The Kiteboarder Magazine Vol. 14, No. 4

ELSASSER’S COMEBACK Facing the Wrath of the Wrap

PORTUGAL AT LARGE Charging Bombs in Nazaré

THE SHAPING SEASONS Sky’s Approach to the Stick

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WAVE / FRE E RIDE

WHERE THERE’S A WAVE THERE’S A WAY.

R I D E R : M AT C H U L O P E S / P H O T O : T O B Y B R O M W I C H

THE NEW NEO

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PRO WHIP

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FREESURF

FROM THE EDITOR

Amidst the growing scene in Santa Cruz, Tkb’s editor poses with fellow kitesurf/foilsurf

For those paying attention, you might ask why so much foilsurfing is sneaking into the pages of The Kiteboarder Magazine these days.

Aside from the fact that it’s been a personal axe to grind (for years I’ve been dropping hints that slow carving foils for the surf are the future) most kite brands are now manufacturing freeride foils that are now designed to be slow enough for crossover into the surf. Surf foils are so versatile; they’re not only what I choose when the wind is light or when the waves are small and fun, but it’s now the same foil I choose to paddle into the surf. I thought I was the only one with this obsession but I’m not; most of the back-channel industry conversations I’ve had in the making of this magazine digressed into excitable chatter about foilsurfing. The affair with surfing foils is nothing short of infatuating, and the viral aspect of the foil contagion is just scratching the surface.

Ask anyone who was around during the pioneering days of kiteboarding; they’ve seen this exact phenomenon before.

There’s a ton of connections between kitesurfing and foilsurfing. Most importantly, while kiteboarding can’t claim to have invented the foil, the kite industry sure as hell innovated the technology around foils to the point where the equipment is now user-friendly, economical and far more fun than it used to be. If you look at the type of animal that has the imagination and foresight to get hooked on foilsurfing, it turns out these space monkeys have the same behavioral wiring that brought people to strap themselves to rudimentary kites circa 1998-2001.

In terms of contact high, the beginner stoke in both sports are off the charts and I believe this is the very underpinnings of why kitesurfing is still expanding rapidly as a sport today. Do you remember when your first kiteboarding sessions kept you up at night? It’s that druglike obsession that foil-heads are now reliving. Aside from sharing my own personal obsession, what I want to impress upon you is that the innovations that occurred in surf foils last year make this equipment a very important part of the waterman arsenal, regardless of age, size and skill level.

Moona Whyte James Boulding

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If you have the ability to fly a kite, you already have an immense leg up on the rest of the non-kiting world that now want in on the foilboard’s magic—it would be a shame to squander that gift. If you gave foiling a try a couple years ago and version 1.0 was less than compelling, it’s time to give it another try. Go big and go slow this time, but whatever you do, don’t be the last to tap in and turn onto the glide game.

Photo Svetlana Romantsova

crossovers after an addicting session in town. // Photo Savana Watts

NEWRE BETTRE FASTRE

RIDE ENGINE

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22 Portugal at Large

Jesse Richman meets one of the Atlantic’s biggest swells in Nazaré. While the tow-in component of big wave surfing on a kite is fairly straightforward, making a three-story tall section and finding the exit is where the biggest problems can occur.

28 Les Baguettes

In the land of cheese, bread and good wine, all-American athlete Brandon Scheid leads the European Liquid Force team through a series of kiteboarding faux pas in Leucate in order to strike photographic gold.

42 Wrath of the Wrap

The kite can be your best friend until it quickly becomes your worst enemy. Matt Elsasser recounts his harrowing tangle with kite lines in Maui, his road to recovery and ultimately, his redemption via the Indonesian barrel.

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F-One’s Waterman

Micka Fernandez is little known but always impressive.

As F-One’s head equipment tester, this small-framed powerhouse does just about every watersport at an athletic level that never ceases to amaze.

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The Paddo Factor

Mark Pattison is the head kite designer behind Airush’s long history of innovation. Bali-bound for half of the year, this unassuming Australian is chipping away at the divide between surfing and kiting while scoring some of the best surf the planet has to offer.

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Shaping Seasons

When three heads are better than one: Surfboard designer Sky Solbach recruits Brazilian Sebastian Ribeiro and local big wave legend Patri McLaughlin to spend the fall season in Maui rebooting North’s entire line of surfboards.

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From the Editor

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Frontside

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Profile:

Willow-River Tonkin Racking up an impressive barrel count . . .

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Profile:

Annelous Lammerts Spreading the parkstyle stoke . . .

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Exposed

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Method

Butter slide carves with Alex Fox.

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Wish List

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Atmosphere

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Warning of the November Witch.

Viewpoint

Kai Lenny’s vision for the future of foilsurfing.

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Roots

Before IKO or PASA, kiting had Hung Vu.

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Parting Shot

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On the Cover

Toby Bromwich snags a photo of

the starting line at the 2017 Formula

Kite World Championships at Oman Sail. Thoroughly captivated by the technique, strategy and intensity of

racing, Toby aimed to get as close

to the action without becoming an obstacle in the course.

Marina Chang, Publisher marina@thekiteboarder.com Marina Chang, Publisher Brendan Richards, Editor in Chief marina@thekiteboarder.com brendan@thekiteboarder.com Brendan Richards, Editor in Chief India Stephenson, Designer/Editor brendan@thekiteboarder.com india@thekiteboarder.com India Stephenson, Designer/Editor Alexis Rovira, Baby Daddy india@thekiteboarder.com alexis@thekiteboarder.com Seth Warren, Senior Contributor Seth Warren, Senior Contributor elementsmixedmedia@gmail.com elementsmixedmedia@gmail.com Alexis Rovira, Editor at Large Gary Martin, Tkb Ambassador alexis@thekiteboarder.com gary@thekiteboarder.com Gary Martin, Tkb Ambassador gary@thekiteboarder.com CONTRIBUTORS Noah Poritz, Peter Aschwanden, Reed Brady, Mike Attolico CONTRIBUTORS Brandon Scheid, Matt Elsasser, Alex Fox, Joe Winowski, PHOTOGRAPHERS Shea Gibson, Kai Lenny, Rick Iossi Stu Gibson, Andre Magaro, Toby Bromwich, Eleven Experience, Suave, Will Taggart, Lance Koudele, Morgan Wertz, Loic Guillou, Uchar/Getty PHOTOGRAPHERS Images, Peter Aschwanden, Richard Hallman, Ben Thouad, Quincy Dein, Toby Bromwich, Stu Gibson, Andre Magarao, Ydwer Van der Heide, Vincent Seth Warren, Bianca Asher, Expedite Robinson, Oleg Kornilov, Bergeron, James Boulding, Jason Wolcott, Brendan Richards, Rob Kidnie, Ydwer.com, Vincent Bergeron, Adam Lapierre, Robin Christol, Jen Jones, Taylor Holl, Willy Hardon, Gilles Calvet, Svetlana Romantsova, Jeff Kraemer, Bernard Biancotto, Willy Hadorn, Jordan Colin, Danielle Ballensky Tom Ott, Quincy Dein, Tracy Leboe, Richard Hallman Visit us on: Visit us at: thekiteboarder.com • thekiteboarderschool.com thekiteboarder.com twitter.com/the_kiteboarder • facebook.com/thekiteboardermagazine twitter.com/the_kiteboarder • facebook.com/thekiteboardermagazine ADMINISTRATIVE/ADVERTISING OFFICE ADMINISTRATIVE/ADVERTISING OFFICE 1356 16th Street, Los Osos, CA 93402 1356 16th Street, Los Osos, CA 93402 805.459.2373 805.459.2373 SUBSCRIPTIONS SUBSCRIPTIONS orders@thekiteboarder.com • store.thekiteboarder.com | 805.459.2373 orders@thekiteboarder.com • store.thekiteboarder.com | 805.459.2373 Have you got an idea for an article you would like to see Have you got an idea for an article you would like to see in The Kiteboarder Magazine? Send your submission to: in The Kiteboarder Magazine? Send your submission to: editor@thekiteboarder.com editor@thekiteboarder.com © 2017 Boardsports Media LLC. All rights reserved. © 2017 Boardsports Media LLC. All rights reserved.

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FRONTSIDE

The tranquil repose of this foilboard racer is incredibly deceiving. With breakneck speeds and fierce competitive battles for the world title, the action at the Formula Kite World Championships in Oman was anything but calm. // Photo Toby Bromwich

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FRONTSIDE

Against the backdrop of an endless horizon of Fijian blue, Rory Chapman, SUP, surf and kite coach on BWSurf Kite Weeks catches a moment to himself with this casual backside hack in Namotu. // Photo Stu Gibson

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FRONTSIDE

Comfortable in his home state, Brazilian impresario Carlos ‘Bebe’ Mario demonstrates classic style with this unhooked tail grab at the 2018 Slingshot photoshoot. // Photo Andre Magarao

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Portugal Chasing bombs on Costa de Prata

Words by Brendan Richards | Photos by Ydwer Van der Heide

At Large

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Photographer Ydwer Van der Heide just happened to be on vacation in Portugal when one of the largest swells of the winter landed.

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At

Jaws when things go wrong there’s typically a contingency plan for everything, but as Jesse Richman judiciously warns about the massive wave at Nazaré, “If you end up in the wrong spot you might not make it out.” Inspired to kitesurf the wave if ever everything lined up, Jesse booked a last minute ticket from his home in Maui to meet the swell of the season as it converged on this tiny port town in Portugal. Watching from the long sandy beach to the north of the iconic Nazaré lighthouse, Jesse eyed a monster set jack up in the distance. He had arrived just in time for one of the largest swells to hit the newly discovered icon of big wave surfing since Garrett McNamara dropped in on his 100-foot record setting wave.

Jesse’s first impression was anything but welcoming. The massive peak unloaded uncomfortably close to the lighthouse with a heaving mass of leftover whitewater imploding on the inside rocks, sending water hundreds of feet into the air. During Jesse’s first morning in Nazaré he’d witnessed one of the most spectacular collisions of water and land he’d ever seen. Jesse had lined up a Nazaré-based tow team as his safety if anything were to go wrong, and the idea was to spend the morning studying the wave and the logistics with his team—yet at that exact moment, he watched UK surfer Andrew Cotton tow-in on a mid-sized left, only to get a fierce pounding by the wave’s monolithic lip.

You can watch the backbreaking wave online; Cotton’s crash has been nominated as an entry for the WSL Big Wave Wipeout of the Year.

When the lip explodes on Andrew’s head, it ejects him 20 feet into the air before his limp body comes cratering back into the flat face of the wave. By all appearances, it was a savage wipeout followed by a chaotic rescue; as the motionless body washed in towards the beach, it was clear to Jesse that something was seriously wrong with Cotton. A small group congregated around the injured surfer. Meanwhile, Jesse and his safety team, Glyn Ovens and Toby Cunningham, eyed one of the abandoned rescue skis that had been swallowed by a set and was now rag-dolling in the shore pound. They wrestled the rigid safety sled attached to the back and used the foam sled as a backboard to transport Andrew to emergency responders.

If watching a professional surfer break his back on a smaller sized wave wasn’t enough of a warning signal, Jesse noticed an eerie difference between Nazaré and Jaws, the big wave he had mastered in his backyard.

It was mid-morning and there were 15 skis in the water with a solid roster of tow teams taking turns, but what stood out as Jesse watched was how selective each team was with their wave choice. Back home at Jaws, when a set lines up—even the biggest bombs—surfers attempt to drop into anything and everything. Yet here in Portugal, everyone seemed to be taking their time and choosing wisely. As Jesse’s safety team walked him through the setup, it became clear that the wave at Nazaré was a complex and dynamic animal that could paint you into a corner you can’t get out of and leave you there to die.

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Much like his early days at Jaws, Jesse begins to experiment with deeper lines down the face of Nazaré.

