Gallery… Pros in Lockdown

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PROS IN LOCKDOWN

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In any normal year the Red Bull King of the Air would have taken place recently in Cape Town. But South Africa shut their beaches due to Covid, and sadly the event had to be cancelled.

The list of competitors would have included the top three finishers from last year: Jesse Richman, Nick Jacobsen and Aaron Hadlow, plus Kevin Langeree, the winner of the Cold Hawaii Games last September, as well as video entrants chosen, from the biggest number of entries ever received, for their display of height, power, extremity, technicality and innovation. On the list were some of the regulars, plus a few talented newbies, and for the only female, Angely Bouillot, it would have been her second event (come on KOTA, bring us a women’s event!). We asked the competitors, and other GKA athletes what they have been up to recently while waiting for events to resume. Some have stayed at home while some of the plucky ones have been able to travel, including to Cape Town once beaches reopened. A few riders participated in a one-day event there, the Big Air Kite League, with Ross-Dillon Player, Aaron Hadlow and Steven Akkersdijk taking the top three places. Fair to say everyone is itching to get back on the competition circuit.

PROS IN LOCKDOWN

AARON HADLOW

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Photos: Craig Kolesky

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ALINA SHALIN

Aaron Hadlow, currently in Cape Town, feels very lucky to be out there and is making the most of the Big Air conditions of strong wind and waves. He is testing and developing new kites with Duotone, and collecting pictures and video for their latest products, shooting with Craig Kolesky, with whom Aaron said getting the perfect shots has never been easier after shooting together for almost 15 years.

Alina Shalin is spending the whole European winter in Cape Town, her second home for many years now. She has been working on improving her wave skills and training for the GKA Kite-Surf World Cup. She has also participated in the Flysurfer photoshoot for their new freeride range, which will launch this spring.

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AARON HADLOW

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Photos: Andy Troy

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After spending last January and February in Asia, Annelous Lammerts was a little scared about spending a cold winter in Europe and putting on a wetsuit in freezing temperatures. But luckily northern Europe is kite-able year round with ever-changing conditions, and she ended up having a way better time than expected with some amazing kite sessions. She even went surfing and snowkiting on the same day… These photos were taken at Domburg, not far from where she lives, where she put her CBL grind base to work on a sea defense groin.

Angely Bouillot spent some time recently discovering the beautiful island of Guadeloupe and making friends with hermit crabs. She is now back in France taking advantage of the remaining snow and then plans to devote herself “violently, assiduously, actively and intensively” to training for Big Air. We look forward to her going this large at the next KOTA.

Hopefully the competition season will start in June as Bruna Kajiya is counting the days till she can be back in a comp jersey again. So used to always going to Cape Town at this time of year, she changed plans and headed to Cape Verde. While at first it didn’t sound like an inviting freestyle location, she actually found it an amazing trip for exploring, and has been using her time to work on her trick repertoire.

After concentrating on strapless freestyle in Brazil for months, siblings Camille and Capucine Delannoy wanted to ride some waves. So (via a mammoth 48 hour journey) they headed to Cape Verde, where conditions have been epic with some really good waves. In between swells, while waiting for the next one to pick up, they have been scoring freestyle sessions in strong winds. It doesn’t seem like the awesome conditions are going to stop anytime soon, which is a good thing, considering the fact that – at the time of writing – there were no flights leaving the island for a while.

Although technical freestyle is Arthur Guillebert’s usual discipline, he trained a lot last year to improve his performance in Big Air, and the hard work paid off when he was selected for the KOTA. Even though the event was cancelled he still went to Cape Town to train with his new Big Air gear, the Eleveight XS V2. He kited hard for a week in Cape Town’s notoriously strong winds, despite rib pain caused by a bad fall on the first day. The session in this photo was one of his last outings there before he broke a rib and couldn’t ride. No pain no gain!

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06 CAMILLE & CAPUCINE DELANNOY

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PROS IN LOCKDOWN

CAMILLE & CAPUCINE DELANNOY

CAMILLE DELANNOY

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07 CAPUCINE DELANNOY

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PROS IN LOCKDOWN

Photo: Emotion CV

This would have been Giel Vlugt’s first time competing in the KOTA. But he hasn’t let the pandemic stop him training and has been fully focused on progressing. Last year he bought and converted a van into a little home on wheels, allowing him to live cheaply and have more time on the water. He is currently in Tarifa training for the Full Power Kite Fest which is due to take place there soon. Charlotte Carpentier is enjoying the epic conditions and big swells at Ponta Preta in Sal, Cape Verde. She is training for the next GKA competitions that will hopefully take place later this year.

