaled two boards and came away with some cracker shots thanks to Franck.
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RIDER AND WORDS : MARIO RODWALD | PHOTO : HENNING NOCKEL | LOCATION : PALM ROYALE RESORT, SOMA BAY Everyone has a friend who they’ve respected since the first second they met them. Henning Nockel
is one of those characters to me. Over the years we have become good friends and he has often given me good advice at critical points in my life. As a little fellow I admired him for his riding, and today I also admire his art behind the lens where he comes up with angles and perspectives that are pretty unique. Currently we are filming a documentary about my knee injury and the experience of coming back from this. This shot was part of that and, together with my sister, we had an incredible time in the Red Sea capturing all the fun above and underneath the water‌
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IN 300 WORDS
IN WOR DS
This issue we asked a load of riders to fill us in on their worst ‘kitemares’. It turns out that everyone has their favorite tale to tell and we were amazed by the response… So much so that we’ve added a few extra pages to this section. So get yourself settled down and ready to enjoy all of these “sheeesh, glad that wasn’t me!” moments… 30 | TheKiteMag
PHOTOS: JASON WOLCOTT A WAVE THAT DAN PATTERSON PROBABLY WISHED HE’D LET GO...
Alby One of my first years going to Brazil, me and my mate Riki grab our gear and hit this new lagoon with our buggy. After a half hour drive we got there and realized we forgot a pump! We started pumping with our mouth, until we just couldn’t blow air in anymore, the kites were soft but they could at least fly. So we drifted downwind in the lagoon to go to the little local village to go see if we could find something to pump them better. One guy had a pump for a bike, that wasn’t working, another guy had a pump to inflate car wheels. That was kind of working but it took us 20 minutes each to pump it and he even asked us for 50R$ each! So we finally got back to the lagoon and the wind had increased so much we could barely hold on to our 10m! After a little sesh, we were like, that’s it, it’s just not our day, let’s go home. We packed our gear, ready to go, but the buggy just wouldn’t start! The gas indicator was never working so, yah, maybe we were out of gas. We swam back to the lagoon and asked a local guy to go get some petrol at the closest gas station with his bike. Almost an hour later and he’s back with a couple of coke bottles with petrol inside. We swim back, put the petrol in, but the buggy still wouldn’t start. Kind of getting desperate. We tried push starting the thing, but it also wouldn’t start and we were actually sending it closer to the sea, where the tide was coming up. We were like: that’s it, let’s call some help. Riki, my friend, managed to call Gigi back at
the pousada, and after saying, “Ciao Gigi, we have a problem…” the battery of his phone died! It was now getting dark and the tide was starting to hit the wheels of the buggy, then we saw Gigi coming with the truck and his loud music. We got home and went straight to sleep… Scared something else would have happened!
Rob Kidnie My worst kitemare scenario which has happened a few times would have to be coming in on a solid wave, head high or more at low tide. Feeling nervous as you see the water drain and boil off the reef. Only to feel at the crucial moment when you do a bottom turn, all the power vanish from the kite. The lines instantly going slack leaving the kite too high and you getting pushed under it, then having the mountain of water behind crush you into the reef. But this is only the beginning of the kitemare. After finally surfacing from bouncing around the reef you discover that you are now wrapped in your lines, with only a few seconds to take a breath before the next wave of the set up unloads on you. And here I let your imagination ponder over what can happen when the power of a big wave pulls the lines whilst they are wrapped around one of your limbs... At this stage bouncing off the low tide reef will be the least of your worries!
Mitu Once upon a time, many years ago back in 2010, Mitu Monteiro finds himself in Mauritius for the yearly F-One meeting. As everybody knows, One Eye can offer great conditions, but that day was the hugest I had ever seen there. Walls of water were breaking on the reef producing a noise similar to a bomb and the red code had been given. Why was I still on the shore and not surfing those bombs? There was no wind! I was frustrated…
In the afternoon, some breeze rose up, and I couldn’t wait a second more to go in. As usual I took my 8m and Etienne, Raphaël Salles and I all rode in the direction of One Eye. The plan was to go to One Eye and then slowly descend to Ambulant, another spot more downwind where we were supposed to find more wind and a more manageable wave. We suddenly faced a problem: walls of water were closing heavily in front of us, not giving us any way to get out. The boat bringing the cameraman was in the same position. Eventually we took advantage of a smaller set and we found our way through the reef. Ok, now we were out, but the wind looked like it had remained in the lagoon! On each wave the kite seemed like it would fall down. I was not able to properly ride the wave, but was just trying to keep the kite in the air and not crash it into the water. The situation was getting too dangerous there, so we tried to go more downwind to Ambulant as planned. But down there the huge waves didn’t let the wind enter properly and we were struggling so much that I communicated to Raphaël that we should go back before someone really got hurt. But going back looked like an impossible mission! After almost an hour that for me lasted forever, we get close to One Eye again and there we start trying to make our way into the lagoon. The sets were so big and the wind so light that we had to surf upwind until we got to the impact zone, then cross the reef and finally safely into the lagoon. And as soon as we got in the lagoon all 3 kites fell out of the sky! That day we were very lucky….
Youri Zoon My worst kitemare was back in 2005. I smashed down on the water and my body just stopped. I was knocked out with no heartbeat, no nothing, but luckily my dad was there on the beach. He directly gave me CPR and back I was again! I wanted to go straight out on the water but my Dad said that would not be a smart idea…
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IN 300 WORDS
Dimitri Maramenides I have been asked to write few words about my worst ever Kitemare… Well I have had so many life and death kitemare situations that I don’t know which one to talk about! Landing on trees, hitting the roof of a house whilst doing a Coke commercial, getting eaten by big waves a mile out to sea while the kite was in the water, having one of my lines wrapped around my leg while in the water, breaking my ribs, and so on… But maybe let’s talk about my most recent one that happened during Hurricane Joaquin. That day I decided to venture into the ocean because the waves were out of control while Hurricane Joaquin was very far out to sea. But what I did not realize was how much debris was floating in the water because the ocean was just a washing machine… But I called a photographer and we went for it. He thought I was nuts. There was no beach left, only houses falling into the sea and debris getting washed out on the beach. I finally launch my 8m SURF kite. It was blowing 22 to 42 knots, but with lots of current and lots of broken waves. So I had to get as much power as possible to pass all this. The problem was trying to avoid these big logs coming at you on the beach. Plus I was pinned down between the water and the remains of the houses since there was no beach left. So I was like a sitting duck. That day I almost got hit 6 times by these huge bits of debris, and even when you were able to pass the shore break with all the debris, you then had to watch out and avoid them in the water. After I was done with that crazy session I had to retire my surfboard because the bottom was totally gone from hitting all that debris.
Abel The big fear I always have is to kitesurf on big waves with side to onshore conditions and run too fast down the line and start to lose
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tension in the lines. If the kite crashes on the same wave that you’re surfing and you go too fast you can easily run into the lines and have a big wipe out and tangle. It almost happened to me on my last trip to Mauritius where I crashed in to a tube and my kite crashed into the back of the wave and then the next wave broke on me. I released the leash of my board and the safety of my bar but I got tangled with my harness… luckily for me I was able to release my harness too and get free of all the lines and my kite – that’s why I never use kite leashes on big waves.
Jason Slezak My worst kitemare was not as death defying as many others out there. I have for sure got tangled with other kiters, had my bar stuck on razor sharp reefs and at the Cape Hatteras Wave Classic this year I even got pushed through a jagged barnacle covered jetty and then had to battle back through rushing current and powerful breaking waves in order to cut the flying lines as they had snagged on the jetty! But for me my worst – or at least most memorable – was back in 2001 when I got my first North Rhino prototype 16m… Which at the time was the biggest kite I had ever flown and was so stoked to ride it that I went out on a solo ocean downwinder in wind that was, arguably, a bit too light and then switched more offshore. These were the days of riding with no leash and I had unhooked and then had the bar ripped out of my hands. So I watched for a quick minute as my kite was blowing away further offshore, and then decided to swim to shore, run down the beach, and then try to swim out to the kite. I could get within 1 or 2 meters of the bar and then the kite would tumble away from me. This happened over and over again, and then I gave up and went back to shore. Some tourists had been watching me, and offered their kayak to try and get it. So again I went out and could not paddle fast enough to get it. So as the sun was setting I watched my
brand new 16m kite drift out into the darkness and off towards the UK across the pond. Knowing that there is a large offshore fishing community I put out the word that I had lost a kite, and over 10 days later a fishing boat found my kite over 30 kilometers offshore! The captain had a little kite knowledge so was able to retrieve it, deflate it, coil up the lines and bring it on to the boat and back to the dock. In the end I got my kite back for a 12 pack of cold Corona beers and a thank you. And it was in perfect working order!
Keahi de Aboitiz It was all fun and games in Morocco earlier this year. Carl Ferreira had his GoPro and there was a bunch of us messing around after the VKWC competition. We were all having a rest on the beach and – as Nick (Jacobsen) always does – he felt it would be a good idea to jump over all our kites. As it always does, things escalated and it seemed like a good idea to stack a couple kites on top of each other on the water. Nick cleared them a few times then the inevitable finally happened. Nick wanted to focus on getting a better shot and ended up going through the lines of the last 2 kites. It should have been simple enough to get out of but once one kite was released it turned into a big death looping mess. As bad as it was, the whole thing was kind of hilarious. I’m pretty sure I saw Carl’s kite do the biggest loop I’ve seen with his bar wrapped through my bar with 2 full line lengths. Luckily when his kite hit the water someone was able to grab it and deflate it. In the end we all got out with no injuries or broken gear but a nice long swim back to the beach is never fun. Still it made for a good clip… www.youtube.com/ watch?v=RX9j7GKwBHw
Christophe Tack Mine was on a windy day back in the summer of 2005 when kites had no depower (the good
old days!). Being young and light I wasn’t allowed to go out and kite with my 5m. So my brother Axel went out on my 5. So we all went and he had a fun session. Together with the crew in our surf club in Ostend we looked on at how my brother couldn’t stand still and was getting dragged towards us. Right about when one of us was about to grab and land the kite, a tourist went behind Axel and pulled his full weight on the left hand side of the bar in an attempt to stop Axel from sliding further! My brother got catapulted 10m in the air, collapsed on the impact (luckily on his feet, kind of…) and was able to release the kite. We all just freaked out, I thought my brother died, my kite (now I don’t care at all about the equipment at this point, but as a kid it’s your little treasure) flew away and got ripped really bad. Afterwards everything was a bit of a blur… It was such a hectic situation, some went raging towards this tourist, some were checking out Axel, others running behind the kite, there was too much happening – I didn’t know what to do. Looking back and we all laugh about this accident, and I’m just stoked I can still share sessions with my brother!
Susi Mai My worst kitemare ever was when I was in St. Barths, shooting the first ever Crossbow and Switchblade kites with Dre. We were at the ‘Grand Cul de Sac’, way out on a sandbank where the wind was onshore but we were quite far from shore. I did an unhooked kite loop and somehow one of the lines wrapped around the side of the bar and ripped everything out of my hand. I was being pulled backwards, attached to a sketchy bow prototype corkscrewing its way through the air. This was back in the day when our suicide leashes had metal snapshackles that only sometimes opened under pressure, and of course mine had never been checked so it was stuck. The kite keeps looping around
itself, never hitting the water like a C kite would, and before I knew it I was heading for the shore. I saw Dre out of the corner of my eye at the beach, running towards where he thought I would hit. He was too far, and so I braced for impact, thinking I was definitely going to hit one of the objects on the beach (boats, little kids, chairs, etc). When I stopped, I looked around and saw that my kite had landed on the roof of a restaurant and that I was halfway in it. Phew. I got lucky that time and nothing happened, but I was definitely shaken and will never forget the moment of panic that rushed through me when I realized I was attached to a tornado and had no way to let go!
Craig Cunningham One day years ago a friend of mine broke his leash and I went to go pick him up. He grabbed the back of my harness and when I looped my kite (not North at that time!) it blew apart into two pieces. I got a new kite that day and the next day went out for a session with the boys. At that time we were all riding boots even though the gear wasn’t built to take that type of beating and we were all breaking kit like crazy. This time a different friend broke his leash and his kite was drifting away. Medysky went to go retrieve the kite while I was going to give our friend a lift downwind. “Here we go” I said as I sent the kite hard enough to pop us both out of the water and watched as my brand new kite blew apart in two pieces. Again. Lovely.
knots. I just went straight up, super high in the air, I had no quick release (kites didn’t have them) but I thought as soon as I touch the water I will just unhook... The only problem was that I didn’t touch the water, I just went straight back up another 30ft in the air. This happened once or twice more, which is when I decided I will just have to unhook and fall out of the sky. I unhooked on the way down but by this point I was over the beach and I landed on my feet in the sand whilst my kite got snagged in a huge tree. I honestly thought I was going to die that day, everything went so slow and I was even thinking about how the newspaper would be reporting about a kid dying kitesurfing after landing in some trees! I was definitely more scared to kite after that…
Julien Fillion Oh boy, usually kitemares are caused by the kite, but I’m touching wood and it has never happened to me in 15 years of kiteboarding. Although, I have had several late-in-the-day sessions with the offshore wind completely shutting down with an outgoing tide. I can remember one, shooting with the NPX crew in Stiltsville, Florida, where I had to climb onto a channel marker post in the middle of nowhere and wait an hour to be rescued! Thank God that channel marker was there, otherwise it would have been next stop Cuba.
Alexander Lewis-Hughes Back in the early days all I had was a 15.5m (21m) Cab Black tip. I was all of about 50kgs and the shop told me it was a good learner’s kite! I could only ride when there were no white caps, so I could only ride when no one else could! One day I was in the middle of a big lake in about 10 knots of wind when the wind picked up all of a sudden to around 30
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IN 300 WORDS
Jesse Richman I was 15, we were at lanes on Maui, the waves were huge (15-20 foot faces) the wind was 2040 knots offshore. My brother, Pete Cabrinha and myself were going to try it. Pete went first, he sliced a vein in his foot on the way out... Came in, straight to the hospital. I went out next on a 4m and made it to the outside when a monster set rolled in. Inconveniently, right then the wind died… My kite fell in the water and I watched a bomb break over it... That was the day I learned about big waves and grew an appreciation of their power. I got super pounded and tangled in my lines on the first wave, then on the second wave I was able to get away from the kite and lines… Then, on the long swim in, I laughed as I saw Shawn get totally cleaned up in about 5 minutes flat.
Patri McLaughlin “It’s a toss-up for me. I lost the tip of my pinky finger when it got tangled up in some lines. However, I think the worst kitemare I had was kiting in onshore wind in a tropical storm. I got lofted into a fence and knocked out for ten minutes. When I woke up I was laying in the back of a truck and the ambulance had just pulled up. I went to the hospital, but luckily I didn’t have any major injuries.
Colleen Carroll I was riding in Cauipe Lagoon, Brazil, on a Sunday, which is especially busy. I was just about to relaunch my kite when an upwind kiter came crashing down on me, tangling my kite as well as that of another nearby kiter. Our three kites were spiraling quickly downwind towards the barraca which was packed with weekend partiers. I was attempting to untangle our bars when the kite crasher looked up at me in shock and released his kite just as I had my hands
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intertwined in our lines and almost had us untangled. The released kite crashed to the water for a split second on its way to start another spiral and I was able to push the bar through my lines releasing it fully from the tangle. The third kite went sailing over the barraca and the other kiter and myself were able to easily untangle ourselves…
Tom Herbert Let’s chat about the kite line body tangle in a 5 meter swell! As a normal weekend in New Caledonia, my friend and I went to Tenia island which is close to the reef barrier. We normally go there to chill with friends and go kite on the waves. The spot is insanely good with turquoise water, good wind, and excellent swell conditions. This day was a pretty big day, around 3-5m on the sets. I had a good session until I dropped my kite just before a big set... A big wave caught my kite and brought it back into my face, I tried to dive as far down as I could but it was too late. You know the power that a kite has when it’s inside a wave and it’s pulling you under the water like a floating anchor? The only thing that I remember was that both of my legs and one of my arms was completely wrapped with lines and the pull was so strong that I was feeling the lines cutting through my skin. I finally managed to get rid of my harness, bar, lines and board leash, and made it back up to the surface. It was one of those days when you thought your time had come!
