After intense campaigning by the International Kiteboarding Association and various other influential’s in the kitesurfing industry, their efforts finally paid off. It is with great pleasure, that we bring you this report from the IKA.

Kiteboarding To Make Its Appearance at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio

The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) has confirmed the final event and equipment selections for the Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition.

After a long and heated discussion with lots of enthusiasm for both sports, ISAF Council voted with a 19 to 17 majority that Kiteboarding will replace windsurfing for the men’s and women’s board events.

ISAF President Göran Petersson stated, that “Kiteboarding has proven to us that it is ready to be included into the list of prestigious ISAF Events and it is a fantastic addition to the sailing programme for the 2016 Olympic Games.”

Kiteboarding Olympics Campaign | 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games

Sir Richard Branson, one of the IKAs Olympic Ambassadors and supporters from the very first minute added: “Well we all flew a kite to get kiteboarding in to the Olympics and unbelievably the kite has landed in Rio ! Kiteboarding is now an Olympic sport! To celebrate this, myself, my family and a few friends will this week attempt to kite across the English Channel to show off the beauty of kite-surfing.”

In November 2011 an evaluation group was appointed to examine kiteboarding formats with the board events for Rio 2016 defined as ‘windsurfing and/or kiteboarding’. The Evaluation Group recommended that kiteboarding be included in the ISAF Event family including the ISAF Sailing World Cup and the ISAF Sailing World Championships but Council went one step further and selected Kiteboarding for the Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition as well.

IKA Executive Secretary said: “The decision today will change the lives of thousands of kiteboarders that now can live their Olympic dream. The National Sailing Associations will invest hundred thousands, if not millions of Euros to invest in equipment, coaching and supporting the riders to go to the Olympic Qualification events. We never thought that we will get that far in so short time.”

Kristin Boese, 9x Kiteboarding World Champion and also lobbying for Kiteboarding in the Olympics Campain during the ISAF mid-year meeting in Stresa concluded: “I still can’t really believe what happened! There was a lot of support for kiteboarding in the ISAF council room yesterday but we thought we were not going to stand a chance against windsurfing which is such an established class within the ISAF. After the council debate was over we knew that the decision was going to be a lot closer than we had originally expected, but we still never thought it was going to go our way. It is an incredible surprise and I am very excited for kiteboarding and incredible greatful for all the hard work the IKA has put into the Kiteboarding in the Olympics campaign – what an amazing campaign to have been a part of.”

The Events to be Contested at the 2016 Olympic Games

• Men’s Kiteboarding
• Women’s Kiteboarding
• Men’s One Person Dinghy – Laser
• Women’s One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial
• Men’s One Person Dinghy (heavy) – Finn
• Men’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
• Women’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
• Men’s Skiff – 49er
• Women’s skiff – 49er FX
• Mixed Two Person Multihull – Nacra 17

These ten events will be featured in the 2012-2013 ISAF Sailing World Cup which kicks off in Melbourne in December and will come together in Santander, Spain in 2014 for the ISAF Sailing World Championships.

In closing, inMotion Kitesurfing would like to commend the IKA and everyone who helped push kiteboarding through to the Olympics. Thank you for all your hard work. This is a fantastic achievement!

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Revered for offering some of the best waves in Europe, Portugal is home to one of three surfing reserves in the entire world, demonstrating the value this surfing nation puts on their natural treasures: beautiful beaches and perfect waves. At Guincho Beach, large and heavy North Atlantic swells meet strong side-onshore winds, making it a prime kite surfing destination and an ideal proving ground for the KSP’s first competition of the year. The powerful break at Guincho and its consistent winds create the ultimate playground for the aerial new school aspect of kite surfing.

KSP One Eye Pro | Photo by John Bilderback

“This season we have a staggering talent pool of riders from 18 nations and they’ve all trained hard to get here,” says KSP president, Kristin Boese. “This is going to be a nail-biting, epic battle in an ideal and challenging location. It’s anyone’s guess who will clinch the winner’s check atop the podium when all is said and done at the Cascais Kite Surf Pro.”

The City of Cascais, one of the event’s primary partners, welcomes KSP fans, officials and riders to explore its beautiful coastline. Hotel partner, Muchaxo, located directly above the event site, invites vacationers, KSP enthusiasts and kite borders to enjoy their panoramic views of the entire Guincho Beach, the spectacular cliffs and pristine Portuguese coastline. “KSP really appreciates the support of the City of Cascais and Hotel Muchaxo for hosting the first tour event of the year and helping to make it all possible,” says Boese.

As the event’s industry partner, Best Kiteboarding also comes on board in full support of this world-class competition. Robert Bratz, Best Kiteboarding Marketing Manager says: “The Best Kiteboarding team is more than happy to support the first KSP stop at its home and development Spot in Gunicho / West Portugal. We are looking forward to an event full of rock and roll conditions and we are proud to welcome the best kites surfers in the world.”

The KSP also welcomes Ozone Kitesurf on board as the latest addition to the growing list of industry members. Ozone joins six existing KSP industry members, showing its support for the vision and goals of the KSP World Championship Tour.

For those who can’t be at the Cascais Kite Surf Pro Competition in person, KSP will be offering a live webcast to capture all the action and excitement as it happens, which can be seen at: www.KSPWorldTour.com/live.

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Since many kiters are aspiring to be pro kitesurfers, and based on the response to an article I wrote last year “How to Get Sponsored”, I thought I would do a follow up article on becoming a sponsored rider. I feel it’s important to show the progress I’ve made since creating my profile on Hookit.com. Their platform for sponsorship was instrumental in me gaining confidence in pursuing kiteboarding as a career.

When I first started I had no idea how the business of sport worked, besides competing of course. I first heard about Hookit.com when a representative from Monster Energy drink told me to register on the site, and when a sponsorship opportunity opened up I could apply. Upon creating my profile I discovered many great opportunities for sponsorship with companies like GoPro, Fuel Clothing, Skull Candy, Dakine and more. I began to learn what companies were looking for in athletes and what I needed to work on. I ended up getting 8 different sponsorships in my first year. I began to promote myself within the industry using my sponsor’s brands to gain recognition.

Jessica Winkler (Epic Kites) | PKRA Mexico

The first media connection I made was with inMotion kitesurfing. Brendon provided a platform for me to gain the exposure and credibility required to attract bigger sponsorships and interest from the industry. He published articles I wrote, and promoted them tirelessly. Fortunately these articles were well received by the public and lead us to create the Most Influential Girl Kitesurfer competition (MIGK). The MIGK is an online competition intended to showcase female kiteboarder’s talents in our sport, as well as their commitment to the industry. The success from our first year was outstanding, so we intend running this competition on a yearly basis.

I realized people started believing in me when I began to believe in myself. This in turn made me spend more time on the water, really pushing myself to do more complicated tricks. Eventually when I could afford it, I hired a photographer to take good quality photos so I had something to present when applying for better sponsorship deals. In addition I set up fan pages on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and my own website www.jessicawinkler.com. At first it feels egotistical to do all this, but it’s important in order to establish your professionalism as an athlete. Once you see yourself as a professional, others will start to see you as one as well.

Jessica Winkler (Epic Kites)

Here is a list of steps you can take to become a pro kitesurfer, or to increase the value of your sponsorships.

5 Steps to Becoming a Sponsored Kitesurfer

#1 Register on Hookit

Register on Hookit and keep your profile up to date. Post all your sessions, photos and competition results (if you compete)

#2 Promote Yourself

Set up fan pages on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, My Space and any other sites you frequent.

#3 Post, post, post….

Content is very important, and helps get you the exposure required to attract quality sponsorships. Let people see what you are doing to pursue your career. Write interesting, unique articles and try and get them published on kitesurfing websites like inMotion Kitesurfing, or start your own blog.

#4 Train

Get in the water and push your boundaries as much as possible. Don’t be afraid to take a course or hire a private instructor to help you get to the next level.

#5 Fun

Always have fun and enjoy the ride!!

One year after embarking on this journey, I received the biggest sponsorship offer of my life, Epic Kites. Getting the opportunity to ride professionally for a big name kite company actually brought a tear to my eye. I felt completely overwhelmed with joy and a sense of accomplishment.

Jessica Winkler (Epic Kites) | PKRA Playa del Carmen

After the announcement of me joining the team, amazing opportunities keep presenting themselves. A local Mexican airline magazine contacted me for an interview, as they are writing an article about kitesurfing for their in flight magazine. In the July/August edition I will be featured representing the sport within the Yucatan. It’s a pretty big honor for me, and I’m very thankful. The second big thing is I was head hunted by an extreme sports agency, Viral Technologies, who wanted to represent me. They will now take care of all my future sponsorship and media deals giving me more time to concentrate on running my kite school and training for competitions.

Since the Epic sponsorship, I’ve been going through a lot of different emotions. The world changes a bit when you are looked at as a Pro all of a sudden. You realize you need to walk the walk. You’ve spent so much time and effort marketing yourself to get to this point and now it’s time to live it. It’s an interesting shift. The biggest thing I’ve learned on this journey is you have to believe in yourself. You can do it, but it takes hard work and patience.

Written by

Jessica Winkler

Jessica will be participating in the PKRA women’s freestyle and downwind competition on May 18th in Bucerias, Mexico. She also recently competed in the PKRA freestyle exhibition and big air comp in Playa del Carmen in the men’s category, as there wasn’t one for woman yet.

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It has been one year to the day since we published our very first article on this site: The Beginners Guide to Kitesurfing: Getting Started, written by yours truly, who only goes by the illusive name of “The Editor”…

While it’s amazing that a whole year has gone by so quickly, we find it even more amazing that our website has grown so quickly, and it’s all thanks to YOU, our loyal readers and supporters.

When we first launched this website, we set ourselves some rather ambitious goals. Our plan was to build a platform for the kitesurfing community that would give individual kitesurfers and industry stakeholders a voice to be heard on the internet. We also planned to proactively work towards the development of our sport through awareness campaigns and by supporting and promoting various charitable causes.

So What Have We Achieved?