It was 10am at Nazaré and the forecast was holding true. Jesse watched as the wind line on the horizon moved in closer and started to blow the tops off the mountains rolling onto the reef. While Jesse admittedly had second thoughts when he booked his flight, standing on the beach at Praia do Norte he wasn’t the least bit nervous. As he covered the final details with his media and safety team, it was blowing 25-30 knots and the setup seemed ripe for a clean launch off the beach. The first tack out was curiously easy and the first wave was a smaller one—a testing of the waters—and from start to finish, the initial drop was predictable with an easy exit. Jesse noted to himself how the water seemed to move so much faster at Nazare compared to Jaws and at the same time the wave somehow felt significantly taller, but Jesse still wasn’t nervous, at least until he caught his second wave. If the launch off the beach and his first wave put Jesse at ease, it was his second wave that turned everything upside down. The wave jacked up beyond what Jesse anticipated and before he could put it all together, his board left the face of the wave and his kite was viciously ripping him out of the back through a thick throaty mass of whitewater. This was the wake up call, “the shock to the system.”

Jesse came to the quick realization that at Nazaré, everything “pushes you to the one place you don’t want to go.” Stitching his preconceptions of the wave from land together with his wave selection on the water, Jesse concluded that there was nothing to read: “Every wave was different, breaking in a different spot, without any repetition or patterns.” Words of advice from his tow-in 28

safety team bounced around in Jesse’s head. Key rules of thumb like “Find the peaks and drop in, but not too deep because you want to exit onto the shoulder” and “stay away from the waves that jack up as a big wall—these are the closeouts that will kill you.” Nazaré has a deep-water trench at its base so there’s a ton of water moving, all in different directions. Some waves have 5-foot chop moving through the face and side swells often ripple through the mountain of water so that maintaining a rail was anything but easy.

As the day went on, Jesse began to piece the puzzle together. He learned to kick out early and drag race to the outside before the next set wave could form and pin him to the inside. It was like his first Jaws sessions: He’d take a bad wave and end up bailing, but in that beating he learned a little lesson and knew where to setup for the next time.

At first, the only thing Jesse wanted was to get the shot; perhaps it was that small survivalist voice in his head pushing the self-preservation instinct to claim a quick victory and exit out the side-door hoping to never come back again. But with each additional wave, Nazaré took a hold of Jesse and he wanted more—he wanted the heaving barrel. The following day the swell dropped and Jesse resigned his ambitions to the fact that getting a Nazaré barrel on a kite might just be an endeavor that could take years, if not decades. After surviving the Portuguese monster, Jesse is now on the small list of athletes watching the Nazaré forecast for the perfect alignment of wind and massive swell, prepared to book tickets at the drop of the hat for the chance to ride the kite barrel of a lifetime.

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Kohl Christensen scouts newly formed river mouth sandbars in the Pacific Northwest.

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Les Baguettes WORDS BY BRANDON SCHEID | Photos Vincent Bergeron

A Photo Story from the south of france

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I’ve always traveled with the idea that it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission.

The sound of sparring cross-Atlantic French dialects in full verbal conflict echoes across an otherwise flat water paradise. Even the famed howling gusts of Leucate’s devil wind can’t drown out the escalating conflict between a rather insistent local park ranger and my French Canadian photographer.

I don’t understand a word they’re saying, which makes managing this photoshoot a bit more difficult than expected. My interpreter, professional photographer and close friend, Vinny Bergeron, takes a sidestep from the heated exchange to assure me everything is just fine—part lie and part casual understatement of the situation; I can tell because the man in the official looking uniform is pulling out his phone and seems to be threatening to call in reinforcements, but it’s hard to really know which way it is going because this American can’t read angry Frenchmen.

I’ve always traveled with the idea that ‘it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission,’ so there we were shooting photos of our Liquid Force team in a prohibited saltwater lagoon without anyone’s stamp of approval.

The Leucate region of France is dotted with these lagoons, yet on the first day of our shoot, this was the only one near our campground that wasn’t packed full of kiteboarders; a key concern for photoshoot purposes. Ever see a car commercial with other cars darting around in the background?

Of course not, the frame is always an empty roadway, often scenic or coastal, but curiously devoid of other cars. Who likes traffic? Not me. We shoot marketing campaigns around the same concept; we shoot for the scenery, and as much as we are focusing on an athlete or our products, we are shooting that empty dream session that plays out in every kiteboarder’s head.

TOP LEFT: All-American kiteboarder and author, Brandon Scheid, steers the photoshoot ship through the shallow waters of Leucate to get the goods. TOP RIGHT: The LFK crew appreciates the French approach to a vacation. MIDDLE LEFT: After a morning shoot, Christophe Tack and his girlfriend share a romantic crepe in Gruissan while photographer Vince sings about love and curates cheesy Lady and the Tramp photos. MIDDLE RIGHT: Helena Brochocka learned a great deal about shooting with the LFK team: where to ride, what tricks look good and the importance of a hard work ethic. According to Brandon the demands of Vincent Bergeron are quite high and he’s not afraid to tell you when you’re riding is crap. BOTTOM: Taking a break from serious photoshooting, the team practices some synchronized grab routines.

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If anyone knows anything about Leucate, it’s typically associated with the legendary Tramontane.

The altercation in the lagoon next to Le Palme resolved itself rather quickly when the mayor got on the phone and pardoned our sins, so long as we promised to pack it up and move on. With our first photo session in the can and forgiveness in our back pocket we proceeded to the next location with a solid grasp on how to bend the rules of the road. The truth is that when I planned our European photoshoot, I wanted a location that worked in the early spring, one that our top European riders could easily get to and my good friend Aymeric Martin, a new addition to the LFK team, had nothing but great things to say about this part of his country. The decision was a little controversial because if you ask any of the professional freestyle riders they will tell you that Leucate sucks, but their only frame of reference comes from the annual World Tour stop held in La Franqui. That beach is known for its extremely strong and gusty winds and is anything but the ideal spot for progressive unhooked maneuvers. As I poured over Google Earth images looking for other kite locations in the area, it was easy to see that the region’s endless lagoons held a ton of potential and I had a strange feeling that there was something special to be found in this spot.

If anyone knows anything about Leucate, it’s typically associated with the legendary Tramontane, a strong, cold, dry wind generated by pressure differences between the high pressure nestled over the North Atlantic and the low pressure over the Mediterranean. This airflow is channeled as it passes between the Pyrenees Mountains to the south and the high plateau of southern France’s Massif Central to the north. As the wind venturis through a large valley, the northwesterly accelerates past endless bucolic farmsteads before reaching the edge of the Mediterranean in Leucate. 40knot days are the norm and the wind has a notorious reputation for driving people mad with its strength and consistency, so much so that entire forests of pine trees are coerced to grow at an angle.

Just outside Gruissan, this fortress in the background was built in the 20th century for the purpose of guarding the entrance to the lagoon from seaborne invasions.

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We swiftly learned that our American work ethic and 24/7 expectations were completely out of place in this small French town.

The Tramontane did not disappoint. We scored a number of sessions right off the bat; sometimes the wind was great and other times it was shit. We were chasing beautiful scenery that often came with gusty offshore wind, but despite the conditions, we were getting the shots we needed. Try as I might to convince you about the hardships of photoshoot junkets—long hours, demanding photographers and mind-numbing trick repetition—by far the biggest challenge we encountered was finding food after a long day of work. We quickly learned about Leucate’s Spanish-style siesta; all shops and restaurants closed at 4pm and to our surprise, never opened back up again. We promptly wised up to the Leucate way of life—each day starts early in the morning, where the locals gather in the city center around cafés and small scale markets—this is when and where we’d secure all the food we’d need for the rest of the day.

We swiftly learned that our American work ethic and 24/7 expectations were completely out of place in this small French town. Each morning we’d watch the same locals saunter through the markets, bakeries and markets and then congregate at the cafés for cappuccino; from what we could tell, villages such as these were small thriving communities with their social lives centered around the daily procurement of food. The transactional convenience of fast food and all-hours supermarkets just didn’t exist; if the bakery sold out of chocolate croissants and fruit gallettes, they didn’t bake more, they would just close shop for the day. The businesses of this French hamlet seemed universally rooted in the ethos of making only the money you need, yet I’d be lying if I didn’t say these quaint commercial practices royally sucked for our grinding work schedule. We started our days early and stocked up with enough baguettes, ham and cheese to last us all day. Vinny always walked around with at least two bottles of red wine tucked under his arm—he couldn’t stop raving about the pittance that a good bottle cost and it made sense; we were surrounded by vineyards.

TOP LEFT: Brandon Scheid has a knack for finding the most creative or overlooked aspect of a location; in this case, a farmer’s beachside stables overrun with extra deep spring runoff made for a unique fence stall opportunity. TOP RIGHT: Christophe Tack enjoying an evening session in a private lagoon in Barcares to the south of Leucate. BOTTOM: George Dufty was on fire this session, sending some massive loops to take home the flying meat trophy that day.

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the differences between French and French-Canadian dialects are enough to play the ignorant tourist card.

In between protected nature reserves, fishermen, boats and windsurfers, it was often hard to find an off the beaten path slick for photoshoots. Leucate has been a renowned windsports location for years, and many of the spots have already been spoken for by windsurfers. As the last group to the table, the common assumption is that kiteboarders are left with the scraps, however, I was blown away by how many spots there were, even if half of them were off limits due to birds or windsurfers. Many of the spots we rode were anything but table scraps, rather they were locations that I would dare to label world class.

We ventured down to the next town south of Leucate where we found the ideal backdrop, but the main kiteboarding spot was far too busy to set up shop. With a bit of skillful recon we found an empty lagoon and went to work. About an hour into our shoot an exasperated Frenchman rolled up and began waving his arms violently to get our attention.

Once again, we sent Vinny to talk the tango. His French-Canadian approach was perfect because the similarities allowed for fairly solid comprehension, yet the differences between French and French-Canadian dialects are enough to play the ignorant tourist card. Again, the guy was screaming at Vinny, yet Vinny calmly translated to us, “Our new friend is so pleased to share his spot with us.” Hip to Vinny’s bullshit, Julien pulled me aside and explained that we were kiteboarding in a lagoon that belonged to a private kiteboarding club. In order to avoid the overpopulated and hectic main spot, a group of kiters had purchased a private lagoon in order to kite in relative peace. The heated standoff continued and we quickly learned that our mountain of camera gear wasn’t helping our cause. The club member didn’t want the images of his private spot pumped throughout the world.

Eventually everyone calmed down and because none of the other private club members were present, we were permitted to finish our session. With a full blessing, our new friend watched the shoot for 20 minutes before leaving as Vinny barked orders at us and photographed the team until well past sunset.

This lagoon is connected by a channel to the private kite club in Barcares. Brandon eyed the leaning concrete channel markers from a distance and since Vinny is a great walker, it took him about 20 minutes to hike to a place to make this angle work. According to Brandon, “Oftentimes I ride back to Vince and tell him of a perfect shot sometimes miles away, and he happily goes ‘by walk’ to achieve gold.”

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Somehow I can’t escape the feeling that our team barely scratched the surface.

In retrospect, I could have chosen Tarifa for its consistent wind and known locations, but the ample flat water and beautiful backdrops of southern France presented a far greater adventure. I’ve never ridden such a variety of amazing spots with such incredible weather, and somehow I can’t escape the feeling that our team barely scratched the surface. UK rider George Dufty has been coming to Leucate for several years for various competitions and yet at the end of every day, he was awestruck by the spots we kept finding; “Who knew Leucate was this good!?” he would say. Photoshoots are often a gamble between the safety of what is known and the risk of coming up empty in the pursuit of exploration and adventure. Every aspect of Leucate from the culture to the scenery and the actual riding left me with a sense of wonder about the experience that remains to be discovered in the south of France.

TOP: Just outside of Le Palme and off limits; this spot is dead offshore, perfectly flat and uncrowded—Brandon and friends quickly found out why. MIDDLE LEFT: This is Jan Schiegnitz, the kind of guy that goes all out for everything. Long sessions, big jumps and a zest for life, while the rest of the team rocked full suits, Jan sported a cutoff wetsuit to make the shots look much warmer than they were. MIDDLE RIGHT: French hat party.

BOTTOM LEFT: Julien Fillion is not only LFK’s kite designer but an incredible athlete.