Mario Rodwald My worst ever ‘kitemare’ was when I had just finished high school and was looking forward to my first trip around the world. I had been excited about ‘living the dream’ for a very long time and I started my new
freedom with a trip around the world. Without much money in my pocket I asked the travel agent to book the cheapest connections possible. When I arrived at the airport (with my final destination being Argentina), they told me I would travel via Hamburg, Frankfurt, Toronto and Santiago de Chile to Buenos Aires! So after 48 hours I arrived at the airport in Buenos Aires, but then I just missed the bus so had to wait an extra day to get on the 22 hour bus ride to Bariloche. For sure I wasn´t scared to death, but almost four days on public transport without a shower or a bed (and losing my luggage) was a true nightmare I will never forget!
Matchu This year I had one while riding in Ponta Preta with Inês Correia’s kite. That day we had side offshore perfectly clean waves of around 12 to 17 Hawaiian feet. I went out for a sunset session and after a while I got a solid wave where I went for a backside barrel. Suddenly my kite fell down behind the wave and I just got smashed by it. I had my surfboard leash tangled around my legs so I couldn’t move much. When I came out of the mess I saw my kite right in front of another huge wave coming towards me. I was trying to relaunch the kite but there was no wind between the waves and the lines were right in front of me so I had to release it as quickly as possible and swim under the wave. I felt really lucky when I came up and I saw the kite still in front of me. It actually went over this second wave while I was under it… Inês was there on the rocks biting her elbows and probably saying something like, “never ever, again!”
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BOARD: MITU MONTEIRO PRO MODEL
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The man, the legend, Mitu Monteiro talks about the board that doesn’t look like it should rip, but that really does… We first began looking at the board about 5 years ago. Raphaël Salles and I started exchanging some ideas about a ‘different’ board and I told him my ideas about a “perfect” board. He didn’t lose any time and on the next trip he brought me the first prototype! I tried it and gave him my feedback, and so we did for all the following prototypes. We worked on that board for almost 2 years before we finally got to the one we decided was the right one, the first Mitu Monteiro pro model in 2014. I was so proud to have the opportunity. I was spending the whole day in the water testing boards and it was the first time I was riding not for surfing but to get a better understanding of the board. I wanted to catch all the subtleties, the small differences. In Sal I had the chance to be able to test them in all kind of conditions. I was riding Kite Beach in the morning with side on wind and choppy waves and then running to Ponta Preta in the afternoon to see how they were working in side-off wind and big waves. My clients attending my wave clinics also gave feedback which really helped. Even if they weren’t pro, for some it was even their first time on a wave board and it was their opinion that we needed as well. We wanted to give birth to a real versatile board… Our goal has been to create a board that would fit all conditions and adapt to all levels: beginner and pro; freestyle and wave riding; choppy and extreme conditions… We started from my preferred 6’2 model and to make it shorter we cut the nose and rounded the outline. We call it a ‘compact shape’ and this allows you to have the stability of a 6’2 board but in a 5’10. When surfing it turns sharper, and for strapless jumps a shorter board is easier to control. The first model was made with a bamboo sandwich construction because it was a strong material, but for the past two seasons we have used
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a high density foam sandwich process. This allows us to have the best strength and a nice flex as well which brings a lot of comfort and a really nice feel to the board. The bottom shape is based around a big single concave that gives speed and acceleration, while the rounded outline gives the turning ability. The rails are quite thin at the back for control and grip, which is also important to get the pop for jumps, and they have more volume in the front to hold the pressure during bottom turns. The outline is quite wide to provide easy planing and good speed ability but it also makes the board very intuitive to use. Then there is the Camel Deck design to give comfort to your front foot and lock it into position. This overall shape makes it rideable by anyone. I’ve ridden the board at massive One Eye, the legendary Teahupoo and the biggest swells in Ponta Preta. I’ve tested it in such extreme conditions and it made it! I won’t pretend it is perfect for waves like Teahupoo, but I can definitely say that it adapts really well to all of these waves and most important, it allows me to have just one board with me. For years I would take the deckpad off boards because I liked the feeling of having my feet directly on the board, like surfing. Then in 2012 I broke my ligaments because my foot slid on the wax and from that day on I used the deckpad. Now I have to admit that actually it’s really good! During long sessions and also for freestyle and in the chop it softens the landings and makes the feet feel more comfortable. Also underneath the front foot area there is a second layer of EVA foam to give even more comfort. We have a new size - the 5’4 for 2016 to offer an even more compact board. Also for 2016 the bigger sizes have a little less concave on the tail, and the smaller sizes a little more rocker on the tail. The overall goal was to increase the turning ability across the sizes.
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W E I G H T: 7 9 K G
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H E I G H T: 5 ’ 8 ( W I T H O U T T H E H A I R ! )
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TA N G L E D
SAM LIGHT
L I N E S
T H E T H R E E -T I M E T R I P L E - S W I N N E R A N D U N D I S P U T E D K I N G O F T H E PA R K TA K E S T H E H OT S E AT.
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Alex Fox You once asked me what I would do without kiteboarding... What on earth would you be doing!?
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I think I would have always pursued what I enjoy doing, and I think if you really go for it it’s going to take you somewhere cool. I hope I’d be another professional sportsman – I always wanted to be a pro skateboarder growing up. But I’m so grateful I followed kiteboarding, it’s taken me to some of the most amazing places in the world whereas skateboarders just hang out in the street! I enjoyed media a lot at college, so I think I would have probably gone into filming or photography at university if I didn’t follow sport.
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Craig Cunningham Where do you see the wakestyle and park riding scenes going?
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There’s a great future for park riding – there are more wakestyle boards than ever and everyone rides bindings now. Even a few years ago you could count the number of parks on one hand. Now there are loads of parks and 3 or 4 established events a year with a few new events that have a lot of potential, such as the event in the Philippines this January, the Hood River Slider Jam, and an event I am involved in making happen in Kenya. I think there’s such a good crew coming through the ranks now it’s in good hands – we are the generation who need to make it happen! The problem is the variables that affect the rail or kicker, such as tide, wind and waves, but if you have the right location you can attract a lot of people as it’s much easier for regular kiters to commit to a small slider than it is to try a Backmobe for example. We just need to focus on explaining it to the general public as best as possible through live streams – like Street League skateboarding. And watch this space as we’re on the verge of creating our own tour…
And also... One of my favorite aspects of trips with you is that you have to literally be pried out of the water. Why don’t you let everyone in on that constant dynamic? I get so sucked into the session with my music on, and during a product shoot I want to do the job the best I possibly can. I understand how much money goes into a shoot so I want to bust my balls to make the most of everybody’s time and maximize the amount of media I can get during the shoot. I do get a hard time from the team for ‘short tacking’ and being a media whore but hey, don’t hate the player, hate the game! I ain’t going to hang about for you to mince around, you got to hustle to get a spot in the lineup or you’ll get left behind!
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Trip Foreman You’ve been on a roll at the Triple-S with multiple combined and slider titles? Have you ever added up your total earnings at the event? I know, I still don’t quite believe it when I think about it! I’ve won overall 3 years in a row now but I can’t remember how much I won the first year. It’s definitely over $20k in total…
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Sam Medysky What percent cable verse kite riding would you say you do today?
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It really depends where I am. When I’m at home I probably ride the cable more, I try to go at least once a week unless it’s windy. At home we get frontal wind conditions so we’ll get good wind for a week or two then it might not be windy for another few weeks, so being able to ride consistently on the cable helps keep my fitness level and board skills up. I only spend around 4-5 months in the UK a year and whenever I’m away I’m on a kite trip though, so overall I’d still say I kite more than I cable.
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Eric Rienstra Who is more famous, Justin Bieber or the Queen of England? If I had a pound for every time we have had this discussion I would be a rich man! This is a longstanding argument between team Slingshot, it does depend what context ‘more famous’ means. I stand firm that more people know The Queen of England exists than Justin Bieber exists. I think with aging populations around the world more people will know the Queen of England exists, as the British colony stretched over 458 million people in 1922 – one fifth of the world’s population! Yes Justin Bieber has more Twitter followers than there are people in England, but I still think more people know the Queen.
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Tom Court
What’s your policy on naming tricks after yourself ? Surely we are going to see one soon...
All the basic tricks have already been done, most NBD’s (never been done’s) I’ve landed are just extensions to existing tricks such as the rewind variations, or tricks that had been landed wakeboarding but not kiteboarding. I’m not sure there’s any need to name it after yourself but I think if you’re the first to land it first in competition or on video you should have the right to come up with a name for it.
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P R O FI L E
# M EER KI T E
al a s pe r u su K illin g it
Getsom e #Broo mStickMafia
# M ee rK # T hu gL if it ePro b le m s e #Fo ilFa ce Ha ngi ng wit h Sa bo
. mn I loo k go od Po st se ssi on . Dage nd # K iteBe a chLe
m e out ro ch ec ki ng Ju lia Ca st chSe xSy m bo l ea # K it eB
A LEGEND IN HIS OWN TIME, MEERKITE LIVES THE KIND OF ‘PRO KITER’ LIFE THAT MOST OF US CAN ONLY DREAM OF. LIFE’S NOT WITHOUT ITS CHALLENGES THOUGH – TIME TO CATCH UP WITH MEERKITE AND FIND OUT #WHATSUP? Facebook tells us that you first arrived on 22 May 2015. Was this when you first started kiting or when you first discovered Facebook? Facebook discovered me, then quickly deleted my account for not being a real person #MeerkiteProblems. You spend a lot of time in Hood River – how is the scene there? I call Seattle my home, but Hood River is my second home and I love it there. Good people, good wine and free burro parking at the event site are just a few of the things that make Hood River #MeerkiteApproved. [Note for our European readers: a burro is a small donkey.]
Liquid Force seem to have you on a pretty tight contract. Do you have a good relationship with them and have any other brands tried to poach you? Liquid Force are family to me. They have been great to me although, truth be told, I picked them… As for other brands trying to poach me let’s just say I am the #KiteBeachLegend. Is the #meerkini custom built or off the peg? You can’t buy sexiness like this at the store. The meerkini is custom built. Any issues with chaffing? Is that a joke?
You get to travel a lot as well and even have your own private plane. How do meerkats do with jetlag? Jetlag is an issue. That is why my preferred mode of transport is a burro.
You seem to be generally pretty into headwear with a different hat every day, is this because you like hats or you have a receding hairline? No comment.
Life’s not all cruisey though. You have a pretty rough time with #BroomStickMafia. Why does she seem to have it in for you? She may or may not be an ex-lover.
Mrs Meerkite pops up occasionally but you often seem to be mixing it up with other girls at the beach. Any marital problems we should know about? It is a well-known fact that the ladies love meerkite. Can you blame them? With that in mind Mrs Meerkite understands that it’s all part of being married to a #KiteBeachSexSymbol.
Who are your main homies in Hood River? And who’s the best and worst person to go for a drink with? There are so many Hood River homies but you can usually catch me killing it with Scheid and putting on clinics for Sabo. Speaking of Sabo, he is my best and worst drinking buddy. Most of the time drinking with him is cool, but him and Tekko did once leave me drunk and stranded in La Ventana.
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And plans for the future – do you have a board, hat, or foil range lined up? There has been talk of a Liquid Force Meerkite Pro model, but I don’t think the world is quite ready for a twin tip marketed at that level of riding. Do keep an eye out for 2016 Meerkite stickers though and maybe even some apparel. #GetSome.
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STUFF
S T U F F W E L I K E T H E L O O K O F
Best Roca Kicking off the 2016 season with an all-new kite, Best introduce the Roca. Named after the main stomping ground of the Best R&D team – Cabo da Roca – the Roca has freeride at its core but isn’t designed to be a ‘soft’ option. There is quick turning and depower for the waves and plenty of grunt for all you boosters out there…
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ION Fuse If you’re somewhere north of the equator then there is no denying it: winter cometh. And thankfully, the Fuse also cometh. This is top end toastie-tech and built to handle the harshest environments... Beyond the tech there is also a storm whistle and a Hero Meter which will tell you if it is ‘a bit chilly’ or ‘better call the hospital’ cold…
Peter Lynn Fury The Fury is a 5 strut powerhouse. Designed to be ridden at full power and with nothing left to spare, it’s a no compromise grunt machine. Whether you are looking to boost super big, scream around the race course, or just have an incredibly stable and well-tuned freeride machine, the Fury delivers.
4-strut LEI
All-round / Free ride
“Made to make you look good�
5m2 7m2 9m2 11m2 13m2 The Escape makes it easy to bust out your raddest moves. It inspires you to progress and have fun!
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STUFF
Ozone Catalyst In the year that Back to the Future became the present, Ozone take the Catalyst V1 back to its original ‘truly accessible’ roots – back to being the kind of kite you want to teach your mates with. And if you loved the Catalyst of the last couple of years DO NOT FEAR, the Enduro is a brand new kite arriving from Ozone to take on the ‘performance’ tag.
Slingshot Misfit When it comes to producing beautiful looking boards, Slingshot always deliver. This 2016 Misfit is no exception with stunning graphics and the kind of attention to artistic detail that could see it in the Tate Modern. It’s not all looks though – the Misfit is ‘all things to all men’ and is the ultimate freeride machine packed full of Slingshot tech and designed to deliver wherever you take it.
Core Sensor Pro Weighing in at under 200 grams the Sensor Pro is as light as they come – it’s pretty staggering. It’s also supplied with Tectanium® Lines which are 10% lighter with a 50% higher breaking load… But the innovation doesn’t end there: you have Core’s Auto Untwist which has been a key feature since day one: no more manually spinning the front lines, and the safety line also doesn’t sag either. So we are looking at a clean, tidy, and feather light control system.
Flysurfer Viron2 DLX The Viron has set the benchmark for ‘quality’ trainer kites and this latest evolution sees an even more refined product. With improved water relaunch, a triple depower system and intuitive handling, it’s a great kite for schools and for introducing people to the joys of wind power. And give it a fly yourself to be transported back to those first few times you felt the power of a kite…
North Pro Surf Yes, this looks like a nicely conceived high performance shortboard – another great shape from Sky Solbach and guaranteed to deliver in ‘quality’ surf. Then you pick it up and it is actually REALLY LIGHT! North have bitten the bullet and come up with a light construction which is strong, but has no warranty. Hallelujah! There’s a lot of clever thinking at work to keep weight down – including a carbon strip on the base – but the upshot is that this genuinely feels and flexes like a PU surfboard...
Blade Skinny Boy The Skinny Boy just has one purpose in life: to shred waves. Designed in conjunction with Brazilian ripper Stephan Figueiredo, the Skinny Boy delivers solid low end to keep you powered in marginal and onshore conditions, but also has all of the depower you need to really switch the kite off and let your board skills do the talking. A true surfer’s kite.
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stripped down A TRADITIONAL SURFBOARD VS. LIGHT TEAM CONSTRUCTION
Conventional Wood Stringer: > Foam compresses around stringer forming a hard ridge that leads to breakage
Optimized rail wrapping lamination for better torsional flex. Enhancing the boards ability to: > Absorb bumps > Project out of turns
Easy heel dents
Lightweight EPS foam core permits the use of stronger epoxy resin and added reinforcements: > Much stronger > Same weight > Long lasting performance
Heavier, high density polyurethane foam core limits the amount of reinforcements possible without significant weight gain. Polyester is prone to microfracturing, leading to loss of strength and performance over time.
Lightweight carbon stringer: > Stiff linear flex > Positive, very lively feel
Glass reinforcements only
Natural cork reinforcements: > Help prevent heel dents > Provide dampening for maximum comfort
A DVA N TAG E S O F L I G H T T E A M CO N ST RU C T I O N 1. PRECISION CNC MILLED CORE AND MOLD ENSURE 100% ACCURACY OF AN EXACT REPLICA OF OUR TEAM’S SHAPE OF CHOICE.
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2 . ST R E N G T H -TO -W E I G H T R AT I O THROUGH OPTIOMIZED RESIN FLOW AND THE USE O F E P O X Y, T H E B O A R D I S L I G H T E R , B U T S T R O N G E R THAN CUSTOM PU BOARDS.
