Table of contents for #75 in Kiteworld Magazine

Einstein wrote, “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it”. For most sailors or kitesurfers, the notion of holding a high-altitude regatta in one of the world's most remote, landlocked locations seems sufficiently crazed to ft the bill. Tajikistan's Eastern Pamir is an amazing region: majestic scenery and a rich culture overlaid with the history of the Silk Road. It's not for the feint-hearted, though. Explorer Marco Polo wrote: “The plain is called Pamier, and you ride across it for twelve days together, finding nothing but a desert without habitations or any green thing . . . The region is so lofty and cold that you do not even see any birds flying.And I must notice also that because of this great cold,…

Strapless surfboard riding has reached new levels of bonkers in recent years. Watching someone boost big strapless airs is amazing, but when the basics are done well, they still always look good. Tacking allows us to turn into the wind in a small turning circle, while gybing is a little bit easier, taking you with the wind so you can maintain constant power, requires slightly easier footwork movements and there’s less of a make-or-break moment in your kite handling. Let’s crack them all, starting with two types of gybe... MOVE #01: GYBING BEFORE THE FOOT SWITCH This is the most popular method of changing direction on a surfboard and has similarities to performing a bottom turn on a wave, so it’s a key one to get under your belt. There…

SESSION #07: DOWNWINDER SPECIAL We kiters are active and (reasonably) ft by modern standards, but you don’t catch many of us running up and down hills in lycra and it’s fair to say that the only time we end up doing a long swimming session is when things have gone a little bit pear-shaped out on the water. Once we’ve reached a base level of kite ftness, our regular sessions generally aren’t like an iron man, thankfully. However, one area of our sport that does involve some pretty lengthy periods of exertion is the downwinder. In a normal session you’ll change tack, go back to the beach, chat to your friends or change kites, depending on the conditions. Your body gets a break from straining against the kite and you…

INVIGORATION N. {1} ENERGISE, ENLIVEN {2} EXCITE, EXHILARATE {3} INSPIRE, REFRESH {4} REINFORCE, RESTORE {5} REVITALISE, STIMULATE…

#01: Firstly, there was an error in our average wind chart in the 2015 Travel Guide supplement on the Corpus Christi, USA spot guide. Here’s an updated wind chart for the area. Corpus Christi actually boasts arguably the largest amount of kite-able days year round in the continental United States. Featuring a wide variety of conditions, from the pristine shallow flat waters of the Laguna Madre to the windy overhead surf on the Texas Gulf Coast, Corpus Christi and South Texas have something for everyone. The guys at 361 Kite have all the low down on riding in the area: www.361kite.com #02: This was the very fine gallery opening shot by Seth Warren in issue #74. At the time we didn’t know who the rider was, but have found out…

99.9 percent of all the species that ever lived on Earth are now extinct. This probably applies to board designs, too. Being what it is, the North Shore of Oahu is the place bad designs come to die. Miles and miles of powerful waves teach you about yourself and your equipment with merciless honesty. If something doesn’t work, this place will let you know. Similarly, a design can also be validated when people really buy into it on the North Shore. At Mokuleia Beach Park recently - the North Shore’s wave kiting epicenter - there has been a widespread Tomo outbreak. If you’re not familiar with the design, the board has a distinctive, snubbed, triangular nose, a pretty straight rail line, is fairly short and riders like Felix Pivec have…

Flow Mihaly Csikszentmihaly is a theorist and professor of psychology who has contributed pioneering work to our understanding of happiness, creativity, human fulfliment and the notion of ‘flow' - a state of heightened focus and immersion in activities, such as art, physical activity and work. I read one of his books about ten years ago while training in Brazil in preparation for the final world cup stop in Fortaleza. I found myself studying the book, rather than just casually reading it, and ended up writing out pages and pages of information by hand so that I could go back to my favourite parts at any time. Analysing and understanding fow was pretty ground-breaking, not only for my career as a pro kiter, but for my life in general. Mihaly suggests…

Where do you live? Scarborough, Perth, West Oz. God’s country! How long have you been surfing? As long as I can remember. Dad got me surfing from a young age - probably four or five. By the time I was ten I was surfing every day after school and have had a huge love for the ocean ever since. How long have you been kitesurfing? I started around 2001/02, so a good 13 years. There wasn't much of a kiting crew in West Oz, but a buddy and I would do downwinders as we couldn't stay upwind on our two-line kites. It's funny thinking back about that as the beaches were so empty then. Now there can be a couple of hundred guys at my local doing downwinders. Some days…

I grew up living on the beach close to Rimini on the east coast of Italy. My dad windsurfed, I started surfng and everything was pretty sweet, except the fact that it wasn't always windy and there were rarely any waves. We would travel to windy places in the school holidays to actually ride and get more water time, but that was only for two weeks in the winter and about a month in the summer. I always remember people saying, “You should go up to Lake Garda. It's physics: if it's sunny, it's windy!”. I guess my dad was never really attracted by lake sailing, so the frst time I actually got to ride on any lake (and it was actually Lake Garda) was for my frst ever Cabrinha…