According to Brandon, “It’s always impressive to watch Julien ride; he has a unique style and always produces amazing images.” BOTTOM RIGHT: On the lamb, the group reconvenes in the public riding area after being kicked out of the restricted pond in Le Palme. With a little exploration the team found this amazing flat water section completely empty. At the far end they discovered a speed strip where they took turns ripping down the narrow channel at mach speed.

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NP SU

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URF

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When I was 13 years old I vividly remember a kiter telling me about avoiding the ‘sushi wrap’ while kiting in waves. I’m not sure if he made that term up, but I didn’t have to ask many questions to understand that this was a situation I wanted no part of.

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Photo James Boulding

Words by Matt Elsasser

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A

s a sales rep and pro kitesurfer, I’m constantly telling beginners and onlookers that kiting is safe these days and that the ridiculous kitemares you’ve heard about are a thing of the past.

For the most part that’s true; our gear is so safe that riding back and forth takes less effort than mowing an actual lawn. However, with the advancement of high depower surf kites, we are able to push our boundaries further into areas where the best wave of your life can also deliver the biggest punishment you’ve ever experienced.

Over the years I’ve traveled back and forth to Indonesia and on those trips I’ve encountered gusty launches, nasty terrain and dangerous waves—the kind of textbook scenarios that even the most clueless beginner would avoid; yet access to the perfect wave requires some risk taking and necessitates a bit of overconfidence.

I never really blinked an eye in many of these sketchy encounters until the unthinkable happened last December, far from the jagged, shallow reefs of Indo, in the far more forgiving waters of my home in Maui.

Christmas day on Maui is famous for Santa’s swell deliveries. Last year was no exception and as with tradition, I spent the morning exchanging gifts with my family, but my dad and our friends Tal, Kai and Cole, had ours eyes on the bigger presents in the backyard—20 knots of trade winds and a solid double overhead swell on the outer reef was on tap. While Baldwin reef was closing out, Spartan reef was as good as it gets. Slicing around on these giant mounds of water had me imagining how gnarly it would be to take a tumble in the impact zone.

About 15 minutes after that thought had all but slipped from my mind, I lined myself up deep on the biggest set wave I had encountered that day. There are two peaks at Spartan reef and when it’s really good they can link together and barrel through a hollow section on the second peak. This particular wave was drawing off the bottom in a way that seemed to promise a barrel section. In anticipation, I bottom turned slightly higher on the face of the wave than I usually would, but the backdoor didn’t open into the heaving barrel I expected. Instead, the lip flattened out and threatened to freight train me straight to the bottom.

Quickly, I tried to adjust, setting my rail around the section, but in that moment of instability, I hit a small piece of chop which at speed, was similar to hitting the kind of overbuilt speed bump you’d find on the dusty backroads of an Indonesian surf village. Before I knew it, the jarring impact ejected me forward over the nose of my board. Airborne and out of control, I cartwheeled into my slacked lines, and in that disorientated moment, I could feel them loosely wrap around my body. With my bar pinned to my waist, I had no control of my kite and as the leading edge landed in the water, the monster closeout I was running from imploded on my kite—that was when the Grinch took control of my Christmas session.

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Matt Elsasser tucking into a solid bluewater slab in Maui. The physical reality of barrel riding is strife with the unknown; with no view of your kite and your all important control lines disappearing into a heaving lip, the outcome is anything but certain. // Photo James Boulding

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The kite canopy loaded up with the wave’s tumultuous whitewater; the same energy which a moment earlier I had hoped to weave into a barrel shot was now violently tugging on the lines wrapped around my body. My kite began pulling me backwards by my leg, yet I wasn’t aware of the wave’s sheer pulling speed until my wetsuit top was violently yanked over my head like a jersey in a hockey fight. My hands were locked over my head, leaving me vulnerable for the beating I was about to receive. My first response was to try to swim to the surface, but I was still entrenched in the power of the wave. Wrapped in a dynema/neoprene straightjacket, I felt like a speeding torpedo, submerged long enough for my mind to ponder the outcomes: Was I more likely to lose my leg or just black out and drown?

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In an urge to avoid both possibilities, my natural response was to conserve energy, shelve the urge to panic and place myself into limp mode. I turned everything off and just let myself go for the ride. After what seemed like an eternity under the forceful grip of the wave, I finally breached the surface. Panicking, I felt for my leg. Still there.

In total, I had been hogtied and dragged about 100 yards, all the way to the inside of Spartan reef. With the help of friends, I got back to the beach and sprawled my agonizing legs in the bed of Kai Lenny’s truck. Although they hadn’t completely cut through my skin, the tight cinching of the lines around my leg ended up severely tearing my

"I felt like a speeding torpedo, submerged long enough for my mind to ponder the outcomes: Was I more likely to lose my leg or just black out and drown?" calf muscle. I spent the next month bed-stricken except for the necessary trips to the physical therapist’s office. Slowly, I improved my mobility, but it would be at least three months before I returned to kiting.

When my calf muscle had finally healed, I was lucky enough to have a work schedule that took me to places far from the calling of any wave of consequence. I spent the rest of the winter in Baja and then played out the spring and summer in California, Oregon and Europe. Physically, this break allowed me to recuperate, but also in some sense, mentally, it allowed me to sweep the incident under the rug, at least until the late summer Indo kitesurfing season came calling.

LEFT: When all goes wrong, line tension and a violent trip through the back of the wave is far preferable to a slack-lined yard sale out front. // Photo James Boulding RIGHT: It's hard to know which is worst: the eerily clean laceration threatening to carve some fresh meat off the stick, or the thorough black and blue trauma that goes with a sushi wrap.

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It was a full nine months after the accident when I found myself, surfboard bag in hand, on the tarmac in Denpasar, Bali. I would be lying if I said the accident wasn’t playing in the back of my mind.

Perhaps the biggest doubt was not about whether it would happen again, but how I would approach the logistics of a severe kitesurfing injury in a far-flung paradise. If I had to choose the location for a life-threatening injury, Maui, with its quick access to transportation, medical care and near proximity of friends and family, is probably as good as it gets. If a similar injury happened in Indo, it would require a 45-hour emergency travel mission; a two-hour drive, five flights and an hour drive home from the airport, along with the possibility of infection, poor logistics and variable medical care. Back in Maui I had experienced a massive hematoma and alarming swelling in my leg. The main concern at the time was whether a blood clot would have formed—and traveling under that type of circumstance presents an even larger risk. If something similar were to happen in Bali, I would have to weigh the hazards of travel against the inconvenience of waiting out a recovery on an island in Southeast Asia.

Looking back on it, those 30-40 seconds in the underwater sushi wrap from hell was hands down the scariest moment of my life.

A near miss will make you seriously think about all of the whatifs like the thought of not being able to surf again along with the many other activities removed from my list. Maybe the worst side effect is the mental space that surrounds a close escape from death or disfigurement, specifically, the seed of doubt that gets planted and constantly grows in your mind. Yet, in a discipline like barrel riding, there’s no room for doubt, hesitation or second guessing.

TOP LEFT: Elsasser back in Indo relishing in the safety of a backside cutback out on the shoulder. // Photo Jason Wolcott ABOVE LEFT: Massive frontside aerials present their own risks, but when it comes to danger it's the green room that takes the cake. // Photo Jason Wolcott RIGHT: Elsasser stuffing himself once again into a mid-sized barrel and grabbing rail as the lines go limp in the fluid medium of this hydraulic Indo machine. // Photo Jason Wolcott

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Professional kitesurfers travel to Indonesia because it offers light wind and hollow waves; this setup offers the ultimate chance for barrels, but also the perfect recipe for an Indonesian wrap job. You could say traveling to Indo was a figurative face-off with the threat of getting tangled once again in my lines, and while I wouldn’t call it a fear, it was a situation I now had a higher resolve to avoid. Drinking Bintangs while watching waves riffle through Uluwatu, I focused on the mechanical details of riding barrels that I had learned over the years. I reasoned that if I paid closer attention to my approach along with the mechanics of the wave that I could avoid a remote catastrophe.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, you must be completely committed to your line on the wave, and the easiest way to start this process is by studying the wave you’re kiting. I’ve learned to watch the waves, taking note of which waves throw out, clamp down or refuse to even barrel. By studying what these waves look like before they break, I’m able to approach a barrel with somewhat of a feel for how my wave will unfold. Most importantly, I try not to force a barrel on a wave that will likely closeout and inevitably line up a dangerous outcome before I’ve even dropped in. I’ve found that having confidence in your wave selection is the first mental trick to charging barrels with no hesitation.

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Risk and safety in barrel riding may be as much about location as it is about skill. Back in the game nine months after the accident, Elsasser re-enters a hollow speed section. // Photo Rob Kidnie

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"those 30­-­­40 seconds in the underwater sushi wrap from hell was hands down the scariest moment of my life."

Once you’ve lined up a solid wave, it’s important to keep the kite powered up as you enter the tube. If the wind is light I might loop the kite just as the lip is beginning to throw; this helps to position your kite low and with a ton of power before you enter the barrel. Ideally, you want the kite low enough where the lip will have minimal interference with the lines. However, if and when you get swallowed up inside the green room, I wouldn’t be afraid to whip my kite up to 12 o’clock or even farther out the back to maintain tension in the lines throughout the beating. This often pulls your entire body violently out the back of the wave, and most importantly, as far away from a sushi-wrap situation as possible.

In returning to Indonesia and barrel riding itself, I’ve taken the positive out of my Maui accident. Surviving that event without any major life changing injuries has allowed me to refocus on the art behind kitesurfing big, hollow waves. This year’s Indo mission proved that, and after only a few waves, I felt as comfortable as ever in a heaving lineup. On one hand, I rediscovered my confidence to charge big waves, but on the other, with a better grasp of avoiding another serious injury, I now have a newfound appreciation and humbleness for the power of the wave and the dangers of kite lines.

The lure is strong and with newfound confidence Matt Elsasser charges into the barreling future. // Photo Jason Wolcott

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Not your typical flat-footed 18-year-old. Willow-River Tonkin dropping in on One Eye with charismatic flair. With a full ride in his back pocket and recently garnering a 5th place finish at his first GKA kitesurf comp, this Mauritius-based South African is just starting his roll. // Words by Brendan Richards | Photo Taylor Holl

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PROFILED

WILLOW-RIVER TONKIN Tamarin, Mauritius

Racking up an impressive barrel count The conversation starts with questions about a secret kitesurfing wave rumored to exist on the north side of his home island. Having surfed Mauritius for the past eight years, and kitesurfed it for four, a young and sprightly Willow-River Tonkin spills the beans, “Yep, it’s opposite tack. It’s small most days and super far out, sketchy if you don’t have a boat, but on the right swell, the wave is perfect, it’s crazy.”

The unbridled energy of an 18-year-old in mid-stride of a professional kitesurfing career with a home base in the middle of the Indian Ocean at one of kitesurfing’s most iconic breaks is overwhelmingly infectious. Every word is soaked with stoke and authenticity—it’s the sort of beginner high that never faded and extended clear into the advanced stages of sponsored athlete. Fueled by the constant pull of athletic progression, Willow’s got a steady supply of crisp new equipment and a stack of plane tickets to keep the kitesurfing backdrop both awe inspiring and full of change.

The son of a private school headmaster, Willow was born in South Africa, but a teaching gig put the family in Taiwan for his formative years before laying roots on the island of Mauritius. Immersion into a world surrounded by surf was immediate, but it wasn’t until four years ago that his friend and nextdoor neighbor, Taylor Holl, introduced him to the art of kitesurfing. The progression was quick for Willow; only six months in and his first quiver was ripped to shreds by youthful experimentation and the powerful destruction of a drug called kiteloops. As fate would have it, on the sandy beach at Le Morne, Willow met Thomas Burblies from Core Kites. The connection was immediate and with a bit of initiative on Willow’s part, he landed a coveted spot on the Core International team, a post he’s now held for three years.