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3. FEELING MORE RESPONSIVE FEELING AND LONGER LASTING PERFORMANCE.
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STUFF
Liquid Force Legacy When you put together one of the most respected boards of all time, the Legacy, one of the most respected riders of all time, Jason Slezak, and mix them up with a whole lot of 2015 tech and materials what do you get? Err, the Legacy. But this is the NEW Legacy and it means serious futuristic business… Check it out – a thing of beauty.
CrazyFly Cruze The Cruze is a pure light wind thoroughbred. Available in 15, 17 and 19m it’s designed for those days when only a big kite will do. The weight has been stripped back, but 5 struts and Teijin cloth ensure that the Cruze is still super stable even on those exceptionally light days… We are pretty close to there never being ‘not enough wind’ days, and kites like the Cruze are the reason why.
F-ONE Diablo Rarely has a kite arrived on the scene and made such an immediate impression. F-ONE’s Diablo has taken the race world by storm and has guided Maxime Nocher to the Foil title in 2015 as well as to numerous Formula wins. Exciting times in the world of racing right now, and the Diablo is in the driving seat.
Axis New Wave 2016 The New Wave shifts to a thruster set up for 2016 and is all about true surf flexibility. With the recessed deck and EVA grip you’ll find yourself nicely locked in and ready to let loose in the waves, and you’ll be comfortable from knee high through to ‘nicely rippable’... Whether you ride it strapped or strapless, this is Axis: expect well-tuned surf perfection.
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RRD Global Bar The Global bar has received a whole lot of love from the RRD crew over the last few months and takes a massive step forward for 2016. There is a thinner diameter bar, a new stopper, and an entirely reworked safety system which the guys at RRD are very stoked about. All round it’s a great looking piece of kit and looks set to really do the RRD kite range justice for 2016.
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ON THE LIST
O N
T H E
tarifa L I ST
Never let it be said that we are not a little bit behind the curve here at TheKiteMag. While the main summer surge has left Tarifa we thought it would be a good idea to put it ‘on the list’. Ready for next summer. Although (sshhhh) rumor has it that November and December can be the best months of the year… PHOTOS: BEN WELSH
So, Tarifa is in Europe, which says to me 1) probably a bit inconsistent, 2) probably a bit pricey, 3) probably a bit busy… Well, that’s a bit of a negative attitude… And wrong in 2 out of 3 cases. 1) If you head to Tarifa in the European summer you are pretty much guaranteed wind. The Poniente (windy) and Levante (nuclear) winds consistently blast the beaches of the town and the surrounding area. It’s the windiest place in Europe and no less consistent than Brazil or Cape Town… 2) True, it costs more than an Acai based diet and a $20 a night pousada, but if you’re in Europe you can fly there for less than the cost of a new harness, and if you’re from further afield you can just buy a beat up van and park it by the beach… 3) Yes, you’ve got me there. It can be ‘a bit busy’. So when’s the busiest season? From late June through to the start of September the place is pretty stacked. In the water can be crazy busy – and a bit like a warzone with what seems like hundreds of schools and hundreds of amped up Europeans pulling their biggest tricks as close as they can to the beach… BUT you don’t have to go to Valdevaquero… There are much quieter beaches if you spend a little bit of time in the car. Also, if you think you can hack it in the clubs as well as on the beach, then there’s nowhere better to be in the height of summer… 48 | TheKiteMag
That sounds intriguing – tell me more… Well ‘early’ evenings in Tarifa begin in the bars… There are plenty to choose from and it’s pretty standard to get around 4 or 5 before 1am. But that is just the beginning. Then it’s on to La Ruina for ‘the start’ of the night – until maybe 3 or 4 – and then on to either Mombassa or Cafe del Mar which should do you until sunrise. Sheesh, and then on the water for 9am?! Ah, no, when you choose a ‘perfect kiting destination’ it obviously can’t get windy before midday and Tarifa delivers in that department. Plenty of time for a lazy breakfast, a few coffees and maybe a Bloody Mary before you’re expected back on the beach.
TA R I FA
LIA M WH A LE Y B E ATS TH E C R OWDS BY WA ITING U NTIL E V E RYONE E LS E IS IN B E D...
It sounds like quite a well-trodden path. It certainly is! Tarifa has been a hotspot for those with windsports in their veins since the 80s when our windsurfing brothers realized the potential of the place… Although the number of people on the water has increased a hundredfold, there is still that vibe about the place: it’s all about the wind. With that much wind and a bit of history it sounds like the locals must be pretty handy? Indeed, maybe you have heard of world champions Gisela Pulido and Alex Pastor? Or of Liam Whaley? There is a pretty astounding number of groms who have grown up in Tarifa and who have gone on to great things. But there are lots of other windy places which don’t produce many top quality riders..? Yes, this is true. Some say that this is down to Tarifa’s real range of conditions: from 5m choppy-and-gusty-as-hell Levante sessions through to perfect 12m flatwater sessions. You can get those extremes and everything in between in the space of a week in Tarifa. So it is great training for the multitude of conditions that the World Tour serves up over the course of a competitive season…
V ITAL S GETTING THERE: If you’re flying from out of Europe then get yourself to a European hub and then it’s a short haul to one of the close-ish airports. Malaga, Seville, Jerez or (at a push) Faro are your best options. If you’re in a van on a Euro tour 1) Lucky you! 2) Just find the E-7 and keep on trucking… IN THE BAG: If it’s summer then think small. Put that 5m in your hand luggage. Then definitely a 7 and 9m… There are wave options too. Just throwing that in the mix. NOT IN THE BAG: You can leave your 17m at home. Or take it with you, head out on a Levante day, and end your time on Earth confidently in the clear at the top of the WOO leaderboard. RUBBER: Maybe a 3/2, maybe a shortie, maybe a tee. You get the picture. B E E R : €2.50 / $3
Cool, sounds awesome, book me in… You’d better get on it early and get yourself booked up for 2016. Tarifa is no secret and the primo accommodation books out early. But if you’re planning on partying all night maybe you can get away with sleeping on the beach…
M O S T L I K E LY T O H E A R : I’ve got sand in my eyes. L E A S T L I K E LY T O H E A R : Early night for me I think.
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WITH SSF SAFETY
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Photos: Thorsten Indra
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50 | TheKiteMag
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CONFESSIONS OF A BARREL HUNTER Rob Kidnie slots firmly in the ‘I just want to be in the water’ family of Planet Earth dwellers. Or, more precisely: ‘I just want to be in the water in a barrel’. An experienced surfer, his sketchy early kiting experiences didn’t put him off and he can now count himself amongst the barrel riding elite of the sport. The fact that this is the case and he also happens to spend a lot of time in Indo is no coincidence.
PHOTOS: JASON WOLCOTT
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CONFESSIONS OF A BARREL HUNTER
Hey
Rob, thanks for taking the time out to talk to us. First up for anyone not familiar with you, can you tell us a little bit about where you are from and when you began kiting?
I’m from the northern beaches of Sydney, Australia. I have surfed all my life and been involved in all sorts of watersports, including sailing, diving and spearfishing. I always wanted to learn to windsurf but never really got the opportunity. Then when I first saw kiting I knew I would have to try it. I didn’t have much money at the time so I bought some cheap gear off eBay and started to teach myself. In hindsight this was a really false economy! Any money I saved on lessons I spent double getting the kite repaired and was pretty lucky not to seriously hurt myself. On top of that it took me so long to learn and I nearly gave up. Especially learning in Sydney’s north because the wind is pretty crap and the beaches are not beginnerfriendly at all. 54 | TheKiteMag
So how did you end up with a kite school in Vietnam?! I love traveling Asia and especially Indonesia for surfing. It is so close to Australia with cheap flights and an even cheaper cost of living. So it is easy to spend months there at a time surfing the best waves of your life with other passionate surfers and travelers. But when the rainy season comes in December and being totally surfed out it is time to move on. So I was looking for a windy place close by to get stuck into my kiting. I was either going to go to the Philippines or Vietnam. I chose Vietnam because at the time it was the road less traveled and had only really just started to get popular with travelers. I first arrived in Mui Ne in Vietnam’s south in late 2006 and loved it straight away. What made it so irresistible for me was strong reliable wind with OK waves, plus the tight knit community of traveling kiters as well as the local people and culture. The next year I came back after another Indo surf season and started working for a friend’s school. By the end of that year I had begun my own school with a focus on both surfing and kiting. The rest is history. TheKiteMag | 55
CONFESSIONS OF A BARREL HUNTER
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How are the conditions and how is the vibe out there?
Then when it’s not in season you tend to head to Indo right?
When I first arrived it was a quiet fishing town with a few hotels and a few dozen expat kiters who all knew each other personally and subsidized the lifestyle by working in one of the 5 or 6 kiteschools in the main bay. It has changed now and grown into a busy tourist town with over 30 kiteschools and hotels and tour booking offices everywhere. But the wind is still great from November to April. The water is a bit choppy and the shorebreak can be a bit solid at times, but the food is great, and the beer is cold and cheap. There are heaps of happy go lucky travelers passing through making for exciting times at the beach and in the restaurants and clubs once the sun sets.
Yep, the Vietnam season works out perfectly with my Indo addiction. Any chance I get it’s off to Indonesia and one of its 17,000 islands to search for perfect uncrowded waves to surf and to kite if I’m lucky enough to score some wind from the right direction.
so
let’s talk a bit about this trip. You kicked off with some time on Bali. How are the conditions there generally and did you get some good days on this trip?
Yeah I generally fly into Bali or Jakarta. I have a lot of friends in Bali so more often than not Bali it is. The conditions for kiting are generally light wind 8 to 15knts. But the waves for regular surfing are epic. So it’s not the end of the world if the wind doesn’t blow.
What is it like riding big kites a lot of the time on Bali, do you find it pretty challenging? I always struggle a bit at first because most of the year I’m riding 7 and 9m kites. So riding big kites you really have to adjust your riding style to allow for a slower moving kite. But it is not so bad if the wind is side-shore because you can just park and ride while letting your kite drift. But if the surf is solid it can get a bit nerve racking when you feel your lines go slack while looking at a low-tide reef about to suck up in front of you.
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CONFESSIONS OF A BARREL HUNTER
What would be your main tips for riding waves with big kites? Just focus on keeping the lines tight, I always try and fly my kite a little higher than normal because it gives me a plan-B that is to loop it if needed. In light wind it is hard to get around a close-out section of the wave but if you give your kite a quick loop this can be just enough power to get you around. Also if you fly your kite too low in light wind it doesn’t drift as well or give you much error room. If your kite is lower than 45 degrees and your lines go slack you have much higher probability of crashing your kite. Having said that, this doesn’t mean fly your kite at 12 o’clock because then it is very easy for a big wave to push you towards the kite with you underneath it, and this is scary because your kite will go behind, crash, and you could get wrapped within your lines. Getting wrapped in your lines would have to be the worst nightmare for a wave kiter. So, basically: keep those lines tight!
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You have been riding the new Section from Core which has a 14M LW edition – how did this fly? Yeah, it is such a good kite and I’ve really enjoyed riding it. The flat shape and the less aggressive profile means it drifts for days. Which really comes into play in the light winds of Indonesia. Plus the guys from Core have used a special light fabric to help it float a little more than smaller sizes. I’m so stoked that they have made a wave specific kite. I know it may seem like pimping but if you get a chance people you really should give it a go, the Germans have put a lot of R & D into this, and they have really come out with a winner.
It looks like you had the chopper out for a day as well - how did that work out? Thanks for reminding me! That was a day I would rather forget! We had a great forecast of 20 knots after weeks of waiting. We got to the beach nearly two hours early and the wind was great at about 15kts and building with about one hour before the heli was due to take off, it was sunny with no cloud, the tide was good and everything was perfect. We went out for a 40min ride to check everything was good, and it was. So we called Jason at the heliport and gave him the okay. We went back in the water and waited for the heli, but it was over an hour – it turned out that some rich Indonesian guy had refused to wear his seat belt on the previous flight and while he argued we were in the water with the wind dropping fast and the tide going out and sucking the swell away. If I had of known the heli was going to be late I would have gone to the beach and cancelled it, but by the time it came the wind had dropped to less than 10 knots and the swell had halved. Such a frustrating and disappointing experience. Oh, and expensive! The Bali Gods weren’t shining on us that day.
And how is Bali when you’re not kiting? Is it a good place to
It is not called the Island of the Gods for nothing! I love it because it has a bit of everything – incredible food of all styles, breathtaking scenery and wonderful people. But you really have to know where to go to find this. Bali at first glance can be seen as a congested metropolis full of drunk sunburnt tourists, which it is. But if you venture inland an hour or so in any direction from the airport you can find yourself in a place that time forgot. Like on a volcano with ancient Hindu temples or a black sand beach with a picturesque, empty line up.
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CONFESSIONS OF A BARREL HUNTER ROB PUTTING THE BRAKES ON AND WAITING FOR THE ACTION TO C AT C H U P W I T H H I M . . .
Then a lot of the shots are from a trip that you took with Jason Wolcott… Appreciate that you can’t divulge the exact locations, but can you tell us a bit about the trip? When the forecast looks good for wind and waves I often try and hook-up with Jason. It is always nice to try and find new spots with different waves and backgrounds. So this often requires going to remote islands on dodgy propeller planes with way too much equipment. Then traveling for hours on crater-riddled roads to malaria infested towns miles from anything that resembles first world healthcare. But having a world-renowned photographer like Jason does seem to give you extra courage while at the same time making you a little nervous. As Jason would smile and say as he sends you out at low-tide and in an off-shore wind: “my job is to make talented people do stupid things!” The set-ups are predominantly reef breaks which generally work best when the tides are going low because this means the waves will get hollower. The winds are the southeast trade winds so from the left side meaning backside for regular footers like me. However the wind can be very unpredictable in Indonesia and you can often find yourself swimming at very inconvenient times. If possible, it is good to communicate with a local fisherman to rent his boat should things go pear shaped and you 60 | TheKiteMag
need a rescue. But at low-tide, boats can’t always get out over the dry reef so be careful or as they say in Indonesia “Hati-hati”. But when the wind and wave Gods cooperate with a favorable tide it is possible to have the best session of your life.
“my job is Jason Wolcott:
to make talented people do stupid things”
horror Any
stories?
Nothing too bad in Indo this year, but my worst horror story was when I was on a Core photoshoot in Mauritius, kiting a pretty hardcore wave about 1km out to sea. We had a boat for support but the surf was pretty solid overhead and maybe the odd double overhead sets. The wind was getting gusty and more offshore because it was getting late in the afternoon. I was feeling pretty confident as I had kited this wave the day before and scored a couple of nice little barrels. But today was a new swell and the wave wasn’t really lining up on the reef properly. But to cut a long story short I tried to pull in to one too many close outs and got smashed and dropped the kite, which gets easier to do in waveriding the more offshore the winds get. After surfacing from my initial wipeout my eyes were greeted with another wave about to break on my head. My first instinct was to release the kite totally, take a breath and swim to the bottom to escape the blue mountain that was about to land on me. I got smashed and held down a long time, cutting
up my feet trying to protect myself from the reef. But it had only just begun. It is all a bit of a blur really but I must have got washed over by about half a dozen waves with only a breath or two of air between each. By this stage the waves and current had pushed me to the inside and the shallow part of the reef and this is when things got really interesting... My board leash got caught on the rocks and I couldn’t reach my ankle to release it, I tried about three or four times but the surge of water was too strong to reach much past my knee. I was held down for about three waves without a breath. There was nothing I could do, I thought ‘wait for the surge to ease’ but it didn’t, I thought I was going to black out at any second. I’m not religious but then a miracle happened - the leash snapped and I was able to get to the surface. Air has never tasted so good.
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CONFESSIONS OF A BARREL HUNTER
Jason has been shooting kiters for years and he rates you as one of the most
ballsy riders
he has shot with – would you agree that you are always willing to put everything on the line to score a barrel?! Maybe not everything, but I definitely do take calculated risks and it doesn’t hurt to have a bit of Kodak courage from having the camera pointed at you. But having said that you have to expect that when hunting barrels you are going to get smashed sometimes, that is a given and the same with paddle surfing. I do love barrels and this year I have been trying to focus on getting longer and deeper ones which is quite challenging on a kite so I have taken my fair share of beatings for sure.
