The Kiteboarder Magazine Vol. 18, No. 3

OCEAN DEFENDERS Comic-Based Conservancy

THE ABROLHOS ISLANDS Casting Off Western Oz

AIRUSH INNOVATION Disrupting the Status Quo

S L S – S T R ON G L IGH T S UP E R IOR

TAKE YOUR RIDING TO THE NEXT LEVEL O U R W AY T O M A K E T H E WORLD A BETTER PLACE.

D U OTO N E SPO RTS.C O M

DICE F R E E S T Y L E / WAV E SEPTEMBER 2021

NEO WAV E SEPTEMBER 2021

REBEL HIGH PERFORMANCE FREERIDE/ BIG AIR OCTOBER 2021

E VO F R E E R I D E / F R E E S T Y L E / WAV E NOVEMBER 2021

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The Imperator symphony Rider Linus Erdmann Photo Lutz Englert

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FROM THE EDITOR

The halo Imagine a harness featuring the best of both hardshells and softshells.* *Patent pending

A h a r n e s s t h a t w o u l d b e d u ra b l e a s every part of it is interchangeable.

In a world awash with ephemeral digital pollution, the editor of a print magazine has to think a little harder about the value of the content that fills each page. For quite a few years I have hypocritically scoffed at the audacity of GoPro selfie images seeking a place in print. On a technical level, there’s something within the four corners of a GoPro file that disappoints. Perhaps it’s the way the mini photo processor parses pixels, trying to create faux detail without the benefit of expensive Japanese glass. Maybe it’s the way the pea-sized chip handles bad lighting, or the fact that the selfie subject doesn’t care or know enough to avoid offending photographic conditions in the first place. I could go on about saturation and color balance, but if I’m being honest, many of those faults have been improved over the years, yet the GoPro image still faces an uphill battle to find placement in this magazine.

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Deep, late, super clean and mind blowing; Keahi’s self-portrait deserves a cover but for his fading ‘Back to the Future’ hand awkwardly floating in the middle of the shot.

Where’s Wolcott when you need him? // Photo Keahi de Aboitiz

It used to be that the fisheye view of our sport was presided over by a surly water photographer, capable of producing chromatic gold in survival conditions with a complex skill-base generated from years of trial and, more often, error. This quixotic tradesman ought to be rewarded for his/ her authentic toils, his unwise investment in expensive camera gear and his old-guard role in the process; the gatekeeper. There’s honor in the time-worn partnership of athlete and cameraman; they validate each other, while the GoPro with its narcissistic democratization of water footage says nothing about the importance of the subject. Everyone is a Keahi. Maybe the collective overload of POV flotsam makes it much harder for Keahi to be Keahi? (probably not).

Then comes along the GoPro Max with its 360-degree post-production selected framing and space warping, fabricated omnipotent ‘eyes in the back of your head’ view. On one hand, the Max’s output is mind-bending and fun to look at, particularly the videos of back-mounted Max footage that mimics kite-based first-person shooter games. Yet, the Max is a manipulation of reality with its selfie-stick and hand erasing technology that levels out at circus-act status and doesn’t merit the magazine’s royal command-P treatment.

S o m e t h i n g

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For the historians of obscure kite trivia that are screaming hypocrisy (aka my conscience), yes, I do own the dubious distinction as the first athlete to grace the cover of a kitesurfing magazine with a GoPro cover shot. That was a long time ago, and while it felt validating at the time, I always knew the fundamental truth in my heart; an authentic magazine cover ought to be shot by a real photographer, not a ‘space monkey’ running an interval timer. Perhaps technological advancement deserves its day in the sun, but there’s comfort in preserving cultural values and tempering advancement with the old-world way of doing things. If only Keahi’s photo above was shot by a Bromwich or a Ydwer, well then his ‘Marty McFly’ hand would be intact and this photograph would go straight to the top of the stack.

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The Abrolhos Islands

Forty miles off the Australian west coast sits a small group of coral-lined islands known for their surly fishermen and magnetic affinity for catastrophic maritime disasters. Kite adventurer Gabi Steindl sends it deep into the Abrolhos frontier, skirting calamity and scoring uncharted kite sessions.

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Ocean Defenders

Paula Rosales and Susi Mai zero in on ocean conservancy with a kiteboarding-themed comic strip to steward an ocean-minded future. Between the anime frames, kiteboarding heroes leverage their superpowers to save the oceans and spark environmental awareness.

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Open-Ended Innovation

Delving into the mind of Airush’s Brand Manager, Clinton Filen, we examine the heady themes of continuous innovation, disruptive evolution and Airush’s long game focus on establishing industry benchmarks.

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The Bandits of Baja Sur

Celebrating 15 years of the Bandit kite, the F-One team heads into the sizzling heat of Mexico’s summer.

Amidst Baja Sur’s lesser known outposts, the team pits dueling freestyle and wave Bandit models against one another in the land of contrast and cactus.

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Le Tutour de America

The Trades of Technology

The Carved development team embarks on a multi-year mission to improve their no holds barred premium carbon kiteboard. One step sideways and three steps forward, the seventh iteration of the Imperator pulls out all the stops.

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From the Editor

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Frontside

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Profile:

Greg Mebel

A Paradoxical Path To Paia

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Profile:

Marie-Eve Mayrand

Finding Freedom with Flysurfer

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Exposed

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Method

The Wing-Out Carve by Fred Hope

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Gwen Le Tutour jumps behind the wheel of a giant motorhome, kicking off Cabrinha’s coast to coast kiteboarding tour. From daring ocean activist to documentary filmmaker, Gwen is the exact jack of all trades and freakish machine of efficiency needed to pull off a nationwide sweep.

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Wish List Viewpoint

Trimming Your Twin Tip

Roots

Robby Naish: The Longest Wave

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On the Map

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Parting Shot

24 100 36 60 46 70 On the Cover

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Just another day in kiteboarding

paradise; Tim Walsh edges out an early morning megaloop session at the Hood River Event Site. With a clear runway, Tim tests the big air potential of his Pivot.

// Photo Richard Hallman

OCEAN DEFENDERS Comic-Based Conser vancy

THE ABROLHOS ISLANDS Casting Off Western Oz

AIRUSH INNOVATION Disrupting the Status Quo

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Brendan Richards, Editor in Chief brendan@thekiteboarder.com India Stephenson, Designer / Editor india@thekiteboarder.com Alexis Rovira, Editor at Large alexis@thekiteboarder.com Gary Martin, Tkb Ambassador gary@thekiteboarder.com Marina Chang, Publisher Emeritus CONTRIBUTORS Paul Serin, Fred Hope, Ian Hardgrove, Joe Winowski, Sig Torre PHOTOGRAPHERS Richard Hallman, Julieta Pereyra, Patri Mclaughlin, Sara King, Bryan Metcalf Perez, Scott Bauer, Craig Kolesky, Samuel Tome, Mathieu Mauro, Samuel Cardenas, Jason Broderick, Kyle Cabano, Julia Barnes, David Spiegelman, Emanuela Cauli, Frankie Bees, Eric Duran, Helen Fischer, Matt Georges, Jeanne des Vallières, Matt Bansak, Gwen Le Tutour, Brandon Bowe, Thomas Burblies, Oliver Raatz, Lutz Englert, Juan de Heeckereen / Red Bull Content Pool, Jeremy Hobart, Michal Hrk, Soufiane Bouhali Visit us at: thekiteboarder.com twitter.com/the_kiteboarder • facebook.com/thekiteboardermagazine • instagram.com/the_kiteboarder ADMINISTRATIVE/ADVERTISING OFFICE 849 Almar Ave, Ste C131 Santa Cruz, CA 95060 SUBSCRIPTIONS orders@thekiteboarder.com • store.thekiteboarder.com Have you got an idea for an article you would like to see in The Kiteboarder Magazine? Send your submission to: editor@thekiteboarder.com © 2021 Tkb Media LLC. All rights reserved.

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PHOTO: MIRIAM JOANNA | RIDER: THEO DE RAMECOURT

SESSIONS THAT FILL YOUR SOUL

SOUL THE ULTIMATE ALLROUNDER SIZES: 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 / 15 / 18 / 21

WWW.FLYSURFER.COM

FRONTSIDE

Amidst strong northwest offshores and a lineup of hungry surfers, Willow-River Tonkin nabs an insider in front of Seal Point Lighthouse, just down the coast from the infamous right-hander at J-Bay, South Africa. // Photo Julieta Pereyra

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FRONTSIDE

Olivia Jenkins trims her favorite carbon 950 hydrofoil for straight line speed in the gusty evening winds along Sugar Beach in Kihei, Maui. With a slower shutter speed and powerful fill light, the evening session is captured as a surreal pallet of pinks, blues and oranges in motion. // Photo Patri McLaughlin

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FRONTSIDE

Northern Peru is dotted with quaint fishing villages and raw wave breaks around just about every corner. On a recent exploratory mission, the Ride Engine crew threaded the needle through the artisanal fishing fleet in El Nuro, proving the foiling platform as the best way to become one with the scenery. // Photo Bryan Metcalf Perez

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FRONTSIDE

With a stylish grab over the Squamish skyline, Flysurfer’s Marie-Eve Mayrand is one of the most versatile female kiteboarders in North America. From snowkite expeditions to hydrofoil course racing, Marie-Eve can hold her own in every discipline. Check out her profile on P60. // Photo Sara King

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Rider: Arthur Guillebert Picture: Patrick Schneider

� Delta hybrid five-strut design for a serious Big Air adrenaline boost � Explosive lift and extra long hangtime � Massive grunt in all wind conditions for freeride versatility � Bomb proof construction provides ultra durability with maximum stability � Rapid yet controllable flight characteristics with direct feedback Sizes: 07 / 08 / 09 / 10 / 12 / 14

W W W. E L E V E I G H T K I T E S . C O M

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The

Abrolhos

Islands Words by Gabi Steindl | Photos by Scott Bauer

As we approached Half Moon Reef, the empty horizon was interrupted with solid lines of swell marching in and wrapping around the northern end of the seemingly infinite submerged reef.

Forty miles off of the Australian mainland, there was not a spec of land in sight; agitated by a gusty wind, the overcast skies were reflected in the tumultuous grey matte of endless water as rain squalls threatened to bear down on us.

The shallow patchwork of reefs that comprise the Houtman Abrolhos Islands has a history of sinking boats, and the only safe anchorage was far in the distance. Having kited a solid nautical mile to the lineup, I had lost sight of our vessel and without our lifeline in view, I was overcome with an eerie solitude and feeling of internal caution. Below my board, an abundance of sharks patrolled the interlocking reefs, and above the water, the biggest threat lay in the potential of equipment failure—in that event, the immense ocean would swallow me up in one single, yet inconsequential gulp. Using all my skills in mindfulness, I steered my thoughts away from the risk of becoming yet another victim of Half Moon Reef, a modern-day maritime disaster for the record books. There’s a fine line between overconfident frontier exploration and becoming an unwitting statistic, and during this session, I was performing a tightrope balancing act precisely along that line.

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ABOVE: The history of the Abrolhos Islands is full of shipwrecks. In 1629 the Batavia wrecked and the survivors turned full savage in one of the bloodiest horror stories in maritime history. TOP RIGHT: Mick helps Gabi provision the 44-foot boat with the most important equipment. MIDDLE RIGHT: Gabi makes good use of the Abrolhos’ constant state of squall. LOWER RIGHT: Navigation is a very important skill in the shallow bommie-filled water two hours from the Australian mainland.

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O

ff the coast of Geraldton in Western Australia, on the edge of the continental shelf, lie the Houtman Abrolhos Islands. The 122 islands are clustered into three main groups—Wallabi, Easter and Pelseart, collectively known as the ‘Graveyards of Ships.’ Spanning 60 miles from north to south, they’re the southernmost coral reef system in the Indian Ocean, and one of the highest latitude reefs in the world. Dutch seafarer Frederic de Houtman accidentally discovered the islands in 1619 en route to what is now Indonesia in pursuit of valuable spices.

Along with naming the islands, de Houtman issued a dire warning to other seafarers of the interconnected shallow reefs, which would later claim more than 60 ships in the notoriously treacherous waters of the archipelago.

With the closing of Australia’s borders to pandemic travel, my explorer soul was yearning for an adventure, but this time, it would have to be found close to home. Off the grid and unexplored by kite, I had always heard about the relentless weather systems that surround the Abrolhos, a setup that seemed promising for wind and waves. ‘The Islands’ have been on my adventurer radar for a long time, yet accessing the Abrolhos is quite tricky. All of the 122 islands are uninhabited except for a small transient group of licensed fishermen living with their families and deckhands.

Curiously void of any tourism infrastructure and with a total ban on camping, the only way to see the Abrolhos is by multi-day boat voyage or day trips in light aircraft—we went for the boat option.

Our crew consisted of salty dog, Mick, the boat owner and skipper, myself and my husband/Aussie windsurfer, Corey Jones, along with Scotty Bauer, a legendary surf photographer and spearfishing hellman. We met Mick many years ago in the Western Australian Outback at a remote surf spot; his lifelong dedication to surfing and boat building made him the perfect captain for a journey into the outer waters. Since the islands are totally isolated, you have to be fully self-sufficient, which means loading up with enough food, fresh water and fuel to last the length of your intended mission. In preparation, we towed a trailer full of provisions and surf equipment from Margaret River, a tedious 8-hour drive north, to Geraldton in the middle of the west coast.