With little background in competition, this year Willow signed

up for the final GKA tour stop when it landed in Mauritius. He had been expecting a strapless freestyle event, but when it turned out to be a wave comp, the home court advantage played out of his back pocket. To his own surprise, Willow placed fifth in his first event, kiting on the same stage with his heroes Matchu and Airton.

Despite this success, living in the limelight as a sponsored athlete isn’t always easy. This past year Willow landed two European magazine cover shots, and while he was both surprised and stoked for the exposure, the hyper-critics of the kitesurfing internet unleashed an inordinate amount of criticism on both covers. While most of it was directed at the magazine’s photo selection, the critics harped on Willow’s position on the wave: it wasn’t deep enough, legitimate, or just plain ‘proper’ for a surf cover, they babbled. With all his friends up in arms, Willow took the criticism in stride and stayed positive. If the episode unsettled the young man at all, it was the sad realization of how much time people waste on posting comments to the internet. “I’m spending my time here in Mauritius getting barreled out of my mind, and they’re typing negative comments on a keyboard somewhere,” he laughed, “I just want to have fun and share kitesurfing with my friends on the water.”

If anything, Willow is far too busy to pay attention to what happens outside of his all engrossing kitesurfing schedule. Last year, he spent four months on the road with Core and this year he’s started a film company with good friend and fellow kitesurfer, Taylor Holl; the two just finished editing a video for Mercedes in Germany. Next stop is Durban, South Africa for a surf trip and then on to Cape Town for a month to train for the first GKA tour stop before spending the following two months in Cape Verde. While the rest of the world is keeping busy on Facebook, Willow is doing what most 18-year-olds aren’t—racking up an impressive barrel count and traveling the world.

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Annelous Lammerts is the textbook illustration of tenacity. If cycling 10-miles through winter-like conditions for a beginner kite session isn’t inspiring, climbing to the top of professional park riding in as short as only a few years is nothing less than miraculous. // Words

by India Stephenson | Photo by James Boulding

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PROFILED

ANNELOUS LAMMERTS Schuddebeurs, Netherlands

Spreading the parkstyle stoke The kiting season in the Netherlands is over. A light blanket of snow covers Brouwersdam Beach while an early winter wind whips off the North Sea and over the Zeeland province to the Netherlands’s most well-known kiteboarding beaches. There’s a few kites in the grey, boding sky, but it’s the faire of only those few tough enough to handle the bitter cold and willing to suit-up head to toe in 6mm neoprene. In the distance, there’s a diminutive figure approaching the beachpark by bicycle. The rhythmic squeaking of a hub is put to rest as a small girl rolls up towing a cart packed with kiteboarding gear.

For Annelous Lammerts, her two-wheeled 10-mile commute was just a small part of her daily after-school regime; with two working parents and a household full of siblings, securing a ride to the beach was rarely in the cards. Armed with a cart for her kite gear, day in and day out she would pack it to the brim and peddle down the cold, damp causeway to the beach to get her kite fix.

Watching Annelous’ perseverance each day as she peddled, gear in tow, past their beachfront kite club, the guys at Natural High, a local kite shop, offered Annelous a job which allowed her more time at the beach, a deeper involvement in the industry and a courtesy hour in between shifts to kite.

After high school Annelous took a gap year and spent four months in Brazil focusing on freestyle. As with most athletes who go to Brazil to train, Annelous’ level skyrocketed and she began to think about competing on the European stage. Stationed back in the Netherlands, in her first year of competition she earned the title of 2012 European Champion and then hopped on the PKRA tour. Battling with the likes of Gisela Pulido, Karolina Winkowska and Bruna Kajiya, Annelous kept a steady 4th place on the tour until the state of freestyle competition came crashing down with the demise of the PKRA. Freestyle is a challenging discipline for progression, particularly

without an organized tour and regular stops. Faced with a plateau, Annelous shifted gears, swapping flat water freestyle for the relatively new niche of park riding. Motivated by the new discipline which afforded her increased growth and development, Annelous dove head first into training with her boyfriend and avid wakeboarder, Alex Maes. Traveling with Alex, her Cabrinha teammate, Annelous progressed quickly, training hard at cable parks and then putting it all together with a kite in Brazil where she also filmed her first Triple-S Wildcard Entry Video. “It’s not as intimidating as you think it is,” Annelous explains of riding sliders. She urges those who want to learn parkstyle to hit the kickers as in her opinion, it’s easier than doing air tricks.

With her energy focused on parkstyle riding, Annelous joined the Kite Park League in 2016 and competed at the world’s best kite parks in the Philippines, UK, Hatteras and Hood River. Rising to the top, Annelous claimed the KPL tour title in 2017 with a 2nd at the Triple-S and first places finishes in the Philippines and UK. With the season over, she’s back training at the Kite Mansion in Brazil and working with her boyfriend and some Portuguese speaking friends from Belgium to establish Brazil’s first public slider park. “There’s two rails and a kicker already in place but the goal is to have people come here and have their first experience with park riding,” she explains.

In the off-season Annelous and her boyfriend host clinics to help others build basic skills; from riding upwind to learning handlepasses, she’s happiest when she’s teaching younger kids.

“They share the same stoke as when we started,” she said, inspired by their fast progression and lack of fear.

While park riding has long been a North American stronghold, this year she’s focused on beating out her American competition and taking the Triple-S title, but until the KPL season kicks off again, Annelous is busy, training and spreading the parkstyle stoke to riders of all ages and skill levels.

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F-one ’s Waterman

By India Stephenson

Photo Brendan Richards

Micka Fernandez in pursuit of the endless session

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F

rom far out on a gently bending shoulder, water separates around the anodized mast of an F-One branded surf foil as the company’s chief tester, Micka Fernandez, lays into a high-speed arc on an open face before transitioning into a sweeping cutback under the heaving lip of a right facing point break. Dakhla’s Oum Lamboiur is peeling just overhead with perfectly groomed groundswell. Like hitting a line on a backcountry powder run, Micka initiates drawn out turns, banking against the gentle grade of the distant shoulder before accelerating back into the wave’s face for a high speed carve. Foiling almost a quarter mile down the line, his ride is seemingly endless, but when he finally reaches the distant shore pound, Micka quickly flips his board around and briskly paddles back out, eager to catch the next wave.

The picture is perfect, if you can see past the carnage of F-One’s dealer meeting crowding an otherwise empty lineup. All of various levels, an army of French shop owners are scattered on SUPs amongst the pristine point break while Micka hunts sets and skillfully glides through the battlefield of SUPs without any bloodshed, all the while testing F-One’s 1400cm prototyped wing. With razor-like reflex adjustments, Micka catches another wave; paddling the board just under the lip, he extends into a drop stance in the pit of a set wave before gently pumping the foil into surf-like flight.

The talent with which Micka plys F-One’s latest surf foil is one of many. Not only is Micka a master of the foil, he’s a remarkable specimen of the Gallic waterman. Earlier that morning on the higher tide, Micka’s weapon of choice alternated between a 5’4” Mitu Pro Carbon and the more classically surf-shaped F-One Signature. While both boards are designed for kitesurfing, Micka takes his job as lead equipment tester seriously, to such an extent that he’s proving that F-One’s kitesurf boards can be paddled prone, be it by a pro-caliber athlete. It’s tempting to describe the wiry yet lean and muscular Frenchman as a jack-of-all-trades, but that implies mediocrity across all channels and wouldn’t be giving this quiet powerhouse anywhere near the credit he deserves. Put simply, Micka rips on any board he takes to the water.

If it’s racing, Micka’s the guy on the foil, flying upwind at full-tilt and flat out at 30 knots. When SUPing, he’s the standout doing backside snaps in the pocket with machine-like repetition and bold, powerful finesse. If he’s kiteboarding, he’s combining a catlike 30-foot rotating deadman with a wide variety of unhooked handlepasses. And when surfing, he’s taking off deep, storming back doors and tucking down the throat of barrels the world over before the wind turns on and he’s charging down the line, ferociously attacking sections with the brute force that only surfing with kites can afford.

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LEFT: Micka on F-One’s surf foil in the midst of a mile-long cutback from the outer regions of a gently bending shoulder. // Photo Willy Hardorn TOP RIGHT: With a ferocious backside snap, Micka is exceptionally comfortable on a pint-sized 7’5” Madeiro SUP. // Photo Willy Hardorn CENTER RIGHT: Testing the Signature against the Mitu in prone surfing, Micka is constantly looking to experiment with equipment in a variety of conditions. // Photo Willy Hardorn BOTTOM RIGHT: Whether he’s maching upwind, throwing big air, or going for a light wind cruise, Micka can do virtually everything on a foil. // Photo Willy Hardorn

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“You never hear of him, but you put him on the water and he steals the show.”

You might not know Micka by name, but you’ve probably seen him quietly gracing F-One ads in the pages of printed magazines throughout the years. Even if you speak French, Micka is a man of few words; the marking of a true waterman, he lets his riding speak for itself. “You never hear of him, but you put him on the water and he steals the show,” says F-One founder, Raphael Salles. First on and last off, he can be the most tenacious athlete in the ocean, yet the humblest of human beings on land. In his current post as Raphael’s right-hand man, Micka is essential in the development of the Bandit, and as one of the key players in F-One’s research and development, has his feedback built into the entire product line. While his knowledge and talent has secured him tenure at F-One, Micka’s been involved since the beginning of kitesurfing, and has left his own footnote marks on the early progression of our sport.

Born in Leon, France to a military professor, Micka lived the French version of an army brat lifestyle that stationed his childhood on a series of French Polynesian islands. To his good favor, those islands were the same ones that lay claim to some of the world’s best surf breaks. First playing with waves on a bodyboard near a military base in Tahiti, Micka quickly learned to stand up on a board intended to be ridden on his belly—a proven sign of his innovative drive as an athlete and a sure indication that he was ready to graduate to a surfboard. As a child, Micka and his family followed his father from base to base, first from Tahiti to New Caledonia, then to Brittany and back to Tahiti where Micka added windsurfing, his father’s favorite pastime, to his assemblage of water skills.

As a teenager, Micka’s father stationed the family back in the South of France. Struggling to find motivation to windsurf without the swell of the South Pacific, Micka learned to kite. An early adopter, he was on a kite well before the Wipika arrived.

Taught by a friend, Micka’s first kite looked more like a rigid wing than an inflatable kite. Learning on a surfboard with straps, Micka dumped his kite in the water within the first 10 meters but that is all it took to become completely hooked. He rode that kite into the ground and replaced it with an inflatable/foil combo from Gun Sails. Even with the challenges of rudimentary equipment, Micka quickly progressed through the ranks of the early freestyle movement, and like many, became an instructor. In between teaching beginner lessons in Beauduc, France, he trained mornings and into the night, so when the KPWT came to Europe in the early 2000s, Micka was a natural wildcard competitor. With a progressive style influenced by wakestyle tricks coming out of Maui, in comparison to the other riders doing old-school, Micka was an immediate standout on the KPWT freestyle tour.

“We call it old-school now, but he was the world champion in 2004,” says F-One’s front man and R&D partner Raphael Salles.

“He was world champion but he had broken his ankle twice and it was already time for him to retire from his athletic career.” On the tour, Micka rode for RRD, but Raphael saw something in him. “I knew he was serious, and so I asked him if he would like to begin testing with myself and be part of the F-One team. He said yes in 2007 and he started just in time for our testing work on the first Bandit, so really, Micka started with a new era for F-One.”

TOP: The F-One crew spends quite a lot of time testing in Mauritius and Cabo Verde which means that Micka’s place of work is often somewhere with solid swell. // Photo Gilles Calvet BOTTOM LEFT: Micka arrived at F-One fresh off the freestyle tour and just in time to become an instrumental part of the team that brought the delta concept to kiteboarding. // Photo Gilles Calvet BOTTOM RIGHT: Conceivably one of the most versatile athletes in the industry, Micka puts on an impressive show across every kite discipline. // Photo Svetlana Romantsova

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11 years later, on the flat water of Dakhla’s lagoon, backdropped by the dry and rugged Moroccan desert, Raphael and Micka ride identical prototypes upwind, side-by-side in an almost machine-like formation. Historically, F-One designs and tests about 30 Bandit prototypes per year, but this season they’re ahead of schedule; it’s only October and they’re already on prototype number nine of the 9m Bandit. Raphael rides slightly upwind of Micka, watching and feeling, pointing high and checking the lowend and depower as they tack back and forth to the top of the lagoon. After testing together for over a decade, mind reading is inevitable, so without any notice, it’s a quick turn of the kite and they’re on their downwind tack. Riding within a few feet from one another, they’re jumping and kitelooping, checking for stability and turning speed while studying how fast the kite goes back up after the loop.