Since it’s our Birthday today, we thought we would take the liberty of tooting our own horn a bit. So here goes…

We launched a very successful campaign to promote girls in kitesurfing last year, called “The Most Influential Girl Kitesurfer”. The support and feedback from this campaign was overwhelmingly positive, and we plan on going even bigger and better this year!

Kari Schibevaag | iMK 2011 Most Influential Girl Kitesurfer

We supported and promoted a number of development programs and environmental initiatives, and we partnered with the Global Kiter Foundation (GKF) to bring their development programs to Africa.

We are also proud of the fact that we were able to give kitesurfers like Jessica Winkler a voice to be heard in the industry, and to help their growth in the sport. Jessica recently became a fully sponsored rider, and will be competing in a number of PKRA events this year. A follow up article from Jessica is coming soon.

Oh, and we became an official publishing partner for the KSP World Tour.

KSP One Eye Pro | Photo by John Bilderback

Our Publishing Model

As you may have noticed if you have been following us for a while, we tend to do things differently here at iMK as far as publishing goes. We don’t publish daily kitesurfing news on our website, apart from our coverage of kitesurfing events such as the KSP Tour, and even that we do differently from other online kitesurfing magazines. Nor do we post every video that comes across our desk.

So why do we do that, you might ask. Well, we believe that there are plenty of great kitesurfing websites and magazines doing a really good job of publishing the daily industry news and videos. So rather than adding to the noise, we prefer to support them instead by sharing and promoting their content through our social media channels and in our daily kitesurfing paper: The inMotion Kitesurfing Daily if we think you will find it interesting. We also know that if you are like us, you are already overwhelmed by daily emails that you simply don’t have time to read. So with this in mind, we like to publish once a week (give or take), and really make it count.

Why You Should Subscribe to iMK

As mentioned above, we aren’t in the business of polluting your inbox. If you subscribe to our website via our RSS feed or by email, you can expect to get a well thought out article, either in the form of an editorial, a kitesurfing spot or gear review, or coverage of an important kitesurfing event, once a weekish.

For the daily tit bits and videos etc, you can subscribe to our daily paper, which will give you all the kitesurfing news happening around the world, delivered to your inbox every 24hours, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Google+, where we share the best of the best content, as we discover it. So what are you waiting for? Choose any of the platforms below, and we’ll hook you up with GREAT content!

Your details are safe with us, and will never be sold, rented or given to a third party!

Now we’d like to think we have a good publishing model, but we don’t like leaving anything to chance. So for this reason, we’d like to hear from YOU, our loyal readers and supporters, without whom, none of this would be possible. So we’ve created a short survey (or three) for you to tell us what you like and what you don’t like. Please take a few moments to anonymously respond to this survey. We appreciate your time.

We will find an appropriate place to permanently host these surveys on our website, so if you change your mind at any point, you can come back and update your answers, or simply leave a comment with your thoughts in the comment section below. We will take ALL comments into consideration.

In closing, thank you for your support. It’s been a GREAT first year for us! We have learned a lot in the process, and will continue listening and learning as we go…

Oh, and Happy April fool’s day! Seriously…

Your Editor

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Congratulations to Gregory Watts from Virginia, in the USA. who is the lucky new owner of a fantastic 9m Screamer from Epic Kites.

Gregory says: “I first heard about this raffle about a month ago and instantly bought some tickets. I got a reminder late last night stating this is the last day for entries before announcing a winner. I then bought 25 more hoping I would get lucky. Low and behold, I WON! I never win anything, EVER! So to actually win something that I dream and fantasize about everyday at work is truly amazing! Thank you so much!”

Epic Kites kindly teamed up with GKF for this special fundraising raffle. Through their in-kind donation of a complete 9m Screamer kite, GKF’s 1 euro for 1 kite contest ran for 6 weeks. Each ticket gave participants a chance to win the kite, while all the proceeds went directly to supporting the work of the Foundation.

Global Kiter Foundation Epic Easter Raffle | Image: Gustav Schmiege

The winner was picked at random from the many participants from around the world in a draw carried out on Monday March 26th at 4pm (GMT).

Thanks to Epic Kites’ donation, 100% of proceeds from this fundraising raffle go to support GKF’s ongoing work including kiting workshops for people with physical disabilities and youth training programs.

GKF co-founder Sandrine Roussos Werner says: “We would like to thank everyone involved in supporting this great campaign. We are delighted that Gregory is going to have a lot of great times on the Epic Screamer. Good winds to you!”.

The Global Kiter Foundation is a non-profit Foundation that improves environmental awareness, creates community engagement and offers comprehensive education using kiteboarding as the unique connection point for people with physical disabilities and underprivileged youth.

The global winds of change have finally arrived! Join us on Facebook and Twitter.

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A Bucket Full of Air

The Physics

According to our high school science teachers, the physics shows that momentum is equal to mass multiplied by velocity. So the faster you go or the greater your mass then the more momentum you will have. Considering that none of us are going to shed or add any mass of concern to our bodies or board during a session these become a constant leaving the formula having momentum equaling velocity which is quite simple but somewhat useless to our cause of becoming better riders of the waves.

While theoretically correct there is a vital element left out of this equation. This being the inherent momentum to be found stored within the kite. (Hang in there the good stuff is coming.) Let’s leave the formulas behind and take a practical look at what’s to be found in the kite. Think of it like this: Take a big empty bucket and run with it. Now come to a sudden stop. Not too difficult hey? Fill the very same bucket with water and run. Try come to the same sudden stop. Not so easy and it gets messy. The water wants to continue in the direction you were running and you needed to put in a whole lot more effort to come to a dry halt.

Using Kite Momentum for Wave Riding

Bringing it Home to Wave Kiting

So how does this relate to wave kiting? If we consider our kites being giant buckets filled with not water but moving air and that the air is not feather light as we may be tempted to assume, but has a real mass, as we all know and experience when we head off downwind after losing an edge. It’s not so easy to stop, just like running with that bucket of water. We can then agree that the kite has its own independent momentum, which means it has a life of its own and this is something we can work with.

More and more riders in spite of their preference of being hooked-in or unhooked are seeing the advantages in parking the kite, allowing it to drift downwind, then focusing their attention on riding technically in the critical part of the wave as opposed to being distracted by the constant steering of the kite, and the consequences that come along with that. The idea in the park and ride style of riding is to have the kite almost achieve an auto pilot status where it drifts downwind under its own momentum, with the rider trailing loosely behind it attached only by the now un-tensioned lines. If you can attain to this, then you are coming close to wave kiting nirvana, where just about anything is possible.

Bringing it Home to Wave Kiting

The Love Triangle – the Basic Setup Rules

To get the kite to auto pilot more consistently some basic ideas need to be adhered to. The setup of the correct kite for the conditions of the day is important. Being underpowered tends to have the rider out-running/surfing the kite and being grossly over-powered is never healthy. If in doubt a bigger kite for the day especially if the swell is on the larger side is the better choice. With the correct kite in the air, the next step is to fill it with enough wind to first of all give the rider enough general or overall speed to ride the wave successfully and then enough momentum in the kite to keep it happy and flying.

It is kind of like a crazy love triangle, the rider, the kite and the wave. Setting up the cleat or strap adjustment for the present wind condition is also a good start whether you are unhooking or not. In lighter winds this gets more critical. Most important of all though the kite needs to be parked correctly with the right amount of air in it. This is where experience and feel come into play, getting out there and riding will help more than all this theory.

The Rider, the Kite and the Wave | Photo by John Bilderback

Wind Angle and the Full Bucket

Think of this final step of parking the kite full of air as taking a scoop of water out of a pond with the original bucket idea. By putting the kite into the power zone more, or less, with a kiteloop being the greediest of scoops, the kite will be set up to have the correct amount of momentum needed to stay flying without much input, on auto pilot if you like.

Fast breaking waves will need more generous scoops and slow breaking waves less of a scoop as a basic guideline. Wind angle is however a complicating factor. After scooping your bucket with the correct amount of air it is not good enough just to leave the kite parked haphazardly on the side of the window. This may work at times depending on the wind angle relative to the wave, which will vary from cross-off the wave to cross-on to the wave. Cross-off wind allows for an easier park and ride experience with cross-on being the most challenging of the park and ride winds. It is being found that parking the kite more aggressively, using even the much dreaded kite loop, which is not to be that feared when bearing off downwind down the line, is making the cross onshore wave riding experience a lot more enjoyable and radical.

Wind Angle and the Full Bucket | Dean Bottcher

Parking the kite correctly is critical to this whole process lest you find yourself riding past the kite. Some kite designs do perform better than others, but for the most part any hybrid style kite or c-kite can be tweaked to perform admirably, never forgetting that the chicken loop is always there whether you are hooked into it or not, to be used if you find the kite stalling out totally.

Although it should be fairly obvious to most readers, these principles apply mainly to downwind wave riding, down the line and not to the toeside upwind, onshore-wind style of riding waves.

Happy Days, hope the tech talk helps a bit. If you have any questions or would like to add your own wave riding theories and formulas, please add them in the comments below.

Written by

Dean Bottcher

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Set in sunny (and windy) Cape Town, South Africa, Colonel Caveman and the Flying Dutchman sets out to promote tourism and kitesurfing in South Africa’s windy city in a unique and rather humorous way.

Cape Town Kiting at its Best

Movie name: Colonel Caveman and the Flying Dutchman

Producer: Kitespotters Production

Camera, editing and producing: Vaughan Harris – Kitespotters

The Story Board

The “Operation Flying Dutchman” is the perfect action-packed short movie promoting Kitesurfing to Cape Town. The story centres around three hard-core top South African kitesurfers who are called for duty by the legendary ”Colonel Caveman” to join in the search for the Flying Dutchman. Their mission is to infiltrate the beaches of Cape Town under the radar using the “Huey” in search of the Flying Dutchman.

In 1680, a Dutch Captain sailing his ship, The Flying Dutchman around Cape Point ignored the notorious Cape of Storms, sending his ship and crew to the ocean bottom. Legend has it that for his sins he forms a table cloth over Table Mountain watching over passing ships, others say they have seen his ghost.