After a brief pause, we picked a still morning to cross the Geelvink Channel, Mick gunning the vintage 1989 twinscrew 500HP motor as we exited the safety of the harbor.

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ABOVE: With a commercial fishery of western rock lobster, the islands are home to seasonal fishermen living on a patchwork of islands rimmed with coral shingles. UPPER RIGHT: Gabi getting her fish on with a Pink Snapper on the left side and on the right, a Bigeye Tuna, aka the 'sashimi provider.'

LOWER RIGHT: The brightly colored fibro shanties are often marked with coral cairns left over from the pre-satellite days of navigation.

Steaming along at 17 knots fully laden, two hours later we spotted brief flashes of white between traveling swells, slowly emerging into sight as solid bands of low-lying bleached strips of land topped with brightly painted boxes. Approaching the Pelseart Group, locally known as the Southern Group, we could make out a mishmash of fibro shanties in a kaleidoscope of colors, some with their own jetties and rainwater tanks; their walls lapped by the sea due to the ever-encroaching waterline. Like the tides, the salty cray fishermen community comes and goes with the seasons. Inhabiting these isolated islands for decades, these hardened fishermen are a special breed and live according to their own unwritten laws—a code that values mateship, respect and hard work; they’re a protective culture not overly keen on visitors.

It didn’t take long for a 50-foot jet engine cray boat to roar out to us from one of the little islands. The skipper perched up on the flybridge was built like a gladiator, every inch of his body covered in tattoos, replete with a massive sea anchor forever 28

inked on his back. “What are youse up to?” He shouted with a tangible hostile intention to tune us for our trespass. But once we explained our kitesurfing and recreational fishing intentions he suggested we be careful, and with a wink, he roared off with gigantic rooster tails erupting from his twin jet engines.

The afternoon of our first day was wind-still, so Mick took us to the outer edge of the Pelseart Group to catch our dinner. Throwing the anchor into the crystal-clear water, a dark shadow slid beneath the boat. “That was a tiger,” Scotty, who’s an extremely experienced spearfisherman, commented apathetically. Within minutes he had donned his diving suit and jumped off the boat with a loaded gun. While he shot a tasty Baldchin Grouper, our rods went berserk—the fishing was on! Once we had several decent-sized fish on deck, I joined Scotty below the surface on the hunt for crayfish. I was happy to be back on board when Scotty called it quits after a hammerhead came a bit too close, even for his comfort. A

nicely sized Bigeye Tuna marked the end of an epic fishing day and set the standard for what was still to come.

Built upon a plateau of ancient coral reefs, today’s Abrolhos Islands continue to evolve with the ever-increasing change in sea levels. They cop the full brunt of the swell from the Indian Ocean lows, usually with strong winds averaging 2530 knots for most of the year. Yet on some rare occasions, as heat troughs form along the west coast and high-pressure cells ridge in, calm conditions descend upon the islands.

Fittingly, the morning of our second day at sea, we were greeted with high pressure and one giant sheet of glass all around. Skipper Mick couldn’t believe his eyes—days like this per year out here could be counted on one hand. Without a breath of wind, the sky and the Indian Ocean around us were resplendent in a hundred shades of pink pastel and our hopes of kitesurfing were put on hold.

By mid-afternoon, we spotted a few whitecaps out towards the west. Determined to make it work, I grabbed my 12m Neo outfitted with 24-meter lines that had the bar already connected. Knowing we probably wouldn’t have any land access for most of the trip, I had prepared four kites back home (6m, 8m, 10m, 12m), each with a bar already attached, ready to be rolled out and launched from out at sea. Boat launches are nerve-racking, but once I got my lines sorted and the kite deployed, the spectacular tour through a field of small coral shingle islands made it all worthwhile. Gliding over spectacular bottom formations, the allure of exploration was stronger than my fear of knocking out a fin box on the super shallow reef below. In the distance and across a deeper channel I spotted more cray fisherman islands dotted with shanty dwellings. With the wind too light to kite upwind to them, I jumped back on the marlin board of our boat, and with my kite still up in the air, I asked Mick to give me a lift over.

Upwind and back under the power of my kite, I weaved through the maze of islands, studying the shacks up close, each structure improvised in its own quirky style and bright colors ranging from pink and yellow to turquoise. The only native building material present was coral shingles that were violently detached from the underwater reefs during big storms. Generations past had piled the calcium fragments into coral cairns, sun-bleached with time and stacked to the size of humans. The cairns would have been essential to mark and locate islands in an age before satellite navigation. The longer I kited around, the more faces appeared—salty, hard cray fishermen, baffled by the visit. I’m pretty certain I was

the first kitesurfer to cross their front yards. I smiled and waved; for some, it took a little while, but even the toughest looking cray’o eventually waved back. On our way back to our mooring spot, I discovered one of the most unique island settlements. With a throne made out of gigantic whalebones, a toy plane on a pole as a wind vane and a shallow, sandy natural swimming pool, this was the island I would choose if I could live out here.

TOP LEFT: Boat expeditions require impeccable preparation with pre-rigged kite bars for offshore launches and careful attention to details, like screwing in all your fins. UPPER LEFT: Gabi gets ready for a drift launch, being very careful not to tangle her lines. UPPER RIGHT: Gabi turned heads as one of the first kiteboarders to tour the interlocking channels of the Abrolhos’ fisherman community. LOWER RIGHT: With crystal-clear water and an infinite arrangement of sandy atolls and protected bays, the islands offer kiteboarding perfection for those willing to venture two hours off of the Australian mainland.

From clear, glorious light wind, the weather changed drastically overnight; the next morning, we awoke to overcast skies, dark, rough seas and sheets of rain. The last forecast we had downloaded before losing cell coverage indicated this was the day that the swell was supposed to kick in, so we headed out to Half Moon Reef, the most western point of the Southern Group. The southerly wind started cranking on our way to the 14-mile-long reef that forms the protective western arm of the Pelseart Group. The nearest landmass is Mauritius to the west, roughly some 3500 miles away. The swell conditions made it impossible to anchor our boat near the break and the next best option was to head east and thread our way through a narrow channel, avoiding all the submerged bommies, to find entrance into the lagoon. This option was too far away from the break to be considered ‘safe,’ but it seemed like the best of few alternatives. The danger of the situation was undeniable; too many ships have fallen victim to Half Moon Reef in maritime history. In fact, the boiler of the Windsor, an iron steamer wrecked in 1908, still sits on top of the southern end of Half Moon Reef, projecting a good 13 feet above water level. The remainder of the giant ship was carried some 100 feet over the shallow reef—a clear indication of the force of the seas in this area.

To some, kitesurfing out here could be regarded as suicidal.

Tacking across to the reef and putting a nautical mile between us and our anchorage was sketchy to say the least, yet things felt a little safer having my husband with me on his windsurfer. Together we surfed one of the most unnerving sessions of our lives in the waves of Half Moon Reef. Over 13 species of sharks patrol the waters of the Abrolhos, with the great white and the tiger at top of the food chain. It gives me chills to think about what could have gone wrong during those hours we tempted fate. Our equipment was our life support, keeping us afloat on an inhospitable frontier. With the boat locked in a maze of coral, we were on our own, totally at the mercy of Mother Nature.

That night we celebrated with another kilo of fresh sashimi and regardless of the rough seas and howling wind outside, I

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slept the deepest I had in years amidst the sweet rocking embrace of the Indian Ocean. The next morning, the cloud cover had disappeared and the sun popped its little head out. We decided to set course for the Easter Group further north. A good 14 nautical miles into the journey, we spotted a clean left-hander peeling off the southwestern corner of a small, windswept island marked with one coral cairn. The swell from the day before had dropped considerably and so had the wind. I managed to get going on my biggest kite and lined up a few crystal-clear breakers that ran off the point. Milking what was on offer, I eventually gave in as the wind had dropped below 8 knots making it impossible to get back upwind to the break.

For what was supposed to be our last night, we set the controls for Wooded Island. After yet another massive fish feed and a few rounds of beers, a big bronze whaler tagged along on the back of the boat, obviously hoping to score some of our dinner; thus, we shared it with him. The following morning, we moored along the

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southern end of the island with an unexpected mangrove forest in the distance and a sheer transparent lagoon with sapphire water in front of us. To the northeast, we noticed a right-hander starting to break with the rising tide and paddled out to surf the glassiest conditions you could possibly imagine. Western Australia is infamous for its constant wind, so we postponed our departure to surf another day. Getting two super glassy surf days at some of WA’s windiest places was unexpected yet appeasing and almost made up for what was to come.

It was about 3am and pitch dark when I awoke to Mick calling out for help. The weather had changed severely in a matter of hours. It was pissing down rain and the wind was battering the boat with 25 knots. Mick worked frantically in the dark as the anchor dragged and the boat drifted precariously towards dry reef. Literally, just moments before things went horribly wrong, we managed to secure the boat and avoid unspeakable tragedy.

When light broke, we hastily pulled anchor and headed back to

LEFT: With two sub-species of endemic birds unique to the island, in 2019, the Houtman Abrolhos Islands were declared a national park by the Australian government. TOP RIGHT: Racing down the line, Gabi scores one of the more playful sessions of the trip on their way to the Easter Group in the north. LOWER LEFT: The Abrolhos Islands are not known for perfect, glassy conditions, but Gabi and crew scored two superb surf days before getting walloped by a storm on their return. LOWER RIGHT: Forty miles off of the Australian coast, the commute is long and the breaks are empty.

ABOVE: Of all the wildlife encountered in the Abrolhos Islands, Gabi was surprised that to learn the Australian sea lion is the rarest sea lion in the world as they have been hunted throughout history by shipwrecked survivors and commercial sealing operations.

Geraldton; the collective assessment was that we had pushed our luck. With massive walls of water washing over the front deck and gushing into the cabin, to say the trip back was rough is an understatement.

The Abrolhos Islands are a wild man’s country—a place of beauty and harshness, of light and shadows, of wonder and adventure.

Casting off the data connections from modern society, it’s like taking a step back in history to an era when you never quite knew what was around the corner. Nature becomes infinite and powerful, and in such isolated territory, it takes only one poorly timed error in judgment to turn an adventure into a full-blown nightmare. Wherever you look, you see reminders of the power of the sea, the relentless weathering process and the strikingly small buffer these islands enjoy from rising sea levels. Our trip to the Abrolhos frontier gave me a fresh appreciation for Western Australia’s underexplored secrets and reinforced kitesurfing’s potential to satisfy the soul’s deepest yearning for adventure.

Rider-Eric Rienstra, Photo-Mike Phaneuf

Keep your eyes on the prize.

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Exclusive Content The best Weather Stations and Forecasts available anywhere!

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OCEAN DEFENDERS Words by India Stephenson | Graphics by Sig Torre

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Help Paula! The farmers are burning the Amazon, the trees are on fire and the river banks are eroding!

T

he flurried movements of a hyacinth macaw swoops overhead, its deep blue plume frantically signaling its heightened state of distress to the kiteboarders below. Locked within the frames of the new Ocean Defenders comic, this endangered species character sends an existential SOS message to an animated Paula Rosales, who pauses her kite to address the parrot. Gifted with the power to communicate with animals, Paula listens as the bird describes Brazilian farmers burning down the Amazon forest to make way for agriculture fields. The slash and burn method is destroying their aviary habitat, causing massive erosion and clogging rivers while setting off a chain of causality that is killing fish and other wildlife. What will Paula’s animated character and her team of Ocean Defenders do about it?

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Rendered in the saturated inks and paneled layout style of a manga comic, this kiteboarding-themed environmental story takes the inherent extreme athletic skills of professional kiters and gifts them with supernatural powers, turning them into kiteboarding heroes that help solve the world’s environmental problems. Ocean Defenders’ message is aimed at the next generation, getting kids at a young age to comprehend the world as a connected fabric as well as explain that the decisions of humanity are large enough to tip, alter and damage the environment. If ocean conservancy and environmental awareness are typically layered topics often explained to adult audiences, the Ocean Defenders series attempts to transmit ocean conservation awareness to younger audiences with the added punch-up appeal to kiteboarders of

Calling all OCean Defenders! The Amazon's polluted rivers are running into the Indian Ocean where the Whales are in the middle of their migration. We must act now!

LEFT: Inspired by the rapid burning of the Amazon in 2019, Paula and Susi created Ocean Defenders to bring attention to the environmental destruction wrought by the slash and burn techniques used to open up more land to farming. RIGHT: Mr. Ocean facilitates the Ocean Defenders and helps them identify environmental threats, transmitting information on the downstream effects of widescale erosion on marine mammals.

The coded message within the ocean action comics is that the world is much more sensitive to human ingenuity than previously thought and that it's essential we make effective changes in the next few years.

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all ages. The comic brings structural awareness to environmental issues and the domino effect of those global problems. It also suggests to the reader that individuals can become heroes both by educating themselves and, more importantly, by taking action.

In the last few years, there have been increasing anecdotal headlines of biblical-level disasters that are lowering the standard of living for communities around the world. We’ve seen wildfires of unimaginable scale in the American West, Turkey and Greece.

Last year, Germany experienced record rainfall that wiped out entire farms while extreme heat records have been set in every corner of the world. The Atlantic’s hurricane alley is experiencing a frequency and ferocity that is showing no sign of abatement while the Arctic is melting at unforeseen rates and changing ocean currents. Our infrastructure is wholly unprepared for the changes that lie ahead. It’s quite easy to deny abstract scientific conclusions about environmental degradation, but when it comes knocking on your front door and impacts your way of life, it’s much harder to dispute these inconvenient truths. The coded message within the ocean action comics is that the world is much more sensitive to human ingenuity than previously thought and that it’s essential we make effective changes in the next few years.