You take a few drillings I guess, do you never get freaked out?! For sure I get freaked out. Like when you’re going to wipeout and you feel the power disappear from the kite or the lines go slack in front of you. If you feel the power in the kite, you send the kite out to sea and more often than not get ejected through the wave, no worries. But if you have no tension on the lines you can get absolutely smashed. This is compounded by the fact that when you kite barrels it is more often than not very low-tide and super shallow water, more shallow than when you would normally paddle surf because with a kite you don’t have to take-off, you let the kite tow you in thus avoiding this critical take-off section. So powerful waves breaking in a few inches of water with all those kite lines in a remote island in a third world country can be a little freaky. But the reward is much greater than the fear and I can’t get enough!
When you first started riding waves with a kite, how hard was it for you to learn to apply your surfing barrel skills to getting barreled with a kite? When I first started wave-riding it was with more C-shaped style kites so it could be much more difficult to slow down exactly when you needed to, especially when riding backside. So now with more modern kites with so much depower and control it is easy to switch the kite to neutral and just surf the wave as a surfer would. Regular surfing helps heaps but you also need to be able to do everything with the kite like it is second nature because when you wipeout it can get awfully confusing which way is up or down and what is left and what is right.
trashed Did anything get particularly
on the trip?
No kites got trashed but I did destroy the tail of my board from going too deep on a closeout. I couldn’t get around a section at low tide and was too close to the lip as it exploded down into the trough of the wave. I was blasted off my board as I tried to eject over the whitewater and into safety, the board however got caught in the washing machine and as the leash and I pulled at the board it tombstoned down and projected itself into the reef a foot or so below. The kite and I survived unharmed, but the board wasn’t so lucky – it lost a couple of fins and a couple of inches of its tail, and my 6ft leash is now 12ft… 62 | TheKiteMag
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CONFESSIONS OF A BARREL HUNTER
Any tips for how to minimize the risk when you’re trying to slot in to the barrel? It really helps to know how to get a barrel when regular surfing for sure. Know how to position yourself and stay composed in the critical section. The worst thing to do is hesitate or freak out at the last second and cop a lip to the head. If you get hit by the lip, as opposed to letting the lip go over you, this is when things can get messy. Also just build up to it slowly, start small and learn how to wipeout without dropping the kite in small surf. As your confidence grows, start getting more extreme in the bigger stuff. With kiting it is very easy to get overhead ability-wise as opposed to paddle surfing because you don’t have to paddle out or paddle into the waves…
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Which other guys were you riding with on
impressing you the trip and who was the most?
This trip I got to ride with Keahi de Aboitiz, Reo Stevens and Patri McLaughlin and a few others. But those 3 were definitely stand-outs. They are such skilled surfers and kiters that really push themselves and wavekiting as a sport. It is so nice to ride with guys like them because it really helps me push my riding. I especially like riding with Keahi because, firstly, he’s such a chilled out, skilled rider as well as world champ, plus he also rides backside, which can be a little more challenging for barrel riding. So it is really
nice to see how these guys attack the waves.
How did this trip rate amongst the many Indo trips you have done? Indo is always great especially when you have an extended time there. If you come for only 1-2 weeks you can miss out. But we definitely scored a handful of good days and that is all you need to burn the memories of those few amazing waves into your mind and get you coming back for more. The other real highlight for me was using the new Section wave kite from Core, it makes barrel riding so much easier when you have a kite that has control of the power and just floats down the line.
And you’ve traveled a lot with your surfing and with kiting – where have been
So life seems pretty sorted for you at the moment – can you think of any way to make things better right now?! I’m pretty happy with my life at the moment for sure, I feel super privileged to lead the life I live and not have to sit in traffic driving to work Monday to Friday in the usual rat race that I easily could have been living and so many of my friends in Oz do. So to make my life better I would have to say finding as many new experiences as possible and for me I like to do that with travel. And traveling with my kites and boards has really opened so many doors for me.
your three standout spots? Maui, Mauritius, Indonesia.
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E H T GHT I L I W T E N ZO
It’s an annual pilgrim for a sig age nifican t numb the very er of finest c ompet kitebo itive arders in our sport s o no w onder makes it sense fo r some of the sport’s finest photog raphers to also it writt have en as a ‘definit in their e ’ plans. And w happen hat s when you pu these t t op ride rs with of the one most in novativ photog e raphers ? Well, kind of this stuff…
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THE PHOTOGRAPHER:
ANDRE MAGARAO
After spending a good amount of cold and rain y days in Germany while I was sho oting the VKWC I came bac k home to Rio de Janeiro to ano ther week of rain. So I wa s pretty glad to pack up my gea r and head to Cumbuc o for some sun… I went there without a plan or a project and wa s just looking to shoot as much as pos sible and try a few new ideas. The lagoons in Brazil are aw esome for the kind of pho tography I like to do. First, the wind is usually not the bes t in the morning so the riders go to the lagoon after lun ch, when the sun is on the downw ind side of the lagoon, wh ich allo ws me to shoot with flashes against the sun. Also the y wil l ride until they can’t see anymo re, which lets me shoot all the way through until dark. The other pretty cool thing is that the riders can ride pretty clo se to the shore, so I can just set my flashes on tripods. This year the lagoon is quite different, it’s a lot bigger than when I was there in pre vious years. And also had these peninsula style points wh ich were perfect to set the flashes. I had already talked to Bru na Kajiya and Alex Neto and knew that they were going to be in Cumbuco. A few day s later, Eric Rienstra, Jerome Clo etens and Liam Whaley sho we d up and we had some pretty fun sessions. I basically sho t eve ry day at Cauipe for almost two weeks and was rea lly sto ked with the results. It wa s the first time that I actually came here to shoot photos wit hout a video project goi ng on at the same time, and it was also nice to get to sho ot with a few riders that I had never shot and others that I had n’t be able to work with in a long tim e. After those 2 weeks in Cumbuco I moved to Uru au to shoot with another bunch of pro riders. We got to a few sessions in Uruau and one session in Barra Nova. Uruau is one of my favorite places to shoot because the lagoon is pre tty small which makes it really eas y to work. It’s always crazy to see the level of riding that goes on here. Everyone is training rea lly hard every day and it really shows in their riding. It’s also really cool to see the diff erent styles and approaches to kite boarding from the top ride rs. It was also great to have a chi ller vibe after seeing eve ryo ne with their game faces on in Germany! TheKiteMag | 67
THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE RIDERS
VICTOR HAYS in Uruau Having Andre here ht now he is pretty good, rig best flash is probably the industry. photographer in the sunset c ssi This day was a cla knots 18 t, day here: butter fla with g, tin set of wind, the sun of up set my perfect freestyle . 138 ion Vis the 13m Fuel and st be the far Sunset in Brazil is by the wind moment to ride as makes ich turns onshore wh r this Fo t. fla the lagoon totally ter wa the on session Andre was e on d ha d with the camera an by ld he ach big flash on the be my girlfriend.
to shoot in It’s a bit sketchy lagoon is Uruau because the always are u super narrow, so yo pher gra oto super close to the ph as ne du the and super close to the s ow kn lly well, but Andre rea press the perfect moment to t which sho button and get the b Back Gra l he did for this Tai ng to mi co to Blind... I’ve been now rs yea Brazil for around 10 ce pla the ly and it’s still definite to be!
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Y E L A H LIAM W Whilst I am in Brazil I tend to only have At the moment I am one session per da training hard for y, this allows me the remaining competi to be very explosive tions. Right and have a lot of now it is importa energy for a short nt for me to be period of time so consistent with all that I can push my rid of my tricks. I’m ing and my body ran ked first at the mome to the limit witho nt so I cannot ut hurting myself. make any mistake Sunset is the best tim s in the upcoming e for me, I get in competitions… My the water at aroun training routine is d 3.30 pm and ride to warm up with all of until dark. There are the tricks that I less people riding can land every single in the lagoon, the wa time, then try to ter is flatter, and get all of the double the wind is more handle passes as constant. This day co nsistent as possible I was powered up and then when on my 11m Chaos. I’m fully warmed up It’s good to be powe go for new tricks red up when you that I have never lan are lining up for sho ded! ts, it really helps you take off in the right place and Brazil has always be perfectly lined been my favorite up with the flash pla ce to train, I have lea or flashes mid tric rnt almost all k – I have a lot of of my moves here fun shooting with and I think as long Andre, he is really as I am still competi into flashes at the ng on the world moment and he is tou r I will keep on comi always keen to try ou ng back. t new angles and new things!
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THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE RIDERS
ALEX NETO
ys Shooting with Andre is alwa with day the cool, even during up strong sunlight he goes out set ing hold e ther s the flashes and stay ns his camera for hours, which mea n whe n The he loves his job! the n dow go the sun starts to more shooting session gets even cool ly real e interesting, with som ts ligh te whi e orange sky and hug He es. flash the coming out from es normally has at least two flash the r nea ch bea hanging on the rider. water so it really lights the t at ligh sun no Even when there’s dark ty pret gets all and the spot keep he’s still there motivated to can’t we n whe on shooting, even very is it But even see 25 meters! ts sho the of t cool to do it as mos a in n take n bee look like they’ve just is ing ryth studio because eve rider so dark around and only the the of ause bec t appears in the sho big flashes.
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A R T S N E ERIC RI Brazil is like no other place I’ve been for kiting. The daily grind of checking forecasts and waiting on the beach for the wind to pick up is replaced with a parallel universe of never ending wind and sun. Instead of constantly praying to the wind gods to send more wind, you end up begging them to give you a day off. After weeks of nonstop riding it is easy to get burned out (and sunburnt), so lately I have been saving my sessions for the evening, when the sun is not so intense and there are less people on the water. At most kite spots the wind tends to die off as the day ends, but not here! This made it easy for Andre Magarao and myself to get some flash shots together in Cauipe
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Lagoon. Since there was no need to rush we were able to experiment with a bunch of different angles and flash positions. The only hard parts of the whole process were trying to get the angles that required me to jump as close to the beach as possible and the ones where I would be landing almost right on top of Andre. You can’t use a water housing with the flashes so Andre had to jump out of the way before my spray hit him. Luckily he is super quick because in the dark I couldn’t see him very well. And if I happened to look into one of the flashes, then I was coming in totally blind – like a deer in the headlights...
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JEROME CLOETENS After the VKWC in Germany Liam and I decided to go to Brazil even though the season was still not finished in Europe – we just wanted to have those epic sessions in Brazil. When we arrived to Cumbuco it was empty since it wasn’t the tourist season yet so it was just us with all the locals. You could always be sure that at any moment the highest level in kiteboarding is in that lagoon! I saw so many insane tricks going down in that tiny lagoon… At the same time we met up with Andre Magarao and Bruna Kajiya which made it even more fun to be in Brazil.
At the beginning we just wanted to be as long as possible in the water but after a few days we got in to a routine which was one session in the morning and one session late evening. The morning one was more full training and the evening session was shooting with Andre. He is a great photographer and he is always amped to get great shots so it makes it fun to shoot with him, you can see he is having fun shooting which creates a great vibe and makes it easier for us to land tricks..
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THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE RIDERS
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BRUNA KAJIYA Working with Andre Magarao in these night sessions with the flash is always stimulating and very interesting. As a freestyle competitor I focus on executing technical tricks with the most power, but that’s not necessarily what will assure you a good picture. When reading a magazine we don’t usually stop to wonder how that picture was taken and there are so many interesting points about this process. Sometimes we’ll shoot an entire sunset session in order to get that one shot… there are all of these small details that have to align in order to get it right, such as composition, light, focus, body position, grab etc.
With Andre being such a perfectionist it makes it fun and exciting to go on the quest for a great shot. Coming from a skate and snowboarding background, he knows all the grabs and what to
look for in an action picture. This particular session he challenged me to try different grabs and moves to get a good body position for the angle of the flashes. We were shooting in Cauipe lagoon and the flashes had to be positioned upwind, so the goal was to have a grab and also have my face and gear lit up. We had so many attempts where my face would be in the shadow of the flash, or we just missed the grab, or we couldn’t see the bottom of the board. We shot endlessly until way past sunset, when it was pitch black, then we packed our gear with flashlights and drove back on the buggy through the beach to the village of Cumbuco, with not a single light on our way. This is the result of it and it’s so rewarding once you get it right, not only for the shot itself but for the entire experience that was involved in getting it.
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THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE RIDERS
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OZZIE SMITH Uruau is one of the best freestyle kiting spots that I have ever been to. It’s a small lagoon with an upwind sandbank and a downwind grassy hill which made it easy for Andre to get close to the riders, and the combination of the sand bar and grassy hill made it possible for him to put flashes on both sides of the lagoon. This was my first time shooting with Andre and he truly is an artist behind the lens, always nailing the shot.
This was my last trick of the day and ended up pretty interesting and different from anything I’ve ever done before. It is just a basic switch hand backroll nose grab, but the setting made it a fun and memorable shoot. We shot at about 6pm Brazilian time, which is past sunset, so spotting the take-off and landing wasn’t the easiest thing to do. I had to put my night vision on and just hope for the best! As soon as I popped, the flash would blind me completely which made it nearly impossible to spot the landing and because the lagoon is so narrow. If you go too big then you will overshoot the landing and could end up on that grassy hill on the other side of the lagoon. I had a few close calls, but luckily never crashed into the hill, stoked about that one!
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HOW DO YOU
THAT? 82 | TheKiteMag
PHOTO: COU RTE SY FLYSU R F E R
hen you walk into your preferred kite shop and get that ‘Christmas morning’ buzz as you eye up row-uponrow of pristinely presented kites, boards, harnesses and wetties, it generally looks like they have been magically packaged by a team of enthusiastic kite elves: all the kit ready to go and perfectly tuned for your kiting enjoyment. But what you see on the shelves is actually the end product of months – or years – of innovation and testing. That kite or board could be prototype #342 and been the final outcome of hundreds of hours of fine-tuning on the water. So we thought we would ask a few of the main R&D bods in the business: How do you test that?
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H O W D O YO U T E S T T H AT ?
haping and testing has been my first job in the watersports business since 1986. Today it’s hard for me to find time to shape, especially because I would have to learn again how to run a CNC machine and its software rather than hand shaping a blank! So I have other people doing it that can actually do it a lot better than what I could do by hand. However I cannot give up the testing part of the job, since there is no new software to learn and no machine to replace my hands and body. Plus who wants to give up a job that pushes you to go in the water? I certainly don’t. So when we are beginning to look at new surfboard shapes we begin by consulting with the R&D kitesurf boards team; Abel Lago, Ralf Bachshuster, Mauro “Fiasco” Riccieri and Kari Schibevaag. Then I outline a list of the new prototypes to shape, with sizes, shaping details and construction technology specs. While Ralf Bachshuster shapes a few blanks in Cape Town, Luis Felipe Bento “Lufi” in Portugal switches on the CNC machine and shapes some new blanks following my specs. We do the same in Grosseto, Italy and Aurelio Verdi also shapes some of the new models to be tested. So we have three different hands and eyes to work on a single range of kitesurf boards.
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When the new test boards are ready, Ralf starts testing his new boards in South Africa and Mauritius while Abel, Fiasco and myself start testing the new boards made in Europe between Italy and Spain. This goes on and on all year round, until we reach December. This is the time when I move my whole family from Tuscany, Italy, to Cape Town, South Africa. Then every year I send a container from Italy to South Africa, full of new equipment to test down there and start setting up my “new toys warehouse” with plenty of entertainment material for myself, my local teamriders Colin and Lydè Heckroodt, as well as other international team members and friends who also love kitesurf boards and riding waves. My South African summer starts around Christmas and ends at the end of March. This is the time when I concentrate on the final testing, refining, reshaping of new boards and approving new models when it has proved itself. This is what I love to do, and I would never change this job for any other in the world. In the end I am addicted to going in the water, so I can’t live without that drug.
SURFBOARD SHAPES
Roberto Ricci, RRD
THE RRD TE AM WORKIN G O N THE N E XT BIG THING ...
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H O W D O YO U T E S T T H AT ?