Colonel Caveman and the Flying Dutchman

Scene one opens with a very desolate and remote Cape Town with howling winds leading into the start of a new day. As dawn breaks we are met by three kitesurfers (Colin Heckroodt, Luke McGwillie and Ozwald Smith), making their way to the Huey. The mission is lead by Colonel Caveman (Brad Symington) who arrives late on this Hardly Harley Scooter. Colonel Caveman briefs his team at the Huey Chopper. They are later teamed up with a naval frigate for support. Captain Iona North (Stacey Vass) flies the Huey under the radar and dispatches the crew on to the beach.

The three kitesurfers are met by the howling Cape Doctor (South Easter) and explore the perfect conditions. With the wind pumping we see some of the most insane mega kite loops, massive 12 second big jumps and radical wave action on blistering swells. All this leaves us to believe that the legend of the Flying Dutchman still lives on.

Luke McGwellie

About the Movie

“Colonel Caveman and the Flying Dutchman” has a war-like look and feel about it which may have absolutely nothing to do with kitesurfing at the start of the movie, but the scene is Cape Town and it promotes Cape Town as a tourist destination and of course the famous Huey helicopter that offers tourists daily adventure flips around Cape Town.

The set is hardcore but humorous with Colonel Caveman’s opening speech in a real Afrikaans accent with the use of typical South African slang words mixed with Afrikaans humour.

You Can Help

Now that we have finished our short movie we are looking at producing another one, only this time bigger and better. So if you like this movie, please can we ask you to go to Colonel Caveman and the Flying Dutchman and vote for us?

Your vote you will help us win the prize for the best movie shot for this particular kite video competition. The prize of R10 000 will help us with our budget for our next kitesurfing movie we are planning.

Kitespotters would like to thank all those involved in making this movie happen.

PS: If you enjoyed this article, help spread the word by clicking the “Like”, “Tweet”, “+1” buttons, or sharing it using the share icons below. Want to read more articles like this? Then Subscribe to our updates, and get our articles directly to your inbox or RSS reader.

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The wind was pumping and kites were flying high as Lewis Crathern wowed the judges to win this ‘Mega’ kiteboarding event in Cape Town!

Lewis Crathern

Crathern, from Worthing in the UK, went up against Sam Light (UK) and Gianni Aragno (ESP) in the final. “I was just stoked to have been in the final with two of my best friends. A megaloop isn’t the easiest trick because you have to try and get height while trying to get your kite as horizontal as possible. I’ve been coming to Cape Town to kiteboard for the last six years and I love it here. The people are friendly and the weather and wind conditions are perfect here,” he commented.

LEN10 MegaLoop Challenge Podium | © Kolesky/Nikon/Red Bull Content Pool

Brainchild of Red Bull Athlete and ‘King of the Megaloop’ Ruben Lenten (NED), the LEN10 Megaloop Challenge saw 24 participants compete in a format new to kiteboarding competitions. Ruben remarked: “All the riders and spectators were excited about the format which gives the guys time to pull their best moves and score high. I’m happy that such a big crowd came down to see the guys pull some gnarly tricks and see some pretty epic wipe-outs too – which is just as much part of kiteboarding as landing the trick.”

Participants were scored on the height, technique and the style with which they executed the megaloop.

Ruben Lenten Demo | © Kolesky/Nikon/Red Bull Content Pool

LEN10 Megaloop Challenge winner, Crathern and the other finalists had decided before they went out for the final to split the prize money – it wasn’t about the prize but rather spending a good day out doing what they love. He does, however, walk away with a one-of-a-kind trophy and a photo shoot with renowned South African action sports photographer, Craig Kolesky.

Ruben Lenten is keen to bring the competition back even bigger in 2013 and throw himself into the mix. “We’re going to push the limits of kiteboarding even more.”

Ruben Lenten Demo | © Kolesky/Nikon/Red Bull Content Pool

You can read more about the “King of the MegaLoop”, Ruben Lenten and the MegaLoop Challenge here.

If you were lucky enough to be at the competition in Big Bay, we’d love to hear about it in the comments below…

PS: If you enjoyed this article, help spread the word by clicking the “Like”, “Tweet”, “+1” buttons, or sharing it using the share icons below. Want to read more articles like this? Then Subscribe to our updates, and get our articles directly to your inbox or RSS reader.

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The LEN10 Megaloop Challenge!

Every summer Ruben Lenten, King of the Megaloop, heads down to Cape Town, South Africa to enjoy the warm sunny weather and awesome wind conditions Cape Town is so famous for.

This year Ruben and his mate Aaron Hadlow, are challenging 24 amateur kiteboarders to compete in the LEN10 Megaloop Challenge in Big Bay, Bloubergstrand.

Final Competition Results

Ruben Lenten and Table Mountain in Cape Town

Big Air Big Score

“A megaloop is when you go full circle with the kite – right through the power zone. As judges, Aaron and I will be looking at the style, height, length, enthusiasm and speed each kiteboarder executes their Megaloop with”, says Ruben. In true kiteboarding tradition the best wipe-out will also be rewarded.

Since the competition requires wind speeds upwards of 30 knots, a window period from the 16th to the 26th of February 2012 has been secured to ensure optimal wind conditions.

The winner on the day will take home R10 000 and a photo shoot with renowned action sports photographer Craig Kolesky.

Ruben Lenten - Blouberg, Cape Town

How to Enter

There are two ways to get yourself into the running for this Mega Challenge.

• Submit a video of your gnarliest kiteloop to Ruben’s facebook page
• Register for the trials event which will take place on the 11th or 12th of February 2012 (depending on the wind) at Blouberg Beach, by submitting your details here

Ruben Lenten’s Rundown of the Challenge

If you think you have what it takes, and you want in on the action, head over to www.redbull.co.za for more information.

Follow the LEN10 Megaloop Challenge on: Twitter: @RedBullZA (#LEN10Megaloop)

Aaron Hadlow - Last Loop for the Day!

About Ruben Lenten

Ruben Lenten (NED) was just twelve years old when he took up the sport of Kiteboarding. With no kiting schools around in the early days of the sport, Ruben had to learn the hard way – taking four long months of crashing and swimming back to shore to get up (and stay up on the board). Once he got the hang of it he knew that this would be a way to express himself and started riding as much as he could.

Ruben Lenten Looking Stoked

Soon, at the age of 14, a coach (Former Dutch National champion, Steph de Jong) and a sponsor recognised Ruben’s talent. This gave him the opportunity to start travelling and developing skills faster. Within three years he competed on the highest level and was the Number 2 Kiteboarder in the world – second only to one of his now best friends, Aaron Hadlow.

In 2005, Ruben took top honours in Red Bull King of the Air in Maui, Hawaii where he competed in the big air format against his legendary watersports athlete Robbie Naish, and defeating Robbie right on his home turf.

Right before the start of the 2006 World Tour, Ruben had a serious crash leaving him injured and unable to compete in the first few events of the tour. With him unable to score points to keep his ranking, he decided not to compete but rather focus on freeriding and finding new challenges.

Since then his focus has remained on, as he puts it, “doing some pretty gnarly tricks with my kite”. He’s all about big air and loves riding in the strongest winds. “I’m pretty stoked to have kiteboarding as my job. The ocean is my playground, what more could I ask for?”

Ruben Lenten - Blouberg, Cape Town

Ruben is dedicated to pushing the sport and developing kiteboarding gear as much as possible, all while doing some pretty extreme stuff on his kiteboard.

Follow Ruben Lenten on Facebook and Twitter.

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Related posts:

1. LEN10 MegaLoop Challenge: Lewis Crathern Wins
2. Kiteboarding Becomes an Olympic Sport
3. Cannon Rocks Kiteboarding Classic 2012

With all the different terminology used to describe these kites, it’s easy to get confused as to what the difference is between a C and a Bow kite, a Hybrid and Delta…and what on earth is a Delta Hybrid?

Kite Design: Is it really what they say it is?

Kite design is a hugely complicated field and one I’m not going to attempt to dissect. It is further complicated by marketers who bandy the terms around with little concern for the actual design specifications of each type of kite. Thus they might call a kite a delta kite even though, in the strictest sense of the word, it isn’t, but only something similar to a delta kite or with delta like qualities. This is generally done because the boundaries between the different types of kites are so undefined that it’s easier to put kites with matching flight characteristics in the same bracket even if technically they don’t belong there.

The easiest way to understand the difference is to break things down into basics and then use your own common sense to decide which family a kite belongs to.

Types of Kites

C Kites

C kites are recognizable by their square wing tips and lack of a bridle. If you laid a C kite down un-inflated and looked at it from above it would look like a rectangle. The lines attach at the 4 corners of the rectangle. Their profile when viewed from the front also looks more like the shape of the letter C, when compared to the flatter profiles of most other kite designs.

C Kite

As a beginner coming into kitesurfing if I could give one word of advice when buying a kite, it would be stay away from C kites. Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against C kites, and they are great fun when you know what you’re doing. I just think that for the beginner they offer a difficult learning curve and are unnecessarily dangerous when compared to other types of kites. They have little in the way of de-power, so if the wind picks up or you’ve put the wrong kite up (a common mistake for beginners) you’re in trouble. To my mind this makes their safety questionable for a beginner or someone unfamiliar with how to use one, which is my chief reason for advising you against them. While again the lines are blurring between C and Bow kites and many C kites do now offer a degree of depower, to make things simple for yourself stay away.

Bow Kites

Bow kites we will classify simply as any kite with a bridle (a lot of interlinking lines running across the leading edge). Again if you laid a bow kite out un-inflated and looked at it from above it would be more triangular in shape, due to the swept back nature of the wings. The lines do not attach directly to the leading edge but to the bridle which is itself attached to the leading edge.

Bow Kite Laid Flat

Bow Kite

Bow kites, as a family, offer much more de-power than C kites (principally due to the bridle, and the flatter, more “wing like” profile) so when you let go of the bar the kite loses all, or most of its power and slowly drifts back to earth in a controlled manner. For this reason they are generally considered to be a lot safer than C kites and this is why nearly all schools will now teach on some type of bow kite. Bow kites come in several flavours: pure Bow, Hybrid and Delta style kites. All have the same general characteristics (ie lots of de-power) with a few subtle differences.