With a solid history as a competitor on tour and a comprehensive understanding of the various kiting disciplines, Micka’s abilities on the water are as diverse as humanly possible. Very few people in the world of kiteboarding can do authentic old-school tricks, ride wakestyle, perform technical strapless freestyle, surf a legitimate wave with a kite as well as boost lofty airstyle tricks on a foil and then maneuver it at high speeds around a race course. “He can do some unhooked style, old-school style, he can be the first on the water because he is super light and he can handle 50 knots—I don’t know how because he is so light,” Raphael chuckles, “You give him a surfboard—he rips, a SUP—he rips, a foil—he rips. It’s really impressive on how many disciplines that Micka can be at the top, really at the top.”

Back on the beach in front of Dakhla Kite Club with their kites at 12 o’clock, Raphael and Micka chat quietly amongst themselves as a crowd of curious shop owners in attendance for the F-One dealer meeting attempt to get an ear in. With simultaneous nods of their heads, they land their kites, put up another round of prototypes and head back to the water. R&D for kite companies comes in all shapes and sizes, and there are all sorts of ways to do testing, but few take it as seriously as Raphael, Micka and their kite designer, Robert Graham. When you ask Micka about the F-One office, he’ll shrug his shoulders and tell you his place of work is at the beach, and while F-One might be one of the few companies to employ a dedicated, full-time equipment tester, it also gives testimony to the brand’s marketing narrative which touts the extensive depth of prototyping they do each year. Watching the two initiate R&D runs on the water, it’s clear that at F-One, product testing is anything but lip service.

RIGHT: Micka and F-One owner, Raphael Salles, talk performance after an intensive kite testing session. Raphael likens Micka to a bulldog, “He will never give up.” // Photo Willy Hardorn

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“You give him a surfboard—he rips, a SUP—he rips, a foil—he rips.”

Critical to F-One’s R&D is the language they’ve created to test and provide feedback to their kite designer. “If the testing team is giving the wrong thing to the designer, the designer will go the wrong way. But after 11 years together, we have built up our process and we can test so many things in one day and give to Robert a precise result,” explains Raphael. The team has nailed down the exact criteria of the kite industry’s wavering terminology and their testing and communication methods generate an incredibly efficient result. After a weekend of vetting new versions, Raphel and Micka will have the results to their designer by Sunday evening so he can make adjustments that night, ship the files to the factory and have new prototypes for testing by the next Friday.

“A lot of the time I am trying to test with our riders,” says

Raphael, “yet not many of them like it. It’s not always fun to do testing—it’s a lot of work. You have to go upwind, come back, go back upwind and tune for hours.” While testing for a day or so might sound fun to the average kite fanatic, the day-in-day-out monotony of zigzagging up and downwind for hours on end is sure to feel laborious. But no one is more devoted to advancing F-One’s product development than Micka. With admiration, Raphael explains, “He will never stop until we reach our goal.

We have an objective and we go, no matter how many hours. We work weekends and if we need to test Christmas day, we go. I have a ‘souvenir’ from testing in the south of France in Gruissan in 2°C degrees, 40 knots and snow—completely alone.” he says laughingly. “So, it’s quite an important job and Micka likes it; he likes to really improve the product and he will never give up.”

“He will never stop until we reach our goal. We have an objective and we go, no matter how many hours.”

ABOVE: Laying into the peak at the top of the One Eye reef in Mauritius, Micka’s roots from an early childhood are deeply seated in the surf. // Photo Gilles Calvet

The sun has long set behind the lighthouse south of Oum Lamboiur and while the lack of light has long forced others out of the water, true to Micka’s steadfast demeanor, he remains in the lineup long after dark. Standing in twilight on a 7’5” Madeiro SUP with his small but solid frame barely discernable under lights off of the point, Micka continues to take off on head high sets, going for backside snaps in the pocket that look more like performance surfing rather than typical SUP faire. With only the incandescent glare of light from the West Point Resort reflecting off the dark water, Micka’s ride finally pulls up on the cliff. The 4x4 flashes its lights and Micka snags one last wave: two floaters and a late layback into the lip before dropping his knee for a quick cover up clear to the beach.

At this week’s dealer meeting, Micka has taken each and every piece of F-One gear through its paces, testing performance, durability and versatility. While F-One seems to have a point man for every discipline—Cabo Verdean Mitu Montiero handles the kitesurfing, Tahiti’s Poenaiki Raioha stars on SUP, Brazilian Set Teixeira dominates the freestyle tour and now South African, Twiggy Baker is iconizing F-One foilsurfing—Micka is the true waterman who does it all; a critical part of R&D since the company’s first successful run with the Bandit and integral to the brand’s product driven machinery, he’s the Renaissance man that can hang with any and all of these top-level athletes.

PKS Distribution - 361-883-1584 info@pksdistribution.com

Charming Hotels and Constant Winds.

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Tel: +55 11 5561 1016 surfinsemfim@egroup.net.br

We are ready to take you on the adventure of your life.

We offer the complete package for an unforgettable experience in the Northeast of Brazil. Your focus will only be sailing! Surfin Sem Fim is inspired by the nature around us. We combine beauty and challenge with respect and passion. Join us!

Guilly Brandão

Mitu Monteiro

Willow River

SSF Adventures Light Jeri - 40km Preá to Tatajuba Jul 29th - Aug 01st Aug / 15th - 18th Sep 30th - Oct 03rd Oct / 20th - 23rd Nov / 25th - 28th Delta Poldros - 270km Camocim to Atins Oct / 07th - 13th Nov / 11th - 17th Corner of Brazil - 270km São Miguel do Gostoso to Galinhos Jan / 13th - 20th Classic - 260km Cumbuco to Preá Jul / 15th - 20th Dec / 02nd - 07th Delta Experience - 200km Parnaíba to Atins Jul / 21st - 28th Oct / 20th - 27th

Andre Cintra

surfinsemfim

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Alex Neto

Delta Route - 340km Preá to Atins Aug / 19th - 25th Dec / 09th - 15th Iron Man - 600km With Reno Romeu Cumbuco to Atins Oct 28th - Nov 04th Ultra Man - 1000km With Sebastian Ribeiro São Miguel do Gostoso to Atins Aug 21th - Sep 02th

SSF Coachings Wave Riding Coaching with Guilly Brandão Ibiraquera - Brazil Jan / 15th - 16th Wave Riding & Strapless Freestyle Coaching Trip with Mitu Monteiro Cabo Verde - Africa Jan / 20th - 27th

Andre Penna

Marcela Witt

Sebastian Ribeiro

Wave Riding Coaching Trip with Guilly Brandão Matanza - Chile Feb / 10th - 17th Powerful Waves Coaching Trip with Guilly Brandão Oahu - Hawaii Mar / 09th - 16th Powerfull Skills Coaching Trip with Mallory de la Villemarqué St. Vicent - Caribbean Mar 26th - Apr 02nd Wave Riding Coaching Trip with Guilly Brandão Pacasmayo - Peru Apr 28th - May 05th May / 05th - 12th

Reno Romeu

Bowen Dwelle

Mallory de la Villemarqué

Foil Coaching with Andre Penna Rancho do Peixe - Preá Jun / 03rd - 06th Wave Riding Coaching trip with Willow River Mauritius - Africa Jun / 16th - 23th Snowkite Coaching Trip with Andre Cintra Corralco - Chile Jul / 21st - 28th Special Coaching - 200km with Guilly Brandão Cumbuco to Icaraízinho Aug / 5th - 11th

Required Experience: BEGINNER EASY INTERMEDIATE DIFFICULT ADVANCED

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EXPOSED

Ain’t no Indo, but it will do. California’s side-on is known for its consistency, but rarely delivers hollow Indo-like perfection.

Somewhere north of Santa Cruz, Coleman Buckley finds a slab worth investigating. // Photo Brendan Richards

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EXPOSED

This fall Jeff Kraemer worked his way down the California coast with his camera in the passenger seat. Somewhere south of Waddell Jeff caught up with Ian Alldredge gauging a mean cutback amidst a firey Central Coast sunset. // Photo Jeff Kraemer

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EXPOSED

This photographic evidence seems to suggest wintertime kiteboarding scenes are busier than ever. Caught mid-contortion in the Taiba lagoon, Alex Pastor remains a dominant force in the progressive freestyle movement. // Photo Andrew Magarao

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EXPOSED

At the intersection of Switzerland, Austria and the Italian border, Lake Reschensee is a scenic wonderland perched between mountains and on top of two submerged towns. // Photo Tom Ott

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Explore the furthest kitespot on Earth with just ONE BAG!

NHP CARBON SPLIT + EASY SPLITBOARD BAG

the ideal place for the next session when wandering along the beach. It holds the Split-type board, two kites, bars, pump, wetsuit, as well as you favourite T-shirts or

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METHOD

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BUTTER SLIDE CARVES PHOTOGRAPHER ANDRE MAGARAO | RIDER ALEX FOX

Throwing

water around is always fun, no matter what kind of

board you ride.

Each

one of us aspires to lay down a mean top

turn in the surf but if you live in a place void of a waves, the butter slide carve is an amazing substitute.

Whatever

you want

to call them, wheelies, carves or butter slides are one of the most fun and unique tricks you can do in kiteboarding.

They require less ‘confidence’ than more advanced aerial moves, so if you wipeout, you’re never too far from the water’s surface.

For your first attempt it’s best to be powered up and keep your kite high in the wind window. This trick is all about keeping your board floating on top of the water’s surface. With a powered kite placed higher overhead, you will have a constant pull upward to keep you and your board sliding on top of the water. From a gear standpoint, it is best to have a board with slightly smaller fins; if you don’t have them you can still do the trick, but smaller fins have less surface area and are less likely to catch and trip you up.

You can initiate a butter slide while riding in a straight line or while transitioning—I like to do mine just before entering a transition. Begin riding with speed in a comfortable direction and start to bring your kite up to 11pm in the window. As the kite rises, you want to begin by leaning back hard and pushing your back foot forward in the direction you are traveling. This will keep your fins engaged in the same direction you are traveling. The goal is to find a sweet spot where you are leaning back far enough while traveling forward without the tip of your board breaking free from the water’s surface. Lean back too much and your tail might release and you’ll fall backwards into the water. The cool thing about this trick is that you can start small and the effect of the butter slide will continue to improve as you gain more muscle memory and confidence.

Once you successfully start to find the sweet spot, I suggest using your back hand to open up your hips and body. This will enable you to place your body lower and begin to shift your toe/heel pressure to change the angle of the board. The objective is to have your board’s rail essentially parallel to your direction of travel so that the tip of the board is slicing through the water.

Coming out of this trick is as simple as leaning forward and letting the kite pull you back into your normal riding position. As you get more advanced and you start opening up and twisting your hips, you can finish a butter slide by rotating into a toeside carve. .

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16TH ANNUAL

2018 XBA KITEXPO April 13-15, Pismo Beach, CA A benefit for the Oceano Jr. Lifeguard Program In memory of Kinsley ThomasWong

DEMOS--CLINICS--BONFIRE BBQ--DAILY RAFFLES 84

WWW.THEKITEBOARDER.COM/XBA-EXPO

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Photo Jason Wolcott

THE PADDO FACTOR Tkb Interviews Airush’s Kite Designer

Airush's kite designer, Mark 'Paddo' Pattison, got an early start in windsports in his hometown of Adelaide, South Australia when his father hooked him on windsurfing at the sprite age of seven. Mark has over 10 years as head kite designer at Airush under his belt and spends half of each year surfing and kitesurfing in Bali where his fetish for minimalist kite equipment comes in handy.