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This educational comic concept is the creative brainchild of kiteboarding athletes Paula Rosales and Susi Mai. Having both grown up in tropical windsports destinations in developing countries, they’ve witnessed the common environmental problems that arise in rapidly developing tourism economies.

They’ve seen first-hand the environmental degradation caused by neglected infrastructure as well as the lost cultural values of environmental stewardship. Having traveled the world as professional athletes, they’ve experienced insufficient trash collection service and underfunded sewage systems that spill over into public waters, noting the bigger picture that these effects have on their environments. With a combined experience of 20 years running kiteboarding events, Susi and Paula began putting together all-girls kite camps in their home countries and then expanded them into events like the Wind or No Wind Board Jam, Mai Tai, and the Maui Kite Fest. Paula has always tried to cross-breed an environmental or community give-back element into her events, encouraging athletes and participants to engage in beach cleanups or inspire local school children to care for their oceans amidst the glittery backdrop of kiteboarding magic. In 2018, Susi co-founded the Ultramarine Ocean Summit with retired technology entrepreneur and artist Jeremy McKane to

FAR LEFT: Paula Rosales blends her status as a professional kiteboader and event promoter to inject environmental awareness into all of her projects. // Photo BrenStormin ABOVE: Cofounder of events like the Mai Tai, Susi uses her connections as a platform to promote ocean conservancy. // Photo Oli Dadswell LEFT: Susi and Paula’s avatars, Ultramarine and Radheart, review their downwind route to get to the scene of an environmental disaster.

meanwhile back at Headquarters...

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Plastikman

Radheart

FAR LEFT: The Plastikman character is inspired by famous DJ Richie Hawtin whose superpowers allow him to spin the ocean’s pollution into musical beats.

MIDDLE LEFT: Paula’s character, Radheart, is gifted with the ability to communicate with animals, which helps her understand the plight of endangered species.

In essence, she is a canary whisperer, capable of deciphering the environmental truths that lay in the proverbial coal mine.

connect non-profit organizations with government leaders and facilitate change through ocean stewardship. With their mutual experiences in marine awareness education, Paula and Susi created their comic series to educate children specifically on key environmental issues that are affecting oceans.

The concept of modeling lifestyle and behavioral choices to young kids goes back to Paula’s personal experience growing up in a large city in the Philippines. As a child, she recalls watching the Rocket Power TV show on the Nickelodeon channel. The 90s cartoon follows three action sports-oriented kids who surf, skate and sometimes kite the California coast.

“When my mom asked me what I wanted to do for vacation,

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I told her I wanted to go surfing,” Paula recalls. That TV show encouraged Paula to look beyond her urban experience and seek out an ocean-based action sports lifestyle that has influenced her career. Today, Paula operates the Aman Kite & Surf Centre on Pamalican Island in the Philippines. She spends a lot of time teaching kiteboarding to kids, and from that, she’s learned how to inspire and motivate them. With simple acts like comparing upwind body dragging to flying like a superhero, Paula has learned how to engage children’s imaginations and ambition to learn. Combining her teaching experiences with her formal education in communication, media and psychology have been crucial tools that influence the direction of this comic series.

len10

Ultramarine

MIDDLE RIGHT: Len10 is, of course, the heroic Ruben Lenten who uses superhuman strength to combat the threats to our oceans. FAR RIGHT: Susi’s Ultramarine character can summon the power of wind to fight environmental injustice.

Each comic frames a story arc around a human-generated environmental impact and uses kiteboarding superhero characters to solve the problem. The Defenders take the form of illustrated avatars—there’s Susi (Ultramarine) and Paula (Radheart), along with other professional athletes like Ruben Lenten (Len10). Sir Richard Branson makes a cameo and Mr. Ocean, a likeness of Ultramarine’s co-founder Jeremy, facilitates the group’s missions. Unlike most kiteboarders, the Ocean Defenders are willing to interrupt a perfectly good session to get to the root of the environmental issue at hand.

Each character is gifted with a unique superpower that helps them save dolphins, stop algae bloom red tides and reef bleaching

as well as combat offshore oil rig spills. Paula’s superpower is the ability to communicate with animals, a power she received when her hometown water supply was contaminated and caused a mutation. Susi has the power to control the wind, which allows the Defenders to use their kites to travel the globe (without purchasing carbon offset credits), and Ruben Lenten is fittingly gifted with superhuman strength. World-famous DJ and kiteboarder Richie Hawtin is embodied as Plastikman (also his DJ handle) and has the very convenient ability to turn the ocean’s over-abundance of plastic particles into soundwaves.

Equally important, the Defenders engage with scientists to help them understand complex ecological problems. Not only does the platform highlight the superheroes’ selfless desire to do good,

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it also exposes the work done by real-life ocean conservationists and credits the scientists, marine biologists and conservationists as equally important characters in solving the problems facing the world.

In addition to the comic, the Defenders team hopes to port the series into moving animation, create content viewed in virtual reality environments, like the Oculus 3D platform, as well as develop an app that will allow kids and kiteboarders alike to create their own avatars and spread the message throughout social networks. Returning to the fundamental purpose of the comic, the goal is to recruit and inspire a conservation mindset in current kiteboarders as well as to influence and educate future generations. The comics are intended to make us think about our individual choices that collectively degrade the health of our oceans, help us embrace objective scientific truth and nourish our inner superhero—instilling the selfless impulse to make the world a better place.

ABOVE: Bringing government, scientists and private actors together to act on ocean conservancy, Susi leads a discussion at the Ultramarine Ocean Action Summit on Necker Island. // Photo Matthias Ruby BELOW: Sir Richard Branson joins the technology-driven Ocean Defenders to combat the existential threats to ocean ecology.

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OPEN-ENDED INNOVATION INTERVIEW BY BRENDAN RICHARDS

With innovation built into the company’s core values, Airush has been on a tear, releasing a number of highly targeted products that shave off extraneous features and focus in on pure functional performance. You can see it in the evolution of their single strut kites, but also in their minimalist harnesses, paired down twin tip bindings and Ultra control bar that incorporates a long throw and no ‘onthe-fly’ power adjustment. Removing hallmark features may seem like absolute heresy in the minds of beginner and intermediate riders, but for advanced kiters focused on feel and performance, these refined products fill an important void and perhaps provide a glimpse into our future.

We caught up with Airush’s Brand Manager, Clinton

Filen,

to

discuss

the

culture

of

innovation at the company, their reductionist approach as well as the increasing value of high-performance niche products in a growing mass market.

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47 Photo Craig Kolesky

AS THE BRAND DIRECTOR DRIVING THE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AT AIRUSH, HOW DOES INNOVATION FIGURE INTO YOUR JOB?

As a designer, pushing the boundaries has been something that I have always been passionate about, and that has continued as my focus became broader within the company. I enjoy working to establish a clear objective or benchmark in performance—focusing on ideas such as building the lightest product on the market or the strongest product and giving the customer a completely new experience.

As a simple example, some time ago, we were the first to offer a two-year breakage warranty in twin tips, which was us setting out to create a benchmark in reliability. The objective can be completely different based on the product and the different characteristics that are relevant to customers. Innovation isn’t always focused on cutting-edge performance or making things more expensive. Making something simpler and easier to use can be even more challenging than something lighter and more expensive. It’s those pet projects that get me up in the morning and motivated to push the envelope.

Often those narrow experiments can easily flow into design outcomes that have a bigger range of use for the broader market.

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST ROADBLOCKS TO INNOVATION?

Innovation is extremely hard, and many times our ideas don’t work.

You need to embrace that failure and it can be very challenging to the motivation. We probably see one out of 10 theoretically ‘good’ ideas actually make it to market, and even then, sometimes the market timing is wrong. Therefore, having a team that can deal with this and keep pushing is critical. As an example, we began working on single strut and zero strut kites, minimizing the airframe 10 years before we released the Ultra kite. Our first single strut kites did not sell for us at all, however, over five years later, the Ultra became one of our all-time best sellers. There’s a much longer backstory, but when the Ultra finally came out, it made sense to riders on hydrofoils and larger surfboards, which people were not riding much during the initial period.

Innovation also doesn’t happen in 6-month cycles, and that is why we avoid the yearly product cycle as this dilutes your resources away from the hard stuff. If you look forward and take another obvious concept like high-pressure kites, we’ve spent an infinite amount of time exploring leading edge and bladder materials that would make this technology work. We’ve tested multiple iterations and got to a point

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TOP LEFT: Clinton models the minimalism of the Ether Harness, an innovation made attractive by the disruptive introduction of low-friction hydrofoils. // Photo Craig Kolesky BOTTOM LEFT: Clinton explains the intricate pieces of reductionist innovation. // Photo Craig Kolesky ABOVE: Clinton drops in with the Ultra bar, featuring long travel and no on-the-fly power adjustment, because for many, this doohickey is not needed. // Photo Samuel Tome LEFT: Innovation infiltrates every corner of a product, from manufacturing and retail price to ease-of-use and performance. // Photo Craig Kolesky

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TOP LEFT: Material science and design is as much about adding as it is subtracting. // Photo Craig Kolesky ABOVE: Oswald Smith demonstrates the Session kite’s ease-of-use in hard offshore conditions. // Photo Craig Kolesky TOP RIGHT: As an open-minded group of watermen, the Airush team has invested in every aspect of watersports. // Photo Mathieu Mauro BOTTOM RIGHT: The sum of many small parts: The Ether harness uses a variety of materials to offer a different balance of flexibility and support that embraces minimalism. // Photo Craig Kolesky

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where the material manufacturers say that it’s just not feasible with what we have today. Then slowly, there have been key breakthroughs that start to make things possible.

There are instances when you design a product and you end up feeling the retail market isn’t ready for it. The first Livewire Team was a sub 1.5-kilo freestyle board, which was super light, but it had no graphics.

Dealers said, “You can’t sell that if it doesn’t have a graphic,” yet, Alex Pastor had just won the world championships on it, so in our eyes, the design was proven. In the end, we had to find a compromise, but it ended up being a big challenge in manufacturing and market acceptance.

The other big roadblock we encounter is the industry’s obsession with ‘tech washing,’ which dilutes market awareness and reward for true innovation. If the industry plays up something basic like adding an extra ripstop yarn into a canopy material, which has minimal effect on performance, this distracts from creating real technological improvements in gear. Why claim a huge breakthrough when there’s no clear, measurable advantage? If the market is saturated with superficial tech hype, there’s less incentive to invest in the long-term R&D cycle. Developing new technology is expensive and timeconsuming, and while the race to out tech wash is typically more cost effective, it doesn’t add any value to the end user’s experience or the evolution of the sport.

LOOKING AT AIRUSH AND AK MORE BROADLY, WITH PRODUCTS LIKE THE ETHER HARNESS, AERO SPREADER BAR, ULTRA BAR AND THE STICK-ON ETHER BINDINGS, YOU ARE TAKING A MINIMALIST, LIGHTWEIGHT, ADJUSTMENT-FREE APPROACH THAT FOCUSES MORE ON THE NEEDS OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE RIDERS. HOW DO YOU SLIP THESE NICHE PRODUCTS PAST A SALES TEAM THAT IS FIXATED ON BROADER MASS APPEAL?

Luckily, a lot of our sales team are avid riders and very passionate, so they are suckers for pure performance! If you take a look at the framework of our product lines, you will see our offerings are often grouped around three themes that narrow in on the key demand areas: value, features or purist performance.

For example, if you look at twin tips, the Switch board targets the best value and ideal level of comfort for freeride-oriented customers. Then we have the Apex that allows more advanced riders to find their fit for performance. These core ranges offer more feature-rich products

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that have a lot of key selling points or functional features. That third category would be a product like the Livewire Team and the products you have mentioned, which focus on chasing absolutes with minimal compromises of the product. For this segment, we need to say ‘no’ to many things to get back to the essence of performance.

We tend to think about how our various customer groups connect to our products—some people like the benefit of all the features— the extra details and adjustments bring a level of joy which generally coincides with riders that need all-around performance. Then ultimately, with our high-performance concept lines, we’re trying to create a product for the purist, which sometimes ends up being something people didn’t even know they wanted.

HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN A CULTURE OF INNOVATION IN A WINDSPORTS BUSINESS?

Starting from the top, Airush is part of a company called Sestar, a group of brands including Starboard and Severne Designs. The group CEO, Svein Rasmussen, has made it his life’s work to bring marketshaping ideas to wind and watersports for over 25 years. I have worked with him for 15 years and there is a lot of shared ideology.

The push for innovation comes from within, with full support from our management team, and the company is structured to chase the long game. I view us as a technology company; if you compare our products from 10 years ago to what we are building today, many of the key technologies and products did not exist.

The culture of our designers has always been super important. When we hire, we might ask a very simple question like, what will kites look like in 10 years? The answer is tough, but it gives us an insight into how open a person is to look at things differently. I also strongly believe that as a designer, you cannot be cynical. People pay you to create the future, and so deep down, we look for the optimist.