Hybrid Kites

Hybrid Kite

Hybrid kites are somewhere in between bow kites and C kites and generally aim to give the feel of a C kite combined with the safety of a bow kite.

Many old school riders complained when bow kites were first released that they did not turn with enough power. Bow kites tend to turn very fast but they sacrifice power in the turn for agility. C kites tend to turn in massive arcs, which gives you a huge pull, which is great if that what you’re after…for kite loops etc, but not so good if you’re taking your first tentative steps towards riding. Hybrid kites were designed to bridge this gap offering kites with de-power (like bows) but that also turn with power (like C kites).

Some hybrid kites will be nearer the C end of the spectrum and others nearer the bow end. Again if you’re going for one of these kites as your first kite my advice would be to aim for something at the bow end. The easiest way to tell which end of the spectrum the kite is…look at the shape.

Delta Kites

Delta Kite

Delta kites are bow kites with a much more swept back wing profile…think of an F14 with its wings drawn back in Top Gun! The precise angle of sweep is what defines a Delta kite, but most manufacturers now classify any kite with this type of profile as a Delta kite. They will tend to be short and fat in shape. If I had to recommend you to buy any type of kite as a beginner it would be one of these. They are easy to re-launch, offer forgiving piloting and the power tends to ‘turn on’ slowly (meaning you can feel the power rising gradually rather than just appearing out of nowhere and hoisting you over the front of the board!), giving you much more time to react to what the kite’s doing. Please don’t think these are just beginner kites I still enjoy riding them and they are great for improving your skills on and unless you’re heading for the pro circuits I doubt you’d ever outgrow their capabilities. What they will do is cut a lot of the frustration out of learning and the re-launch ability will keep you smiling for years!

(I’m not in any way affiliated with any Delta kite sales…we just use them in our school and I think they’re great!)

Delta Hybrid Kite

Test, Test, Test…

This is a massive over simplification of kite design and I imagine over the years you’ll learn that a lot of these things are only half truths. By breaking things down like this I hope to help you to start getting a feel for the different types of kites you’ll see down on the beach and the differences in how they perform. As you progress as a kitesurfer the best way to get a feel for these different kites is to try them, so any time your mate buys a new kite ask them if you can have a go. We all have different styles and each will find kites that they like and hate…get out there and experiment.

Written by

Sam Guest

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Related posts:

1. Beginners Guide to Kitesurfing: Getting Started
2. Kitesurfing Progression: How to Jump
3. Kitesurfing Progression: Riding Upwind

World-class Kitesurf Venues

Featuring world-class venues, the KSP Tour once again promises nothing short of the most phenomenal surf conditions for the world’s kitesurfing elite to battle it out over the coveted IKA-sanctioned World Championship title. All four Kite Surf Pro events will feature a 10-day holding period and a €15,000 prize purse.

Tour Stop 1: Cascais, Portugal

The KSP Tour will kick off at Europe’s kite surfing mecca, Guincho Beach in Cascais, Portugal, from June 1 to 10. The side-onshore wind conditions at Guincho’s right-hand beach break will surely expose the progressive new school aerial movement, bringing it to the forefront of competitive kitesurfing for the world to witness.

Tour Stop 2: Le Morne, Mauritius

Stop two will take the KSP back to 2011’s kickoff location, Le Morne, Mauritius for the One Eye Pro, scheduled September 7 to 16. A long, left-hand reef break famous for its strong side-offshore winds and barreling, near-perfect, head-high to quadruple-overhead surf, One Eye will keep this year’s crowd on edge, waiting to see what conditions it dishes up — especially after last year’s jaw-dropping spectacle.

KSP One Eye Pro | Photo by John Bilderback

Tour Stop 3: West Coast, Ireland

Next up, Europe’s secret kitesurfing jewel and home to one of the planet’s biggest waves, Ireland. Running from October 19 to 28, Ireland’s Kite Surf Pro will incorporate a unique mobile format, capable of showcasing each day’s action at the choicest of locations on the country’s wild and swell-abundant west coast.

Tour Stop 4: North Shore, Maui

Bringing the KSP’s 2012 tour to a close, Maui’s legendary North Shore will host the pinnacle of the Kite Surfing World Championship Tour — the Ho’okipa Kite Surf Pro — running November 29 to December 8. One of the world’s most highly regarded wind and wave locations, Ho’okipa is generally reserved as a surfing and windsurfing only venue. The Ho’okipa Kite Surf Pro will mark the first-ever World Championship kitesurf competition at the infamous Hawaiian reef break.

“I really don’t think we could have wished for a better and more well-rounded tour for the 2012 season,” says Tour President Kristin Boese. “It is going to be exciting to see which riders will do best in all the different conditions. We managed to meet the demand of the riders to add a side-onshore beach break to the calendar with the event in Guincho. We are just as excited about the Ireland event that is going to be a total box of chocolates with amazing potential. And Ho’okipa and One Eye are without a question two of the places that we had on our wish list from the very first talks about the tour.”

KSP One Eye Pro | Photo by John Bilderback

“I am also really looking forward to working with our amazing group of local organizers that have already become such a strong part of the KSP,” Boese continues. “We are all so excited to see what incredible treasures await us in 2012.”

As reigning World Champions Airton Cozzolino (Italy/North Kiteboarding) and Ines Correia (Portugal) defend their titles amidst a field of 24 men and 12 women at each Kite Surf Pro event, an International Surfing Association-accredited panel of judges will once again score the year’s next-level riding. With 20 countries represented on tour last year, 2012 will surely draw a wide range of talent from across the globe.

Featuring a live webcast with live scoring, 2012’s Kite Surf Pro events will broadcast the heat-by-heat action around the world in real time. Additionally, the new season will also bring another round of Fantasy League, with some major prizes up for grabs.

For more information about the KSP World Championship Tour, please visit KSPworldtour.com or email info@kspworldtour.com. Follow the KSP on Facebook or on Twitter.

KSP 2012 World Championship Tour Schedule

June 1 to 10: Cascais, Portugal

September 7 to 16: Le Morne, Mauritius

October 19 to 28: West Coast, Ireland

November 29 to December 8: Maui, Hawaii, USA

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Related posts:

1. KSP World Tour: Mauritius One Eye Pro
2. KSP Pro Tour: Cascais Kite Surf Pro Countdown
3. KSP World Tour: Peru Pacasmayo Kitesurf Pro Results

Kitesurfers and fans of the sport came from all over South Africa and other parts of the world to enjoy the event, which took place on the 5th-8th January.

As a local I knew the wind was guaranteed to blow – whether east or west, strong or not – I knew my local spot would deliver as always and that much kiting fun would be had. Unfortunately the only wind we got in those first three days was a breeze just strong enough to tease us and keep us waiting at the beach. Despite the lack of wind, both the kiters and spectators were entertained by the festive music – including live performances, fun beach games and competitions with exciting prizes and trying out the many demo land kites. The surprisingly warm ocean allowed for hours of swimming, surfing, kayaking and stand-up-paddle boarding. And when we had had too much of the sun, we chilled under the gazebos or in the hammock. Everyone also remained hydrated with free Red Bull and Vitamin Water. This absolute beach enjoyment lasted well into our sunset beach braais (barbeques) and newfound friendships.

Waiting for Wind...

Flapping flags filled the beach on the last day as the wind filtered through – as if the sponsors were rejoicing at the sight of the wind arriving just in time! Soon the crowd livened up and the photographers lined the beach in anticipation. As the coveted east wind started, two slalom downwind races were held as we waited for the wind to become strong enough to compete. Course racing was then held, followed by waveriding and pro men’s freestyle. The day then ended with a novice expression session. Besides the great cash and gear prizes for the podium positions, no competitor went home empty handed as there was a lucky draw – allowing every entrant to receive a prize from the extensive list of sponsors.

Cannon Rocks Kiteboarding Classic 2012

Competition Results

Men’s Course Racing

1. Kurt Schmelzer
2. Hudson Cumings
3. Brad Gilmour

Women’s race

1. Michelle Sky Smith
2. Jackie Gilmour
3. Natasha Haller

Waveriding

1. Anthony Berzack
2. Hudson Cumings
3. Michelle Sky Smith

Pro Men’s Freestyle

1. Kurt Schmelzer
2. Bruce Hough
3. Brad Gilmour

Novice

1. Dale Mcain
2. Natasha Haller
3. Manuele Zanuta

Cannon Rocks Kiteboarding Classic 2012

Thanks to Cedric Vandenschrik and the rest of the organizers for another amazing event! Join us at the next event to take place possibly at the end of September – watch this space!

www.cannonrocksclassic.com

Written by

Michelle Smith

PS: If you were at the 2012 Cannon Rocks Kiteboarding Classic, let us know in the comments below what you thought of the event, and how things went for you.

Oh and if you enjoyed this article, help spread the word by clicking the “Like”, “Tweet”, “+1” buttons, or sharing it using the share icons below. Want to read more articles like this? Then Subscribe to our Updates, and get our articles directly to your inbox or RSS reader.

Related posts:

1. Cannon Rocks Kiteboarding Classic 2012
2. LEN10 Megaloop Challenge: Extreme Kiteboarding Event
3. KSP World Tour: Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro Results

We saw the launch of the KSP’s Dream Tour, which has most certainly taken kitesurfing to a whole new level, and also given us plenty to look forward to next year. We also saw Youri Zoon dominate the PKRA tour in an unprecedented fashion, winning almost every competition on the freestyle kiteboarding tour!

So as we see 2011 out, and prepare ourselves for an even better 2012, we leave you with this video documenting the story of the new kiteboarding world champion; Youri Zoon.

Video: The Ultimate Reward

EyEFORcE productions has followed Brunotti team rider Youri Zoon over the last couple of years, filming him on locations across the globe. This epic video documents his career, and the rise of a kiteboarding star.

Youri Zoon

To all our readers, thank you for your support throughout the year. We wish you all good winds and great sessions in the New Year!