GIEL VLUGT

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PROS IN LOCKDOWN CHARLOTTE CARPENTIER 08

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Photo: Bobsession

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Photo: Davide Bertoli

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Photos: Justyna Słodyczk

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Helena Brochocka and Christophe Tack have been hanging out at home in Portugal, surfing and kiting, taking advantage of the great wind and waves that winter brings. They have exciting plans for filming and training trips and are hopeful that 2021 events will take place, although many restrictions continue to be in place throughout Europe. For now they are just happy to live in a place where they can continue to practice their sport, and maintain their health and fitness, ready for whatever comes their way.

Kevin Langeree is another kiter who made it to Cape Town. He is he only rider to win the KOTA three times (the last time, proudly on his own brand Reedin), and we look forward to seeing what he can do once the competition is allowed to take place. Careful with those kiteloop board offs though, we don’t want any more broken ankles please Kevin!

JALOU LANGEREE

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PROS IN LOCKDOWN

JALOU LANGEREE

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KEVIN LANGEREE

Photo: Ydwer van der Heide

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PROS IN LOCKDOWN

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Photos:Jan Peter van Popta

Jalou Langeree has spent the last few months at home. It had been a while since she had experienced a real Dutch winter but said, “To be honest it ain’t too bad!” These photos were taken at Wijk aan Zee, her favorite wave spot at home, on a beautiful, sunny but cold day. Riding her smallest North Carve, a 4m, she had a session of appreciating what home has to offer. She has realized that every session should start off with a positive mindset and that stoke is just as important as the conditions.

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Injuries are always challenging, but Jesse Richman finds them incredibly exciting and inspiring! A couple of months ago, he broke a large chunk of bone off his tibia plateau and had to get it surgically repaired with a titanium plate and screws. When he first got home, he was in a tremendous amount of pain and couldn’t fathom even moving his leg. Today, he is already putting weight on it and is pushing hard and seeing fantastic progress with his physical therapy. To feel the rapid progression of the human body coming back from a traumatic injury is wild, he said. He loves the process and can’t wait to come back stronger than before.

After spending most of the European winter in her new home town Noordwijk, Johanna-Catharina Edin is currently in Cape Town shooting with Flysurfer and getting back into training mode for the upcoming season. She cannot wait to be back competing in the GKA Kite-Surf World Cup.

Photo: Frankiebees

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Photos: Miriam Joanna

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It turns out kiting isn’t the only thing GKA Champion Maxime Chabloz excels at. Skiing since the age of two, he pretty much grew up on skis, and relishes the diversity it provides. It has always been a winter occupation and a great alternative and complement to kiting for him. This winter he headed out into the Swiss backcountry and has been hitting jumps off-piste, either natural hits, or ones he builds with friends. We’re glad the landings are softer and have less consequences than park jumps, so he can continue to push the envelope at the next GKA events.

Lasse Walker was in Cape Town in December where, thanks to Covid, he enjoyed sessions with almost no other kiters on the water and great Big Air conditions. But he left when the beaches closed, stayed at home for quarantine then hit up the beautiful turquoise waters of Bonaire which, because it is technically a Dutch state, was relatively easy and safe to get to. He’s now back home making the most of the winter storms.

LASSE WALKER

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LASSE WALKER

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Photo: Danny Houwaart

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LASSE WALKER

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Photo: Arnaud Plas

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Nick Jacobsen is another rider who has enjoyed being back home during these times. While he misses Cape Town and the KOTA he is trying to make the most of the situation and keep a positive mindset. February saw freezing temperatures and snow in northern Europe, which transformed Denmark to a winter wonderland, so Nick made the most of it and got out kite ice-skating…

Paul Serin usually spends most of the European winter in Australia or South Africa, but this year has been making the most of conditions at home. He has realized how beautiful the south of France can be and that home isn’t that bad after all. With this amazing winter light at sunset, captured by Aurelien, it’s hard to disagree.

Australians at home have been lucky enough to travel relatively freely, so resident Peri Roberts has been enjoying her vast country, road tripping to new locations, planning projects, filming and kiting with “a rad bunch of Aussies”! She also grabbed first place at state and national events recently, which reignited her flame for competition, and she has everything crossed that the GKA events will happen this year.