TOP LEFT: Open to the craziest of ideas, Mark Pattison was working on single strut kites 10 years before their time. What’s next—high pressure kites? // Photo Kyle Cabano BOTTOM LEFT: The Intelligent Quick Release takes shape on the prototyping machine with the key goals of meeting ISO safety standards and commonsense user needs. // Photo Kyle Cabano

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Our current design team is a mix of personalities. For example, our kite designer Mark Pattison is pretty open to crazy ideas, while our engineer, Dave Kay (DK), is more structured and focused on how to solve concrete problems through systematic, iterative design.

Even then, those roles often shift around when somebody has an inspirational thought or really questions something. This collaboration is supported by a strong test team and great designers in other areas of the business. Part of our culture is also that we are not just focused on kiteboarding; we design products for the entire watersports space and beyond, so there is a lot of cross-learning and challenging each other’s ideas.

ABOVE LEFT: Zero and single strut kites weren’t a hit right off the bat, but today, the Ultra is one of Airush’s best selling kites. // Photo Samuel Cardenas ABOVE RIGHT: World Champion Alex Pastor demonstrates the high-performance attributes of Airush’s new Razor freestyle kite. Servicing the needs of kiteboarding’s niches is less about profit and more about focusing on the sport’s long game. // Photo Samuel Cardenas LEFT: Innovation evangelist and practitioner, Clinton Filen tests one of his custom-shaped surfboards in Cape Town. // Photo Jason Broderick

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ABOVE: Dave ‘DK’ Kay mows some Paulownia to get to the heart of the twin tip performance product. // Photo Craig Kolesky BOTTOM LEFT: Oswald Smith pumps up a five-strut Razor; freestyle and park riding products may be a small niche, yet they remain core disciplines that attract younger riders to the sport. // Photo Craig Kolesky TOP RIGHT: The minimalism of the Ether waist harness matches hydofoiling’s paired down power needs. Small and light equals fast and more fun. // Photo Mathieu Mauro BOTTOM RIGHT: Unnatural orientations; the rider typically belongs below the kite. // Photo Jason Broderick

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Maintaining a culture of innovation in the product development pipeline is important, but it’s also key to instill these values on the sales side. That’s why we spend time clarifying the various pairings of products into the distribution and retail networks; this helps them become more tolerant of the high-performance products that break the mold.

AS THE INDIVIDUAL KITE DESIGNS IN YOUR KITE LINE PORTFOLIO EVOLVE, HOW DO YOU MANAGE THE CONVERGENCE IN THE FEEL AND PROLIFERATION OF MODELS?

As product lines mature, they tend to become much more versatile because everything gets reengineered. The sweet spots get bigger, the range of use expands and styles and riding levels evolve. Due to this, you have to confront creative destruction, where one product’s evolution cannibalizes another, so it’s important to take an approach where nothing is sacred.

We are also not afraid to service a niche. The Razor line of kites is a constant discussion because many of our retailers consider park and freestyle to be off-trend. Pure commercial brands may see this smaller segment as irrelevant. If you take a long-term view of the sport, we feel that park and freestyle have a future, and there are riders who are super passionate about this style of riding. While it’s important to drive access to the sport through freeride, it’s also very important not to lose sight of the youth customer, evolving niches and knowing there is always something new around the corner.

THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF BRANDS MAKING FIRST-TO-MARKET CLAIMS, BUT YOU'VE ADVOCATED FOR A 'SIMULTANEOUS INVENTION' PERSPECTIVE OF DESIGN EVOLUTION. HOW DOES THIS COLLECTIVE EVOLUTION OF DESIGN THEORY INTERACT WITH THE TECHNOLOGY PATENTS THAT ARE FREQUENTLY USED IN KITEBOARDING?

The desire to do things first is a great example of that optimist mindset!

But it should also be tempered with the idea that ultimately the customer does not care as much about who came up with something first, they just want the most well-resolved product on the market.

Patents can be used as both a sword and a shield; we generally view them as shields. For example, we had early provisional patents on no strut and single strut inflatables, but those patents were primarily used to establish ‘prior-art,’ which means no one can stop us from using our own designs later down the line. Our goal is not to cash in on a single great idea or prevent others from pursuing similar designs—that approach isn’t good for the culture or the progression of the industry.

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It is pretty fun to look back on the evolution of a product, but I wish we were better at documenting our ideas, the early development process and competitors’ products. I truly believe that innovations can be relatively obvious to various groups of people around the world, as we are all looking at the same problem during the same time. The result is the simultaneous invention that you mention, as opposed to a single hero theory which is way less common.

TOP: The zen practice of kitefoiling changes not only the feel, but often the scenery of the sport. Juxtaposed against Tarifa’s fortress which demonstrates centuries of human innovation and adaptation, the Ultra flexes its Dynema load frame. // Photo Samuel Cardenas BOTTOM: As one of the many players chipping away at the kiteboarding world’s race towards simultaneous innovation, Dave Kay sweats every detail. // Photo Craig Kolesky

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So, what becomes really interesting are the details of how the designers solve the problem, and as we see through evolutionary theory, there are always different solutions. Therefore, the challenge is to never completely commit to one idea. No matter how much energy you have put into it, question everything and always maintain an open mind.

RI DE RS: V I CTO R H AYS & COL I N O U D O T

P H O TO : G O SS U I N B R O T H ER S

THE ALL NEW

FREERIDE SERIES Know fre e do m as yo u g lid e e ffor t le ssly.

Feel t he e n e rgy su rge t h ro u g h you r h an ds.

T h e n rise above it all.

AI RU SH .COM

PROFILED According to Greg's wife, "He applied to one university only, Northwestern, because there were two beaches on campus and he could windsurf there. He's been chasing wind ever since." // Photo David Spiegelman

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GREG MEBEL A PA R A D O X I C A L PAT H T O PA I A Paia, Maui

I

t’s funny how a good day of wind, or in Greg Mebel’s case, a deep day of powder, can profoundly alter but not finalize the natural trajectory of one’s life.

Having grown up in Boston, Greg spent his college years at Northwestern University on the shores of Lake Michigan. Working at the college’s sailing center, he quickly learned the lifestyle benefits of windsurfing instruction; you can’t teach on the windiest days, effectively clearing your schedule for the best sessions. Intending to follow his passion for windsurfing, he applied for an instructor job at a Caribbean resort, and while the New York office was processing his job application, he took a side trip to visit a friend in Aspen. As fate would have it, the Caribbean called shortly after his first powder day, but at 8000 feet, Greg was already sold on mountain life with nine months of winter sports ahead of him.

As the ski town years unfolded, Greg worked his way up into a role as the publisher of the town’s daily newspaper. With its upscale clientele, Aspen is an expensive place to live, yet journalism put Greg at the center of every issue and provided access to a lot of resources, making ski-town life an addictive blast. On his transition from windsurfing to kiteboarding, Greg recalls three years doing the ‘go on a windsurfing trip and take some kite lessons’ routine. On one vacation to Puerto Rico, he remembers his girlfriend, now wife, chasing him through the backstreets of San Juan, trying to track his

errant downwinder. It wasn’t until another trip that Greg, determined to leave Baja as a competent kiter, camped on the beach in La Ventana for six weeks without any windsurfing gear and finally crossed the kiteboarding threshold.

In 2007, after 10 years at the Aspen Daily News, Greg followed his wind-born impulse to pursue a three-month pilgrimage to the windsports mecca of Maui. Having stayed long enough to score some good waves at the end of the summer season, he and his wife hit pause for 13 more months and then spent the next four years splitting their time between Aspen and Maui. When they finally committed to Maui full time, the couple landed a gig managing the Nalu Kai Lodge in the heart of Paia, a ritual waypoint for many kiters and windsurfers exploring the island. Returning to their scrappy days as ski/surf bums, Greg started writing for some local newspapers and got a part-time job guiding ‘fresh off the boat’ tourists down Haleakala on bicycles. Having researched the stories that other guides were telling, Greg realized, “there was absolutely no correlation between truth and tips; it only mattered how fun the tour was and the quality of the jokes.” Removing his journalism hat, Greg transitioned his shtick away from interpretive history and focused on producing an entertaining show. Looking back at the good times, he reminisces, “I loved getting up on the volcano every day; it was the best of both worlds.”

Greg and his wife reflect on their time at the Nalu Kai Lodge with fondness; it was a clearinghouse for kiters and windsurfers coming to Maui from all over the world.

Living at the lodge and managing reservations, Greg eventually found himself in the vacation rental business. His version of the trade often involved showing people around, sharing intel on local kite spots and making sure they received the proper instruction to stay safe and have a good time. When the island’s laws regarding vacation rentals shifted, Greg followed the path of least resistance towards his realtor’s license. With no lack of irony, Greg points out the contrast between his background in small ski town journalism and his current line of work in tourismrelated real estate. Having presided over the divide between objective news reporting and commercial advertiser interests, he’s keenly aware of the paradox of his path.

Nowadays, he helps newcomers settle into their own version of island life and points to the excitement in his clients’ voices when they experience a long downwinder or score their first session in Hawaiian waves. Greg admits, “The best part of the job is sharing the stoke of kiteboarding and hooking clients up with the right setup and connections.”

While introducing people to Maui’s worldclass windsports and handing over the keys to island life, Greg prides himself on building community within Maui’s kiteboarding tribe and keeping his options open for the windiest days and the best waves.

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PROFILED

From wingsurfing to foilracing and everything related to snow, Marie-Eve Mayrand blends the waterwoman and mountaineering lifestyle into a single wind-driven existence. // Photo Julia Barnes 60

M A R I E - E V E M AY R A N D F I N D I N G F R E E D O M W I T H F LY S U R F E R C a l g a r y, A l b e r t a

W

hen Marie-Eve Mayrand crossed the finish line in first place while completing her first Red Bull Ragnarok snowkiting race back in 2016, she was surprised to take the win and consequently became completely hooked on the competitive draw of endurance snowkite races. Returning in 2017 and 2018 for podium finishes, Marie-Eve is a demonstration of drive, discipline and commitment to progression. The evolution of her kiteboarding career started out slow and deliberate, yet the addictive forces of backcountry snowkiting have launched her into the deep end of all kiteboarding disciplines.

While Marie-Eve excels at everything from stylish freestyle grabs in laced-up boots to hot laps on the hydrofoil racecourse at a regional level, her true love is snowkiting in the mountains, which draws on her original passion for snowboarding. Coming from a small town outside of Quebec City, MarieEve started out skiing but was introduced to the speed and glide of snowboarding in its early days and quickly became obsessed.

Her boyfriend at the time, now husband, was learning to paraglide, and when snowkiting came along, the two of them found the pull of kites on snow to be a natural progression.

They played with trainer kites for two summers in Quebec before buying a ParaskiFlex, a French Canadian traction kite built for touring with an extremely low aspect bulbous shape and awkward depower.

At first, Marie-Eve didn’t know how to read a forecast, so she and her boyfriend would spend their weekends in a field waiting for wind. Having bought her first true foil kite, an

early model Flysurfer, the improved efficiency and high-performance power seemed scary compared to her original touring kite, but with persistence, she continued to master the foil on snow and eventually set about trying to learn on water.

After obtaining her Master’s Degree in Business Marketing and Administration, Marie-Eve spent her early kiteboarding years managing an 80-hour week job with one of the big four accounting firms in Calgary, but with Alberta’s sporadic wind conditions and large distances between kite spots, she struggled to find the water time needed to master kiteboarding. Having traveled to Maui, Vietnam, Honduras and Turks and Caicos for lessons and progression, at 5’2” with a petite frame, Marie-Eve recounts how most of her kite teachers were men with a propensity to put her on kites that were too big for her. “I scared myself many times and made all the mistakes I could,” she recalls, but eventually, her foreign travels taught her how to stay upwind.

When the economy in Calgary tanked, Marie-Eve took a break from the corporate world which provided optimal timing to train harder for long-distance snowkite races. Competing at Canada’s Red Bull Kite Farm ignited her dreams of attending Norway’s Ragnarok event. Dedicating herself to a standard regimen of five-hour sessions in the gusty, strong and constantly changing wind conditions of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, she was constantly learning. Marie-Eve notes, “It’s all about training, being stubborn and going no matter what the day.” With a combination of perseverance, smart tactical decisions and

top of the line equipment, she was able to beat well-known kiters to the top position at the 2016 Ragnarok and remain a fixture on the Red Bull snowkite podiums in the years that followed. In 2019, Marie-Eve turned her attention to the Varanger Arctic Kite Enduro (VAKE), a competitive snowkite expedition in which teams of two must carry a sled and food for five days across 186 miles of Norway’s Arctic. “It’s a big expedition, and you have to do it on skis,” Marie-Eve explains her complete transition from snowboarding to a pair of planks.

“The VAKE requires proper training, really good fitness, the ability to hike when it’s not windy and general expedition skills like mountain navigation and self-sufficiency.”

With her second attempt at the Varanger Enduro canceled by the pandemic, MarieEve is eagerly anticipating the next event in 2022.

Having filled her employment furlough with snowkiting, Marie-Eve half-heartedly applied for corporate jobs, but when she was offered the opportunity to lead the North American sales effort for Flysurfer, it was an absolute no-brainer. She laughs, “Most of the time, the big pro riders have this kind of job, but in reality, it requires discipline and a lot of computer time.”

Using her flexibility to train in the Rocky Mountains and chase wind around the world, Marie-Eve participates in regional contests and embraces every aspect of kiteboarding from freeride twin tip riding to unhooked freestyle, surfing, hydrofoil racing and now wingsurfing. Humble to a fault, yet driven to her core, Marie-Eve's appetite for adventure will be worth following when the world spins back up to normal.

