Table of contents for #85 February - March 2017 in Kiteworld Magazine

LISTEN TO THE DEVIL What do you want out of kiteboarding? It’s a question that we’re faced with throughout our riding ‘careers’. Before you get into the sport there’s surely a gap in your life somewhere that you feel needs to be filled. So you look around, kitesurfing comes on your radar and you take some lessons. Next: ‘Do I need more gear?’ The answer to that one, much as you might fight it, is usually ‘yes’ if you listen to the devil inside you. The devil knows best when it comes to fun. I’m often reminded that there are kitesurfers who are just completely happy with their kitesurfing lot, and entirely oblivious to the changes and advances going on around them. Decisions are a distraction for them. They’re often…

Marcus, can we start with a good kiteboarding analogy for your take on Brexit please? Okay. It was one of those teetering-on-the-edge days. The wind was at the peak you can handle, the gusts were testing your skills. It could be a day of glory, or we could still be coughing up sand for what feels like forever. For us it was the latter; we were lofted, dragged and dunked multiple times, breathing became difficult and a drowning seemed like a real possibility. We suddenly found the wind shifting and our board slightly unsteady beneath our feet. We were riding into the unknown. Nicely put Marcus. Kitemare. What was the initial effect? The pound’s spectacular crash against the US Dollar and the Euro meant many tour operators lost money on…

SOUTHWEST IRELAND, OCTOBER 2016 This autumn provided pretty amazing weather with blue skies and buckets of swell, but mostly light offshore breezes. For the surfing world it was pumping. I love surfing for its simplicity and pureness, but what I don’t like about surfing are the crowds, the hustling and the snaking. I would normally have done a lot more kitesurfing than surfing in October, but as it happens I think I can count on just one hand the amount of sessions we had this October for proper wave kiting. I once heard a great phrase that has always stuck in my mind. It sums up surfers and kitesurfers alike: ‘we’re in search of unpredictable happiness’. It basically means that if you are a surfer or a kitesurfer you have…

“I BELIEVE THAT EVERYONE HAS IT IN THEIR BLOOD. EVERYONE WANTS TO BE THE FASTEST ONE DAY. WITH SPEED YOU CANNOT PLAY ANY GAMES. IT’S VERY SIMPLE: YOU HAVE A START AND A FINISH AND ONLY THE SPEED YOU REACH IS IMPORTANT.” RAPHAEL SALLES - F-ONE We take a look at the gear, habits and progress made by a dedicated set of kitespeed racers, as well as a burgeoning foiling elite who are supported by teams of designers intent on producing the next world beating design. The developments at the elite end eventually drip our way as regular riders, so we also look forward to finding out how our riding will be affected. And most excitingly, we’ll find that speed and racing are no longer just for the old guys.…

“SHEETING IN AT THE TOP OF THE RUN IN A BIG 50+ KNOT GUST IS ONE OF THE BEST FEELINGS IN KITESURFING. PURE JOY WITH LOTS OF ACCELERATION - HOPING THE GUSTS LASTS FOR THE NEXT 700 METRES.” ROB DOUGLAS The need for speed is inherent and will rear its head within you sooner or later. If so, once you’ve got foiling cracked you may well find yourself trying to work out how you can reach even greater speeds, and that’s when you’ll start looking towards more performance focused foils. Going faster than 30 knots in anything other than butter flat water on a regular twin-tip feels like you’re about to try and beat the Millennium Falcon’s time down the Kessel Run, but the sensation of travelling fast feels much…

“I THINK YOU CAN SEE FROM THE FINAL OF THE HYDROFOIL PRO TOUR IN PERTH BACK IN NOVEMBER, WITH 89% OF THE FIELD RIDING THE V2. WE DON’T, NOR CAN WE, SPONSOR ALL THOSE RIDERS!” MATT TAGGART As Ian mentioned, the manufacturer’s competition has been intense, swaying back and forth between leading protagonists, often month to month in terms of the winning models, in both the foils themselves and the foil kites. At the moment, the F-One Diablo2 and the Ozone R1 V2 kites have claimed the major spoils if we look back at the 2016 titles, but in terms of rider numbers on track, Ozone have gained an advantage. Ozone co-owner Matt Taggart has the racing bug himself, and he and all his design team have spent years working…