KITING FOR CAUSE Australian kiters Rich Hatherall, Dr. Nick Cole, Alex Unsworth and Jason Rogers crossed The Torres Straight, raising over $80,000 for the McGrath Foundation in 2013. They have another adventure lined up for August, called Kite The Reef, involving, among others, Susi Mai, Jesse Richman, KW photographer John Bilderback and, hopefully, Sir Richard Branson. Richard Hatherall explains the background story: TORRES CROSSING – JUNE 2013 We were part of the Torres Crossing group in June 2013 and became the frst kiters to successfully cross the Torres Strait from the tip of Australia to Papua New Guinea, entirely by kiteboard, for a total of 400 kilometres. We kited 40 -110 kilometres each day for fve days, sleeping on remote islands overnight, and certainly got the kiting expedition bug from…

Clearing the pack PHOTO – Mats Grimsaeth / Red Bull Content Pool The first challenge of the Red Bull Ragnarok is to gain entry. On a well timed day off in early December I was frantically typing in my debit card details at 11.01am trying to become one of the lucky 300 to compete in this iconic event. Just ten minutes later an email confirmed my place and it dawned on me that I had entered one of the toughest snowkite races in the world - having never snowkited before. How difficult could it be? I've competed in several kitesurf races and enjoyed two seasons skiing. Surely the two could be combined quite easily? Four months later I was heading to the airport with a lot of gear. I had…

As kitesurfers we are fortunate enough to rely on an infinitely renewable resource to power our antics. All we need is the wind and that ain’t running out anytime soon. Sometimes it doesn't quite play the game and we don't get the conditions that we hoped for, but we are always safe in the knowledge that, eventually, it will come back and our lives will be fulfilled once more. The actual act of kitesurfing and riding a board across the surface of the water powered by the wind is as non-damaging to the environment as it could possibly be, and we can all take some pride in that. For a snowboarder or skier to get up the mountain they need, more often than not, to be carried up there by…

Choosing the right instructor or school isn’t always as easy as reading the offer on the advert. It’s easy to make promises and, on the fip-side, some of the best instructors aren’t very good at their own marketing. Here are some aspects to consider when calling up an instructor, whatever your level and however good you’re aiming to be. PROGRESSION VERSUS ACQUISITION Some schools sell the promise of quick learning - and they may well be able to deliver that. Their customers will learn things and they may also manage to water-start within the guaranteed two hours (though I’m not sure we should be counting standing up and riding fve metres as a complete success). There is of course a trade-off between being too serious and too focused on fun…

The ‘Iron Man’ is a 600+ kilometre kitesurfng experience, taking you from Taiba to Atins where you'll discover the dreamlike fat-water lagoons (search ‘Red Bull Rally Dos Ventos’ for an idea). Once a year in November, and only for experienced riders, you have six challenging days to complete this exhilarating journey as you wind your way along the hidden dunes, unspoilt beaches and through the lush, fat water deltas. You'll rip from Taiba to Jericoacoara in three days and then from Jeri to Atins in another three. Riding some of the most consistent winds on the planet, high-level athletes such as Mitu Monteiro will accompany you offering clinical tips along the way. Your accommodation is sorted each night with no need to check in, all you need is to be…

SCHOOLS THE AMERICAS 1 Aqua Sports Maui Wailukui, Hawaii kiteboardingmaui@mac.com + 1 808 242 8015 www.mauikiteboardinglessons.com 2 Captain Kirks Kiteboarding San Pedro, CA & LaVentana, Baja info@captainkirks.com +1 310 833 3397 www.captainkirks.com 3 Exotikite Kiteboarding School Baja, Sur Mexico info@exotikite.com +521 624 165 2612 www.exotikite.com 4 Good Breeze Kiteboarding Cocoa Beach, Florida info@kiteboardingcloseouts.com +1 321-252-5483 www.goodbreezekiteboarding.com www.kiteboardingcloseouts.com 5 Hatteras Island Surf & Sailing Waves, NC +1 252 987 2292 www.hatterasislandsurfshop.com 6 Kite Club Punta Cana Punta Cana, Dominican Republic +1 829 576 6399 info@kiteclubpuntacana.com www.kiteclubpuntacana.com 7 Kiteboarding School of Maui Kahului, Maui, Hawaii mschale@ksmaui.com +1 808 873 0015 www.ksmaui.com 8 Kitty Hawk Kites Nag's Head, Hatteras mail@kittyhawk.com +1 252 441 0265 www.kittyhawk.com www.khkiteboarding.com 9 KGB Kiteboarding Baja Mexico & California info@kgbswag.com +1 510 967 8014 www.kgbswag.com 10 Kiteforce Montreal, Quebec…