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D / L A B

JUICE BEYOND IMAGINATION O U R W AY T O M A K E T H E WOR L D A BETTER PL ACE.

D U OTO N E S P O RTS .C O M

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D U O T O N E

D U O T O N E D U O T O N E

D U O T O N E

D U O T O N E

DUOTONE

DUOTONE DUOTONE DUOTONE DUOTONE DUOTONE FOL LOW U S

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EXPOSED

With a travel itinerary that typically includes slabbing mysto waves, Matchu Lopes changes his scenery on a tour of Europe’s summer hot spots. Armed with his SLS Fish, Matchu bones out this stylish strapless air at Northern Italy’s Lake Garda. // Photo Emanuela Cauli

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EXPOSED

Just about as far from the freestyle tour and kite park as you can get, Ewan Jaspan trades out his boots and pro model Traverse for Naish’s Strapless Wonder. Ewan’s transition to a board with three fins and no inserts is remarkably smooth, just like this cutback. // Photo Frankie Bees

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EXPOSED

Talk about disruptive evolution; Brandon Scheid turns a Peruvian open wave face into a kicker ramp for an inverted backroll to re-entry, giving insecure anti-strap legitimacy trolls something to feed off until the winter swells arrive. // Photo Eric Duran

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EXPOSED

Jan Burghoefer tags a buoy at Heiligenhafen.

Perched on the German coast just across from the famed island of Fehmarn, the bone chilling water of the Baltic Sea regularly tests the endurance of kiteboarders and photographers alike. // Photo Helen Fischer

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The Bandits of

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baja

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Pa u l

Serin

sur

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Photo F-One

ABOVE: Paul Serin getting busy in La Paz. When most people think of southern Baja, they think of winter destinations like La Ventana or Los Barriles.

Just over the hill, La Paz has a summertime thermal and its own unique scene. // Photo F-One TOP RIGHT: With the resurgence of the pandemic and another beach access crack down imminent, the F-One team lines up a private beach free from prying eyes. // Photo Matt Georges BOTTOM RIGHT: Hundreds of roadside shrines that mark the passing of loved ones are a heavy reminder that even with its modern luxuries (read an extra six inches of width), the Baja road remains dangerous. // Photo Matt Georges BOTTOM LEFT: Finding wind in tidal lagoons on the Pacific side 12 hours to the north. // Photo Matt Georges

If

2021

has

ta u g h t

us

anything...

it’s demonstrated that humans are a resilient species capable of adapting to whatever comes our way. When last summer’s lockdowns hit, the F-One team stayed close to home, pulling off a trip to Corsica, but with the pandemic’s twists and turns, the terrain has remained shaky with tremendous uncertainty for the lifestyle of a traveling athlete. When F-One came up with the idea of going back to Mexico to celebrate the origins of the Bandit for its 15th iteration, it felt like a nod to the old days and some hint of a return to normalcy—and a challenge we quickly accepted. As the team assembled in Madrid, awaiting our gear for the next leg ahead, there was this brilliant spark of excitement; it was as if we were going back to our life before.

With our departure only a day away, we learned that a good portion of our gear was delayed and would not clear customs.

Armed with only our boards and just the freestyle kites, Mitu, Hendrick, Liam, Maxime, Marcela and myself boarded the plane, leaving Micka in Madrid to collect the rest of the equipment and catch up.

Having never traveled to Mexico, I was expecting the landscape portrayed in my childhood comics. Yet upon arrival, Baja is a vibrant mixture of arid flatlands, tall mountains and the occasional tropical oasis in between. With extreme temperature fluctuations all occurring within close proximity, I never expected so much contrast. After landing in La Paz, we spend the first few days without our gear on the southeast side of Baja. With Covid infections on the rise, the beaches are closed, but our guide is able to find us a secret spot to kite at on a ranch surrounded by sandy roads, endless cacti and unbearable heat.

The locals tell us of a wind that picks up every evening around 7pm and blows offshore. While the Sea of Cortez’s flat, protected waters doesn’t excite Mitu, Hendrick or Marcela, we freestylers see plenty enough to make our mouths water.

While the main objective is to drive up the west coast, we score two freestyle sessions at the ranch, allowing us to mix a bit of riding between days of rest and the drive north that lies ahead.

When Micka finally arrives with the full quiver of kites, we begin packing the SUV and a full-sized van with equipment and head north on Mexico 1. The objective is to reach as far north as Bahía Asunción, but our first stop will be the zone surrounding Abreojos. As our entourage climbs the grade out of La Paz, the thermometer on the overhead display freaks out and pins itself at 120 degrees. With seven of us crammed in the SUV and five in the van behind, we set the air conditioning to full blast, eating up the asphalt on the 12-hour drive.

trouble convincing myself of the prospect of wind and waves that lie ahead. The landscapes are incredible, but the fatigue of driving and the lack of perspective puzzles me. I talk to Liam and Max about it—we are all crossing our fingers that everything will work out in the coming days. In the meantime, we relax in the swimming pool of this strange hotel where the water does not provide any refreshment. Hovering around 95 degrees, we cannot beat the heat, but the balmy water is expected considering the daytime temperature.

Travel in the dark is not recommended; there’s rumors of road bandits, but mostly it’s not advised as a safety precaution for untethered cows that roam freely at night. We stop midway and book ourselves into a hotel. Surrounded by a dry horizon, I have

With an early start the following day, I doze through the sixhour drive and become alert when we reach a dusty turnoff that takes us away from the relentless winding highway. As we approach the small village of La Bocana, we get our first glimpse

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Maxime Chabloz combines amplitude and precision style in the shallows of the Sea of Cortez. La Paz is blessed with an evening thermal, known to locals as the Cormuel wind; it brings cooler air from the Pacific side and blows offshore through the Bay of La Paz out into the Sea of Cortez. // Photo Matt Georges

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TOP LEFT: Marcela Witt on horseback. TOP RIGHT: Mitu Monteiro: one of the original F-One bandits. BOTTOM RIGHT: Paul Serin and Liam Whaley are all smiles after their first ocean session. BOTTOM LEFT: Maxime Chabloz looking determined before the duel of the Bandits. // Photos F-One

of the Pacific Ocean and find our house perched atop a rocky hill with a magnificent view of the ocean. In amazing contrast with the Sea of Cortez, the marine climate is in the upper 60s, and the rocky outcroppings create so many kite spots, each with its own variation where you can find just about any type of wave.

On our first day, we decide to paddle out into the lineup to catch some surf while waiting for the wind to pick up. The green color of the water and the presence of stingrays makes me weary. We catch a few waves while Mitu and Hendrick prepare their equipment on the beach as the wind slowly ramps up. The wind never arrives, but at least we finish our 76

first day on the coast with some surf and more hope for tomorrow.

The next day, the freestyle team finds a well-oriented lagoon with light 12m conditions that are sufficient for shooting a group shot of the 15th anniversary Bandit. We are hardly back on the sand when Mitu and Hendrick arrive with exciting news of a hollow wave to the south of us. The gears quickly change as everyone frantically derigs their equipment. The sun is already low, and I barely have time to change before we’re packed in like sardines, driving south on the coastal dirt track.

This is the epitome of photoshoots; plans change quickly and you have to take advantage of every opportunity.

ABOVE: Celebrating 15 years of the Bandit kite model, Baja’s seemingly endless frontier is the perfect backdrop for adventure. // Photo Matt Georges BELOW: Slicing across La Bocana north of town, the rich ecosystem of dunes and estuaries make for spectacular marine mammal sightings. // Matt Georges

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OPPOSITE TOP LEFT: Mitu launching a massive kite-assisted aerial over the closeout section at Razors. // Photo Matt Georges OPPOSITE BOTTOM LEFT: Showing no signs of hesitation over the shallow, razor sharp reef, Hendrick Lopes charges a fast line over Abre’s inside. // Photo Matt Georges TOP: Capably managing the offshore direction, Hendrick throws a stylish backside carve off the lip. // Photo Matt Georges BOTTOM RIGHT: Mitu gouges one off the top of a section before firing down the line. // Photo Matt Georges BOTTOM LEFT: As Paul Serin points out, the Cabo Verdeans seem to transition seamlessly to Baja’s technical offshore break. // Photo Matt Georges

The wave is very close to the town; it’s a rifling reef break that winds around a very visible slab. The arrangement is not very motivating for me; I’d prefer softer conditions, but Mitu and Hendrick are moving in fast-forward, quickly slipping into wetsuits and finding their way into the water. Blending power and fluidity, Mitu connects big hits on the hollow A-frame with monster airs that are uniquely Mitu’s own style.

Hendrick, a much younger rider, has his own fire, but you can see Mitu’s influence on his progression. Marcela joins them

a little later, but surfing these waves on her backside with offshore winds puts the wave’s gravity in perspective. As the freestylers watch, we note the setup’s similarity to Ponta Preta, and while you can see that the Cape Verdeans are naturally talented, they are also well accustomed to these conditions.

Having scored two sessions in one day, the trip was back on track, evidenced by a quiet evening. Everyone is exhausted, no one speaks at dinner and the meal prepared by our cooks does us the greatest good.

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TOP LEFT: The riding spot in Bahía Asunción provides a combo playground for both freestylers and surfers alike. // Photo Matt Georges TOP RIGHT: Gusty wind and a lagoon full of stingrays blows up Paul Serin’s foot and takes him out of the equation. // Photo Matt Georges BOTTOM RIGHT: Full days lead to quiet nights and the Baja wilderness is no better place to disconnect. // Photo Matt Georges OPPOSITE TOP RIGHT: The perfect battlefield for the surf-oriented Bandit-S to square off with the freestyle prerogatives of the Bandit XV. // Photo F-One OPPOSITE BOTTOM RIGHT: Having spent a respectable amount of time in Punta San Carlos, Mitu knows a thing or two about the conditions in Baja. // Photo Matt Georges

The next day we decide to focus on shooting both big air and twin tip freestyle. With the northerly wind, the estuary seems like the ideal spot to start. I am the first on the water, testing the conditions for the others. The wind is gusty and sometimes cuts out and I fall out of the sky. Having been warned about stingrays, I focus on the tricks, but when I miss a board-off and begin body dragging back to my board, I feel a violent stab under my foot. Limping to the shore, I land my kite as best I can with blood flowing from my foot and the pain beginning to intensify. Alex, our guide, rushes to ask the fishermen for advice, and they confirm the obvious: the estuary is crowded with stingrays. There is only one thing to do; we race back to the house and sink my foot into boiling hot water, waiting for the venom and pain to pass. Back at the lagoon, Maxime and Liam take advantage of the strong

wind sending kiteloops and big airs into the evening hours.

Severely disappointed to miss out on the windiest day of the trip, there was physically nothing I could do; the size of my bloated foot wouldn’t even fit into a strap.

We pass the days with productive freestyle sessions in the lagoons and solid kitesurfing sessions at the local reef and beach breaks. The atmosphere amongst the team is good, and since the wifi on the remote coast is almost non-existent, we all meet in the evenings for frenzied UNO games.

Since the principle of a road trip is to keep moving, we set our sights on discovering the coast to the north. The gear van begins to look like a giant heap of chaos. Gone are the perfectly wound bars and neatly folded kites. Sand is spread

everywhere, and if you need a specific product, there’s a good chance you have to empty the van in its entirety to find what you want. With my head on the windowsill, I watch as the cacti give way to rocks, small bushes and tumbleweeds. When we reach Bahía Asunción, we are greeted like royalty. During this season there are very few tourists, so when our team arrives, we are a blessing that makes the hotel owners smile. The atmosphere is different here; we overlook the ocean, of course, but from a cliff looking out at an island filled with sea lions that can be heard barking at all hours of the day. We are told about a spot lower in the bay with waves and side-shore wind, and we rush to see it with our own eyes. We manage to get the vehicles close to the beach but stop short of burying the axles in the sand. Beyond a strip of dunes, we discover a virgin spot that is perfect for both freestyle and waves.

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T h e g e a r va n b e g i n s to l o o k l i k e a g i a n t h e a p o f c h a o s .

G o n e a r e t h e p e r f e c t ly wo u n d b a r s a n d n e at ly f o l d e d k i t e s . S a n d i s s p r e a d e v e ry w h e r e , a n d i f yo u n e e d a s p e c i f i c p r o d u c t , t h e r e ' s a g o o d c h a n c e yo u h av e to e m p t y t h e va n i n i t s e n t i r e t y to f i n d w h at yo u wa n t .

ABOVE: The rustic appeal of Baja survives: The team gathers for a portrait in the abandoned Pemex station at the turn off for Bahía de Los Ángeles. // Photo Jeanne des Vallières OPPOSITE: Hendrick explores the rolling launchpads to the south of Abre. // Photo Matt Georges

With my foot on the mend, I inflate a 14m Bandit and hurtle down the dune leading to the water. The wind is different from the other spots; it flows freely and carries you through the entire length of your airs, making it much easier for boards-offs and rotations of all kinds. With the coastal bluffs wrapping around to the north and extending out with a finger reef, the waves unload farther out with a perfect, protected flat water launch pad on the inside. Most mornings at Asunción start out calm, but the relentless force of the wind routinely carries our photoshoots into nightfall. As we approach the end of our stay, the signs of rising fatigue can be read on the faces of the team. When the day

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comes for our descent back into the heat of La Paz, we are ready despite its promise of being very long and hot.