TESTER’S NOTES: “Oh you’re taking the Moon Patrol!” “Yes! Moon Patrol session!” … were the types of frothy comments I was greeted with at the Liquid Force Cape Town hostel when I turned up for the group downwinder with the accommodation residents, staff and the visiting international brand team and designers. Stoke levels were already rising nicely. It was my first week in Cape Town and I was to be riding high all right. The Moon Patrol was causing so much fuss, not only because it’s new to the line-up this year, but it does look like a rocket ship! It’s like the Atlantis space shuttle that I saw on display at the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral in Florida last year, where the speaker delivers an emotional story…

There aren’t a huge number of well known Asian kiteboarders, but ‘Yo’ Narapichit Pudla is a five time Asian champion from Thailand, a well-known character on the Thai national scene, the KTA, IKA World Championship racing circuit and has even made a PKRA freestyle appearance or two. Known across Asia as a talented rider in both freestyle and racing he has found a new way to push his boundaries by undertaking a variety of long distance kite missions - the latest of which was when Yo became the first person to cross the Gulf of Thailand on December 19th 2016. The Gulf of Thailand (formerly the Gulf of Siam) is a shallow inlet in the western part of the South China and Eastern Archipelagic Seas, in the western Pacific Ocean.…

First off, get a trainer kite and thoroughly master its flight. This learning process should include looping the kite. This cannot be overemphasized. Looping a kite through the power is a critical skill frequently used on the snow (to help you negotiate terrain for example) and will translate into many satisfying hours of snowkiting. Practice with your trainer until you can fly that little wing just by bar feel. Once you are feeling like a pro with your trainer, seek out lessons from an experienced instructor, not just for your safety, but also to save you lots of time and frustration. If you can’t find anyone to give you professional lessons, find an experienced kiter who is willing (and patient) to give you tips and instruction. Gusty, turbulent wind can…

ALPINE FOIL The Access is an aluminium foil designed for everyone from foiling novices to racers. Uniquely, it is compatible with every kind of foil attachment on the market, including KF box, Tuttle, Deep Tuttle or Probox, meaning it can be used with boards from any other brand. Machined from a block of aluminium during an eight hour process, the 2017 foil features the Access V2 Soft Nose fuselage - a shape with perfect flow, structural integrity and stiffness. The Access is available with 60, 80 or 95cm mast length options and these foils carried the winners in both the male and female masters divisions in the French Championships to victory this year. www.alpinefoil.com DAKINE Sliding spreader bars are becoming essential bits of kit for the dedicated wave kiter. This…

What is it about speed that captivates and motivates us? What is it that drives us to danger, excitement, unreasonable buying decisions and, of course, above all can occupy our mind, filling both our dreams and waking moments for indefinite periods of time? Speed is a curious thing because, more often than not, it’s not even real speed we’re talking about, but rather the sensation of speed. I think I’ve touched on it before in this column, but most often what we crave is the sensation of speed rather than the raw, brutal numbers. Proof? As I write this I’m sat on a plane traveling at around 700 kph - a velocity that few humans will ever exceed and yet the thrill is limited, the sensation dull and, quite frankly,…

“WE SPENT THE NIGHT IN ICARAIZINHO, BUT I WAS EARLY TO BED AS THE NEXT DAY WE’D BE COVERING 135 KILOMETRES - FURTHER THAN WE’D GONE IN THE FIRST TWO DAYS COMBINED!” Growing up I had the fortune to spend three years on a sailing boat travelling around the world with my family. It was a formative experience that taught me how important it is to push your limits in order to make the most of your life. Last year, my fiancée Candice, lost her father, Carl, the grandnephew of Ernest Hemingway, to cancer and it reminded us just how precious life is. I decided to challenge myself by trying to complete the Iron Man of kiteboarding. It’s a 600 kilometre downwinder run by Surfin Sem Fim that travels from…