The inMotion Kitesurfing Team

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Related posts:

1. And the Winner is…
2. Kitesurfing: Taking Surfing to New Heights
3. KSP World Tour: Mauritius One Eye Pro

The CRKC is held by Cedric Vandenschrik, long time kiteboarder, world traveler and sponsored rider. The next event will be held the 5th – 8th of January 2012.

World-class Kiteboarding Action

The festive atmosphere and small-town vibe mixed with world-class Kiteboarding action is what made this competition so unforgettable! The beach was laced with kites, SUPs, aspiring kite kids, gorgeous groupies and local villagers. If you weren’t competing, then you were trying out the many demo land kites, kitesurfing kites and boards on show. The competitors ranged from international professionals to beginners struggling to stay upwind – all are welcome! Our sunny days were filled with strutting our stuff for the Super Sport film crew while our nights mellowed down with classic South African braais and live music.

Results of the 2012 CRKC

Cannon Rocks Kiteboarding Classic | Photo by Chrissie Cloete

About Cannon Rocks

For those of you who are not familiar with Cannon Rocks, it is a small, quiet beach village situated on the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Being a world-class Kiteboarding destination, kiters come from all over South Africa and the world to marvel at and enjoy the ironed flat water followed by barreling waves at the back. As one of the few local kiters, I can assure you, it is worth coming to see the quiet waters lit up with talent! Prepare yourself for never-ending beaches and sharing the water with dolphins, seals and a few friendly fellow kiters.

Never Ending Beaches at Cannon Rocks

CRKC | Photo by Chrissie Cloete

Event Disciplines

• Pro Freestyle
• Pro Race
• Twintip Race
• Free expression session (amateur)
• Wave riding

Competition Sponsors

The many sponsors supporting the CRKC will make competing worth your while!

The main cash sponsor is Peter Lynn (a leading kite manufacturer – powerkiting, Kiteboarding, landboarding, kitebuggying and snowkiting) Other sponsors include Island Tribe, Pam Golding, Afrikites, Thule, Pilli Pilli, Kitespotters and many local businesses. There is still opportunity for you to become a sponsor! Just contact Cedric on cedvds@gmail.com.

Why not roadtrip down to the comp from anywhere in SA or fly to Port Elizabeth and take an hour’s drive to Cannon Rocks? There is tons of beachfront accommodation available as well as the Cannon Rocks Caravan Park which is just a stroll from the beach.

Cannon Rocks Kiteboarding Classic 2012

For more info check out www.cannonrocksclassic.com and www.cannonrocks.com or find us on Facebook!

Join us for an event, an escape, a water paradise you won’t soon forget!

Written by

Michelle Smith

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1. Cannon Rocks Kiteboarding Classic 2012 Results
2. LEN10 Megaloop Challenge: Extreme Kiteboarding Event
3. KSP 2012 Tour Schedule

From the 2^nd to the 11^th of December, the worlds best kitesurfers are getting together at one of most insane kitesurfing waves on the planet – Ponta Preta, Sal Island’s infamous right-hand point break.

This third and final leg on the 2011 Kitesurfing World Pro Tour calendar will see the world’s top pro kitesurfers battling it out at the Cape Verde Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro for the coveted KSP World Championship Title.

Jump to: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7: Awards Ceremony

Airton Cozzolino (Italy/North) is currently leading the world championship rankings, followed by Mitu Monteiro (Cape Verde/F-One) in second place and Guilly Brandao (Brazil) in third, while Ines Correia (Portugal), Marie Gautron (France/Naish), and Kristin Boese (Germany/Best) lead the women’s pack.

Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro | Photo by Roberto Foresti

As always, we will be updating this article with the latest competition results and kitesurfing news from Ponta Preta on a daily basis, so refer back to this page or follow us on Facebook or Twitter to keep up to date with this prestigious kitesurfing event.

A full report and results from the previous KSP World Tour stops can be found here:

Mauritius One Eye Pro | Pacasmayo Kitesurf Pro | Watch the Live Broadcast

Competition News: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7: Awards Ceremony

Day 1 (2 December)

KSP Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro Update 1

Faced with a flat ocean here on Sal Island in Cape Verde today, KSP officials postponed the first possible start until tomorrow, which looks promising with a medium-sized swell expected to begin filling in tonight and through the weekend. With the bulk of the KSP riders pre-seeded from the first two tour stops this year, organizers drew the remaining rider’s names from a hat to determine the Round 1 line-up. (See full list below.)

Judge’s Tower | Photo by Roberto Foresti

Ponta Preta will serve as the primary competition venue, with a judge’s tower set up right in front of Sal’s legendary right-hand barrelling break on the southwest of the island,. Facing fairly west, Ponta Preta works best on a northwest swell, while the secondary venue, Secrets —located on Sal’s northerly flank — will be used in case of a north swell.

Event directors will re-assess conditions tomorrow morning and make the official call at 8 a.m., with a first possible start at 9am. Live webstreaming will resume at 8am. If you miss any of the action, it will all be archived heat by heat for your on-demand viewing pleasure.

PONTA PRETA KITE SURF PRO ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS

MEN


Heat 1: Guilly Brandao (BRA), Bastien Bollard (FRA/Underground), Paulino Pereira (POR)
Heat 2: Jesse Richman (HAW/Naish), Jeremie Eloy (FRA/North), Gonzalo Ribba (CHI/Best)
Heat 3: Patri McLaughlin (HAW/North), Lee Harvey (GBR/North), Luis Brito (CBV/North)
Heat 4: Mitu Monteiro (CBV/F-One), Jose Djo Silva (CBV/F-One), Cameron Dietrich (USA)
Heat 5: Mauricio Pedreira (BRA), Sebastian Ribeiro (BRA), Matchu Almeida (CBV/North)
Heat 6: Sky Solbach (USA/North), Nuno Figueiredo (POR/Best),  Joao Stopani Santos (POR)
Heat 7: Juan Pablo Diban (CHI), Etienne Lhote (FRA/F-One), Ian Glaza (BRA)
Heat 8: Airton Cozzolino (ITA/North), Bear Karry (USA), Diego Anta (SPN)

WOMEN

Heat 1: Kristin Boese (GER/Best), Ninja Bichler (MRU/North), Tomoko Okazaki (JPN)
Heat 2: Marie Gautron (FRA/Naish), Kirsty Jones (GBR/North), Dianira Lopes (CBV)
Heat 3: Melissa Gil (USA), Maayke Tadema (NED/Best), Adriana Harlan (HAW)
Heat 4: Ines Correia (POR), Suzanne Kuiper (NED/F-One), Odile Cavin (FRA)

The 2011 Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro will be broadcast live, each day, so stay tuned and follow the action via the live webcast and live scoring.

Video Clip of the Day

Watch the Live Broadcast

The KSP 2011 Ponta Preta Kite Surf Pro is supported by Camera Municipal do Sal, Cape Verde Investment Promotion Agency, CVTelecom, Melia Tortuga Beach, Villaggi Bravo, Cabocan, TAP Portugal, ASA, APP, Sal Affitti and BoinxTV. The KSP World Championship Tour is sponsored by ION and Vitamizzer.

Competition Results: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7: Awards Ceremony

Day 2 (3 December)

KSP Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro Update 2

Contest directors selected Ponta Preta as the most suitable location to commence the Ponta Preta Kite Surf Pro this morning, while still keeping a close eye on Secrets (the secondary contest site). The world-famous break proved to be the best choice, although the inconsistent conditions left the contest largely in standby mode.

Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro | Photo by Roberto Foresti

The competition eventually got underway, however most of the day consisted of waiting for the wind and/or waves to improve while many riders surfed the break during the downtime. At midday, Bastien Bollard (FRA/Underground) and Paulino Pereira (POR) faced the reigning Kitesurfing World Champion, Guilly Brandao (BRA), in Men’s Heat 1.

Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro | Photo by Roberto Foresti

Brandao delivered the day’s top performance including a nice cover-up, scoring himself a 7.33 for his best wave and a 13.5 heat score.

The men’s heat 2 was completed, but later withdrawn as agreed upon by the riders and contest directors due to the inconsistent conditions. It will be re-run following the men’s heat 8 when conditions permit.

At around four o’clock, organizers decided to postpone until tomorrow, due to the conditions. Competitors then returned to their all-inclusive accommodations at the nearby Villaggi Bravo while the KSP staff headed back to the beautiful Melia Tortuga Beach hotel, just a short walk from Ponta Preta.

Video Clip of the Day

Check out the Photos of the day: Photos Day 2

Watch the Live Broadcast

Tomorrow morning, event directors will reassess conditions, making the first call at 8 a.m. via the live webstream. The earliest possible start will be at 9 a.m.

Competition Results: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7: Awards Ceremony

Day 3 (4 December)

KSP Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro Update 3

Competitors were faced with strong wind and small, inconsistent surf at the primary contest venue of Sal Island’s Ponta Preta in Cape Verde this morning. KSP Head Judge Brad Price made the call to move competitors to the back-up location at “Secret Spot” along Sal’s rocky and dusty North Shore.

Super Session | Photo by Roberto Foresti

The conditions proved to be more consistent at Secrets with waves in the waist to head-high range and strong, gusty side-offshore wind. However, KSP officials deemed the less than ideal conditions non-contestable and opted not to run heats. Instead, a Super Session got underway with men and women competitors being split off into groups of six for 20 minute “heats” to capture images and video footage of the world’s best kitesurfers ripping apart the small waves. KSP judges were also on hand to rank the riders based on overall impression.

Super Session | Photo by Roberto Foresti

Local boy and KSP rankings leader Airton Cozzolino (North – ITA) put on a great show for his “home” crowd with powerful snaps in the pocket and fluid style, but it wasn’t enough to take the win over the regular-footer from the USA, Bear Karry, who showed lots of variety, picked off the best sets and linked together a string of critical manoeuvres to take the win. Another regular footer, fellow American Sky Solbach, (North) came in third.

Super Session | Photo by Roberto Foresti

On the women’s side, Adriana Harlan (BRA) was on fire, picking off great set waves and linking fluid turns with precise execution. Adriana took the win over Kirsty Jones (North – UK) who also rode incredibly well and showed great control and style in the challenging conditions. Kristin Boese (Best – GER) came in a close third on her natural stance.