Baja California is an unknown treasure filled with immense contrast and breathtaking landscapes. The local fishermen welcomed us with open arms, and our hopes of flat water freestyle sessions and scoring southern swells were validated. On the day of our departure, the government initiated a stricter lockdown and closed the beaches so we reveled in our luck and good timing.

With the photos taken and the videos staged, we had successfully celebrated the 15th year of the Bandit.

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WINDYBAJA VACATIONS Breezy homes and casitas with gorgeous views, all fully equipped, are available at the Pelican Reef beachfront resort in La Ventana, offered by WindyBaja Vacations. A variety of lodging options will accommodate singles and groups. Each property offers full access to the resort’s private beach and patio areas. Snorkeling gear, SUP boards and kayaks are all included in your stay. Kite school lessons and private excursions, including snorkeling, fishing and scuba are available, as well as nearby mountain biking trails. // WindyBajaVacations.com BAJA JOE’S Every day in La Ventana is a good day. Start your mornings off right with our rooftop yoga, then wander to the cafe to get a cup of the best local coffee and a delicious breakfast. As the wind comes up head to the beach and get together with like-minded enthusiasts, go for a kite or get a lesson (kite/wing/foil) at our beachfront school. Afterwards head to the bar to try one of our in-house craft beers or a margarita and polish it off with an incredible dinner and good chats. Baja Joe’s is one of the most established and popular resorts in La Ventana because we love it here, and want to share that with you. // BajaJoe.com TODO BIEN HOTEL & VILLAS Treat yourself and enjoy La Ventana in style. Todo Bien includes eleven spacious, well-furnished rooms and three 3-bedroom villas. Room features include private terraces, king beds, quality linens, natural bath products and jaw-dropping views. Resort amenities include a cozy bar and restaurant, private beach access with a great launch, launch/landing support, swimming pool, hot tub, fire-pit, outdoor palapa living room, ping-pong, fiber-optic internet wired to each room and more. The Todo Bien team has been fully vaccinated and follow all standard Covid precautions. // HotelTodoBien.com VENTANA WINDSPORTS With a large beach launch/land area directly in front of the property, Ventana Windsports offers 13 one or two-bedroom cabana options in a peaceful upscale setting adorned with palms, giant cacti and tropical flowers with hammocks and lounge chairs scattered throughout the property just steps away from the best beach in La Ventana. New this season is a large infinity pool, a new Jacuzzi plus pool bar and cafe and a fire pit/lounge area close to the beach where you can watch all the action! Guests will enjoy healthy, fresh meals at Coya’s, the oceanfront restaurant overlooking the bay. Resort-wide Covid 19 protocols are in place.

Lodging packages include breakfast, lunch, WiFi and use of SUP boards, kayaks and cruiser bikes. Alas Del Mar is our onsite full-service rental and instruction sports center for kite, windsurf, wingfoil and mountain biking. // VentanaWindsports.com PALAPAS VENTANA Warm, welcoming and knowledgeable about all things related to Baja, Palapas Ventana is like your second family. Guest reviews consistently rave about the accommodating staff and quality of food along with excellent excursions and instruction. Experience snorkeling, scuba diving, kiteboarding, fishing, SUPing, hiking, spearfishing, whale shark swimming, and gray whale tours.

Lodging includes breakfast and lunch at our restaurant bar that overlooks the beach just above the semi-private launch/land area. Each casita has its own private covered patio with an ocean view. // PalapasVentana.com

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Baja Roadmap The Best Windsports Accomodations in Baja sur

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The Best of Baja

USA 1.310.594.3483 MEX 52.612.111.9188

contact@palapasventana.com

The best site in La Ventana just got infinitely better.

Come check out the NEW infinity pool, with giant hot tub, pool bar, cafe & fire pit/lounge... all overlooking the awesome kiting beach. Lodging includes ocean-front breakfast & lunch, and there’s rental gear & lessons for all sports.

Baja Deluxe VentanaWindsports.com

VACATION HOME & CASITA RENTALS IN PELICAN REEF / VENTANA

B EA C H F RO N T WAT E R S P O R T S R E S O R T KITEBOARDING • FOILING • WINDSURFING

GUESTS ENJOY Private beach access & launch Certified INSTRUCTORS Wind sports plus SUP, snorkeling & kayaking Kite school on premises WhatsApp +1 (360) 464-2661 Nearby restaurants & markets

WINDYBAJA La Ventana, Baja, Mexico info@windybajavacations.com www.windybajavacations.com

rest

stretch

Everyday in La Ventana is a good day. come experience why we love it here and make our home, your home.

coffee

Gear

Best Coffee in La Ventana

Duotone • ION • Kite Shop

Learn

kite

Start your morning off right with our rooftop yoga, then wander to the cafe to get some of the best local coffee and a delicious breakfast. As the wind comes up head to the beach and get together with like minded enthusiasts, go for a kite or get a lesson (kite/wing/foil) at our beachfront school.

Afterwards head to the bar to try one of our in-house craft beers or a margarita and polish it off with an incredible dinner and good chats. Baja Joe’s is one of the most established and busiest resorts in La Ventana, the reason for that is because we don’t just focus on what you need, we also love it here, and want to share that with you.

Multiple Room Types

Elevation Kiteschool

Daily Rooftop Yoga

Kite • Foil • Wing • Windsurf

We want you to feel at home in our home.

beer

In House Brewery

repeat

Wake Up and Do it Again.

Book Your Stay bajajoe.com +52 612-204-4450 bajajoeshotel@gmail.com

LE TUTOUR

DE

AMERICA

W o r d s b y B r e n d a n R i c h a r d s | P h o t o s b y G w e n L e Tu t o u r

Having rambled north through the East Coast’s kiteboarding offerings and punched a line across the mid-section of America, Gwen Le Tutour will happily rank the kiteboarding beaches along the way based on one very simple yet crucial characteristic: the availability of parking. As road manager for Cabrinha’s cross-country tour, Gwen was given the keys to a brightly wrapped 35-foot RV outfitted with a roll-up toy garage stacked with every piece of windsports gear in the Cabrinha catalog. Armed with a video camera and a rotating mix of characters, Gwen spent the summer strafing the windy beaches of America with Cabrinha stoke on an ambitious coast to coast tour.

Any decorated veteran on the sales side of the windsports industry will tell you: demo days are an exercise in frustration and failure. It’s a well-known fact that condition-based sports don’t care for the best-laid plans. Now, if you’re talking about scheduling a demo in the middle of a wind tunnel like Hood River, sure, your chances of wind are good, but the standard lesser-known American kiteboarding beach is a fickle beast, often cursed with narrower seasons and significantly lower reliability statistics. These off-the-beaten-path, often frontal-driven kite spots require precise local knowledge and the flexibility to drop everything and charge when it’s firing. Put your demo on wheels with a couple of bunks and a cabover for roadside sleeping? Now you’ve got a plan—let that demo roam across the kiteboarding landscape to encounter sessions of all sorts—good, bad and ugly. While Gwen will wax eloquently on the quality of conditions at each spot, the nature of the launch and the disposition of the natives, he will also tell you stories of narrow, windy roads, low bridges, mile-long hikes carrying loads of equipment and cops demanding permits, but above all else, Gwen can deliver a dissertation on American beach parking.

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aving loaded up the RV in Miami, Gwen headed up the road to Jupiter where he kicked off the tour with Damien Leroy.

After shuttling the gear across one of Jupiter’s iconic wooden walkways, they scored a fairly decent day of wind for early July, Florida’s slow season. While Gwen is known as the cameraman behind Damo’s extensive archive of YouTube tutorials, his prekiteboarding resume is filled with amazing experiences that have earned him the label ‘a ridiculous human being,’ by his friends.

Gwen is known for his boundless energy and incredible efficiency in getting just about any job done. Growing up by the sea in Brittany, France, Gwen was hired as a boat mechanic/whisperer for the non-profit Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, where he resurrected a decommissioned coastguard cutter and traveled the world protecting the seas. Having met his wife during the Sea Shepherd adventure, they moved back to her hometown in

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Idaho and he began volunteering as a firefighter while producing small documentaries in his local community. In 2018, to raise funds for organizations that promote the connection between cancer prevention and a plant-based lifestyle, Gwen shattered the previous Guinness World Record of 26 miles, by running 100 miles in 30lbs of full firefighting equipment. It should also be noted that this effort landed him on PETA’s top 20 list of ‘Sexiest Vegans.’ With his passion for documentary film-making and endurance for impossible missions, Gwen signed onto the America Tour in is his first official Cabrinha assignment.

Perhaps an omen of what was to come, Gwen got his first taste of RV-life with a parking ticket in Jupiter, before peeling out and heading north to South Carolina to rendezvous with the crews from Estuary Brewing Company and Force Kite and Wake. The

LEFT: Overhead Jupiter with its lush sea grape hedge and wooden walkways. MIDDLE LEFT: The South Carolina Crew at Sullivan’s Island. Evan Netsch offers a tour of Gwen’s house on wheels, and the motorhome stops at the iconic Hatteras Island Sail Shop. MIDDLE RIGHT: The no-wind setup at Kitty Hawk Kiteboarding in Hatteras. TOP RIGHT: The perspective of Hatteras looking south. BOTTOM RIGHT: An overview of Sullivan’s Island.

first day they went to Sullivan’s Island Beach and set up on the sandbar, which appears on a low tide amidst smooth, shallow water. The two-and-a-half-mile-long barrier island is obsessively zoned residential and doesn’t offer much in the way of public parking. Luckily, Gwen had a friend on the island who let him park in their driveway about a mile away, so getting the gear to the beach required long hikes with multiple trips, hauling heavy loads over the narrow public beach access points in between houses. Gwen would give Sullivan’s parking situation 0 stars if that were an option. Following a kite party at Estuary Brewing, Gwen parked the big rainbow RV out on the front grass at the brewery and the next day, they rolled out the gear at Folly Beach.

With choppier water and another day of light wind kitefoiling, the single strut Contra was a huge hit and won the day’s kite popularity contest.

From South Carolina, Gwen headed up to Hatteras Island where he connected with Evan Netsch. Nags Head born and raised, Evan knows all the local secrets, but unfortunately, without any wind, the best they could do was lay out the demo gear in neat and tidy rows, let people kick the equipment’s tires and talk about better days. With stops at the iconic Hatteras Island Sail Shop and the sound-side launch at Kitty Hawk Kites, Hatteras was a total bust, but according to Gwen, the waterfront parking ranked at the top of the trip.

With promising forecasts for the New York area, Gwen and Evan blazed north to meet up with the New York Kite Center team. Watching out for low bridges and narrow streets, they found a parking spot a mile away from Gilgo Beach. With two sets of hands and a skateboard, the gear shuffle was a lot

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LEFT: Following the Long Island road to Napeague. MIDDLE LEFT: Jon Modica hands out free wing candy at the Shelter Island Yacht Club and the motorhome gets front and center parking at West Dennis Beach in Cape Cod. MIDDLE RIGHT: More wing proselytizing and the crystal-clear bays of Nahant. RIGHT: Some wing-ding backrolls at Boston’s Pleasure Bay and the billboard back on the road.

easier, and they encountered just enough wind for some highly technical light wind kitefoiling. The following day they headed to Napeague at the top of Long Island. This spot was built for Cabrinha’s rolling gear shed with the parking cleverly placed parallel to the beach. With strong but gusty wind under gray skies, the Switchblades were in high demand with more than 50 people turning up to run through the full equipment menu.

Jon Modica, part of the new ownership team at Cabrinha, came out and helped people get set up with gear and taught a 7-yearold girl to cruise around with a wing and a SUP. From there, the house on wheels threaded its way around the bay to Shelter Island Yacht Club where Jon orchestrated a group wingsurfing lesson with the yacht club’s junior program. With the old adage, “The first one’s free,” the Cabrinha RV distributed windsports stoke to people of all ages.

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From New York, Gwen set the cruise control and headed north on Highway 95 into Boston. On the eastern edge of Southie, the logo-plastered motorhome pulled up to Pleasure Bay. Home of the WOO device, the locals strapped on their GPS height trackers and took turns trying to set records, pitting the Moto against the Switchblade in an effort to out-boost one another with big airs. The following day, Gwen headed down Cape Cod to meet up with Phillip Mann, Inland Sea’s shop owner. Setting up the demo equipment at West Dennis Beach, Gwen and Evan borrowed an E-bike to haul the gear to the kiteboarding section of the sand. Armed with a backup boat, Gwen mastered a kite-to-wing Chinese fire drill in light wind conditions that lent well to anything connected to a hydrofoil.

Next, they headed to Revere Beach, paid their parking fee and set up their quivers under the tent. With solid wind, they

On the eastern edge of Southie, the logoplastered motorhome pulled up to Pleasure Bay. Home of the WOO device, the locals strapped on their GPS height trackers and took turns trying to set records, pitting the Moto against the Switchblade in an effort to out-boost one another with big airs.

ran a successful demo that lasted nearly all the way until the end of the day. Apparently, the wrap on the RV looked too commercial for the local homeowners, so the cops were called.

In his accented French, Gwen tried to explain the challenges of applying for event permits for small-scale wind demos, but the appeal was respectfully denied, and the ‘event’ was shut down.

The following day Gwen took a ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard and hydrofoiled with legendary kite speed record holder Rob Douglas. Rob got to try some prototype foil equipment, and despite his better judgment, Gwen loaned out demo kites to three locals. When the light offshore wind abruptly died, the kite borrowers were stranded far from land. What might have been cause for concern to a demo manager—watching kite logos drift off into the horizon—was just another day for locals of the Vineyard.