PAUL SERIN

Photos: Aurelien Desmiers

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MITU MONTEIRO

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Mitu Monteiro is at home in Cape Verde, where he is grateful for the extra time he has had to spend with his family, particularly with eight year old Michael. He never thought he would be towing his son into waves like this so early, and is loving watching Michael progress so quickly and join in in any conditions. It makes Mitu laugh though that Michael is happy to drop into a wall of water four meter high, but then at home is still afraid of the dark!

Photo: Manel Arpa

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Tom Bridge is at home in England embracing the strong winter storms, either surfing or kiting. He says he is actually feeling pretty tired after being out almost every day! But as it looks like conditions aren’t about to stop anytime soon, he just has to keep going. With a recent run of freezing temperatures, this day of 7 degrees, doing freestyle on his 9m, seemed relatively toasty!

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After two months in Brazil last year, training and competing at the GKA Freestyle World Cup where she came second, Rita Arnaus returned home to Barcelona and took some time off the water to recover from all the impacts and crashes, and to work on her strength, mobility, and balance. While her planned trips for this year were cancelled or postponed, she finally has a flight booked to Dakhla, where she can’t wait to be back in her element.

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Photos: Israel Gil

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Pippa Iersel is training in Bonaire where there has been around 25 knots of wind almost every day. This makes her usual freestyle training with boots harder, so she’s been using straps on her Jaime SLS board, training board offs, new rotations and kite loops. She has also got into free diving out there and had a workshop with Carlos Coste, a Guinness World Record holder. The reduced heart rate and relaxed mind that free diving induces helps her during rest days…

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With everything going on in the world Steven Akkersdijk is finding it a nice change to take some time to self-reflect. Over the past few years KOTA has been a massive part of his planning and training, has pulled him towards the twintip, and has given him the push to go out there and try new things. This year was different and with the competition cancelled it allowed him to focus on other disciplines that he loves. Riding the foil is one of these – combining speed, agility and pure silence it provides for an unmatched experience, particularly now he’s got CORE’s new SLC foil board and foil to ride.

Stig Hoefnagel managed to escape grey Europe and is currently in Cape Town training Big Air and trying to land new tricks and push himself to the next level. He participated in the Big Air Kite League which went really well for him up until the semifinals where he lost against fellow KOTA competitors Aaron Hadlow and Janek Grzegorzewski. Nevertheless he enjoyed getting more Big Air competition experience in the bag.

Photo: Svetlana Romantsova

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Therese Taabbel unfortunately broke her ACL and meniscus at the GKA Freestyle World Cup in Brazil last year. She has been focusing on her rehab for the past few months in her home base of Copenhagen, and has been using cold water swimming as a tool to recover and challenge herself.

THERESE TAABBEL

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PROS IN LOCKDOWN

THERESE TAABBEL

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Val Garat was training hard in Brazil when he found out he had qualified for the KOTA. He returned home and made plans to go to Cape Town in January, but beaches there closed just as he was about to book his tickets. Stuck at home feeling really disappointed at first, he has actually had fun enjoying the winter conditions in France, winging, surfing and kiting. When beaches in South Africa opened again, he headed to Cape Town and is training, learning new tricks, and getting used to the insane conditions for Big Air there, in preparation for the KOTA event next season.

YDWER’S RECOVERY

Ydwer van der Heide, one of the most talented, hard-working and creative photographers in the kiteboarding industry – and a regular contributor to these pages – has suffered a spinal injury that truly could have happened to anyone who spends time in surf. Still without movement in his hands and legs, this brave Dutchman has a long, uncertain journey ahead.

The next six months are crucial in terms of how Ydwer’s long term recovery will look.

Although Ydwer and his girlfriend Marije are a responsible couple with suitable insurance for Ydwer’s career, an injury as serious as this and the lengthy, specialized recovery process to follow will entail challenging costs that go beyond any policy cover. The pair are already facing a loss of earnings as they’re both self-employed.

Along with the wider kiteboarding community, we’re helping wherever we can to encourage donations to the Ydwer Recovery fund, to make the couple’s hard road ahead a little easier to travel.

Please head here to donate: https://gofund.me/3c39c0cf

You can also find details of the fundraiser via our Instagram bio @thekitemag.

Our very best wishes go out to Ydwer and Marije. Enjoy more of Ydwer’s work at: ydwer.com and instagram.com/ydwer

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