Video Clip of the Day

Check out the Photos of the day: Photos Day 3

Watch the Live Broadcast

Men’s Super Session Results

1. Bear Karry (USA)
2. Airton Cozzolino (North-ITA)
3. Sky Solbach (North – USA)

Women’s Super Session Results

1. Adriana Harlan (BRA)
2. Kirsty Jones (North – UK)
3. Kristin Boese (Best – GER)

Super Session | Photo by Roberto Foresti

The forecast for the week is predicting a decrease in swell and it is unlikely the competition will resume given the poor outlook. However, Sal offers many great spots even when the surf is small and KSP contest directors expect to run more Super Sessions in the coming week.

Tomorrow morning, event directors will re-assess the conditions and make the first call at 9:30am via the live webstream.

Competition Results: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7: Awards Ceremony

Day 4 (5 December)

KSP Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro Update 4

Arising to strong winds and a meager swell at both Ponta Preta and Secrets, event directors deemed the day’s conditions uncontestable for the KSP’s Kitesurfing World Championships. Rather than forcing a contest in less-than-favorable conditions, another fun laidback expression session ensued.

Super Session II | Photo by Roberto Foresti

On Sal Island’s southeastern shore, Kite Beach provided the venue where competitors took to the water mid-day. Amidst onshore winds and small surf, KSP riders showcased the progressive side of kitesurfing, battling it out in 12-minute-long heats. Two men’s heats kicked things off, followed by one women’s heat, then a men’s final.

With a plethora of powered and technical tricks, Airton Cozzolino (Italy/North) — who trains regularly in Cape Verde — and Bear Karry (USA) advanced from the first heat to the finals, where they met up with local riders Jose Djo Silva (Cape Verde/F-One) and Matchu Almeida (Cape Verde/North) who threw an equally impressive array of stylish, fluid moves.

Super Session II | Photo by Roberto Foresti

The sole women’s heat followed, which included Adriana Harlan (Hawaii) — who won yesterday’s Super Session in the head-high surf at Secrets — Ines Correia (Portugal), Kirsty Jones (United Kingdom/North), Kristin Boese (Germany/Best), Maayke Tadema (Netherlands/Best) and Odile Cavin (France). With her fluid wave riding, a variety of progressive moves and attempting some high-difficulty tricks such a 360 shove-it transition, Jones took the win. Adriana Harlan and Odile Cavin earned second and third, respectively.

Super Session II | Photo by Roberto Foresti

Then in a non-stop barrage of progressive maneuvers in the Men’s Final, the American Karry faced three hometown riders: Almeida, Cozzolino and Silva. Just about every trick in the book went down, ranging from air reverses, ole 360s, handle passes and shove-its to board varials, body varials, re-entries, massive ollies, innovative transitions, melan backroll 180 body varials and much more. Cozzolino took the win in the close matchup, with Almeida, Silva and Karry placing second through fourth, respectively.

Video Clip of the Day

Check out the Photos of the day: Photos Day 4

MEN’S SUPER SESSION RESULTS

1. Airton Cozzolino (ITA/North)
2. Matchu Almeida (CBV/North)
3. Jose Djo Silva (CBV/F-One)

WOMEN’S SUPER SESSION RESULTS

1. Kirsty Jones (UK/North)
2. Adriana Harlan (Hawaii)
3. Odile Cavin (France)

Super Session II | Photo by Roberto Foresti

Watch the Live Broadcast

At night Villaggi Bravo threw a beach party, where KSP riders and staff partied well into the night.

Coupled with a minimal swell, wind is expected to be lighter tomorrow. Event directors will re-assess conditions and make the first call at 9:30am.

Competition Results: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7: Awards Ceremony

Day 5 (6 December)

KSP Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro Update 5

With wind and waves lacking this morning at the 9:30am rider’s meeting, KSP organizers called a lay day.

Less than promising, the wave forecast projects no swell for the final five days of the Ponta Preta Kite Surf Pro’s 10-day holding period. Given the dismal forecast, KSP organizers and the rider’s committee made a joint decision to move the awards ceremony forward to Wednesday, December 7.

Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro - Cape Verde

“The KSP’s aim is to run events in prime locations in the prime seasons, ideally in world class conditions,” states Sky Solbach, Vice President of the KSP World Championship Tour. “But even with a 10-day holding period and prime locations on the schedule you cannot guarantee to get the conditions.”

While sufficient swell failed to materialize for the event, some swell did hit Cape Verde’s Sal Island during the holding period. However, event directors only allowed the completion of one heat, as the surf fell far below the KSP’s contestable standards.

“From the KSP’s perspective,” Solbach says, “we would rather not run a competition than run a competition in poor conditions where riders are not able to ride to their full potential and which does not reflect positively on the image of kitesurfing.”

Concluding the third leg of the KSP’s World Championship Kite Surfing Tour awards for the expression sessions held will be given away tomorrow night at Odjo d’ Agua. As the highlight of the event, the KSP will also crown the men’s and women’s 2011 Kite Surfing World Champions.

Don’t miss the live webstream broadcast, starting at 7 p.m. Cape Verdean time.

Watch the Live Broadcast

The KSP 2011 Ponta Preta Kite Surf Pro is supported by Camera Municipal do Sal, Cape Verde Investment Promotion Agency, CVTelecom, Melia Tortuga Beach, Villaggi Bravo, Cabocan, TAP Portugal, ASA, APP, Sal Affitti and BoinxTV. The KSP World Championship Tour is sponsored by ION and Vitamizzer.

Competition Results: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7: Awards Ceremony

Day 6 (7 December)

KSP Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro Update 6

Cabo Verde 2011 – Wrap Up Video!

Competition Results: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7: Awards Ceremony

Day 7 (8 December)

KSP Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro Update 7 – Awards Ceremony

The Ponta Preta Kite Surf Pro came to a close today, concluding the KSP’s inaugural three-stop 2011 Kite Surfing World Championship Tour.

Airton Cozzolino and Inês Correia

Congratulations to Airton Cozzolino and Inês Correia, the 2011 KSP World Tour champions!

“We had insane conditions on tour this year,” said KSP rider and Vice President Sky Solbach. “ We scored the most perfect surf ever seen in competition in Mauritius and the longest waves on the planet in Peru. Unfortunately Mother Nature did not cooperate in Cape Verde, but we still had a blast in the Super Sessions here.”

Due to the bleak swell forecast for the remainder of the 10-day holding period, yesterday, the KSP rider’s committee decided along with KSP organizers to end the competition early following the two Super Sessions in varying conditions.

According to the KSP contest rules all 24 men at this Cape Verdean tour stop received an equal number of points (4,365), which go toward the 2011 World Championship title. The 12 female riders each earned 5,265 points. Overall, 64 riders from 20 countries competed on the inaugural KSP Tour.

Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro - Awards Ceremony

Kicking off at 7 p.m. last night at the beachside venue of Odjo d’ Agua in downtown Santa Maria, KSP officials awarded the Cape Verde Super Session winners and crowned the 2011 World Champions.

In the women’s Super Session Overall, Kirsty Jones (UK/North) took first, with Adriana Harlan (Hawaii) placing second and Kristin Boese (Best/Germany) coming in third. On the men’s front Airton Cozzolino (Italy/North) took first, with Bear Karry (USA) and local wild card winner Jose Djo Silva (Cape Verde/F-One) coming in second and third, respectively.

Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro 2011

The prize giving then turned to the coveted World Championships, the culminated results from the One Eye Kite Surf Pro in Le Morne, Mauritius, the Pacasmayo Kite Surf Pro in Pacasmayo, Peru and the Ponta Preta Kite Surf Pro in Santa Maria, Cape Verde — held at three of the best kite surfing locations in the world.

On the women’s podium, 9-time World Champion Kristin Boese (Germany/Best) took third place, with Marie Gautron (France/Naish) coming in second and the young Portuguese rider Ines Correia taking the World Championship title.

The men’s podium saw 2010 Kitesurfing World Champion and winner of the second KSP Tour stop in Peru, Guilly Brandao (Brazil), in third place and local Cape Verdean hero Mitu Monteiro (F-One) in second. However, it was Airton Cozzolino (Italy/North), winner of the first tour stop in Mauritius and second place finisher in Peru who stole the crowd’s hearts. In an emotional interview, the native Cape Verdean could not fight back his tears of joy after being carried onto the podium by his local crew and graciously accepting his first ever World Championship trophy in front of his home crowd.

Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro 2011

“I am so happy. Thank you to everyone. It’s a dream come true,” said the near-speechless Cozzolino.