A kite designer is a relatively exclusive position to secure in the kitesurfing industry. How did you land a job dreaming up new kites?

Being obsessed with windsurfing, straight out of school I wanted to get into the industry in one way or another. I thought about working at the local custom windsurf board shaper’s shop, but working with boards is super dusty, itchy, sticky and generally filthy work. So, even though my friends gave me hell for being a sissy, I decided to get into sewing instead. At that time, I was working in retail at the local windsurf shop that happened to have a sewing machine.

The guys there taught me how to do sail repairs. In those early years, I had met Ben Severne who was the previous designer for Airush as well as the designer of his own windsurfing brand, Severne Sails. Around 2002, we met again in Geraldton, West Oz, when he let me use his sail loft to repair one of my sails that I had trashed—I did a pretty good job because I wanted to sell it. He was impressed 87

and offered me a job. At first I just helped build prototype race windsurf sails, but soon I was helping Ben with all the Airush kites and bars, building prototypes as well as testing them on the water. Around 2006, Ben wanted to concentrate on his windsurfing products so I started designing the kites myself. It was really hard at first, but I had a lot of help in the beginning and after a few years it started to become easier and things made more sense.

How did you get your start in kitesurfing?

I tried kitesurfing really early. I think 1999 on a two-line F-One ram air beast. It was lethal, so I didn’t really see the light at that stage. I saw some sick footage of Lou Wainman back then, but everyone else I saw down at the beach made it look pretty kooky so I stuck to windsurfing. When the fourline stuff came out it became much more inviting.

In your years as a kite designer, what has been the biggest personal discovery for your own kitesurfing?

Probably making one strut kites and other super lightweight stuff. It’s so cool to have equipment so small that I can pack up and travel with. I do tons of surf trips with my surf mates who always give me shit for bringing my kite gear. I’ve made a custom kite, harness, bar and tiny pump setup that all fits into a small backpack, so they don’t even notice I have any kite gear until we arrive at a spot and it’s windy.

What is your approach to ownership of original ideas? Do you believe in patents as a means to encourage and reward innovation or is patent licensing a profit-focused mechanism that slows the pace of progress?

Patents have their place for sure. The Legaignoux brothers for example deserve their patent benefits—without them we wouldn’t even be kiting. I think patents encourage people to invent new stuff, but in our industry, there has only been a handful of patents that pay off. I think lots of people come up with stuff thinking they can retire off of the idea, but that’s a bit of a pipe dream. I don’t think it really slows progress, I think if something is worthwhile, it’s worth paying the patent fees and going for it.

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Even though my friends gave me hell for being a sissy, I decided to get into sewing.

LEFT: Back at home everyone adds an 'O' or a 'Y' to their name to coin their nicknames, Dan-o, Ben-o, etc. So, in true Australian form Mark's last name lost the ending part and simply became Paddo. // Photo Jason Wolcott CENTER: Mark does quite a bit of testing around this spot in Bali. This location has a lighter cross breeze with a tiny bit of offshore. // Photo Jason Wolcott RIGHT: Because Paddo spends so much time in Bali, his body is so acclimated to the heat that when he shows up at the main Airush office in Cape Town, you can catch him bundled up like it's below zero. // Photo Jason Wolcott

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LEFT: Airush teamsters put Paddo's designs to the test. // PhotoYdwer Van der Heide UPPER RIGHT: According to coworker Marc Schmid, "He's a very unassuming person at the beach, you wouldn't even know he is a kite designer. He does a lot of listening, learning and observing. He takes all that back to the office and then all of sudden two weeks later you have an updated prototype that's exactly what you are looking for. This is perhaps why we were the first to introduce Single Strut, Zero Strut and short line kites into the market." // Photo Jason Wolcott LOWER RIGHT: Paddo's vehicle of choice is a moto-bike which means sometimes his kitesurf board gets left at home in favor for his surfboard. // Photo Jason Wolcott

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If each model has its devoted customer, each year when you set out about updating the line with improvements, what kind of design pressures do you face and how do you handle the inevitable criticism?

We are constantly under pressure to keep improving designs each year, but in a few segments of the sport like freestyle for example, there hasn’t been any huge step forward in kite design for a few years, so it becomes really, really, difficult.

Critics can be a nightmare and kite appreciation can have a lot to do with personal preference and what the rider is used to using. If the rider prefers a kite that has a certain feeling and they get on something else, it could be a superior kite, but if it doesn’t have the feeling that they’re used to, they will write it off completely.

What is your approach to testing kites and who do you depend upon during that process?

I test kites almost every day; it’s not easy by any means, but after doing it for over 10 years, it becomes routine. I depend a lot on the Airush team riders and the design team in Cape Town, and at times, even just the guys I kite with locally.

Testing by myself is pretty hard; I need at least one other person to swap kites with so I can back-to-back test the kites quicker.

When a kite is being sold on clearance, I think to myself, who in the design, manufacturing and distribution chain is not getting paid for the production of this kite? As a designer, is there an effective way to explain to the end user the sum total of value that goes into each finished kite?

Well if you just look at all the brands in the industry, they’re all fighting for a piece of the pie. If it was possible to make kites cheaper, then they would. But at full retail, they are all fairly similar. Some brands manage to sell for cheaper by cutting corners in the distribution chain and going direct.

This makes them cheaper, but there are reasons why we have distributors and people on the local level who hold stock— the convenience of salespeople and help when you need it all costs money.

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Is that why you’ve segmented the Lithium model into various levels of trims, to suit the needs and financial preferences of different riders?

This year we have the Lithium Progression, Lithium SPS and Lithium Core, and it’s kind of like buying an iPhone—you can go for the top of the line or the price point version. They all work, but you get certain advantages if you pay for them.

The Progression level is the most basic kite we make. It’s for schools and first-time kiters; no bells and whistles, one color single ripstop canopy, just plug and play at a great price. The SPS is the same kite but with the modern inflation system with a big inflation valve and the double ripstop canopy. The Core version has the bells and whistles, including the load frame which makes the canopy last twice as long, increases the kite’s responsiveness as well as includes a more complex 3V bridle which allows the LE to be a narrower diameter for better performance.

If there was dialogue amongst the kite designers in our industry, do you think the language and principles of kite design would be couched in terms of objective scientific principles that all kite designers could agree upon or is kite design a subjective endeavor full of interpretation and disagreement?

For sure we would agree on some stuff and disagree on a lot also. I know a lot of the other designers and it’s very interesting to talk to them—kite design opinions vary a lot for sure.

The evolution of kite technology seems to be predominated by small incremental improvements with periodic industry changing innovations.

Is it likely another 4-line bar or high depower inflection point is lurking out there just waiting to be discovered? Is there a glaring problem in the current kiteboarding gear that is waiting for an out-of-the-box solution?

I’m sure there are other ideas happening. We have played a lot with short line kites and things like that. A kite that has good depower and relaunch without inflating would be awesome!

Price, I find, is a bit of an issue. If we could come up with something that made it cheaper for people, we would probably have a lot more people kiting. Also, if we could develop a kite with insane wind range, you could have only one kite and just trim it or adjust it to the conditions, well that would be awesome.

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LEFT: Paddo closing up a leading edge seam before putting his latest protype to the test in Bali. // Photo Jason Wolcott RIGHT: Athletes like Alex Pastor and Bruna Kajiya have relied upon Paddo's kite designs to dominate the world stage for years. // Photo Ydwer Van der Heide

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10TH ANNUAL

Kiteboarding, FOIL, SUP & WINDSURFING Fundraiser Competition • January 17-21, 2018

Avant Garde Gothic Demi

Ginger Swanson

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Casa Tara

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LA VENTANA, MX.

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PALAPAS VENTANA There’s a reason guests come back year after year to Palapas Ventana, including Tkb, for its annual freeride test! Upwind of the main riding area and one of the few areas where waves break during El Norte conditions, lodging includes espresso, breakfast and lunch along with the option for dinner at the restaurant/bar located just above launch. Relax in the infinity tub overlooking the bay while the restaurant whips up culinary delights and drink specials! Secure gear storage, compressors and dedicated kite helper. Kite/dive shop on site, lessons by Cascade Kiteboarding. // PalapasVentana.com

CASA TARA La Ventana’s newest resort is the vision of Marcela Ley who had the dream of one day of welcoming those who needed to get away from agitated city life to rest and restore, by entering a peaceful environment in touch with nature and their souls. It is from a deep-caring, nature-surrounded environment that Casa Tara emerges as a stress-free atmosphere that guests will hopefully leave being an improved version of themselves. Offering yoga and special weeks where teachers and masters from all over the world come and share their wisdom, guiding you towards enhancing your mental, physical and spiritual well-being, the resort also offers healthy meals and beautiful, Mediterranean-themed rooms, centrally located in town with a panoramic view of Ventana Bay. // CasaTaraRetreat.com

GIRL ON A BOARD An all-female team (with one male instructor in Mexico) with locations in both Canada and Baja, Girls On A Board is a dream come true for owner Nicole Eden. Its mission is to empower everyone through yoga and kitesurfing with a focus on hiring instructors who love to teach and create a welcoming atmosphere, along with a teaching environment that is progressive, safe and fun. All instructors are IKO certified and use brand new radio helmets with the latest gear from Cabrinha, with jet ski support. Offering lessons in English and Spanish, the school also offers daycare so you can have peace of mind knowing your kids are well cared for while you’re out playing on the water. // GirlsOnaBoard.org

KGB KITEBOARDING San Francisco’s premier kite school relocates to beautiful La Ventana from November to February annually, offering beginner to advanced lessons, foil clinics and all-inclusive kite camps from the Marlin Azul Restaurant and Campground. With experienced instructors, luxury camping and delicious meals prepared fresh daily, kite camps are the best way to learn or improve your kiting and make lifelong friends. Come and experience one of the best kite spots in the world with KGB! // KGBSwag.com

LA VENTANA BAY PROPERITES Established in 2006 by Dave and Lana Nixon, LVBP is a full service Real Estate Brokerage also providing Vacation Rentals, Property Management, and Custom Home Building. With the largest pool of rentals available in La Ventana, most include stunning views and are beachfront/near beach access. All bookings with LVBP include access to an exclusive pool/fitness facility, at special member prices. // LaVentanaBayProperties.com

VELA KITESURF Leave your gear at home and just bring your harness! Creating and perfecting windsurfing and kiteboarding trips for over 30 years, Vela offers standalone lessons or packages with gear, instruction, and lodging options at 13 wind-driven destinations around the world. Go with a company you can trust that offers only the very best and save yourself countless hours of time researching your next holiday destination. // VelaKitesurf.com

EXOTIKITE An IKO certified/insured school with experienced instructors offering jet ski lessons and rescue with radio helmet instruction along with kite excursions since 1998, Exotikite operates year round, right on the beach. A favorite hangout for both local and visiting riders, behind the school is a great open air restaurant with wifi. Check out and book their Baja wave riding camps! // LosBarrilesKiteboarding.com

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Check exotikite.com for updates 97

As the early morning sun peaks over the top of Haleakala, the only sounds to be heard are a rooster’s distant crow and a muffled hum coming from inside a tin-roofed, wooden workshop hidden amongst the trees and dense jungle along the base of the west Maui mountains. Inside the workshop, a CNC routing machine makes the final few passes on a foam blank, revealing the finished outline of the latest North Kiteboarding prototype surfboard.

The machine labors under the close eye of North designer Sky Solbach who quickly toggles through a few commands on a nearby computer screen before snatching his latest creation off the cutting machine and heading into the adjacent shaping room.

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Photo Quincy Dein

WORDS BY JOE WINKOWSKI

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S

lipping his head into a high-tech ventilator helmet that looks more at home in a space odyssey than a dusty shaping shack, Sky immediately sets about fine tuning his latest creation with a sanding block and a sheet of sandpaper. Carefully, methodically and with little wasted movement, he removes the ridges left behind by the CNC router, tunes the rails and carefully adjusts the tuck line. The custom-lit room casts shadows over the foam, highlighting even the most minute imperfections as Sky’s fingers, hands and eyes scan every last detail.