Thanks to the long time experience of Sheico in the production of expedition diving drysuits, and after 4 years of tinkering, improving, researching and testing, ION can now offer its customers an absolute watertight drysuit. The 100% seal is achieved by the so-called Diving Drysuit Seam Technology. ION applied an extremely labor intensive process derived from the field of diving drysuits, and guarantees a complete sealing of all seams. In addition, each ION drysuit has to pass a waterproof test before leaving the factory. The test method has been used in diving suit production for many years, and was established by the current Factory Manager, Mr. Chiu. So how does the test process work? Well each suit goes through this process: To prepare the 5 sleeves of the suits, they are temporarily closed and the suits are placed in a metal bracket similar to a fish roaster. In one arm, a compressed air hose is inserted. The metal bracket is automatically dumped into a fresh water pool, about a hand’s depth below the surface. Now the suit is filled with air (45 PSI/3 bar). Any ascending air bubbles show a leakage. After 5 minutes, the machine rotates the metal bracket automatically by 180 °, so that both sides are checked. An experienced worker then evaluates the suit ensuring that there is absolutely no leakage and only once they are 100% satisfied are the suits dried and packaged for shipment. This testing process is very complex and expensive, but in return ensures that only the very best and meticulously tested drysuit makes it into the stores. 86 | TheKiteMag
DRYSUIT
Back in the early years we struggled with issues relating to the tightness of the suits. Bringing a completely new product category to market means a high chance of “teething troubles”, which when combined with the higher price bracket for the complex product, has the potential to scare away customers. But ION is still convinced that the majority of kiters still appreciate the innovative ideas and the start-up of new product categories.
ION
n 2010, ION were the first wind water sports manufacturer offering a drysuit for the kite market. As you can imagine, this market soaked up the drysuit concept like a sponge. The Fuse – previously known as the Fusion – was the long awaited solution for all kiters looking to make their season last 365 days. We recognize that passions can be so strong that no weather or temperature will stop someone getting out there! So we work hard to provide kiters with the right tools to better each session.
A
lthough 3D printing has been around for years, only recently has the technology become a realistic tool for the general public. The expiration of some key patents a few years ago opened the floodgates in the industry, and as open-source development exploded around the world, costs dropped dramatically, thus making the technology much more obtainable for small-scale manufacturers like Slingshot Sports.
device about the size of a mailbox. Be it a movable trim block, leash clip, pulley, grab handle, spreader bar or internal safety release component, we can print it... The model Slingshot utilizes prints with ABS plastic and generally takes a few hours for a fairly simple object.
Slingshot has always been at the technological forefront of the kiteboarding industry and adopting this exciting new technology when it became available was a natural move. For the last three years we have been utilizing a state-of-the-art desktop 3D printer as an invaluable tool in our design, R&D and testing process.
The benefit of such a short turnaround is enormous. When refining designs and getting products ready for the market, having to wait for test components to be machined by an offsite service can be frustratingly disruptive and inefficient. With 3D printing, much of that process is now at R&D’s fingertips, which allows for more thorough and direct testing before designs are finalized and sent to manufacturers.
In the past, designing and testing new products or components would often require sending CAD files to a specialized machine shop, which would machine the parts and send them back for testing. Now, designers can layout components in 3D modeling software, convert the designs into a special file format and print it from their desks on a
The bar is one of the most important elements of our sport. Besides being the steering device, it is the actual connection between the rider and the kite. It is absolutely necessary for it to function properly 100% of the time without leaving any room for mistakes. For this reason, prior testing is elaborate and thorough.
USING Adam Lapierre, Slingshot Sports TheKiteMag | 87
B
H O W D O YO U T E S T T H AT ?
eing one of the market’s lightest and most innovative bars, we make sure we test the Unibar meticulously throughout the design; so while designing each component, during the prototyping phase and also during every production run. While designing each part, we use special force simulation programs to calculate its weak points and the amount of force under which it might break. Once the first versions are made, we test them in a range of weather conditions, both in real life and in simulating machines. Our machines simulate sun, seawater and aging at an extremely high rate: 72 hours in this machine are equal to over 5 years of usage. We also test edge cases, such as high-loads (over 300kg) and heavy sands in critical areas such as QR. Once the preliminary tests are completed we go into production, where we once again perform ongoing tests during every production run. Safety measures are super important in our sport, so it’s on us to make sure every measure is taken in order to allow every rider to feel safe and be able to focus on the ride.
BAR
Yaron Barlev, Blade Kiteboarding
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HOW MUCH
Peter Stewie, Best Kiteboarding
T
he kite should be light but durable. Dacron belongs to the heavier group of materials used in the kite, so depending on load zones, design and general construction different amounts of Dacron are needed. In the canopy for example I use approximately 7% of Dacron in strategically important areas such as load bearing wingtips and TE reinforcements. Further we create a diligent frame to absorb peak loads in crash situations and protect the less durable materials, as well as transmitting forces initiated by the kite, and control input from the rider. The 7% percentage is a result of the design and its best possible performance/lifetime ratio. It is certainly the case that too much Dacron can not only worsen the kite performance, but also creates weak spots. Each transition between Dacron and rip stop can lead to peak loads in the rip stop where a failure can occur. Transitions should be in areas where less stress appears and specific transition materials or shape allowing a smooth step down and transfer of load. On top of that the use of too much Dacron contributes to an increases of inertia which we try to keep to a minimum. TheKiteMag | 89
H O W D O YO U T E S T T H AT ?
F
or Liquid Force, getting into the kite hydrofoil game was new to us for 2015. We, as a crew (Brandon Scheid, Julien Fillion, Gary Siskar, Gregg “Tekko” Gnecco, and myself) all caught the foil bug in the winter of 2014 and decided we wanted to “bring the foil to the people”. Or, in other words, make an affordable foil that was easy to learn on and also modular, so that as people progressed they could upgrade their components to continue their progression. We didn’t want to come into a flooded, overpriced, and largely custom-based “race” market, but rather make a product that allowed more people to experience the sheer joy and excitement of riding a hydrofoil while being pulled by a kite, and get what we have coined as the term #foilface, which for those who have not experienced it yet, is a look that is similar to, as Tekko put it, the first time you got laid (and for those of you who did not have a good “first lay” experience, #foilface is a look of euphoria, joy, bewilderment, and a thirst for MORE!).
FOIL
With hydrofoils, micro adjustments in stance, technique and equipment can make major differences. We developed what we believe to be a great low aspect (large surface area) wing set which is super easy to get up onto a foil, and also allows the rider to continue foiling at a low speed, which is more comfortable in the early stages of learning. Once we were able to get that wing set and our complete LF Foil Fish product to market, we then moved straight into further research and development of faster and more performance wings, while also keeping true to our design goals of a modular system in which people could upgrade their kit. So we looked at a wider but thinner mast/strut, longer fuselage, faster wings and different board shapes.
Jason Slezak, Liquid Force
For this process we tested, rode and studied as many other high performance hydrofoils as we could get our hands on to find out what we liked and, maybe more importantly, didn’t like about each setup that we rode. At some point speed and performance becomes a give and take – to gain speed and high-end performance you have to sacrifice ease of use and lower speed stability. So we took the knowledge gained from the hours and hours on the water on a variety of setups and began the wing prototyping process. Once we had our proto wings in hand we cycled through logging hours on the water in as many diverse conditions as we could, from 17.5m Solo sessions in less than 6 knots all the way up to 4.5m Solo sessions in well over 35 knots to see what our wings could handle and how they felt through each possible condition and situation.
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As far as narrowing down our choices for which wings to move forward with, we balanced our field testing with consultation of experts in both aero and hydrodynamics which helped us to hone in on the proper foil profiles and shapes for our higher aspect/higher speed wings. This has brought us to our current offering of hydrofoil products which includes three board shapes, two mast/strut offerings, two fuselage lengths and three different wing sets: low, medium, and high aspect which also equate to their top speed ability. Product development is never finished and is always an evolving process, so the moment we finish one product (actually usually WAY before we finish) we are always looking forward to what is next. Higher speeds and more dynamic maneuverability is what our main focus is at the moment, so it is a very exciting time for both foil product testing and development. We at LF can’t wait to bring to market what is next!
W
Dane See, BWS
TESTING
hen manufacturing, all rolls of Dacron and canopy cloth are tested thoroughly as these woven materials can sometimes be inconsistent. If a weave is off in a Dacron roll you will not be able to tell until the kite is assembled and flying in the sky, then you will find it has a left or right twist which makes the kite turn one way. So this is tested by microscope but also dummy struts are made and given a bending cycle to see if the material fails at any seams. Canopy cloth is tested in much the same way, we have also made flags and left them outside for months to see the break down process of the coatings. Lines are always tested by checking the elongation and breaking strength to make sure it matches our specific standards. The tightness of the weave is crucial in kite lines, if it is not tight enough the line will stretch. For our lines we use 12 x 2mm strand 100% Dyneema that we weave ourselves with European imported Dyneema. The breaking strength is over 500Kg. How much over? We don’t know because our load machine only goes up to 500Kg and the lines didn’t break when we got to the limit of that!
| 91 BE N WILSON SIG N IN TheKiteMag G OFF ON THE PRODU CTS. . .
H O W D O YO U T E S T T H AT ?
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he most important factor with testing is the team that’s doing it and how it’s organized. With F-ONE developing the Bandit as the ultraversatile but only kite in its range, there is no room for mistakes and the development, testing and validation has to be absolutely perfect. The kite demands an enormous amount of testing time, more than any of our other products. Experience is paramount and we are fortunate to have a senior kite designer who is over 50 and has many years of expertise with a massive background in sailing, windsurfing, paragliding and kiting. Robert Graham takes part in the testing and is able to implement all he’s learned throughout these many years of developing winning gear. Not only is he used to successfully getting the feedback he needs from the testers, he can also tune the kite in his own way and make suggestions to them. This brings us to the testers: Raphaël, 52. Not only is he the brand manager but he also leads the R&D. With 20 years of windsurfing followed by 20 years of kiting behind him, he personally runs 100% of the testing of the Bandit. Mika, 40, was crowned freestyle world champion in 2005 but has since turned his focus fully on testing. This experienced duo has been testing together relentlessly for 9 years which now makes the process all the more efficient since they know each other so well. The development of the next Bandit is a year long process and starts in September with taking a look at what’s going on with the other kites and brands in the industry, and defining the development axis to improve our Bandit. This early phase is also the right time to try some different developments, investigating a little more broadly before we get too busy with the finer parameters later in the process. October/November is a period which we use to test at home in Montpellier. Depending on the weather we can be on the water two to four days a week. When December comes with the colder weather and shorter days, we spend one week every month in Cabo Verde to run some intensive test sessions. Between each trip we design and order the next generation of prototypes for the next one up until February.
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From March until May, the testing is re-localized back in Montpellier to fine tune and consolidate the kites with the real wind and sea conditions that most of our customers experience on their own spot. This is the most intensive testing period as we try to be on the water every single day, getting two to six prototypes per week when we’re in full swing. Finding wind all the time requires driving several hours if necessary. The testing routine is a well-oiled machine: launch two kites, get on the water. Start with a few downwind and reaching legs and come back hard upwind to check the speed, power, position at the edge of the window, depower, and upwind ability. Send some jumps to check the hangtime, loop behavior and turning efficiency. Crank some turns on the waves when the swell is on. Then the testers get back to the beach, tune the bridles to try and get more out of the kite under test before heading back to the water for another session. A typical testing session runs from 4 up to 6 or 8 hours. Developing a kite such as the Bandit requires an immense amount of work as we need to test it in all kinds of disciplines and all kind of conditions. Riding twintips for freestyle, strapless or surfing waves, from under powered to over powered, every prototype first needs to be tuned before it is analyzed and tested in this very broad spectrum of conditions. During this process we look at new designs with varying parameters (profile, leading edge, arch, outline, bridle etc) but we also test different constructions and materials. To develop the Bandit we go through around 80 prototypes every year, and each one needs about three days to be fully tested. You can do the math but there’s no way we can complete the process with less than 180 days on the water every year. Our planning is locked on the weather forecasts and the wind knows no weekends or holidays…
M IKA FE RN AN DE Z E N JOY I N G THE FRU ITS OF HIS LABOR ...
KITE F-ONE Kiteboarding TheKiteMag | 93
H O W D O YO U T E S T T H AT ?
BRIDLE ON A FOIL KITE Reinhart Paelinck, Flysurfer
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pag bol. That is what a lot of people think when they first see a foil kite. This is true, but it is a very scientific approach to a synthetic spag bol. Every bridle line has a specifically defined length with only a couple of millimeter’s tolerance, and is connected to the ends where it is supposed to, to provide the necessary support to the canopy. First things first: the development of a foil kite takes a lot of time. You have to get the shape of the canopy right, and get it to work together with the bridle setup. Different bridle setups on foil kites make for a completely differently flying kite. (You can find this out for yourself if you play around with different “mixer” settings on the Flysurfer kites, to get the best performance/stability for you.) As foil kites do not have any rigid support parts (except for some semi-rigid rods in the nose of high performance kites), they need to have a structure that keeps them in shape when powered up. But, the kite also needs to retain/recover its shape by itself when there is zero load on the canopy, after a badly timed jump for example… This free-flight phase is covered in the design of the canopy, as there is no tension in any of the lines. Outline, canopy curve, profile shapes have to work together to keep the kite in shape. Then there is the seamless transition phase between the depowered and powered-up kite. When depowered, only the attachment points on the front of the kite are under load, so again the canopy needs to keep the kite stable and in shape. When powering up, the other levels of the bridle take over and change the shape of the kite into a higher lift configuration. Between 100 and 250 meters of Dyneema are hanging from the canopy, divided into over 100 different lines attached at between 60 and 80
attachment points. All of these lines have a specific defined length, and, of course, a name. The ones at the leading edge of the kite are the A-lines. Then moving towards the trailing edge we encounter the B, C and Z lines. Usually there are 4 span wise rows of bridle lines, therefore ABCZ. Thankfully, kite CAD software spits out the defined lengths for the bridle lines. Then the “only” thing to make sure is that the kite actually has the shape it is supposed to have, and all lines function as they should. This is where photography comes in. We take pictures of the kite in different flying states, and overlay them with CAD data, to check if it has the defined shape. If it does not fly as defined, we can move the bridle lines forward or backward on extra attachment points that are only sewn into prototypes until it reaches a state where it flies properly. To test different bridle configurations we usually have one canopy with multiple bridle line setups, then we can quickly change between flights and see what works best. For example dividing loads over 2 bridle bridges, or 3 bridges – this all feels different but keeps the same shape in the kite. Some “Fingerspitzengefuhl” is necessary. [Ed: a quick Google search informs me that this is a German term, literally meaning “finger tips feeling” and meaning intuitive flair or instinct and a great situational awareness. See, TheKiteMag: interesting AND educational]. Ironically, testing usually ends up with not having any feeling left in the tips of our fingers, from the endless knotting, untying in windy and wet conditions! Then we go in office-mode, input the changes into the CAD, and start a new prototype generation until everything works as it should. And then we get to go out and fly again, and again…
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O
H O W D O YO U T E S T T H AT ?
ne of the most crucial ingredients that differentiate kiteboards in performance, flex, and weight is the mixture of different composite materials used for the layup of the board. At CrazyFly, we put great emphasis on getting the desired performance at the lightest possible weight while still making sure the boards are durable. In fact, over the last four seasons we had less than 0.5% board warranties out of all board sales worldwide. We reached this through comprehensive and continuous testing. Before any new board construction is released, we test it over a long period of time in various scenarios. The very first test of a new board construction is always the breaking point of the board. This is simply measured on a machine where both tips of the board are locked in while the center of the board is in the air and a hydraulic piston applies pressure to the center of the board. To pass this test, the board construction needs to hold up to double the
pressure of the real life scenario. If it holds, we push it until it breaks just to see how much it can hold up to. Some of our boards hold up to 300kgs pressure. Afterwards, the breaking strength of the board is tested in off-axis directions which simulate bad landing, and finally we run the board through 10,000 cycles of flexing the board with 150kgs on the same machine which measured the breaking point. Prototypes of a new layup are only tested on the water after they pass the mechanical tests. The mechanical tests are the easy part, but the hard part is to get the equation right in terms of the right material mixture which will create a high performance lightweight board which is durable. Still, getting the hard part right is one of the most enjoyable feelings in designing a board!