Awards Ceremony Video

Check out the Photos from the awards ceremony: Prize Giving Photos

Watch the Live Broadcast

PONTA PRETA KITE SURF PRO SUPER SESSION RESULTS

Men’s Super Session Day 1 at Secrets:

1. Bear Karry (USA)
2. Airton Cozzolino (North-ITA)
3. Sky Solbach (North – USA)

Women’s Super Session Day 1 at Secrets:

1. Adriana Harlan (BRA)
2. Kirsty Jones (North – UK)
3. Kristin Boese (Best – GER)

Men’s Super Session Day 2 at Kite Beach:

1. Airton Cozzolino (ITA/North)
2. Matchu Almeida (CBV/North)
3. Jose Djo Silva (CBV/F-One)

Women’s Super Session Day 2 at Kite Beach:

1. Kirsty Jones (UK/North)
2. Adriana Harlan (Hawaii)
3. Odile Cavin (France)

Men’s Overall Super Session:

1. Airton Cozzolino (Italy/North)
2. Bear Karry (USA)
3. Jose Djo Silva (Cape Verde/F-One)

2011 KITE SURFING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RANKINGS

Ponta Preta Kitesurf Pro 2011

MEN

1. Airton Cozzolino (Italy/North)
2. Mitu Monteiro (Cape Verde/F-One)
3. Guilly Brandao (Brazil)
4. Mauricio Pedreira (Brazil)
5. Sky Solbach (USA/North)
6. Jesse Richman (Hawaii/Naish)
7. Juan Pablo Diban (Chile), Patri McLaughlin (Hawaii/North)
8. Etienne Lhote (France/F-One)
9. Jeremie Eloy (France/North), Lee Harvey (UK/North)
10. Nuno Figueiredo (Portugal/Best)
11. Bruno Bordovsky (Brazil), Sebastien Ribeiro (Brazil)
12. Bastien Bollard (France/Underground), Bear Karry (USA)
13. Filippe Ferreira (Brazil)
14. John Amundson (Hawaii/North), Marc Ramseier (Switzerland), Max Bonieux (Mauritius), Oswald Smith (South Africa)
15. Cameron Dietrich (USA), Diego Anta Lopez (Spain), Gonzalo Ribba (Chile), Ian Glaza (Brazil), Jacobo Said (Peru), Joao Stopani (Portugal), Jose Djo Silva (Cape Verde), Juan Antonio Gordillo (Peru), Luis Brito (Cape Verde), Matchu Almeida (Cape Verde), Patrick Desvaux (Mauritius), Paulino Pereira (Portugal)
16. Gunnar Biniasch (Germany/Underground), Gustavo Foerster (Brazil), Herve Boure (France), Jamie Donaldson (USA), Libero Cozzolino (Italy), Mark Moore (Canada), Nans Laviolette (La Reunion), Octavio Chaine (Argentina), Paulo Rios (Peru), Scott Peterson (USA), Sebastien Schmitt (La Reunion)

WOMEN

1. Ines Correia (Portugal)
2. Marie Gautron (France/Naish)
3. Kristin Boese (Germany/Best)
4. Melissa Gil (USA)
5. Maayke Tadema (Netherlands/Best), Ninja Bichler (Mauritius/North)
6. Kirsty Jones (UK/North)
7. Kelly Strachan (USA)
8. Adriana Harlan (Hawaii), Suzanne Kuiper (Netherlands/F-One)
9. Erika Lindberg (Sweden)
10. Milla Knesse-Ferreira (Brazil)
11. Steph Bridge (UK/North)
12. Dianira Lopes (Cape Verde), Elsa Saintville (Mauritius), Odile Cavin (France), Tomoko Okazaki (Japan)
13. Celina Guardati (Argentina), Laurel Eastman (USA/Best), Muriel Vandenbempt (France)

The 2012 KSP World Championship Tour schedule will be released on February 1, 2012. Once again, the lineup of venues promises world-class exotic locations across the globe to showcase high-performance kitesurfing in the world’s best waves by the world’s best riders.

The KSP 2011 Ponta Preta Kite Surf Pro was supported by Camera Municipal do Sal, Cape Verde Investment Promotion Agency, CVTelecom, Melia Tortuga Beach, Villaggi Bravo, Cabocan, TAP Portugal, ASA, APP, Sal Affitti and BoinxTV. The KSP World Championship Tour is sponsored by ION and Vitamizzer.

One Eye Pro Live Web Broadcast

If you are lucky enough to be at the Ponta Preta Kite Surf Pro, or if you have been following the action via the live broadcast, we’d love to hear from you in the comments below… What do you think of the event so far and who do you think is going to walk away with the world championship title?

PS: If you enjoyed this article, help spread the word by clicking the “Like”, “Tweet”, “+1” buttons, or sharing it using the share icons below. Want to read more articles like this? Then Subscribe to our Updates, and get our articles directly to your inbox or RSS reader.

Related posts:

1. KSP World Tour: Peru Pacasmayo Kitesurf Pro Results
2. KSP World Tour: Mauritius One Eye Pro Results
3. KSP World Tour: Mauritius One Eye Pro

Congratulations to Kari Schibevaag from Stavanger, Norway!

It has been a very exciting competition, with the leader-board changing a number of times as the vote’s poured in.

While we think all the girls are doing remarkable things for kiting and their communities, there can of course only be one winner.

Prizes

Kari will receive prizes courtesy of our generous sponsors, Fuel Clothing, Litewave Kiteboards and Hookit.

Kari will also feature as cover girl of the next issue of the fantastic Kitegirl Magazine, available from the end of January 2012. In addition Kari will appear on the Fuel Clothing and Hookit websites.

Kari Schibevaag | Photo by Youri Zoon

Final Competition Results

Of course it was a tough competition, with so many girl kiters doing great things for their communities and the sport. We were very happy to shine a spotlight on them, and hopefully see them get a little more recognition for the good work they are doing.

Congratulations to all the finalists:

Our top 10 finalists will also be featured in Kitegirl Magazine in January and in the Edge Magazine in February. So stay tuned to read more about them!

Kari Schibevaag: Most Influential Girl Kitesurfer 2011

Kari Schibevaag | Photo by Youri Zoon

Kari competes in and has won world titles in both kitesurfing and snowkiting. She now spends more and more of her time in the waves, which she says she loves the most.

Kari has had huge success running girls kite camps in and outside of Norway.

“When I am holding camps it’s cool to see how happy people get when they are trying it for the first time. It’s amazing and I see myself in them. I was just the same, full power and really want to learn,” she says.

Read the full interview with Kari here.

Thanks

We couldn’t have run this competition without the support of our wonderful sponsors and supporters.

A special thanks goes out to everyone who voted and helped spread the word. With a final total of 4 298 votes, we are blown away by the response from the kiting community! You have all played an important role in creating awareness and promoting girls in kitesurfing.

We are already looking forward to planning next year’s competition, so watch this space.

Thanks again and Good winds!

The inMotion Kitesurfing Team

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Related posts:

1. Get Your Vote On: Most Influential Girl Kitesurfer 2011!
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3. Most Influential Girl Kitesurfer 2011 Launch

Kite spot review site, Kitespotters recently explored the kitesurfing at Rodrigues Island, a beautiful island paradise in the middle of the Indian Ocean that will simply take your breath away.

Rodrigues Island

Named after the Portuguese explorer Diego Rodriguez, Rodrigues Island is the smallest of the Mascarene Islands. With a peak elevation of approximately 355 meters, Rodrigues is located 560 km east of Mauritius. The island is 96 km² in size, and surrounded by a coral reef. The reef creates a perfect turquoise flat water lagoon around the island, with soft white sand below your feet, and without all the broken coral pieces you would expect if you were in Mauritius. The lagoon stretches as far as the eye can see, offering perfect freestyle kiteboarding conditions, often with not another kitesurfer in sight.

Kitesurfing Heaven at Rodrigues Island

Kitesurfing at Rodrigues Island

The South-east trade winds blow straight from Western Australia with the strongest winds being from June to October. The wind is lighter in the mornings and picks up in the afternoons. The average wind strength is about 20 – 25 knots and offers ideal kiteboarding conditions for any beginner to professional. Often these winds can continue to blow right through to December. Rodrigues unbeknown to many offers some world class surf breaks on the outer reef which is 10km offshore. Getting to the best spots will require a ski boat for support and somewhere to store those ice cold beers after that perfect session.

At low water springs, shallows do appear in some areas but other than that it is possible to kitesurf at all states of the tide. A trip with the ski boat to some of the sand bars inside the reef during low tide will often leave you weak at the knees with the breath taking views of turquoise waters, white sand beaches and not a soul in sight or maybe it was just from the exhaustion of kitesurfing all day, either way this little island will get under your skin.

Video: Kitesurfing Rodrigues Island

Kite Spots

Ebony Mouroke Beach

The beach in front of the hotel is a wide open beach, the sand is soft and offers plenty of space to launch a kite. The Osmosis Kite Centre is right on the beach and managed by Jerome. The kite centre is full of atmosphere with a great vibe. The staff are amazing, and very helpful, making any beginner feel safe at all times. For the intermediate kitesurfer, the lagoon in front of the hotel offers wide open waters to practice those freestyle moves, with the water only being about 1.5 m deep most of the time. The SE blows slight cross on shore and with a long tack you can make your way out to the reef along the east side of the Island. The reef here offers a perfect small break that runs an awesome wave for about 50 – 80 meters. If you get the chance to look down while you’re riding you can spot the parrot fish with their amazing colours against the coral reef.

Mourouk Ebony Hotel

Jimmy’s Pass

This is a world famous surf break that has been both windsurfed and kitesurfed, but it’s not something that can be done alone. If you are familiar with ”One Eye” in Mauritius it will give you an idea of what you can be up against, and on a good day you can times that by six.

Jimmy's Pass

The reef lies on the west side of the Island for which you will need a boat. Speak to Jerome at the Osmosis Kite Centre to help with your arrangements.(See Video)

Video: Club Osmosis – Rodrigues Kitesurfing

Sand Bar

The Sand Bar is on the way to Jimmy’s Pass. It’s a small sand bank large enough to rig your kite and launch from. The water around the bar is super smooth and glassy and offers perfect speed board conditions. Heads up for the crabs on the beach, they are not used to humans.

Rodrigues Island Kiteboarding

How to Get There

From JHB, Durban or Cape Town you can fly direct to Mauritius using Air Mauritius or SAA return for roughly about R 7 000 (US$ 860) and then a connecting flight onwards on Air Mauritius for about R 1 700 (US$ 210) return to Rodrigues, which takes approximately 45 minutes. There is a baggage limit of 20 kg on Air Mauritius to Rodrigues, and this includes sport equipment. What more do you need other than your kite equipment, board shorts and a passport?

Accommodation

There are two international hotels on the island:

The Cotton Bay on the north-east coast which has its own little beach, and the Mourouk Ebony on the south-east coast where the Osmosis kitesurf centre is based.

The accommodation here is awesome, offering a wide range of sporting activities and games for children and a perfect holiday spot for a family with kids. Room rates are about R 750 (US$ 92) per room per night.

In a small corner of paradise, next to the Mourouk Ebony is a charming guest lodge called la Belle Rodriguaise offering you a peaceful place with twelve fully furnished en-suite rooms available to those seeking authenticity, tranquillity and exoticism, in a quiet place surrounded by beaches. (See Video)

Video: LeBelle Hotel Rodrigues

On your days off you can enjoy free cooking classes on request, as well as massage, swimming pool and spa. Hiking and mountain bike hire are also available. Make sure to use Kitespotters as a reference here and you will receive great discounts. Room rates cost about R 600 (US$ 74) per room per night.