The rapid growth of the foiling scene probably hasn’t escaped your attention. In the pages of this magazine you’ll regularly see adverts for foils, particularly the new breed of entry-level set-ups, and it’s easy to wonder where all this came from? Was there an industry-wide decision made to just start making foils and see if it caught on? Well no, there wasn’t, but if you ride at a reasonably quiet spot and don’t frequently read magazines or spend a lot of time on social media, then there’s every chance you might have missed the rise and rise of foiling. I rode a foil for the first time at the end of last year and, although beforehand I thought it looked cool, I was in no desperate rush to try it.…

“RIDERS ARE GOING 5 TO 10% FASTER THAN LAST YEAR AND FOR SURE THEY’RE DOING IT IN LESS WIND.” MICHAEL GEBHARDT Alex attributes his ability to go faster to, in part, the development of the gear he’s riding. Since his last record in November 2013, he’s worked with his sponsors, F-One, to develop the AC21 pro model which has greater responsiveness and therefore less energy wastage alongside a complete range of new kites, the ‘Furtive’, which are more adapted than the Bandit to speed riding in extreme conditions, due to how much further forward they sit in the window as well as featuring a flatter shape and five strut construction, which makes them robust enough to deal with the forces they’re under in high winds. It’s worth noting that speed…

TEST TEAM NOTES: Core label the XR4 as the ‘Wunderkite’ - their dedicated big-air freeride machine. We tested a good cross section of the range – Bully has had the 12, 9 and 7 metre models through late summer and autumn in the UK and we’ve rinsed the 6 metre out in Cape Town more recently. Let’s start with the bigger sizes, because the six metre is a special kind of beast! The XR4 is a high-aspect shape in all sizes, providing great upwind ability, punching far into the window as well as an excellent low end with superb feel throughout the sheeting range, from zero to full power. Vitally, it’s very light and responsive, too. Like a BMW changing up through the gears, the XR4 has one of the…

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01 > Today, right now, tube kites are faster than foil kites. 02 > Always carry a sharp knife. 03 > Drag is stability... and stability is fast. 04 > France is the official home of speed sailing. Where do I start? Well, Marie Saint de la Mer, Salin de Giraud, Port Saint Louis and La Franqui are legendary speed spots. Unlike any other country I have experienced, speed sailing is part of the culture in France. The powerful Tramontane and Mistral winds that can blow in excess of 70 knots in the south have a lot to do with this French culture of speed sailing in my opinion. The list of French 500 metre course speed sailors is distinguished and legendary: Pascal Maka (The Crossbow Killer and multiple WR…

What a season it’s been for the WKL. Launching at short notice with their first event at the MaiTai Invitational in Cabarete in July, ably led by an entrepreneur called Danny Galliart, Youri Zoon, Alex Pastor, Liam Whaley and Bruna Kajiya formed a unified group of riders as the Kiteboarding Riders United (KRU). Having created a blue print for a world tour that would see the riders maintain control of, not just the direction of the tour, but also the strategic planning, financial responsibility and its future, they haven’t looked back since. Coming off the back of a crumbling world tour calendar of cancelled events, political game play and sloppy mis-management in the freestyle competition world in 2015, this slick, new, organic set-up certainly looked good from the start with…

I’m lying down looking up at the sky. The northern lights are dancing around and stars shoot across the sky. The only sound comes from the water lapping the side of the boat. Besides that it’s peaceful and black. There are four of us on board, plus my dog Truls, and we started out in Stavanger, my home town in the south of Norway, aiming to navigate all the way up to Tromsø, way up in the north. It’s a long way and people repeatedly warned me about how hard it can be on a boat in the early Norwegian winter, which can deliver storm after storm. One particularly heavy storm hit us just three days before we were to set sail, which was worrying as it wasn’t even in…

This was the first day of the season at Jaws in November and we were all keen to get back out in solid surf again. Niccolo Porcella launched his jet-ski and Jesse Richman and I launched ours, which was mainly for safety cover should anything go wrong, but getting a lift and then launching off the back of the ski saves an hour-and-a-half kite upwind. Jesse hurt himself a few days before so he agreed to drive safety for the two of us. We were expecting the surf to be big after looking at the offshore buoy reading, but when we pulled up to the line up, although it looked big, it wasn’t nearly as ‘massive’ as we had hoped for. But let me put it into perspective, yes, I’ve…