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LEFT: Outside of Buffalo, New York, the motorhome rolls up to Sunset Bay on Lake Erie. MIDDLE LEFT: Under the demands of tour life, Gwen becomes extremely skilled at making the best of variable conditions. MIDDLE RIGHT: Evan poses with the crew from SUP Erie Adventures on a gorgeous down day along Lake Erie. RIGHT: The tour rolls through Wisconsin with stops at Olbrich Park on Lake Monona and then swaps over to Lake Michigan outside Sheboygan.

Demo life in the RV might seem glorious on Instagram or in Gwen’s creatively inspired YouTube videos, but he will candidly tell you, a demo road trip is an endurance test and a job that requires bottomless supplies of energy and passion. It’s a sevenday-a-week job of nonstop necessity. When you’re not driving, you’re hand shuttling gear and constructing a mini-tradeshow booth day after day. When you’re not lost or trying to find a parking spot, you’re shooting video, editing and posting. When the wind is good, Gwen spends all day facilitating demos, but when it’s marginal and there are no takers, he’s mastering kitefoiling or dialing in his wingfoiling backrolls. It’s not an easy road, but the silver lining for demo managers is learning to excel in sub-par conditions. And for those kiteboarders dreaming of purchasing an oversized RV, the kind with enough space to live comfortably alongside all your gear, Gwen Le Tutour can give 94

For those kiteboarders dreaming of purchasing an oversized RV, the kind with enough space to live comfortably alongside all your gear, Gwen Le Tutour can give you some advice: size down.

This crowded world isn’t built for RVs—it’s a Sprinter van’s game.

you some advice: size down. This crowded world isn’t built for RVs—it’s a Sprinter van’s game.

One of Gwen’s favorite and most surprising stops was up in Burlington, Vermont. Nestled inland on Lake Champlain, Gwen and Evan connected with Russ Scully of Burlington Surf Club.

With grassy launch areas, tons of amenities and a shallow, sandy bottom, the waterfront club is a kiter’s paradise. North is the best wind direction, but when it blows from the south, you have to drift out to the wind line. Once you get your kite up, the foiling is picturesque and nothing short of epic. A surprising connection with legendary waterman Chuck Patterson, who lives in Burlington, led to some E-foil tow-ins on the no-wind days and a great tour of the small but very likable New England town. From there, the demo headed west into New York, this time inland, to

find wind along the northeast corner of Lake Erie, where they dialed in some light wind kitefoiling sessions along Sunset Bay Beach.

One of the key stops on the tour was an unexpected windy session in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Having skirted the southern tip of the Great Lakes, Gwen picked up young South African megaloop charger, Camdyn Kellett, in Chicago, and headed up the west shore of Lake Michigan. With its ocean-sized fetch, Lake Michigan’s wind causes upwelling that, even in the summer months, can be cold enough to warrant wetsuits. According to Gwen, “Camdyn is an amazing kid; he’s hard-working, super friendly and capable of putting on a first-rate show on the water.”

With proficient video editing skills, Camdyn and Gwen charged on the water and kicked out YouTube videos of their adventures.

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Above: Known for his endless reserves of energy and ingenious ability to crank out YouTube videos on the road, Gwen Le Tutour celebrates the completion of the first leg of the Cabrinha tour.

With plans to score September sessions down the coast of California and spend October winging back across the southern states, Gwen’s coast to coast tour is only halfway done.

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Pausing in Sandpoint, Idaho, where he has family, Gwen punctuated the eastern leg of his trip with familiar foil sessions in the deep waters of Lake Pend Oreille. Looking back at his stops along the eastern seaboard, the wind was anything but textbook and the logistics nerve-wracking, but the consistent reward was learning about new beaches and connecting with real kiteboarders. Sure, you can travel to the best-known kite meccas for steady wind and world-class conditions, but the experience of connecting with everyday kiteboarders in their own backyards is an equally rewarding adventure. Running a demo operation by its very nature requires you to seek both wind and personal connections. Having landed in friendly kiteboarding territory state after state, Gwen depended on the kindness of local shops and people to find kiteboarding communion. Gwen’s biggest takeaway, aside from the East Coast’s terrible state of parking facilities—kiteboarding is as much about state-of-theart equipment and good conditions as it is about sharing the stoke with fresh faces. As the demo tour continues past Hood River, into the next leg down the California coast and across the southern states, Gwen will continue the search for new friends and generous parking facilities.

Proud to Be Neoprene-Free.

This is Keahi: Once a potbellied, sassy-stanced grom, now a tube-knifing, kite-wielding man. He knew the dangers of limestone- and petroleum-based neoprene manufacturing and gave up traditional neoprene wetsuits a long time ago.

Keahi’s joined the fight against the dirty neoprene peddler, opting for Yulex® natural rubber* wetsuits that leave a lighter impact on the natural world. Keahi was last seen flying his kite in the shade while wearing his R1® Yulex wetsuit. Keahi made the right choice. Will you? *85% Yulex ® natural rubber/15% synthetic rubber by polymer content. The natural rubber is from sources that are Forest Stewardship Council® certifi ed by the Rainforest Alliance.

Cape Verde, Africa, is a surprising venue for a perfect barreling kite wave. Keahi de Aboitiz completely at home, far from home. James Boulding © 2021 Patagonia, Inc.

WING-OUT CARVE WORDS BY FRED HOPE | PHOTO BY BRANDON BOWE

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hat was once dreaded, avoided at all costs and often followed by cartwheels over the nose of the foilboard, the infamous breaching of the foilboard wingtip out of the water during a hard carve is now considered an advanced kitefoiling move. You can do it on pretty much any aspect foil, but it tends to be easier on a higher aspect front wing; I prefer the Slingshot Phantasm 657 because it has less drag and doesn’t lose as much lift when the wingtip comes out of the water.

Wing-out carves are challenging because as soon as your front wing breaks the surface of the water, aeration causes much of your foil’s surface area to stop generating lift. In order to successfully continue through the length of the wing-out carve, you have to control the height of the wing’s breach and use your kite’s vertical pull to support your weight through the turn while compensating for the loss of lift.

Typically, when I approach a wing-out carve, I generate a lot of speed going into the move and bring the kite up overhead, pulling down on the bar and relying on the kite to carry me through the carve. Unlike a surfboard carve, you can’t steer the kite ahead of you and use it to pull you through the turn. Instead, the kite stays overhead, and you pivot under the kite. Sometimes I let the kite continue past the carve in the original direction and then snap it back towards the new direction. Other times, I leave the kite overhead and slowly redirect it in the middle of the carve. Either way, the kite’s vertical force replaces the foil’s loss of lift.

It’s key to remain balanced over your foil, but as you initiate the carve, you will want to use backfoot pressure to compensate for the loss of lift. As you begin to complete the carve, pull your front foot back underneath you to reengage the foil with the water.

If you are wiping out while trying this trick, you may be carving too hard, causing the mast to ventilate and compromising the lift from your entire foil wing. Longer masts allow you to put the foilboard at harder angles while keeping enough of your mast in the water to prevent this from happening.

Start with smaller, casual carves while focusing on using the kite’s vertical pull to support your weight through the entire turn. From there, you can work your way up to exposing more wing and trying more aggressive carves.

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Carved and Core family; product releases occur only when there is an improvement—and for Carved, it has to be a big improvement. The Imperator 6 had achieved near perfection and was largely celebrated for its agile and fast performance, but there was a dedicated base of riders that were looking for more control at high-end speeds. With the introduction of the Cartan 2 carbon fiber material, the shared engineering department between Carved and Core began to experiment with its innovative fiber weave and lower resin needs. This new, lighter and stronger material kicked off a lengthy development process to reengineer the Imperator from the ground up.

ABOVE: Carved’s production Manager, Marc Schütze, attends to the finest details. Marc handles everything from production quality control to Carved’s customer service to ensure the legacy of quality and craftsmanship continues. // Photo Oliver Raatz TOP RIGHT: Steven Akkersdijk celebrates the ultra light weight of the Imperator 7 with this boned out tail grab. The Cartan 2’s candy stripes gleam against the sky. // Photo Thomas Burblies BOTTOM RIGHT: One of the benefits of relocating production to the Elan factory in Slovenia is more durable graphics embedded inside the board. // Photo Oliver Raatz

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ARVED has always been a custom affair with tradesmen building precision kiteboards buttressed by the stone walls of an old train depot on the island of Fehmarn, Germany. When the rest of the industry focused on offshoring and scaling production, the Carved factory remained a craftsman’s refuge focused on generating only the highest quality boards with the best carbon technology available. This year, the Imperator 7 is being released with substantial changes to the materials and design, but above all else, Carved is taking the groundbreaking step of migrating its tradesman-oriented manufacturing process to a new state-of-the-art facility in Slovenia.

Integrating their hands-on craftsman process with robotic and industrial technology presents a new chapter in the legacy of Europe’s premier carbon kiteboard.

The origin of the Imperator 7 starts with the basic maxim of product development in the

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When you have a new material, the first logical step is to apply it to the previous version of the board and observe the differences. With sheets of Cartan 2 wrapped around the existing Imperator 6 chassis, the development team found impressive reductions in weight that were very encouraging. The new Cartan 2 material features untwisted, straighter carbon fiber strands which change the thickness of the material and the behavior of the fibers. The material itself is lighter, but when you laminate multiple levels of carbon together, you get a deck that absorbs significantly less resin and wind up with a reduction in weight of 100 grams per square meter.

Excited by their early layup results, the design team took the first prototypes to the water to run them through the shakedown process. Since the Imperator is a world-renowned board with a niche following of highly loyal and performanceobsessed twin tip riders, the Imperator feeling encompasses a very specific set of qualities.

Unfortunately, very few of those qualities were present in the first prototype board. The flex pattern exhibited a pounding sensation through mild chop and the material offered terrible control at high-end speeds. As Production Manager for Carved, Marc Schütze oversees everything from development to manufacturing and customer service at the company. As far as

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he was concerned, if the Imperator is known for setting the highest bar, the first prototype wasn’t even on the scale.

One of the key methods used by the Carved development team is to find empirical data to back up the subjective feedback that comes from product testers. According to Jan Termöhlen, an engineer on the Imperator design team, “The impressions from your test riders can build a creative cloud around your product, and sometimes it helps to have numbers on your desk to cut through to the essence of feedback.”

To understand the changes wrought by the new material, the design team built a 3-point jig that allowed them to test the board’s stiffness at any given point. By setting the jig and weighting areas of the board, they could test deflection and translate that to a baseline of stiffness. Having learned that the new material was 20% stiffer compared to the original Cartan, Jan and his team knew they had substantial improvements in weight, but they needed to redesign the flex pattern in the board’s wood core to meet the expectations of the Imperator’s fan base.

Using the basic Imperator formula, they built a fleet of over 10 test boards, each with an experimental chassis fine-tuned to test a particular flex theory. With 12 internal test riders lining up to rotate through the arsenal, board #5 became the all-around resounding choice. By narrowing the thickness of the wood core, the design team had compensated for Cartan 2’s material strength and arrived at a point where the innate qualities of wood and glass began to work together. With the flex pattern largely nailed down, next, Core’s designers turned their attention to improving the board’s rail control at high speeds.

In the four years since the Imperator 6’s release, the design team has made significant

discoveries in rail technology while working with the Core line of boards. If the goal was to fine-tune the Imperator’s performance at higher speeds, they would need to change the rail outline and encourage the board to sit lower in the water, but they would have to accomplish this without adding drag. The rail line going into the tips was made straighter until the highspeed handling felt significantly more stable.

Since the rails feature a tucked-under profile that generates a perpendicular force sucking the board down into the water, they needed to find the perfect balance between this extra-grippy force and the unwanted drag that comes with it. By adjusting the shape of the tucked rail and working in a harder edge, the engineers could encourage water release that tempers the drag that is created by the suction. The result was a board that still feels incredibly fast and agile, but when you push the new Imperator 7 into the high-end speed range, it has more control than before and inspires greater confidence through the hardest charging carves and big air sends.

In addition to the obvious performance improvements from the new materials, moving the Imperator’s production to the Elan ski manufacturing facility has added additional precision to the company’s board building process. Having transported essential equipment from Carved’s facility in Fehmarn to the new manufacturing line in Slovenia, the new approach is a combination of the Imperator’s existing craftsmanship and the ski factory’s new technology. The Elan factory has the machines to digitally print the graphics below the glass so that Imperator riders will see more durable graphics as well as a reduction in drag. With new methods for pre-bending the wood cores, Marc can ensure that the rocker in each board comes off the line with exact precision. Incremental improvements like larger resin batches and sophisticated heat controls in industrial ovens,

L E F T: T h e n e w m a n u f a c t u r i n g p r o c e s s i s a c o m b i n a t i o n o f C a r v e d ’ s t i m e - h o n o r e d c r a f t s m a n techniques and new technologies employed in the Elan factory. With 80% less material waste, the shift to new materials and technology is a substantial improvement. // Photos Oliver Raatz

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also increases the Imperator 7’s quality control.

The factory uses a robot to precisely lay down each sheet of carbon fiber, perfectly trimmed to match the board’s template. This method cuts 80% of the waste out of the process, which is better for the customer, the landfill and the climate.