Food & Beer

Rodrigues is famous for its dry octopus, salted fish and pickled chillies! Also look out for “Rougaille saucisse” – a red sauce with sausages, black lentils and white rice.

If you want international cuisine as well as local dishes, go to the restaurants in the hotels: ‘Le Bois d’Ebene’ in the Mourak Ebony. Or try “Le Capitaine” in Port Mathurin. It’s worth trying some of the little local shops for their cuisines, but be selective on items, you will know what I mean when you enter this little ‘spaza’ shop in the middle of nowhere. The Rodriguans are predominantly Creole and pride themselves on their warm hospitality so don’t feel shy to say hello.

Local Spaza

Alcohol in the hotels is very expensive, so if you are up for a local Phoenix beer, try the local spaza shops which cost roughly R 12 (US$ 1.48) a beer or dare to try their local Green Island rum for about R 80 (US$ 9.80) a bottle.

Nightlife

Unless you get invited to the owner of Mourak Ebony’s infamous cocktail parties, you came to the wrong island for a party. The island pretty much shuts down when the sun sets. So stock up those beers and enjoy the island tranquillity.

Travel Tips

The islands are prone to tropical cyclones from December to February. April to June and September to November are usually the most pleasant months. The air temperatures vary between 14ºC and 22ºC in winter and average about 30ºC in summer. Take light, comfortable clothing and protective wear for the tropical sun and rain. Don’t forget to pack insect repellent, personal medication and your toiletries. Water temperatures are roughly 18ºC so wetsuits are not necessary.

Visit the Kitespotters website for detailed reviews on kitesurfing spots in Southern Africa.

Written by

Kitespotters

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This tutorial continues from the first and second in our series of kitesurfing tutorials, Riding Upwind and learning How to Jump. If you missed these lessons, and you are learning to kitesurf, you might want to read them as well.

Board Grab

Now that you’ve mastered your jumps, start to throw a bit more style into it by getting a grab in. The easiest grabs to start with are the Tail Grab or Indy Grab.

Tail Grab

Keep your hands closer to the centre of the bar so that you don’t turn the kite once you take your one hand off. As soon as you are in the air and you have your kite in position above your head, take your back hand off the bar, bend your knees and grab the tail of your board. To start with just grab the part of the board that feels most comfortable to you.

Board Grab Sequence | Rider: Sinisa

Hold the grab for as long as you can and preferably through the highest point of your jump. Once you start coming down put both hands back on the bar, spot your landing and once you are close to the water, redirect your kite in the direction you want to ride away in.

Indy Grab

With the Indy Grab, you grab the board on the toeside edge (the side of your board your toes point to) directly between your feet.

Indy Grab | Rider: Stevo

Indy Grab Instructional Video

Once you master the Tail Grab and Indy Grab, start thinking about grabbing the board in other areas of your board (see diagram below), or extending one of your legs once you’ve grabbed the board to tweak it out and add more style.

Board Grab Positions

These grabs can be combined with any other aerial trick, taking your kitesurfing progression to new heights.

As always, we love hearing from you, so feel free to ask questions in the comments below and we will happily help you.

Written by

Calvin Da Silva (Kitesports)

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Related posts:

1. Kitesurfing Progression: How to Jump
2. Kitesurfing Progression: Riding Upwind
3. Beginners Guide to Kitesurfing: Getting Started

While the Envirosurfer infographic targets the surf industry specifically, many of these effects and dangers are directly applicable to the kitesurfing industry as well. We use similar materials and techniques in the construction of our boards, the fast growing trend towards kitesurfing strapless (see the level of wave riding on the KSP Pro Tour) means we are using more board wax, and we use the same wetsuits and sunscreen that surfers do.

Click the image for the full sized infographic.

Created by Envirosurfer. The eco-friendly surf shop.

While you may argue the exact numbers in the report, there is little doubt that we are producing and consuming a large amount of potentially harmful products in our industry, so it is important that we create awareness and asses the way we use and dispose of the products we use as kitesurfers and surfers.

Let us know what you think of this and share your own ideas on how we can protect the environment, in the comments below. Please help us create awareness by spreading the word, or sharing this article.

Thanks.

The inMotion Kitesurfing Team

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1. Kitesurfing: Taking Surfing to New Heights

So here’s my take on the Mutiny F-Series.

Test Conditions

Variety of conditions encountered – from flat-water to monster waves and swell. Wind from 15 – 40kts.

The Kite

It is a hybrid kite, has 5 struts and is built with quality and performance in mind, using all the best materials available so far in kite manufacturing. It is solid – proven by being absolutely munched in monster swell, (not once, but twice!) dragged out the surf looking like a wrung-out towel and not seeming any worse for the wear! Colours are bright and striking and it looks good in the air.

F-Series Bar Setup

The bar is marketed as an entity on its own; it’s that good! And can be used on any kite that is set up to have all lines even when it’s fully powered up on the trim line and the bar is pulled all the way in. It is a solid one-piece aluminium bar covered by hand-stitched chamois leather type covering called, ‘Gecko Grip’. It is firm and soft at the same time and allows you to kite the whole day without getting sore hands. There is a huge swivel on the front lines that just works in untwisting your lines after all those kite-loops. De-power is always within reach above the bar and uses a clam-cleat system which is very easy to trim. Different line attachment points also enable you to adjust the bar width from 48cm to 52cm for smaller or bigger kites, or to have more or less bar pressure.

Lines are 25m long. 360kg load. The kite can be flown on 4 or 5-lines setup. The 5th line and attachments are included in the bag. A spare chicken loop and centre rope are also included in the bag.

Mutiny F-Series Video: Bar Teaser

Initial Feel

Just pumping the kite up you can feel it wants to fly. It bucks and jumps around on the pump leash, begging to get airborne. Once in the air, at first you feel as if you might have too small a kite up or something because it doesn’t feel like you are being pulled at all. And yet – you are actually cruising comfortably! There is very little bar pressure but you still know where the kite is. And that bar… it’s just so comfy in your hands! The designers have built the kite with aerodynamics in mind and as such there is very little drag, enabling the kite to fly in a sniff of wind and giving them a huge wind-range.

Mutiny F-Series

Jumping

With this kite I have been boosting bigger and with more confidence than ever before. The kite just always seems to be where it should be, and if not, the slightest adjustment gets it back where it belongs enabling you to have soft, floaty landings. It really is very forgiving and always drifts back toward the edge of the window no matter how much you over-cook it. Because of the long throw on the bar, (adjustable using the moveable cleat block), it gives a big power range that enables you to generate tons of lift just by pulling the bar in.

I stood on the beach the one day in strong wind easily holding down a 9m Mutiny F-Series, and just by pulling in the bar I was lifted a good few meters into the air, and it felt like I would have kept going up if I hadn’t eased out on the bar and floated smoothly back down.

Free Riding

Because of its smooth pull the kite never feels like you are being yanked around so you are confident to do tricks, jumps and kite loops. The power delivery is constant however hard you choose to throw the kite around and it soaks up gusts effortlessly. This kite was built for smooth effortless riding!

Mutiny F-Series

Waves

The Mutiny F-Series is a great kite for wave riding. No bar pressure so all that kite manoeuvring doesn’t leave you with kiter’s elbow and pumped up forearms – you can kite for hours! Unhooked or hooked-in you always know where the kite is and what it’s doing and there is no back-stalling if you haven’t over-sheeted it. Its light weight allows it to just drift downwind without pulling you off the wave, allowing you to concentrate on properly surfing the wave. This kite also screams upwind so while everybody else is tacking to the horizon and back, you are almost riding just between mid-break and backline.

High Wind Performance

I only weigh about 60kgs and I’ve been out on the 7m F-series in wind gusting 40 knots – and I never once felt over powered. The long throw on the bar, (standard is 40cm but can be adjusted to 60cm if you want that much), gives you confidence that the kite will depower when you push the bar away, and gives the kite a huge wind range.

Mutiny F-Series Wingtip

I am an instructor and it can be a problem with my light weight in strong winds when I have to teach big students because I have to be able to take the kite from my student at times. I’ve experienced this using a 9m Mutiny F-Series and I had no problem holding down the kite and never felt unsafe. This one guy, who has a Mutiny 7m, was caught in over 40 knot winds and was able to come in and land the kite quite safely!

Upwind

The Mutiny F-Series screams upwind more than any other kite I’ve flown! Even on light-wind days I’ve been able to stay upwind while others are walking back up the beach. The kite is so aerodynamic and light that it hardly needs any wind to fly while still generating plenty of lift. There is no canopy flutter due to the substantial trailing edge batons and tight canopy construction.

2011/2012 Mutiny F-Series Pros & Cons

Pros

• An all-round smooth, easy kite to fly – at all levels.
• Easy re-launch – just pull the back line and it spins around on its leading edge.
• Excellent, solid build quality.
• Good clam-style opening storage bag that looks small but just swallows up the kite, with a separate front pocket for the bar, spares, etc.
• Amazingly comfortable bar, with simple functionality that just works.

F-Series Bags

Cons

• I found that I needed to add another knot in the back line attachment points as there is a bit of a ‘dead’ spot without it – especially on the 9m for some reason.
• Velcro patch to hold free end of the depower line onto the clam cleat is a good thought but a waste of time – it comes off on the first use.
• The clear silicone inflate tubes tend to crack and split quite easily so have your spares with you.
• Chicken lock is too flimsy but apparently that is being addressed.
• Inflate valve is ridiculously ‘tight’. You can hardly push the pump handle down so I just use the deflate valve to inflate the kite.

Who Should Buy a Mutiny F-Series?

Any beginner, intermediate, or advanced free rider, and especially any dedicated wave rider of any level right up to expert.

For more information or to purchase the 2011 / 2012 F-Series kite in South Africa, visit Mutiny South Africa. To find a dealer internationally, visit the Mutiny Kites Dealer Locator.

Written by

Bruce Gaynham

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