TESTING THE OF A BOARD CrazyFly
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F
in placement is a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of surfboard design. There are an infinite number of configurations that offer a wide range of feel and performance characteristics. Below are a few examples of different configurations and their effects on performance:
THRUSTER. Moving the fin cluster closer together results in a looser feel and a tighter turning radius. Spreading out the cluster gives more drive and hold and results in a wider turning radius. Fins closer to the tail give more hold and grip. Fins further forward give a looser less connected feeling.
QUAD. Quads closer to the rail offer a quicker rail-to-rail sensation with more grip/acceleration when on rail but a less connected feeling at speed. Moving quads closer to the center line gives you a more connected and draggy feeling similar to a thruster.
CANT ANGLE. Introducing more cant angle (fins tilted out towards the rail) is looser and more draggy at high speed, but offers a connected and direct response at lower speeds and when pumping to generate speed. (So good for small waves.) More toe angle (front of the fins angled in towards the board’s centerline) allows fins to operate at a higher angle of attack, making them better for generating speed in small surf. Developing a board requires a lot testing and fins are just one of many variables that go into creating a high performance craft. Understanding the effects different fin positions have on performance is key to achieving the correct balance between board and fin and is something we spend a lot of time working on at North Kiteboarding.
SURF FIN CONFIGURATION
Sky Solbach, North Kiteboarding TheKiteMag | 97
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Sardinia FOOD AND FREESTYLE IN
For Manuela Jungo Sardinia delivers all of the ingredients for the ultimate kiting island. Quality freestyle, quality food and quality wine‌ What more do you want from life?
WOR DS: MAN UE LA J U N G O
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P H OTOS : JA M ES B O U L D IN G
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FOOD AND FREESTYLE IN SARDINIA
( I S O L A D E L V E N TO ) is the only landmass in the Mediterranean between Italy, Spain, Tunisia and Corsica, and is an island with 2000 km of coastline, beautiful white beaches, crystal clear water, and amazing coastal drives. It is also constantly hit with Mistral and Scirocco winds, which make it ideal for those in search of a kite haven. The island was love at first sight for me, and no matter how often I return I always enjoy the friendly people, perfect conditions and the Italian food. I normally try to stay away from touristy places and go in search of quiet, friendly kite spots. It’s also a great place for me to find a quiet beach to go running and practise yoga. For this trip I rented an apartment in Giba with James Boulding and it was nice to cook by ourselves sometimes and to have the chance to have friends over. Annelous Lammerts, Alex Maes, Gemma Hendra and Svetlana Romantsova also visited Porto Botte between the VKWC Tour stops to enjoy the great conditions. Unfortunately it was exactly during this time I locked the car keys in our car during a lunch break at home. It took 5 days for the spare key to arrive from the UK, as it was impossible to break in to James’s Audi! I guess it was fate as we both had a lot of time to teach my brother and his girlfriend how to kite instead… When you do have a car without the key locked inside there are many spots that you can drive to all over Sardinia, but the south has the pick of the bunch. My favorite Sardinian kite hangout is Porto Botte, which has a small kite station situated on the beach called ‘Kitesardegna’.
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The spot is teaming with wildlife; the kite spot neighbors protected waterways where pink flamingos feed and dredge up food from salty pools that lie alongside the dirt road that take you to the beach. This would make for some amazing kiteboarding, but it is probably too shallow and is also protected due to the prestigious birdlife. But on the ocean side there is epic flat water that allows you to push your freestyle. Areas of light sea grass keep the water butter-flat right up to the strongest of winds, and there is a flat water section on offer downwind of the land during the Mistral winds. The kite station also offers shade and beach chairs to relax in between sessions, as well as snacks and cold drinks. The best time to visit Porto Botte is between June and September when it’s warm and when the wind is at its best (although August can be a bit busy due to the Italian holidays). Depending on the season it can be good in April, May and October but you’ll need at least a 3/2 wetsuit. There can be wind between November and March but it is much less consistent and temperatures are much cooler with rain more common. Most of the time the wind is from the north. The Mistral brings constant wind and is always much stronger than the forecast predicts. The wind normally picks up around 11am and stays until the late afternoon, and sometimes until sunset. Then there are some days with the southern Scirocco wind that comes from the Sahara, which is a very warm wind and most of the time a bit lighter.
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FOOD AND FREESTYLE IN SARDINIA
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In case of no wind or if you need a day off from kiting there are many amazing beaches to see. Yes, the sand really is that white, and the sea really is that blue… My favorite beach, only 15 minutes away from Porto Botte, is Porto Pino. Porto Pino beach has a length of 4 kilometers, has majestic sand dunes and is surrounded by several small lakes (Stagno di Brebéis and Stagno di Maestrale). The sea at Porto Pino beach is crystal clear, shallow and sheltered from the wind. Then when you are done on the beach for the day there is one of the best things about Sardinia to look forward to: its amazing food. The traditions and culture are very strong in Sardinia, so you will not get any pizzas in restaurants before 7pm and you’ll get nothing to eat in restaurants between 4 and 7pm. As with mainland Italy, there are a number of Pizzerias serving fresh, stone-oven baked authentic style pizzas as well as pasta dishes, which I think are the best in the world. Sardinia also has a lot of its own traditional food such, as Culurgiones (which are similar to ravioli with a filling of potatoes, ‘Pecorino’ sheep’s milk cheese, egg, onion, mint and garlic) and Malloreddus (which are a type of gnocchi that are served al dente with a tomato,
meat or cheese sauce). Then the locally produced vegetables and fruit are very tasty, as they are grown in small farms and are mostly organic with local people selling their produce on the side of the road. Apart from the usual assortment of typical Mediterranean products (such as eggplants, bell peppers, oranges and grapes) you will also find things like wild asparagus, figs, watermelons, nuts and spices. Sardinia also has a lot of good wineries called ‘cantinas’. We went to the ‘Cantina di Santadi’ where it was interesting to see locals coming in and getting their 5 litre bottle filled up like in a petrol station! Ichnusa is the most common beer in Sardinia and incredibly tasty whilst Mirto is an alcoholic drink that’s a local speciality. It is made of wine spirit flavored with the berries of mirto, a local shrub, and is definitely a cheeky way to wash down your dinner. Sardinia might be a place which is still a bit under the radar as kite spots go during the summer, but it comes high on the list for me with the promise of warm water, warm winds and some of the finest food on the planet… TheKiteMag | 103
TECHNIQUE
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BA R R E L THE SESSION
This spot is a short left hander with perfect side offshore wind so is ideal for barrels. This day I was shooting with Jason Wolcott and some of the other guys who always come here like Reo Stevens and Keahi. It was a pretty good swell and with some good barrels, but you had to be lucky to choose the right one and get a nice view...
THE STEPS 1 The most important thing is to have a good wave that barrels. Some sets have 3-4 waves, and it might only be one that will make a good barrel, so it’s important to know the spot to know which wave to pick...
2 It’s best is to come from behind and to wait for the wave to start to throw so you can get into the barrel from behind.
3 Try not to arrive with too much speed otherwise you’ll be too fast and not be able to get in deep.
4 If the barrel isn’t very round stay high on the wave. Then you won’t get the lip on your back...
5 When you go in the barrel, stay low with your legs and keep you upper body straight. Don’t put you head between your knees!
6 Try to keep your kite at around 45 degree maximum because you don’t want the lines to get into the lip too much.
7 Keep your eyes open and look where you’re going: the exit. You have to believe you will make it, otherwise you probably won’t!
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IN THE PIPELINE
WI T H A R E P F OR TOP QUA L I T Y, WE L L - E NGI NE E R E D K I T I NG K I T, I T ’ S A LWAY S GR E AT TO F I ND OUT WH AT OZ ONE A R E UP TO… I A I N H A NNAY TA K E S US T H R OUGH WH AT T H E Y H AV E UP T H E I R S L E E V E S R I GH T NOW… First up can you take us through the adjustment you have made to how you are naming and releasing your kites and why. No more ‘years’ and on to ‘Vs’ right? We have a large product range at Ozone and a small but amazing design team. We felt that we did not have enough time to properly develop each model to make it better on a yearly basis and this was not being transparent to our end customers. We want to make sure that we are making step changes in our models so our customers and distributors can really trust that we have a new model coming that will be different to the previous one. So instead of calling our kites 2014; 2015 etc, we have opted for calling them by the design version, so the Edge V8 is our 8th design version of the Edge. 106 | TheKiteMag
So, first up, and the Catalyst has gone back to basics… Can you tell us what has changed for this latest version and why this is? The Catalyst was always our entry level kite model but over the years the design has crept up and up on performance until it was no longer 100% suited to the entry level sector. We needed to bring the design back on track and so we used our entry level name of the Catalyst for an all new model which is now firmly back in the entry level sector of the market. The aim was to create a design that made progression from beginner to becoming a solid intermediate rider super easy and stress free. The Catalyst V1 helps riders progress faster to become a confident, experienced kiter which was our goal with this new design.
Was it difficult to redesign a kite for a new market, and was it interesting to see how different this version is compared to the ‘first’ Catalyst in terms of how kite design has evolved in the intervening period? I don’t think that we are designing a kite for a new sector, we are just trying to bring back the Catalyst to where it should be. The 2015 Catalyst has amazing performance and it is a superb design but it missed the low end of the entry level area where the 2012 Catalyst was really good. So we were selling a high performing kite with an entry level name. That was difficult.
OZONE
TH E N E W ‘ BA C K TO T H E FU TU R E ’ C ATA LYS T V 1....
So for riders who enjoyed the ‘higher performance’ characteristics of the Catalyst, what would you advise them to go for now, or do you have something else up your sleeve?! We are very stoked to also have a new model coming in the coming weeks called the Enduro, and this will be for all customers who love the all round performance of the Catalyst 2015. The Enduro will be an all new model but based on the characteristics of the Catalyst 2015 with some extra tweaks to add to the performance of the kite. It will be an awesome all rounder, great in waves, great hooning around and with the ability to unhook easily.
TEAM OZO NE # W I NNING
THE CURRENT S NOW K I T E R A N GE
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IN THE PIPELINE
PHOTO S : O L I VE R UM P IER R E
Then there are also some new releases with your foil kite, specifically geared towards to the snow market. Can you take us through these?
What are the different demands and how does the development of a snowspecific kite differ from that of a ‘standard’ foil kite?
Yes, we have just released our range of snowkites, an entry level kite called the Access V6, the Frenzy V10 now in its 10th edition and still going strong as our do-it-all snowkite, then for experts and mountain climbers we have the Summit V3 which is a fast turning powerful kite to get you up to the top of the mountain with ease.
Simply, one is for snow and the terrain is 3D, not like the water where you don’t have to deal with climbing or skiing down. This adds a lot of different parameters that not only have to go into the design but need intensive testing which is why we are all still avid snowkiters.
The major revolution that we have on our kites is our re-ride system that kills the power from the kites so easily for landing and emergency moments. All our riders loved it last season and it has completely changed the way people snowkite. Easy, secure and simple, just how it should be so you can concentrate on blasting in the powder.
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And in terms of the rest of your range, can you talk us briefly through those and whether you have any plans to reboot any of them any time soon. We have two parts to our range, one is the “do it all part” where we have the Catalyst and the Enduro for now, the other part of the range is our specific kite range, such as the Reo for waves, the C4 for freestyle, the Edge for high performance and the Zephyr for light
winds. Having these two different approaches to the models gives us the ability to design and develop all the specific kites without having to call them all ‘freeride’. If you want to buy a kite for waves then buy the Reo, it is the only no-compromise Wave kite out there. You have a very solid range of kites now which are always very well received by our test teams, what’s the secret to having such a consistent ‘feel’ to your kites? The Ozone feeling is what our customers like too. It is kept in a box under the desk and we sprinkle it on the bars and kites before they head out of the factory. Actually it is a design feature that we always like to have in our kites... Top secret.
Kitesurfing and snowkiting kites aren’t your entire business of course, you are also pretty busy in the world of paragliding. What percentage of your business is kitesurfing/ snowkiting and how much cross over is there in terms of design characteristic and evolution? The kite companies and the paraglider companies are run as separate businesses as they are entirely separate markets. We are linked by our factory, also by the friendship within the companies and the fact that most of the teams both paraglide and kite at a good level. Our designers spend time together every year and this brings the technical knowhow from each company into the other. Also, owning our own factory means that any manufacturing methods can be brought across into the products of each company and we don’t have to learn it twice‌
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DOES SIZE R? E T T A M
A AN BAEN JO H N A TH Y H P A R G P H O TO 110 | TheKiteMag
We are choosing a slightly risqué title this month but by our third edition of our regular slot we feel comfortable enough to have earned the editorial team’s trust to talk about something that is important to us girls, but also contains some important lessons for the boys… You’ll often hear that ‘size doesn’t matter’, and while that opens the door to many a joke, the truth is that often in life, it does. In kiteboarding however we ask the questions across a wide variety of applications and it turns out that size might not matter as much as you thought. To help us explore this further we have enlisted the help of a talented Cabrinha rider who is currently 5th on the VKWC World Tour, Annabel van Westerop. For those of you who do not know her we will just say that she comes in a rather compact size and the biggest thing about this girl is her smile.
So what does Annabel have to say about making the most of what you have? THROW OUT YOUR SCALES
7M OR 13M?
No, this is not some new diet or exercise regime: it is kiteboarding, one of the very few sports where size genuinely doesn’t matter. Even if you’re 165cm like me or a 210cm giant of a man, whether you are super-skinny or have female curves, whether you have a six pack or a hardearned beer belly: it really doesn’t matter when you’re kiting.
There is a big difference between what a 7 and a 13m kite feel like, but the end result - that they allow you to go out there and have a great session - is the same. Personally I find that if you ride all of your sizes enough it doesn’t matter so much as each one has its qualities which you tune in to. My 7, for example, is really light to pass the bar, but the 13 stays in just the right place.
The beauty of kiting is that with different kite and board configurations you can pretty much always create the perfect setup for you depending on the wind that day. “Big muscles doesn’t always mean that you are strong, and the wrong kind of work in the gym doesn’t benefit you in the water. We may often be a lot stronger than we look for our size as we are all built differently.” - Kari Schibevaag
KA RI S C H IBEVAAG PH OTO : TO M M AG N E S JON ASSE N
Of course everyone has a favorite size but this is often based on positive experiences with the kite, and with a few small adjustments to your riding you can perform well with any size. “Maybe you want a good boosting session with a big kite, or maybe you want to try a new trick with less power! One thing is for sure: you’ll enjoy it no matter what size you choose.” - Therese Taabbel
THE RE SE TAABBE L PHOTO: JILL CHRISTIN A
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JU LIA CAS TR O G O I N G B I G PHOTO: TZU F S O LO M O N
ANNA BEL P HOTO : TR AC Y K RA F T L E B O E
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A NNABE L PH OTO: TIM O HE CKE N
GOING BIG “Damn, that girl jumps so much higher than I do”. But the thing is, provided you are not competing in a Big Air competition, does it really matter? Are you getting the chance to feel the adrenaline flowing through your body as you go up into the air, that feeling that you’re flying and yet in control (mostly)? If so then that is enough. When I have a session, for me landing my trick or jumping as high as I can is all that matters to me. Of course there is no harm in a little competition between friends and offering tips or sharing secrets to ensure everyone gets the most out of their riding because we all like to improve and beat our own records. COMMITMENT Does commitment come in sizes? Absolutely. It often comes in only two sizes: ‘all’ or ‘nothing’. But not for everyone and there is no reason to be ashamed of your fear at learning a new trick. I am not even going to start to tell you how long it took me to learn my first proper handle pass… SE N S I G R AVE S S H OW I N G H ER CO MMI TMENT PHOTO: V I N C E N T B E R GE R O N
To learn something new you need to commit, but everyone learns in their own time and that is where size comes in. Not everyone is ‘all’ or ‘nothing’ and it can be hard (and unwise) to throw a trick as big as you are capable of on the first attempt. By getting the feeling down you can then get into the specifics of first landing, then refining it. It doesn’t matter if you start small and work your way up through a gradual incremental process. I am one of those people who won’t go for a trick until I am sure that I can land it and this can sometimes take a while, although it is always worth it in the end.