Early on in the Imperator 7 redesign process, the development team began experimenting with a new rocker modification device that offered the ability to flatten the rocker for better light wind performance. As a patented technology, Core’s Rick Jensen took the Revo mechanism and designed an ergonomic frame that would fit with the Imperator 7. The Revo offers two riding modes to choose from: the normal setting is neutral, where the board features its standard rocker and flex, but if you twist the handle, it then flattens the board out, removing the rocker and increasing the board’s upwind and low wind efficiency. The Imperator 7’s v-rocker and double to single concave bottom shape give it incredible chop handling capabilities during powered riding, but the Revo’s rocker-flattening setting provides more range when the wind isn’t quite as strong. After significant durability testing, the designers made some changes to the handle’s mounting points to ensure the Revo didn’t compromise the strength and longevity of the board.

Since every aspect of the board was under the microscope, the design team swapped all the pad and strap hardware from the Phillips crosshead screws to T30 Torx drivers. Saying goodbye to the Phillips head was easy because, according to Jan, “The Phillips head screws require extensive push-down force to get sufficient tension and the heads are prone to stripping without proper technique.” Since kitefoiling equipment has embraced the T30, these tools are quite easily found at beaches around the world, and it seemed like the perfect time to make the commonsense swap.

TOP LEFT: Every ounce counts in the freeride game; with its double to single concave bottom shape, the Imperator 7 offers both precision and comfort at the flick of a tip. // Photo Lutz Englert BOTTOM LEFT: Capturing the speed of a machine. // Photo Oliver Raatz ABOVE: Modern craftsmanship is knowing when a hand-finished touch is crucial. // Photos Oliver Raatz

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THE IMPRESSIONS FROM YOUR TEST RIDERS CAN BUILD A CREATIVE CLOUD AROUND YOUR PRODUCT, AND SOMETIMES IT HELPS TO HAVE NUMBERS ON YOUR DESK TO CUT THROUGH TO THE ESSENCE OF FEEDBACK.

With regard to the actual accessories, the team took Core’s Union Pro 4 footpad and made some specific changes for the Imperator 7, increasing the contours in the footbed to be a bit more aggressive while the pad material was made softer to allow the foot to compress into the footbed. The straps were completely redesigned to improve the functionality of the tensioning ratchet, and by changing the ergonomics of the pad’s inner frame, the strap better matches the asymmetric arch of the human foot. The Imperator reboot was finished off with upgraded fins that were precision-tweaked to match the board’s rocker line with an updated outline and profile that reduces drag.

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No stone was left unturned on the reinvention of the Imperator 7, and when the product was finally released in August and exhibited at this year’s Kitesurf Masters in St Peter-Ording, the development team watched the product reel for the first time. With a custom-scored music track synced to each frame, the team viewed their hard work with tremendous pride as shots of the new manufacturing process flashed between a quick succession of explosive action riding clips. Having evolved into a prestige product for demanding riders worldwide, the Imperator 7, with its new build, lighter weight and tuned-up performance, has once again established its apex status amongst twin tip products.

TOP LEFT: Using a jig to get every inch of the rail perfect. // Photo Oliver Raatz ABOVE: Steven Akkersdijk putting the final version of prototype #5 into action. // Photo Thomas Burblies BELOW: Stacked in the production queue; small details in the rails have a large impact on the board’s speed and control in the water. // Photo Oliver Raatz

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ION Claw Glove

This magazine is full of pictures of sunny days and kiting in warm water. But for lots of us, the wind gets really good when the temperature drops. When that happens, the Claw Glove from ION is one accessory that is actually an essential. The pre-curved neoprene fingers are the secret that reduces fatigue, so you can keep kiting in warmth and comfort. 3/2mm neoprene thickness. $59.99 // www.ion-products.com

MANERA Halo Harness

The Halo is an innovative kite harness that uses Manera’s patented Adaptive Shell technology. Featuring the best of both hardshells and softshells, it is designed to provide great support while offering unmatched freedom of movement. The Halo is 10% lighter than Manera’s lightest model and integrates a groundbreaking spreaderbar. $419 complete with all new spreader bar // www.manera.com

FENIX E35 Flashlight

The Fenix E35 rechargeable flashlight features an upgraded LED beam that sheds 3000 lumens capable of shining over 700 feet. With a metal side switch and deep carrying clip, the Fenix is a must have accessory for evening sessions and finding gear in the deepest recesses of your vehicle. $98.95 // www.fenix-store.com

RIDE ENGINE Men’s Apoc and Women’s Elara Wetsuits

With new lines for both men and women, Ride Engine’s premium line of men’s Apoc front-zip suits ranges from chill-cutting spring suits to fleece-lined, foul-weather winter armor with climate control inside and out. All Apoc suits feature smart panel design and power seam stitching that give ultimate flexibility and range of motion while eliminating water intrusion along the seams. When it comes to the ladies, Ride Engine’s women’s suits are developed with the feminine shape in mind and are made of PFC and PTFE-free soft limestone neoprene so you can stay protected from the elements and out on the water longer! Men’s APOC $523.99 | Women’s Elara $460.99 // www.rideengine.com

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PATAGONIA Stretch Thermal Hoodie

Patagonia took the best qualities of their boardshort and wetsuit lines to build this versatile insulated hoody. Made from 100% recycled polyester stretch boardshorts fabric with a warm and fast-drying thermal wetsuit lining, it’s an innovative solution for pre- and post-surf warmth. Fair Trade Certified™ sewn. $199 // www.patagonia.com

WEATHERFLOW Tempest Weather System

The Tempest Weather System leverages powerful machine learning and state-of-the-art modeling capabilities to provide the most precise, local forecast available. Completely wireless with simple installation and no moving parts, you get instant online access to weather data via free iOS and Android apps. Join the network of smart weather devices that help the National Weather Service and your local iKitesurf forecast. $329 // www.weatherflow.com/tempest-weather-system

WMFG 1.0P

The WMFG 1.0P is the latest edition to the WMFG line of pumps. This pro model pump has a smaller diameter, double barrel design that has more volume than the 4.0T and reaches pressures of more than 20 PSI. The 3-stage switch on the back allows for switching between double action, single action and single barrel pumping. The 1.0P is the only pump you need to inflate all watersports equipment including kites, wings, SUPs and more. $119 // www.wmfg.co

PLATINUM SUN Cobalt Men’s Rash Guard

Platinum Sun brings you this UPF 50+ high-performance rashguard for men. Made from top-quality materials, it is extremely comfortable and will provide all the support you need. It will also withstand washing and chlorinated water, and will look like new, even if you wear it everyday! It comes with an anti-glide silicone line that won’t let your rashguard ride up while in heavy surf. $55 // www.platinumsun.com

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Photo Jeremy Hobart

ADDING TRIM TO TWIN TIPS WORDS BY JOE WINOWSKI

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p until recently, almost every piece of kiteboarding gear has tuning options with one large exception; the twin tip kiteboard. Kites feature bridle attachment points and control bars feature different bar widths, power adjusters as well as a smattering of chicken loop sizes to choose from. Despite the industry-wide trend towards trim adjustments, twin tip boards have always been designed with a single preset rocker and flex pattern hardcoded into the wood core and glass layup.

Franz Schitzhofer along with other designers on the Eleveight team have dreamed up and designed a way to toggle between two rocker settings. With the introduction of the Revo rocker modification device, riders can now trim their kiteboard according to the conditions. Much like modern mountain bike shocks that allow you to restrict suspension movement when pedaling uphill and switch back to full travel on the way back down, the Revo allows you to increase the range of your board by just twisting the handle.

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This new rocker modification device makes it possible for a single board to cover a larger window of conditions. If the wind is dropping and you need some extra speed and glide to get back upwind, you can rotate the Revo handle and activate its rocker-flattening mechanism. In the alternative, if you’re powered up and want the softer and forgiving ride of the board’s full flex and natural rocker, then twist the Revo handle to release the tension and revert it back to passive mode. When the Revo is activated, the device extends and places tension on the handle’s insert bases, effectively flattening out the board’s camber and providing a flatter rocker line. When the Revo engages with a three-stage rocker, it evens out the rocker across the center and gives the rider a longer rail, increasing the board’s grip in the water and efficiency for upwind ability.

The Revo was designed to work with this year’s Eleveight’s boards which incorporate reinforced inserts engineered to withstand

the extra forces. You can use it on any of the boards in the Eleveight lineup, including the lightwind models, but according to Eleveight’s designers, the outline of the board is not as important as the rocker and flex. Riders will notice the best results in upwind performance when the Revo is set up on stiffer boards with more rocker.

The Revo is marketed towards riders of all skill levels. Eleveight believes it can help beginners ride upwind easier which is an important step in the progression process, but the rocker lockout option may be of equal interest to advanced riders.

According to professional product tester and competitor, Arthur Guillebert, he engages the Revo after a series of tricks so he can ride back upwind much faster.

The concept of locking out a board’s rocker might seem crazy at first, but once you get used to wringing every ounce of upwind performance out of your twin tip, you may never go back.

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ROBBY NAISH T H E L O N G E S T W AV E WORDS BY JOE WINOWSKI

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f you imagine Robby Naish’s professional career as a dartboard, you’ll find a small bullseye ring at the center crowded with a hoard of darts laser-focused on nailing that number one spot. Yet, for the newer generations of kiteboarders, many of Robby’s freakishly heroic talents are locked in the history vaults of windsurfing, tow-surfing and early kiteboarding. There are few athletes that get universal respect but ask any experienced windsurfer or waterman, and you will find that Robby’s competition record in the 80s and 90s is virtually untouchable. Having encountered rudimentary windsurfing in Kailua shortly after its inception, in 1976, Robby claimed his first windsurfing world championship at the age of 13 and followed that up with over 24 Windsurfing World Championships and 150 tournament victories. Amidst his competitive career, Robby’s contributions to wave sailing have framed the technical sport that remains a core pillar of big-wave surfing today.

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Robby’s founding efforts on behalf of kiteboarding are two-fold: He invested heavily in early technology development that bolstered kiteboarding safety and accessibility, but equally important, Robby also lent his star power to legitimize the new sport. Having competed in the early Red Bull King of the Air competitions, he spent the first few years flying around the world as a kiteboarding ambassador, lending the new sport credibility and showing the windsurfing world that it was ok to cross the line. For those early efforts, the Naish brand became the gold standard of innovation and market domination.

This year, the long-awaited documentary of Robby’s life was finally released. Filmed over a four-year period between 2015 and 2019, the Red Bull biopic dubbed The Longest Wave offers incredible insight into the history of windsports’ fiercest competitor. Wisely constructed as a collaboration between

award-winning documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger and the surfing cinematography of Poor Boyz productions, The Longest Wave is a metaphor for the breadth of Robby’s career—the endless search for fulfillment and achievement in surfing and windsports. With the main question posed, ‘what does a life-long competitor do when his formal contest days are in the past?’, the cameras reveal intimate parts of Robby’s life, follow him through a series of injuries and explore the logistical challenges of achieving a new goal: riding the longest wave. Sometimes documentaries focus too hard on building literal metaphors out of the art of surfing, but at the core of this hour and a half long film is incredible Robby Naish footage and a first-rate windsports history lesson that should be on every kiteboarder’s watchlist. Since we all have an internal Robby, pushing ourselves to our limits, the movie validates the challenges we face while trying to hit windsports’ moving target.

LEFT: In search of the longest wave, Robby stands tall in Pacasmayo, Peru. // Photo Juan de Heeckereen / Red Bull Content Pool RIGHT: One of the classic Robby Naish moves; without loosing a beat, the master waterman snaps a backside off the lip aerial with perfect form. // Photo Frankie Bees

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ON THE MAP CALGARY, CANADA

Marieat-EvejustMayrand excels about, every kite discipline but experience her backcountry in the Canadian Rockies has made snowkite enduarnce her. primaryracing passion Photo Michal Hrk

MAUI, HAWAII

It hasGreg beenMebel said that chose his college based onwindsurfing the quality of its facilities.

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The legendary Robby Naish with a backside hack that has circled the isglobe many times.

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PREA, BRAZIL

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Ocean(aka Defender, Paula Rosalesa ), throws Radheart footerthat on her to create one a comic will way inspire ocean conservation Photo BrenStormin.

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The F-dueling One team takes Bandit models into the summer heat of Southern Baja to celebrate the Bandit '.s th anniversary Photo Matt Georges 15

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With ofridiculous , stores energy the enigmatic Gwen Le Tutour takes his documentary filmaking and light windon kitefoiling skillsroad . the American Photo Gwen Le Tutour

High inAlps the, Slovenian Carved 's production manager Marc Schutze, puts .. bevel on the finishing 7 rail. thePhoto Imperator Oliver Raatz //

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AUSTRALIA SOUTH AFRICA

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

Airush Brand, matches Manager,his 's Filen Clinton slightly surfboard with his oversized Ultra single strut . kitePhoto for optimal surf Samuel Tome results //

HOUTMAN ABROLHOS ISLANDS

Gabi Steindl aHoutman whale bone throne onIslands thesurveys remote , 40 miles of Abrolhos . offPhoto Australia s western coast ' Scott Bauer //

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Just south of Essaouira, Morocco, Ismail Adarzane turns his Magnet surfboard into a sandboard. Mastering the forces of friction, slope and kite power, Ismail executes a highly technical dune-to-water transition. // Photo Soufiane Bouhali

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COME HANG WITH US! Join the Tkb Test Team for our 15th Annual Freeride Gear Test.

Photo Noe Font

THEKITEBOARDER.COM/2022-FREERIDE

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