Innehållsförteckning för #38 från TheKiteMag

We met through kiting, a match made in WOO-certified 25m high heaven, and we spent the first few years of our relationship traveling the globe, with not a care in the world other than how to get away from the crowds. We taught kiting on four different continents, and traveled to dealer meetings, photo shoots, competitions, test events and trade shows, as well as the odd snowkiting holiday. We even gate-crashed our friends’ honeymoon in Morocco once, as the groom reported that wind conditions were fabulous. We would arrive last minute at airports with around 100kg of kite luggage, arrive at our destination with the same 100kg (miraculously haven’t lost a bag yet), strap it all to the roof of a dodgy taxi, dump it in accommodation with varying degrees…

FOR THIS LATEST CRANE JUMP YOU FOUND A SHIP TO JUMP OFF CALLED ‘LEAP HEART’ – PURE POETRY! HOW EASY WAS I T TO GET PERMISSION TO DO THE STUNT? It actually wasn’t that hard getting the permits. Luckily I know the guy in charge of the shipping company, so everything went quite smoothly. Obviously the Covid situation didn’t help speed up the process, and we had to take a lot of precautions at all times. HOW LONG WAS THIS JUMP IN THE PLANNING, AND WHAT’S YOUR MENTAL PREPARATION PROCESS? The ship was in transit in Copenhagen for seven days, so we had to move quick. It took me two full days of wrapping my head around it. I teamed up with some people that I have worked with before.…

I feel like I’ve been living my life in a bubble – not the Covid-19 kind – but traveling between continents like it’s the most normal thing to do. Being forced to stop moving at speed, and spend some time at home, has made me question this normality – you could say the bubble has been popped. I’ve realized how much I’ve been on the road, and how little time I’ve had to spend with family and friends. And I’ve had time to reflect. After another fun and busy season last year, things started slowing down around early November. I had a strong urge to travel to Cape Town and enjoy some of those early season sessions without the crowds. Cape Town is a place I like to call home.…

i’m on the daily check for wind when I see it, motionless on the reef. We’re on the remote island of Cuyo in the Philippines for two weeks. It’s a ten-minute walk to Capusan beach from the temporary school campus we have set up in a house belonging to the Mayor of Cuyo’s son, Rens. Past the informal housing, animal feed stalls, print your own t-shirt shop, balut stand and wet market that makes up Cuyo town’s high street – this is the students’ daily commute to the beach for the kite session. I head out onto the sand spit that stretches out into the lagoon for the daily wind check. And that’s when I see it. Downwind, motionless in the water sits the Milagrosa: the ferry that was meant…

IT’S GREAT TO SEE THE LIFT MODEL BACK. HOW DOES THE NEW ONE MEASURE UP TO THE PREVIOUS OLD SCHOOL LEGEND? In essence, the Lift is true to the original kite, meaning that it is all about performance freeride and Big Air. We were chasing explosive power, massive lift and hangtime, while still being stable in high winds and easy to fly. From a technical standpoint, the new Lift is completely different to the old one. The old Lift was a classic four line C-kite, that had very little depower, and to jump it high, you needed to be very specific about where you placed it in the window, whereas the new Lift has tons of depower and is way easier to jump. Ultimately, it still targets the same type…

“I decided to always strive to be someone who maintained humility and gratitude, someone who took every opportunity to share his passion and stoke with the world around him. For without these attributes, I was just some asshole with a trophy, and that’s a pretty pointless thing to be.” When I was 10 years old, I figured out the point of life, or at least the point of my life: why I was here and what I would do… I was going to become the kiting World Champion! How cool would that be, how awesome would I be? If only I was the champ! And then, six years later, I did it – I won the World Tour and became ‘the man’, or so I thought. Winning itself felt good,…