CALORIES IN, CALORIES OUT… You’re kiting, so this means using up all of the fuel your body has available which means it has to be replaced. Yes, you have permission to replace it. It’s not like us girls are not going to eat chocolate anyway, but it tastes so much better when you have finished a good session and you’ve earned it. A proper workout deserves a proper sized snack and this is what your body needs so don’t feel bad about it. However, if you find yourself using that line a little too often, as I do, then perhaps the second bar of chocolate could be replaced with some fruit from time to time… AGE IS JUST A NUMBER We are getting all the clichés into this article, but it is true, age is a number, not a size, or a restriction. The growth of our sport has been unbelievable over the past few years. Back when I was 14 I was told I was too young and small to start kiting, but eventually people gave in and made an exception. Nowadays the kids are starting younger and younger and we have a 10-year-old Female Junior Champion, Mikaili Sol. The gear has become much simpler and safer and ‘even a kid can do it’. Then at the other side of the scale there are many people who could be judged as ‘too old to kite’ who are still shredding and having loads of fun with the sport.
“We girls are lighter, so we normally use a smaller kite size than the boys... but this doesn’t make us any less brave than if we take a bigger kite.” - Julia Castro
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SMALL WORLD SYNDROME Traveling, don’t we just love it? It is such a big part of kiteboarding lifestyle with so many amazing locations all over the world. We don’t need to tell you that once you start kiting, every holiday becomes a kite holiday (and even if it isn’t supposed to be, best to bring kites just in case…) As a professional kiteboarder, traveling is an even bigger part of your life and I have found that airports are my second home these days. Anyway, the point I am getting at here is that with an airplane flight, be it long or short, you arrive in a completely different place with lots of adventures waiting for you. Be it England to Spain or all the way to Hawaii it is crazy how small the world has become for you because of kiteboarding.. A NNA B E L WA S H ING O FF THE AIR MILES P H OTO : HE N NI N G STEFFEN
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SHOW ME THE MONEY Many people worry about the budget that they don’t have and the restrictions this places on them, but if you are switched on then the size of your budget doesn’t matter and there are still plenty of options to get you on the water. There are so many second hand kites and boards for sale online and working out a low-budget kite trip yourself can be a hugely rewarding and fun thing to do. Take the train, drive, camp or stay in small hotels, or just hit the road where you live and spend a few nights away discovering what’s on your doorstep.
LOVE IS ALWAYS THE ANSWER Uh-oh, the girls are talking about love AND size in a kite magazine, should you be worried? Of course not, bear with us for a moment. HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE A SESSION? Sometimes you’ll go kiting with a big group of friends, sometimes with just your best buddy and other times you will be all by yourself. Every session is completely different, with different people and different things to do and try. But one thing should always remain the same, and that is to have fun on the water. Personally I like to ride and train alone as it keeps me focused, but many prefer to ride and train in groups for motivation, and when you just want to have fun there is nothing better than having your friends around you.
A lot of things can happen during a kite session, both good and bad. But every problem however big or small can be forgiven or forgotten. Your kite buddy didn’t show up and let you down, someone crashed their kite right onto your lines, your body decided it was not as motivated as your mind today and so you keep crashing… It’s easy to let the smallest things impact your mood or day, but during these moments it is important to look around you at the bigger picture and question if it is really so bad. Feel grateful for another day spent on the water and all that you have because of kiting and the time spent doing what makes you happy.
OWE N BU G GY PHOTOG RAPHY
So there you have it, we have covered the size of you, your kite, your talent, your commitment, your appetite, your age, the world you live in, your bank balance, your entourage and your heart – all through this one big connection we have through this sport, pastime and passion we are all a part of…
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M E A B O UT I T TH E B L A D E K I TE R A N G E
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This year sees Blade celebrating their tenth anniversary. To mark the occasion they’ve given themselves the ultimate present: more kites in the range‌ Words: Yaron Barlev
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Let’s kick off with the headline news, there are some new additions to the Blade range of kites this year, can you tell us what is coming in to the range and who the new kites are aimed at? Certainly. We recently decided to focus on what we do best so we can do it even better, and that is designing kites. We have stopped making boards altogether and put all our efforts into expanding our kite collection and perfecting our existing kites. We have a few big additions coming up this year, the first one being the Tiny Beast, which is a unique kite for kids. We have felt that small size kites are designed to be flown in high winds by adults and are not really suitable for smaller kids who want to ride them in light wind. So we have designed the Tiny Beast to be stable, relaunch well, and have enough power to fuel the kite through 12-20 knots. The other kites we will be coming out with are the High Score – a freestyle machine, the New Guy – our 2.5m ram air trainer kite and the big surprise we are keeping top secret for now – the Old School. Where do you do most of your testing and development and who are the key players in this? Most of the R&D is done here in Israel. We have world class riders on our team and we have riding conditions year round. Our headquarters are located 100m from the beach and we have our own little beach which the locals call Blade’s Rock. Momi, our experienced head designer, is the one who creates the first prototypes which are tested by the riders, myself included. We then meet and discuss the conclusions for the kite: what parameters need to change, what should stay the same and what the riders feel they need more of. Then Momi and I sit together and discuss the actual parameters that we want for the next prototypes. Things like AR, profile shapes, LE sizes, cord lengths and bridle configurations. Once that is finalized, Momi starts drawing the kite from scratch to make sure we get the best final design. Once the next prototype is ready, we begin this process from step one until we are 100% satisfied with the result.
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TELL ME ABOUT IT
You’ve had one of the best ‘all round’ kites in the Trigger for several years now, was it a difficult decision to decide to look at making more ‘specialized’ kited? The opposite is true in this case. By having such a great all round kite that copes well for about 70% of the people, we felt that we don’t need to make similar all round kites with different specifications. Instead, we have the opportunity to find those riders who require different types of kites and create those specific kites which are hard to find in this market. Judging by the positive responses we have been getting, creating the Skinny Boy, the Fat Lady and the Mist was a giant step ahead for our company. 118 | TheKiteMag
What are the key design features and materials that we can see across the range? Two main features for this year are the Max Flow and Teijin Dacron. The Max Flow is our new inflating system that makes inflating your kite easier and 44% quicker than before. Once you inflate with the Max Flow, you’ll never be able to go back to the old way of inflating. The Teijin Dacron is a new material we applied to all the leading edges on all of the ranges. It is a special Dacron made by Japan’s leading fabric supplier which makes the leading edge much stiffer and durable for a very long time.
The Uni Bar V2 has been a hit with our test teams, have you been happy with the performance of this, and are there any plans for a V3?
So Blade celebrates its 10th Anniversary this year – how would you describe the journey from 2005 until now?
There is always room for improvement. The V2 was definitely one of the crowd favorites but we believe we can make it even better. Just wait for the end of the winter and you’ll see for yourself…
Wow, it has been really amazing. It has been nothing like I could have ever imagined. Some tough times along the way, especially in the beginning, but it is so rewarding in so many aspects. Getting great feedback from customers around the world is something that has always pushed me forward and working with such amazing and talented people throughout the years has been really inspiring. Designing new products and fulfilling my own dreams is something that I can only keep on wishing for myself.
We’ve been enjoying your current run of advertisements – can you tell us whose idea these were and who chose the ‘would also like’ options! Last year we decided to put more emphasis on marketing our products. We have started working with a great copywriter by the name of Tal Schweiger. It was important for us to bring somebody who is not from the industry that can provide fresh and unique ideas. That is what Tal is all about. With the help of our design studio – Dvivo – they came up with this amazing concept that I’m sure many riders relate to. I can assure you that more funny ads are still to come.
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SCAN ME FOR THE FULL TESTS!
H E R E ’ S A L I T T L E TA S T E R O F W H AT T H E K I T E M A G ’ S TEST TEAMS HAVE BEEN UP TO. Remember, these are summaries of the tests, and you can find the full results at TheKiteMag.com/tested NOBILE MR BIG
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One of North’s first kites out of the blocks for 2016, the Dice has seen a few refinements designed to keep it at the front of the ‘performance freeride’ pack. The tips have been swept back to improve the low end further (last year was an improvement on V1 and this third version aims to boost it further) and struts are thinner to up the speed and responsiveness. There is also the new and improved Lazy Pump system which has now moved firmly into DER the ‘idiot proof’ category. We rode the Dice a lot in the waves and we found it to be very adept in this UN O department. It turns very quickly and in a tight arc and has consistent power throughout the turn, R then the depower stroke is relatively short so you can lose the power very quickly when required. Drift is excellent and gives you the confidence to really focus on your riding and it is a rewarding kite if you are able to place it relatively precisely. For us the main improvement though was in the low end. You do not need to work it too hard to get it going, and once your board is up to speed it delivers a similar level of power to the Evo with very smooth power throughout the range. For boosting you can really ride the Dice stacked and then use that power to really explode, and the nimble handling gives you a lot of options and control while you are up there… So the Dice continues to be a very versatile option both for genuine freeriders and also for wakestyle and waveriders who appreciate the ‘Dice feel’ and the responsiveness.
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The Tango is CrazyFly’s more ‘serious’ option. With the Sculp fulfilling the needs of most of the kiteboarding community, the Tango has its focus more on the requirements of the wakestyle and wave riders. There is the Nifty Bridle system which is designed to re-tune the kite between ‘performance freeride’ and ‘wave’ and L- R O U N D E a generally more serious profile for 2016. R AL DE PO Construction continues to be impressive W E with Double Ripstop and solid reinforcements. The 100% EU built carbon SICK bar is one of the finest on the market and the leather grip has a really nice feel and fantastic amount of grip. The depower cleat is very easy to use and we like the ‘aqua marine’ colorway treatment. For this test we had the 12m Tango on test. It’s a big kite and the three struts are relatively skinny. Despite this it holds its shape very well and we had it out on a couple of marginal days where it delivered a very solid low end and plenty of grunt to get you going. Turning speed is pretty sluggish as you would expect from a 12m but it was incredibly stable in the air making it predictable and solid for wakestyle riding. In the waves and if you kept the kite high it was surprisingly stable for ‘park and ride’ style surfing and the amount of depower enabled you to reduce the amount of pull from the kite and focus on the wave…
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As summer comes to an end in the UK, autumn has arrived with… Another run of light wind! Not to worry though, we had the Mr Big, which is Nobile’s light, light wind offering. Only available in 17m this is a beast of a kite. The LE is pretty skinny but the Mr Big is supported by 6 E T E S T struts, so holds its shape well. Weight is very T I K EED lightweight (especially considering the LO W I GN G S P E 6 struts) and the tips are swept back B NI N D on this relatively high aspect kite. We had a few sessions on the Mr Big in wind ranging from 8 through to around 14 knots. On lighter days this was one of the best performing big kites we have tested. You need to give it a big dive to get it going but it then immediately kicks in and delivers a lot of power before sitting nicely forward in the window and powering you upwind. On stronger days there is some flutter on the trailing edge as you would expect, and you can tell when you have reached the kite’s top end, but overall it continues to turn nicely and respond well. For us the Mr Big sits comfortably between the ‘super accessible’ big kite market and the ‘race kite’ market. If you want a big kite that is going to get you going and then give you some ‘performance’ characteristics then, for a one quiver lightwind kite, this would be a good option.
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It’s on to a pretty staggering ‘numéro neuf ’ for the Bandit. The kite that keeps on giving and keeps evolving… For this latest version the team have focused on the profile and the depower characteristics. Construction wise and the trailing edge has lost its Dacron which has been replaced by two layers of canopy fabric to bring the weight down. Sizes have also been tuned up with the larger sizes seeing more focus on maneuverability through reduced weight and improved power delivery, the mid-range sizes maintaining their do-it-all focus, and the smaller sizes taking more of a focus on waveriding with a touch less speed and increased stability. In the air and the first things you notice are the great low end and that the Bandit is very fast and responsive. There is the perfect UNDE -RO R balance at the bar with no twitching DE LL TE PO A W through the lines and it stays solid E through the gusts and drives upwind incredibly well for a kite with a relatively low aspect. When wave riding, the bar de-powers at exactly an arm’s length away which means you can turn off the power completely when you need to. For freestyle the Bandit delivers phenomenal lift and hang time, it’s a lot more than you expect! And unhooked it also behaves really well. It’s pretty fast on the quickest settings, so if you’re looking for that wakestyle feel then you need to adjust the back lines to really slow it down, and there isn’t heaps of slack line, but there is enough to get by. Once again the Bandit proves itself to be a kite for all styles and would be comfortable in the hands of a beginner through to the most advanced of riders. A real pleasure to fly and one of the best for 2016.
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Now into its 4th generation, the Escape has had a few tweaks for 2016 but still has its focus firmly on the ‘all-round’ accessible freeride market. Construction quality is excellent with Teijin Technoforce proving that no corners have been cut with the Escape. The four strut philosophy remains and ensures that there is plenty of undisturbed cloth through the middle of the kite to deliver smooth power delivery. The Navigator bar has also seen some improvements with the flag out safety now the standard setting and the bar remains very clean with a functional clam cleat and the unique depower line with the 2 ‘baubles’ on. This does make it easy to grab – more like a pull-pull system – when you’re on the water and once you’re tuned in to it, it is a nice system. On the water and the Escape is about as userfriendly as you can imagine. Depower E D R N TE OU S T is pretty much complete, and the DE R PO power ‘on’ very smooth. The W LE surprise is how much power and responsiveness there is… It feels like a ‘beginner’ kite but then delivers some impressive performance. Turning is quick and clean and you have great feedback at the bar. For boosting there is plenty there – and you would be comfortable taking out a size or two bigger than you need – and in the surf, although it doesn’t love to drift, the power off enables you to work it nicely in onshore conditions. For a kite that will do pretty much everything and do it to a good standard, the Escape is right up there…
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For many years the Obsession has been at the heart of the RRD kite range. With a do-it-all freeride philosophy it has enabled the rest of the range to evolve around it. For 2016 though, RRD decided to give the Obsession a pretty serious workover… For starters it has reduced its struts from five down to three. Then the bridles have been shortened so they cannot go around the tips and there are the new funky ‘elasticated pigtails’ to give you a little bit of leeway when your lines go slack. Aside from this the struts are a little thinner and the profile more open. The outcome is a much quicker and more reactive kite, designed to perform well in all arenas of the sport… So a true performance freerider. In the air and the first thing you notice is that, due to the 3 strut platform, the new Obsession is so much lighter than in previous years. This has made it faster, more stable and easier to relaunch. Then when it comes to getting down to business, boosting is still fantastic with the Obsession, and for big air and serious boosted freestyle the Obsession continues to be a fantastic and super fun kite. For more technical freestyle, it’s not an out and out freestyle kite (and it’s not meant to be) so it will need some trimming. Getting back upwind and you really notice the tweaks – It flies upwind and sits really comfortably right at the front of the window. Range is also superb with a solid low end and the Obsession is happy to handle plenty of power if you want to get loaded up for some big boosts. In the waves the kite is nimble and turns quickly, making it a really fun option for onshore conditions. Overall, a great reboot from RRD.
SCAN ME FOR THE FULL TESTS!