Mid-October is the beginning of the winter wave season on Maui’s North Shore and for the next three months, the wind and waves will fire nearly every day like clockwork, meaning not a second is to be wasted in this prime testing window. While Sky frequently tests with teammate and Maui local, Patri McLaughlin, this year he has the added support of Brazilian North team rider Sebastian Ribeiro.

Sky, Patri and Sebastian have been coordinating a test window to make some desired changes to their 2018 performance boards, but in the meantime, hundreds of emails from dealers, distributors and customers from all over the world have poured into North’s inbox—feedback which has been compiled into a list that outlines several potential new concepts for shapes and constructions for next season’s lineup. The goal handed to Sky and the team is to chip away at this list and come up with new, magic shapes that tick as many boxes as possible.

To meet production deadlines, files have to be uploaded to the overseas board factory by January. The rest of the winter and clear into May is punctuated with a series of monthly quality control junkets to Asia where Sky and his colleagues from the North headquarters in Europe are charged with monitoring the technical construction process, quality control, graphics, packaging and production schedules.

In order to fulfill the tight deadline and to make the most of this short test window, Sky spent the early half of fall working overtime to finish a first round of prototypes prior to Sebastian’s arrival. Sky is quick to admit that not all team rider feedback is deemed equal, but when he first crossed paths with Sebastian in Indonesia back in 2014, the two delved into an elaborate conversation over shape and performance. Off the bat, Sebastian, a highlyaccomplished surfer, explained in detail the way in which a board performs in a language that Sky as a shaper could both understand and translate to improvements in design.

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LEFT: Outfitted with a storm trooper ventilation setup and accelerating the R&D process by going in-house, Sky hand-tunes some experimental channels, adding both control and speed. // Photo Quincy Dein UPPER RIGHT: Taking advantage of Maui’s prime testing conditions, Sebastian Ribeiro puts the new Pro Whip CSC shape through the wringer. // Photo Tracy Leboe LOWER RIGHT: These days, shaping can be accomplished in a digital cloud far removed from the raw materials of glass and resin, but for Sky, shaping is a hands-on art of both technology and craftsmanship. // Photo Quincy Dein

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Having grown up in the south of Brazil surfing the worldclass breaks around his home in Florianopolis, Sebastian began surfing competitively at a very young age, going head-to-head as a junior against the ranks of now superstar surfers Gabriel Medina, Jesse Mendes and Jadson Andre.

Sebastian’s career path was that of a full-time competitive surfer, at least until he began kiting in the summer of 2009. After some jaw-dropping performances on the Kite Surf Pro World Tour that included a rookie of the year award and runner-up finish on Maui, Sebastian joined the North International team in 2014.

“He moves really slow on land,” Sky sarcastically jabs about this common Brazilian surfer stereotype; “Sebastian’s got this mellow, quiet and humble demeanor that transforms into an aggressive hard charging surfer on the water.”

Watching Sebastian kite at Lowers (lower Kanaha), it’s clear his precision and flow is derived from a lifetime of surfing as well as his almost perfect technical approach to all types of waves. Sky likes to point out that Sebastian is picky about where he puts his stomp pad and exactly how the wax is applied to his boards, yet this same attention to detail allows designer and rider to talk about the nuances of rail shape and rocker for hours on end.

Because there is no kiting allowed on Maui before 11am, afternoons are reserved for kiting and in order to maximize prime water testing hours, mornings and evenings are jampacked full with designing, shaping and glassing. During crunch time, Sky does his own glasswork and sanding in order to accelerate turnaround and get new ideas on the water as quickly as possible. Plenty of 3am alarms were set during Patri and Sebastian’s testing window so Sky could glass the other side of a board in the darkness of night, all for the sake of a 48-hour turnaround in order to test a new shape the next day.

Conditions constantly change and even the most talented riders in the world can have bad days. Testing one board against itself will never yield definitive results, which is why North’s testing is always done by comparing a new prototype shape against a proven benchmark board; in most cases they’ll keep the final prototype from the previous year model in the exact same construction. When asked if it’s hard to keep a methodical account of how each prototype worked, Sky laughingly replies, “It’s pretty easy; there’s typically a large pile of boards that fall under the category of ‘not magic,’ and then a small handful of boards that actually work.”

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ABOVE LEFT: Sebastian Ribeiro demonstrates how a production surfboard with the new technology performs in the strapless aerial realm. // Photo Toby Bromwich BELOW LEFT: Rising out of the competitive Brazilian surf scene, Sebastian brings to kitesurfing deep roots in performance surfing and an obsession with equipment. // Photo Tracy Leboe RIGHT: Patri, Sebastian and Sky watch as the CNC machine does the heavy shaping. The technology in Sky’s shaping container make a 48-hour prototype turnaround possible. // Photo Quincy Dein

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LEFT: Patri and Sebastian work their way through piles of boards, comparing existing production boards to the latest prototypes. // Photo Quincy Dein RIGHT: Patri McLaughlin setting up a bottom turn on a future version of the Pro Session shape. // Photo Tracy Leboe

captions captions captions

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Having a team rider like Patri who’s been on the North team since 2010 helps the testing process immensely. As a longtime friend, Sky hails Patri as a humble character and an exceptionally talented athlete who quickly excels in whatever he does, whether it's surfing, kiting or golfing. It’s no secret that in small waves, Patri is one of the best aerialists in the sport, throwing every variation of air-reverse and strapless triple rotations, but more than anything, Patri thrives on seeking out the biggest and meanest waves on the planet. Having spent years kiting and surfing Jaws, one of the world’s greatest big waves, Patri is comfortable in giant surf and is one of the sport’s best barrel riders. Back in 2012, Patri stormed the world stage by taking first place at the 2012 KSP in Mauritius with pumping waves, and since then Patri has worked together with Sky on all types of boards ranging from small onshore designs to Jaws tow-in boards.

Testing boards is basically a process of elimination that looks more or less like organized chaos. A testing session usually begins with all of the boards laid out on the sand, waxed up and ready to ride.

One by one, each rider grabs a board, rides a few waves, comes back to the beach to swap for another board and repeats. Depending on how good or bad a new shape is, this process can sometimes take all day. After several hours, the boards begin to find their way into one of two piles in the sand: the keep pile and the reject pile.

Each rider watches one another to see how the board behaves under the other rider’s feet, how quickly it transitions rail-to-rail and how it flows through turns. Once the ‘keepers’ are established, the testers discuss the finer points of each board and compare what they are feeling on the water. Updated boards are added to the mix every day to keep the progression rolling as testing continues through a wide variety of conditions. It’s a constant evolution that never actually stops, but rather gets temporarily put on hold each year by the production season. At that point, the team assesses which shapes are improved, what’s new and how each fits into the overall lineup of boards that will meet the ever-changing demands of the market.

Sky’s methods are based on rapid prototyping a lot of different shapes at a relatively low cost before investing in more costly and time-consuming construction methods at the North production factory in Asia. At the testing stage, it’s all about finding the magic shapes and honing in on those details that truly make a board stand out from the rest. All of the boards are designed in a CAD program that allows for tweaks of even the smallest design variables. Sky works towards creating CAD files that precicely match those final magic shapes, something that simply would not be possible with hand shapes, while the the pinpoint accuracy of the CNC machine means that each design change can be isolated, making it possible to track exactly which changes are affecting performance.

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LEFT: As a founder and veteran of the KSP World Tour, Sky Solbach has all the tools at his disposal, both on and off the water, to develop surfboards that set the industry’s next bar. // Photo Tracy Leboe RIGHT: Midway through the shaping process, Sky poses with a rough-cut prototype ready for the hand touch. // Photo Quincy Dein

It’s no easy feat finding the magic formula and putting together a comprehensive range of boards for all conditions. Over the course of a season, somewhere between 30 and 60 prototype boards are built. Some years, improvements are minimal and some models remain the same while others, this year included, the entire range gets a facelift depending on the extent of testing and how strongly the riders feel the improvements warrant a change.

When asked about major learning moments, Sky talks about a big discovery he made by incorporating a channel into the bottom of the Whip. Something as seemingly simple as a channel can open up a new world of possibilities; Sky found that channels permitted more curve in the outline, something which just didn’t work before. The channel led to a new outline which without sacrificing control, made a screaming difference in executing tighter and easier top-to-bottom turns.

By the end of Sebastian’s stay on Maui, the team had updated nearly every single shape for 2018. Yet despite an entirely revamped board line, one of the biggest changes happened overseas

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where North planned to build Sky’s boards with an entirely new construction method. For the past five years, Sky, alongside the engineers and product managers at North, have been one of the few production board houses to make lightweight performance construction equal or perhaps more important than the quest for durability. This year, Sky and the R&D team from Europe oversaw a new hand lamination technique with changes in foam density that yield greater flex, PU feel and improved durability. This new production method allows the finished product to mimic the lightweight performance and superior finish that you might find in a custom board, yet with the durability that kitesurfing requires.

When the 2018 series finally made its way through the factory and under the feet of North’s team riders, the outcomes were impressive. The new production boards won GKA events in Mauritius and Tarifa, and show stopping athletes like Airton Cozzolino and Matchu Lopez put a huge stamp of approval on the year’s work. Yet, as the 2018 boards land in the hands of customers around the world, the wheel of innovation starts once again and Sky is back in the workshop.

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- COMPLETELY REDESIGNED ON THREE STRUTS - IMPROVED HANDLING WITH LIGHT BAR PRESSURE - VERY VERSATILE, EASY AND COMFORTABLE TO USE R I D E R : TO M H E B E R T / P H OTO : TO BY B R O M W I C H

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F-ONE/Linx Bar Taking all the best bits from their Monolith bar, F-One’s new Linx bar added some great new features to create the ultimate connection to your kite. The new bar retains the smaller diameter of the Monolith to make it comfier in your hands and reduce fatigue but now comes in two adjustable bar sizes with new integrated floats, a one line flag out safety, an integrated swivel in the quick release, an added swivel on the safety line, a new stainless-steel ring on the front lines for either high or low-V setup and of course a brand-new color scheme for 2018! $539 // www.f-onekites.com

ION/Amp Semidry New for 2018, Ion is offering two cuts of wetsuits, surf and windsports, to better fit the body types of each sport. The surf cut has more room in the shoulders with a narrower cut elsewhere as surfers tend to use their arms and shoulders more, while the windsports cut offers more room in the arms and legs as kiters tend to get forearm and leg pump. The Amp Semidry 5.5/4.5 front zip suit (windsports cut) is Ion’s stretchiest suit and features environmentally-friendly aqua alpha water-based glue, a bigger cut pattern for increased longevity/flexibility and preglued maki tape 2.0 for more uniform quality in seam construction. $318 // www.ion-products.com

PATAGONIA/Gerry Lopez Nano-Air® Hoody Inspired by a life spent chasing waves in both liquid and frozen form, the Gerry Lopez Collection features his signature Aerial Camo print. Warm, stretchy and breathable, the updated NanoAir® Hoody features FullRange® insulation and a new shell fabric with improved durability but the same soft hand, so you can wear it for the entirety of any aerobic, start-stop missions from mountain to sea. $299 // www.patagonia.com

JN OUTERWEAR/Norman Unisex Jacket Stand out from the crowd in this super comfy, stylely and versatile unisex jacket made from boiled wool.