“RACERS MUST PERFORM FLAT-OUT, FULLY-FOILING TACKS AND GYBES THAT DEMAND THE ULTIMATE BALLETIC ATHLETICISM AS THE FOIL BOARD DANCES AND WEAVES UNDER FOOT. THE MARGIN FOR ERROR IS ZERO: A CRASH WILL LIKELY COST THE RACE.” To get some sense of what 36 knots feels like, a jarring ride on the high-speed Rottnest Eco Express, as it keeps pace with French kitefoil ace Nico Parlier, is not a bad place to start. It is an uncomfortable, bruising experience as the jet boat judders and bucks off two-metre swells and chop thrown up by the cranking Fremantle Doctor’s thermal wind. Just astern, Parlier appears more serene as he floats above the boiling surface on his hydrofoil. Make no mistake, though, holding down the immense power of a ten metre foil kite…

“THE GEAR IS SO MUCH EASIER TO USE NOW. WE’RE GOING 40 KNOTS NOW BECAUSE IT’S POSSIBLE.” NICO PARLIER As Gebi suggests, performance in foiling is also progressing at a rate of knots (pun intended). “Foilboard racers are going noticeably faster than a year ago, in all directions: upwind, better angles and faster on reaches and downwind as well.” Nico Parlier, at 85 kilos, is hitting 22 knots on an upwind reach and up to 40 knots mid-race during the last HydroFoil Pro Tour event. As a heavier rider he struggles in sub-15 knots, which is when Maxime Nocher, at 75kg, seems to do better, but the 42 knots he logged on a prototype slalom wing designed purely with speed in mind rather than upwind ability, proves that his weight…

The United States has no shortage of windy coastline to explore, however, one of the best places for windsports in the U.S. is located three hours inland from the nearest ocean. Nestled away in the upper left corner of continental USA is a small town called Hood River. Situated at the confluence of the mighty Columbia River and the glacially fed Hood River, this meeting zone is at the heart of the Columbia River Gorge, a place where the rain meets the sun. Geologically, the area is set-up like a giant wind tunnel, with steep walls funnelling wind down the river. A large sandbar juts out into the river from Hood River town (thanks to the sediments of the Hood River), which allows for easy, safe access to the wind…

TEST TEAM NOTES: The ADHD is Shinn’s specialist wakestyle / freestyle twin-tip, but it’s always managed to offer us a little something more than just being an out-and-out, stiff performance weapon. Firstly that deep rocker line and softness in the tips is very pleasing out here in the big winds and big seas of Cape Town where we’re constantly pre-jumping waves and then boosting off ramps. Over the last three years Shinn have stiffened the ADHD up in the middle and there’s now more dedicated wakestyle / freestyle performance, but the 137 is also a total chop eater and works really well for both strapped and boots riding. Few boards offer such equal application and comfort between straps and boots. A big plus in many people’s book, no doubt! Carrying…

“ IT WAS A SIMPLE IDEA TO HARNESS THE WIND , BUT THIS REVELATION FOREVER CHANGED HIS PERCEPTION OF WINTER” Kiting’s proverbial tree of life is one with many branches. Snowkiting embodies one of those branches. While the snowy side of kiting is growing, the number of kiters who chase winter’s wind is a tiny fraction of our sport and is infinitesimal when compared to the worldwide estimate of 115 million skiers and snowboarders. For those who decide to pull on a harness in the winter, snowkiting quickly becomes a passion without comparison. It can become all consuming. Snowkiting’s draw is difficult to escape - this is the snowkite vortex. Logan grew up in the mountains and was an accomplished skier. He had many years of refining his alpine skiing…

I do this grab a lot for the camera, especially when shooting with Andre who is really into grabs. I’m actually riding with ten metre lines in this shot to bring the kite closer to the photographer, which made getting good pop even more important, but it was a fun feeling to be riding such a compact set-up. This grab is definitely easier than the next one as I’m rotating backwards in this one, which is generally the easier rotation. As always, I can’t state enough how important it is to have good control of your kite and getting good pop technique working smoothly and consistently each time. These are the building blocks, so don’t try to move on too quickly. Get those locked in and the freestyle world is…