CORE IMPACT
Last year saw the Envy shed 25% of its weight amongst a few other tweaks and it was – by general consensus – a sweet kite. So for 2016, and the 7th version of the Envy, Liquid Force have played around a little more with the profile setting and with the LE and struts. So both of these are slimmer than 2015 resulting in a more efficient and direct kite. Plus the front lines on the Envy have now entered ‘tweaker’s dream’ territory with three attachment points which change the profile of the kite. So through moving the adjustment back the kite flattens out and will pivot and turn more on its axis – so good for waves – or you can move the knot more towards the wingtip which brings a bit more ‘C’ to the party for that freestyle vibe. The Response Bar is a very nicely engineered piece of kit and is uncluttered, easy to use and generally feels well thought out and the fact that you don’t really notice it speaks volumes. On the water the new Envy delivers power exceptionally smoothly, and you can feel the lightness of the kite in the bar. OUNDE It’s fast and direct with no lag in L- R R L DE the turns, due to the compact PO T A W E E pulleyless bridle. The Envy is equally at home whether you want to boost massive or just unhook and throw down Scheid Style. For riding in the waves the lightness really shows through – it’s such a nice, quick and light kite that you can easily put it where it needs to be and don’t need to worry about putting it down. But the really killer aspect of this kite for us is that it is perfect for all levels – from beginner to pro rider, so you will never outgrow this ride. It is used by kite schools and it’s used by AWSI kiter of the year Brandon Scheid: is there a more versatile kite on the market?! R
T
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LIQUID FORCE ENVY
S
The Impact is part of Core’s new Specialized range and is, quite simply, a no-compromise C kite. It does look like a kite of yesteryear and joins what is now a very refined group of kites designed for a niche group of kiters who are looking for the most direct possible connection and the raw power that only a C kite can deliver. So there are 5 struts, 5 lines, and completely square tips with direct connection points. No bridles here. Construction also benefits from the EXOTEX® Dacron which enable thinner struts and a thinner LE resulting in a quicker kite. The Impact is provided with a conversion kit for the Sensor 2 bar and – once kitted out – has the same supported single frontline safety system. So, it looks pretty badass – how does it ride? The first thing to note is that you feel properly plugged in to the Impact – a bit like you have put your fingers directly into the socket! But then you remember that it is 2015 and depower was invented about 8 years ago, so you can ease out the bar and the depower is there… As you would expect the Impact sits nicely forward in the window and trucks you upwind and it is just great to feel so connected – you can feel every little gust and shift in the wind direction. When it’s time to put it through its paces, the Impact really drives to the top of the window and then pulls you up – there is a whole lot of lift… Then for looping it spins around like a proper C kite – with plenty of power throughout the turn – but this is steadily and evenly delivered. For unhooked riding there is slack line in abundance – you can pop and the kite remains super steady and lets you get STYLE T EE ES R your work done before F T re-engaging. Overall this is a heart-inmouth but actually surprisingly user friendly kite to fly. Even if you’re not a freestyle purist it’s great to have a cruise around and really feel the power…
SICK BAR 40cm / 45cm / 50cm / 55cm
AFNOR
Simple and clean.
SAFETY
MADE IN EUROPE.
NF S52-503
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B E HIND
THE
C L I P
When it comes to representing your country, there’s no-one who does the ‘wacky Frenchman’ better than Tom Hebert. And North gave him his own TV series. What were they thinking? Here’s what Tom had to say about Episode IV… What has been your plan with the Tom’s Kitchen series?
What type of fish is the orange one and have you known him for some time?
Who filmed the clip and how many days did it take to film?
My plan is to show the world the side of kiteboarding beside wakestyle, and also to do a series which makes people laugh and also shows the beauty of where I am from, New Caledonia.
It is a banana parrot fish, very good. This was Frederique, but he was an informant and told the other fish I was coming, so he had to go. New Cal Mafia…
The Crew is composed of Thomas Roger the camera man and his brother who’s in charge of the audio. Thomas is a very good kiter and he used to be much better than me. We basically shoot it in about two days for the kiting, then a day for the funny part, then finally a day in the studio for the audio. The rest is the editing and post production.
Is that where all the episodes have been filmed? Yes, all the episodes are filmed in New Caledonia. The last one was filmed on l’Ilot Maitre (Master Island) which is located next to Nouméa, the capital of NC. It’s a perfect spot because of the flat water and the good wind.
Do you have a ‘North Kiteboarding hat department’ or are they all your own? Yes we spent years of development on the kitchen hat. Trying to find the right shape and profile!
Were any fish harmed in the making of Episode IV? No I eat them.
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You generally ride pretty stacked #newcalstyle. Can you ever have too much power?! As I need to go high and get the most air time I need to ride very over-powered. So ‘too much power’ is never enough!
You’re pretty passionate about the big air side of things – have you always been into this? Yes in New Cal we have been into these type of tricks since the Mark Shinn years when everybody was very into it. Since then I’ve always loved to go as high as I can and make a show for the people on the beach.
Your feet must be in good condition with all of your sand pedicures? Yes I take care of myself with daily pedicures.
The clip is super funny, but is it actually pretty hard work to put together? Not really, we talk together with Thomas and friends and try to find some good story lines and funny things to do. Like New Cal cyclone brain storming.
Do you actually spend much time in the kitchen in real life? Yes of course, sashimiiiiiiiii!
What can we expect for Tom’s kitchen Episode V? Some crazy stuff with a car, boat, motorbike. Some crazy kite action. Some nuts accents. A lot of #newcalstyle and “we love the kitesurf!”
RINT EXTRADO
PANTONE 312 C + PANTONE 382 C PRINT > SAME PRINT FOR 10/12
WHITE PRINT > SAME PRINT FOR 10/12
BLACK PRINT
WHITE PRINT
CANOPY COLORS
PANTONE 312C PANTONE 1785C PANTONE 382C PANTONE 2726C
WHITE + RED PANTONE 185 PRINT > SAME PRINT 10/12
WHITE PRINT
DACRON COLORS PANTONE 185 C BLACK
RINT EXTRADO
PANTONE 312 C + PANTONE 382 C PRINT > SAME PRINT FOR 10/12
RINT LEADING EDGE
WHITE PRINT > SAME PRINT FOR 10/12
BLACK PRINT
WHITE PRINT
CANOPY COLORS
PANTONE 312C PANTONE 1785C PANTONE 382C PANTONE 2726C
WHITE + RED PANTONE 185 PRINT > SAME PRINT 10/12
WHITE PRINT
DACRON COLORS PANTONE 185 C
RINT EXTRADO
BLACK
PANTONE 2726
RINT LEADING EDGE
RINT EXTRADO
PANTONE 312 C + PANTONE 382 C PRINT > SAME PRINT FOR 10/12
WHITE PRINT > SAME PRINT FOR 10/12
BLACK PRINT
WHITE PRINT
CANOPY COLORS
PANTONE 1785 PANTONE 312C PANTONE 1785C
RINT EXTRADO
PANTONE 382C PANTONE 2726C
WHITE + RED PANTONE 185 PRINT > SAME PRINT 10/12
WHITE PRINT
DACRON COLORS PANTONE 185 C BLACK
PANTONE 2726
RINT LEADING EDGE
PANTONE 1785
RINT EXTRADO
PANTONE 2726
PANTONE 1785
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METEOROLOGY
METEOROLOGY WITH TONY BUTT
PHOTO: CARLOS TORO W W W.W H I T E WAV E S . E U
THE CAPE DOCTOR If you have ever been to Cape Town during the summer, you might have thought that some of the weather was backwards. It’s really windy and the sea is freezing. In fact, the average wind speed in summer is at least 50% higher than in the winter. And the sea temperature on the west side of the Cape Peninsula is often colder in the summer than it is in the winter. Sometimes you can get 30ºC land and 10ºC water at the same time. The prevailing wind during the summer is a famous wind called the Cape Doctor. It blows from the southeast, frequently reaches 35 to 40 knots, and has been measured as high as 90 knots, which is a category-two hurricane. Compared to the much more blustery winds that occur in winter, it is fairly uniform in speed and direction. The reason it is called the Cape Doctor is because in the past it was thought to clean the air and blow away diseases. Nowadays, perhaps it helps to clear the city of pollution and smog. The Cape Doctor is a tradewind. In the South Atlantic the trades are south-easterly winds that blow around the northwest flank of a high pressure called the South Atlantic Anticyclone. In the North Atlantic, the trades are a mirror image of this: northeast winds that blow around the southeast flank of the Azores Anticyclone. There is a similar wind to the Cape Doctor in northern Portugal and Galicia. It is called the Nortada and is a strong, persistent, 132 | TheKiteMag
north or northeast wind that blows throughout summer. The mechanism responsible is pretty much the same as the Cape Doctor, but the effects are not so extreme. In addition to the presence of that large high, during summer there tends to be a persistent area of low pressure over the nearby land mass, namely Southern Africa or the Iberian Peninsula. It comes about because the land heats up during the summer, which results in convection and, therefore, a drop in pressure at the surface (as we looked at in the last article about sea breezes). The periphery of the high pushes up against the low, the isobars are squeezed and the pressure gradient along the coast increases. Which, of course, means more wind. But there is yet another effect that works to increase the wind even more. It is called ‘topographic forcing’ and you get it if you have mountains close to the coastline. With the 1,085m Table Mountain and several others, such as Chapman’s Peak, right on the coast, the effect is more pronounced in Cape Town than it is
in Iberia. As the moving air hits the mountain it either goes up and over the top, around the side, or a combination of the two. As a result, the flow is constricted, or squashed-up. And just like any fluid when you squeeze it through a narrower gap, it accelerates. Lastly, the reason why the water is so cold is to do with a phenomenon called upwelling. Upwelling is the rising of cold water from underneath to replace the warm surface water, while the surface water is continually being blown away from the coast by the wind. It happens in many parts of the world, including off Galicia and Portugal, but the effect is much more pronounced in Cape Town.
You would think that a straight offshore wind would be best for upwelling, because it would push the water straight offshore. Well, thanks to the Coriolis force this is not quite the case: the surface water being driven by the wind is deflected by the Coriolis force approximately 45º to the left (to the right in the northern hemisphere). Therefore, the southeast wind of the Cape Doctor produces maximum upwelling on the west coast (see diagram).
Surface water pushed away from coast
Once the Cape Doctor starts to blow, a cycle will start whereby the surface water is blown away from the coast and then more water comes up from underneath to replace it. This water is then also blown away, allowing more water to rise, and so on. In this way, the sun never gets a chance to heat up the surface layer – as long as that wind keeps blowing, the coastal waters are kept cold. In Cape Town, water temperatures can sometimes drop unbelievably quickly. Sometimes, north-westerly winds, which keep the water fairly warm, are suddenly replaced by strong south-easterlies, which causes upwelling. For example, on 1st June this year the water temperature dropped by more than 7ºC in 24 hours (as you can see on the graph).
Cape Doctor Coast
Water rises to replace surface water
Sea bed Plan view (upper panel) and side view (lower panel) of upwelling in Cape Town
Tony Butt holds a PhD in physical oceanography and is the author of Surf Science, an Introduction to Waves for Surfing (2014) and The Surfer’s Guide to Waves, Coasts and Climates (2009). Tony is also a big-wave surfer who spends the northern winter in a forgotten corner of Northwest Spain, and migrates to Southwest Africa during the southern winter…
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THE DARK ROOM
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THE D ARK ROOM Part 7 :
P O S T PRODUCTION PA RT
1 :
T H E
BAS I C S
PH OTO G R A P HI C W I Z A R D RY W I T H S T EP HA N KLEI N LEI N
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THE DARK ROOM
Having spent the whole day on the beach, in the surf, and maybe even following some kiters with my stills camera on my kiteboard to get some awesome angles, I’m now back home with maybe around 10,000 new images stacked up on my memory cards. The fun begins! For some people it is an enjoyable task, and for others it is a nightmare to get through all those images and get them stored properly, then to select the right shots for editing and turn some of the super cool images into something really spectacular in the editing process.
Screenshot 1
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In Part 1 of this post production slot, I’m going to show you how I deal with all the shots I accumulate (sometimes more than 10,000 photos a day) and how to store them in such a way that you’ll find them before and after the editing process. As with most photographers, I use Adobe Lightroom, which works for me the best and I have been using for many years (although this doesn’t mean that other programs – like Apple’s Aperture for example – are not as good). Like any other program, Lightroom can be quite
Screenshot 2
complex and take time to learn, but as soon as you get into it and become familiar with the ins and outs of it you get better and understand what the program offers. But you never really learn out and know everything about it! Even after years of processing my images through Adobe Lightroom I still discover unknown features on a regular basis. And there are tons of tutorials on the internet which can help you to become a master of your program, so check them out…
So, I have my shots ready. So what is the first thing I do? Well I make a mirror copy of my SD or Flash Card with my images onto an external hard drive where I place all my original RAW images straight from the camera. This is for two reasons: 1) I have a second copy of the new images and 2) If I import ALL my images straight into Lightroom then it slows right down while it is importing. This can take some time and uses a lot of RAM on your computer… So if you back them up first and then upload them in batches, everything will work more smoothly…
Okay, enough of saving and double copies etc! But just remember how important this is. If you don’t you’ll find out the hard way… Back to processing the images. So now I import my new RAW images from my external hard drive into Adobe Lightroom. Normally I select all the images and I set some simple keyword taps, for example: Mauritius; Kitesurfing; 2015; Wave Session; Ozone… before I push import. Now after the images are all in the program I select them all and create a Collection for example: Ozone 14.10.15 One Eye. All the photos go into the collection.
And always remember: hard drives do die! And when they do, it happens all of a sudden and all your work and all your top shots are gone forever. That’s why I have at least one extra copy of the original RAW files (one external first copy of SD cards and the second through the import into Adobe Lightroom). Also periodically I copy my best shots after I finished the editing onto a special external hard drive which I call “Top Shots”. Of this hard drive I have 2 copies in 2 different locations, just in case! Then my absolute top shots are saved in the cloud on different internet servers. It is a bit tricky (and becomes even more tricky when you start shooting 100,000 images per year) but just imagine losing all of them…
Then it is on to the first selection process. I view all the images quickly and do one of two things. I either give a potential good image which I think is worth editing later a red frame by pressing “6” or I reject the photo by pressing “x” If the image is not worth keeping. Then with all the other photos which don’t fall in those 2 categories I do nothing. After the first viewing I delete all the rejected images by going to “Photo” and “Delete Rejected Images”. Then I select all of the red framed images and view them again a second time. Now I give all the red framed images which I would really like to edit a Yellow Frame by hitting “7”… (Screenshots 1&2) TheKiteMag | 137
THE DARK ROOM
Now the selection work is done and I can start editing those yellow framed images. It’s hard to generalize, but often out of 1000 images I end up with 250 red framed images and out of that I probably select 120 yellow frame images which I will edit. So now I select only the yellow framed images for the editing process. Now it is on to some basic editing on the first yellow framed image. Pretty much all images will get at least some small adjustments in Tone (Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks); Presence (Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation) as well as sharpening and noise reduction. My advice would be not to go overboard with the adjustments. Take your time and get the shot how you want it to look. Photo editing for me is some kind of art form where you can express your own personal taste and feelings for colors, composition etc. Like any kind of art form, you will find people who will love it and others who have a completely different opinion about your choices that they don’t agree with. But this is cool. This is art! When I am happy with my initial adjustments I save the adjustment settings using Copy, then with Paste or Command + V I can paste the same adjustment settings onto the next image and so on (Screenshots 3&4). Some of the other images might be very similar and you don’t have to change any of the adjustments, but if the image changes and you have to do new basic adjustments you can copy them again with Command + C for the next images. This is an easy way to go quickly through your hundreds of photos so you don’t have to adjust every single one…
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Screenshot 3
Screenshot 4
If you have a lot of very similar images you can select all those images and then on the right hand side you will find the Synchronize Settings button. Here you can make a copy of the first image basic adjustment settings and synchronize it to all the selected images in one go. But just be careful, it is very tempting to do this too often because you can save heaps of time, but often the setting for the first image doesn’t necessarily suit all the images and the quality of your edit will suffer at some stage. Editing takes time, don’t rush it! So that is phase one! Next issue we’ll go into more detail about the finer points of editing and about some of the editing tricks and tips that can turn a ‘good’ shot into an ‘epic’ shot. Or maybe even a cover… TheKiteMag | 139
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The Levante was extremely strong this day in Tarifa, over 40 knots, so we decided to try Guadalmesi where the wind is usually 10-20 knots less than Tarifa...
THI NGS YO U WO U L DN ’ T K NOW A B O UT T HI S SHOT BEN
W ELSH
The rider is David Tonijuan and we were doing a shoot for Cabrinha together with his team mate Liam Whaley. Guadalmesi is very rocky with cliffs and gusty wind and I wouldn’t recommend this location to any rider who is not a pro... The tower that is in the photo is “La Torre de Guadalmesí” and was built in 588! I was nervous in the water holding onto the camera in the housing because every time they jumped they would land extremely close to the rocks. If the kite went down then with the wind direction here you would probably end up in Morocco which is only 14 kilometers away!
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