Designed for any outdoor and city adventures, the Norman jacket comes in four colorways and features a hoody with a high loft liner, Napoleon pocket with a reflective JN logo, Teflon-coated treated Microcordura protection on the shoulders and arms for longer wear and roomy hand-warming pockets. $325 // www.jnkites.us

BEASTMOUNT/Line Mount V2 The latest and easiest-to-use kite line mount for action cameras. Simply wrap your center lines into the grooves on the mount arms and you’re ready to go! The Beastmount Line Mount V2 setup still lets you use your bar’s flagout safety and features tougher construction and line keeper plugs so you can go big without worries of the mount coming off your lines. $44.95 // www.pksdistribution.com

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RIDE ENGINE/Elara Hooded Wetsuit New to the women's line this year is the 5/4/3 Elara, completing Ride Engine's core line of wetsuits for cold water sessions. The entire line of 2018 full suits are now also all front zip entry while internally, a strategically placed, increased area of synthetic lining along with wind skin was added to help keep riders warmer longer. $459 // www.rideengine.com

PLATINUM SUN/Unisex Neoprene Jacket Maintain your core temperature before, during and after your kitesurfing session with this Dura-flex neoprene jacket from new accessory company, Platinum Sun. Designed to fit over your wetsuit or to be worn alone, it keeps you warm if you're wet, on and off the water. With a durable front zipper and cutout for your bar hook, this cool new jacket will be available online in mid-January 2018. $105 // www.plantinumsun.net

NP/Elite High Hook Vest The Elite High Hook Vest is one of NP’s top sellers for a reason! Designed exclusively for kiters, the vest provides extra buoyancy for safety and peace of mind whenever you are going into the water. Tested and developed by a team of passionate riders who ride hard without compromising on safety, NP’s High Hook Vest will enhance your performance, protect your chest and give you the additional warmth you need in windy conditions. $119.99 // www.npsurf.com

DAKINE/Fusion Seat Harness DK's most popular kite seat harness just got even better. The 2018 Fusion now comes with Curv® technology featuring a new composite flex shell material on its back panel giving added support and stiffness without sacrificing comfort or performance. The hardshell look and feel of the Curv® back panel gives way to a material that actually allows the harness to flex while riding, all while giving the rider back support without the bulkiness of a high-backed seat harness. Combine the push-button hammerhead spreader bar, freedom-shaped spreader bar pad and primary and secondary power belts, and you've got Dakine's most comfortable seat harness ever. $240 // www.dakine.com

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FLETCHER CHOUINARD Master of a Humble Kite Craft

OUTPOST AT THE PUNTA The Rustic Business of Baja

RICHMAN’S REMEDY The Perseverance Plan

WILDERNESS SURF Exploring the Great Unknown

BECOMING COACH Switching Life’s Stances

2018 BUYER’S GUIDE

RISE AND REBEL Sexton’s Uneasy Redemption

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“EXCELLENCE THROUGH PASSION”

PASSION MK9 RRD

The Passion mk9 is the benchmark of a high performance all-round kite, impressing everyone from entry-level riders to experts.

The MK9 still delivers pure, predictable power, paired with amazing stability. This ‘new best thing’ is a fantastic kite for all-round freeride, wave, big air, and freestyle progression that provides a perfect blend of turning speed, handling, and jumping ability.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Redesigned Quick air flow valve with protection cap • 3-strut construction with additional reinforcements • 45 degrees leading edge reinforcements panels • Techno Force™ Double Ripstop • Leading edge seam protection • Bridle anti-tangle device • Radial reinforcements

NAME: PASSION MK9 PROGRAM: FREERIDE / FREESTYLE / BIGAIR / WAVE SIZES: AVAILABLE COLORS: 5•7•9•10.5•12•13•15•17 ORANGE/GRAY + CYAN/ORANGE + PURPLE/PINK

CYAN / ORANGE

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ORANGE / GRAY

ATMOSPHERE

NOVEMBER WITCHES Words by iKitesurf Meteorologist Shea Gibson

As the saying goes, “Beware of the witch of November!” This phrase was popularized by Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot’s legendary ballad ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,’ a musical tribute to one of the most well-known and tragic 20th century shipwrecks. But what does this have to do with kitesurfing? The Great Lakes often experience powerful meteorological phenomenons known as ‘November Witches,’ which sweep into the area as a mixed cauldron of warm and cold air, and often produces the famed ‘Witch’s Hat’ shaped waves.

The science behind November Witches starts with intensification of large low pressure systems that draw moisture and warmth from the Gulf of Mexico. Frequently occurring in mid-to-late autumn, these systems are capable of simultaneously pulling cold Arctic air down from the north. The collision of the two systems causes massive pressure gradients and generates hurricane force winds over the Great Lakes area, which creates a phenomenon that is often capable of delivering stiff temperature changes after the front, and oftentimes blankets the region with snow. This year in late October, one such potent storm system battered Lake Superior with sustained winds up to 63mph and gusts as strong as 77mph at Stannard Rock.

The November Witch typically brings favorable conditions on the front end, with a seemingly safer window of warmer conditions and building southerly flow on the lakes as the low pressure approaches.

Yet, when the fronts collide, the switch flips; storm lines lead to shifty wind directions and strong gusts often exceed 40 or even 50mph at times.

In some cases, the initial front can swing through while moderate to strong southwest winds remain in place. While indicative of a wake depression, a secondary storm line or gust front is more than often lurking with a powerful punch. Sometimes forecasters cannot see 114

this phenomenon until the front develops which is typically with short notice, and often identified within a day or even a few hours.

After the depression/upper-low intensifies, winds veer west and ultimately northwest to north causing the air temperature to drop rapidly. High pressure drops down along with the cold air and the pressure gradient tightens significantly.

Have you heard of ‘bombing out’ or more technically the term ‘bombogenesis?’ When these air masses collide and the pressure drops in excess of 24 millibars within a 24-hour period, an especially turbid and dangerous display of hurricane force winds can be seen on the Great Lakes along with large choppy waves and sheeting rains and/or bands of snow.

Our forecasting ability has improved drastically over this area in the last several decades. To put things into perspective, between 1878 and 1987, 6,000 vessels were lost on the Great Lakes and upwards of 25,000 individuals have lost their lives on the lakes over the last 300 years. The last large ship to sink on the Great Lakes was the aforementioned S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in eastern Lake Superior on November of 1975 and took its 29-man crew down with it.

Since the riding window on a November Witch is narrow, our iKitesurf forecast team has just expanded our Pro Forecast discussions in the Great Lakes region to offer better forecasts of local conditions during the prime riding season. Weather conditions on the lakes can change rapidly with little notice, so it’s best to stay on top of your daily forecasts when kiteboarding the Great Lakes.

D E D I C A T E D

S N O W K I T E

P E R F O R M A N C E

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FOILSURFING’S FAST FORWARD INTERVIEW WITH KAI LENNY | PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD HALLMAN

A

year ago we caught up with

Kai Lenny

after his first groundbreaking

foilsurfing sessions that reverberated around the world and kicked off a new dimension in riding hydrofoils.

A

lot has happened since that article went

to print so we circled back to get some insight on the state of the foil from the sport’s biggest innovator.

With

at least a year under your belt, how has your general view of

foilsurfing changed?

Foilsurfing is progressing rapidly; the equipment has evolved so quickly and what you can do with a foil is much more radical than it was a year ago. It’s a lot less sketchy than I previously thought. Over time it’s proven to be much safer and easier to learn, particularly with the new equipment. As far as the surfing community’s reaction, it could have gone one of two ways: it could have been perceived as super dangerous and something no one wanted in the water, but the foil is actually becoming very well accepted by the core community of water people.

What

have you learned about foil technology/equipment, both in

terms of the wing and the board?

The biggest lesson I’ve learned this year has been in the refinement of everything and knowing exactly how to put the pieces together to make the riding better. The wings we have now are progressively bigger and more like a Cadillac that drives smooth and docile.

I was just testing big wings for Naish and was blown away with how easy it is for people to learn without the intimidation of getting wacked by the wing. It used to be like standing on a bowling ball greased up with Vaseline but now you just need to know how to surf.

We have large foils that are great for learning but now I’m using smaller foils to explore the bigger wave realm and am excited to see how big of a wave can be ridden on foils.

Is

foilsurfing as versatile as you once thought it to be and where is

the future of foilsurfing taking us?

The technology is improving and the range is quite impressive, far bigger than I originally thought. The new foils coming out can be pumped on flat water—I can ride a one-foot tall wave that not even a longboard can make, carving cutbacks and having fun. We’re going to see incredibly sick aerial maneuvers on small waves, but on the other side, the foil could be the key to riding a large wave that otherwise couldn’t be ridden on a surfboard. Foils help you get around the problems you experience on a surfboard like surface tension and drag. I think big wave foilsurfing is one of the realms to watch; a foil can tap into a massive swell before it ever breaks, ride a wave three times the distance and reach speeds that allow you to set up much lower or higher on the wave. You could do a cutback on the backside of the wave and reenter—the foil will allow us to explore riding parts of the wave that have never been ridden before. So really, the foil’s possibilities are endless. You can ride all kinds of conditions ranging from the world’s smallest to biggest waves.

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SOLVING THE INFO GAP OF EARLY KITEBOARDING

By Rick Iossi | www.fksa.org

Compact in stature but larger than life with his contributions to business, his community, his country and our sport, Hung Vu was a different kind of kiteboarding pioneer. In the early days when instructors were few and widely scattered, the ‘School of Hard Knocks’ was beating up new kiters and gear while threatening access in some areas as early as 1999. Keeping progress logs on what did and didn’t work and sharing his knowledge and experiences worldwide on the internet, Hung made it easier for early adapters to learn kitesurfing before formal instruction was established.

Tiet Hung Vu was born in Viet Nam in 1957. When Saigon fell in 1975, at 18 years of age, Hung found his way to Canada by clinging to the deck of a boat with a suspect engine before eventually locating his sister who was attending a Canadian university at the time. After earning an electrical engineering degree, he founded several successful IT companies, brought his parents and six other brothers and sisters to Canada and built a family with his wife Lan Ton. After selling one of his early Internet startups in 1998, Hung read a short article about kitesurfing in Windsurfing Magazine and picked up a pair of Wipika Classic kites and a F-One directional kiteboard while on a trip to France. As a teen, he had experimented with bamboo framed kites and a ‘floating basket’ (a woven boat)—perhaps a prelude to his soon-to-be discovered new passion.

As Hung taught himself through trial and error and started hooking up with the smattering of kiters worldwide, he documented his experiences and started an email list in 1999 called ‘Kitesurfing School.’ In 2000, he went on to create an open source website at

KitesurfingSchool.org, which still exists in nine languages and is used by kiters worldwide to this day. Through his site, Hung worked to make the individual learning process easier, efficient and safer through topics including instruction, gear choice, kite tuning and etiquette as well as providing a forum for discussion and mailing lists that effectively brought the far-flung kiting community closer together.

Hung’s engineering background frequently came out in his writings. Although a master of the two-line kite—perhaps ahead of his time and before Wipika, Naish and today’s modern day kite companies—he posted in 1998 about the possibility of a four-line control bar “to be able to depower to extend the wind range of the kite.” Hung frequently networked with fellow pioneers and leaders of the industry, often advocating for better instructional methods and basic standards for professional kite instructors in the hopes of growing the sport. Described by Paul Menta, one of North America’s first kiteboarding instructors, “Hung Vu was a modest and energetic, wiry guy with a positive outlook and a big grin; analytical by nature, he was gifted with an endless drive to figure out ways to improve things.” According to Menta, Hung Vu was instrumental in shaping the worldwide approach to professional kiteboarding instruction.

Hung Vu passed away this year, but his accomplishments in the kiteboarding world are very much with us today. Before the proliferation of kite forums, IKO or PASA instructional certification, there was the homespun website of Hung Vu. Using his analytical skills and drive to improve many aspects in kiteboarding, he managed to bring the kite community together in the early stages and lay the groundwork for a safer and more unified sport.

LEFT: In the days of reel bars, dial-up modems and basic HTML, Hung Vu's website pumped out state of the art tutorials illustrating the basics of the early stages of kiteboarding. // Photos courtesy KitesurfingSchool.org

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The superior methods of the old world prevail at the end of a long kite day at Morocco's Dakhla Kite Club. // Photo Brendan Richards

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Announcing the 2nd generation Aeneema kite from BWSurf

New Construction Signature Drift Increased Performance

Experience the Æ2 kite for your self!

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Freestyle Surf

Keahi de Aboitiz James Boulding

FREE SURF

The Drifter’s all new design preserves its legendary drift stability in the surf while delivering the pop and control needed for surf freestyle.

- Pat Goodman, Kite Designer

NEW DRIFTER Surfing / Freestyle Surf

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