For a little while there, the doom-mongers foresaw that the world of ‘proper’ kite films was over… Absorbed by the quick fix, Instagram friendly, sub one-minute clip. They said the same about print magazines… But the fact is that if you can produce a full-length film with the right attitude, the right philosophy and with some truly inspirational riding then the world will put down their phones and watch. And so it was with Tunnel Vision. Keahi and James Boulding take us through some of their favorite memories from the year they committed to bringing it to life… KA: In this day and age of social media, it seems that videos are getting shorter and there hadn’t really been any proper wave films for quite some time. I was always…

Youri and I met early on in my involvement with kiting. I was shooting a lot with Reno Romeu at the time – he was quite good friends with Youri and he introduced us. I ended up working with Youri on a couple of video projects and we’ve been good friends ever since. Youri is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet – super friendly, always happy, full of energy and incredibly humble. Recently he became a father, and has got into triathlon which is a sport I also enjoy. For now, I can give him a hard time on a road bike, but I don’t think that will be for long! He always gives 100% to everything he does. I sat down with Youri to talk about…

The 319 is not actually a trick I do that often. It is a bit of a spin-to-win trick, but if performed properly it can look pretty impressive. It consists of a railey or a shifty, then a 900-degree frontside rotation while passing the bar twice, then landing toeside. I like to extend as much as possible on the take off until reaching the peak, and then spin very quickly on the way down, keeping the kite at 45 degrees or lower. To be honest I save this kind of trick for competitions or great conditions because if you crash you are going to crash hard! STEP 1 Get a lot of speed, as this trick requires as much of it as you can manage. STEP 2 Edge hard upwind…

TELL US WHAT’S NEW WITH WOO! YOU’VE JUST LAUNCHED SOME EXCITING NEW STUFF…. Yes, indeed – boy was that a busy few months! We did a lot of work behind the scenes to get our tech stack ready for the next evolution of WOO, but the first thing users get to enjoy as part of the WOO PRO membership is the Analytics package. Basically, we tried to squeeze as much as we can out of the WOO 3.0 device (and other hardware that users own - we can get GPS from your phone). We believe many people completely underestimate just how sophisticated this little powerhouse, the WOO 3.0, is. Our aim was to deliver users as much data and insight on their jump technique as possible, so they can jump…

SKY SOLBACH What keeps you working in the water/wind industry, when – with your reputation – you could probably make more money in another industry? I guess I could get another job as CEO in the sports industry, but whether this would result in more money, I don´t know. More important for me is the amount of satisfaction I get out of my job, and this would be hard to top. I really like what I am doing AARON HADLOW Do you take inspiration from other industries? I believe it is really important to stay open-minded, even when in reality it is sometimes hard. I get a lot of inspiration from other sports industries like skiing, snowboarding or mountain biking. These sports have a similar customer group, therefore they give…

It is safe to say that 2020 has brought a fair share of surprises and sudden changes to plans. It all started off great – we joined the Naish International team, filled our calendars with competition dates for KPL park events and GKA Freestyle tour stops, and started planning our first trip to Hawaii to shoot the new line of products with the new team. We were looking forward to a busy and productive year of travel and events. Then 2020 started dropping bomb after bomb – global pandemic, Triple S announcing the end of their run, all the freestyle competitions cancelled, and travel restrictions putting a stop to all our travel plans. While sad about the turn of events, we knew it was the same for everyone; some people…

Kiteboarding can be a physical sport, especially when the wind is howling. But often the hardest and most dangerous part of kiting is getting in and out of the water! Many accidents happen on land because of the lack of skill or strength to control the kite. Strong core muscles are important for kiteboarding as is a strong back and arms. The upper back and bicep muscles are responsible for pulling and therefore it is important to exercise them in order to be able to sheet in efficiently and control the kite safely. Narrow Grip Row MUSCLES WORKED: THE BACK MUSCLES IN GENERAL, PARTICULARLY THE LATISSIMUS DORSI AND RHOMBOIDS. THIS EXERCISE ALSO WORKS UPPER ARMS AND FOREARMS, SUCH AS THE BICEPS AND FLEXOR MUSCLES. For this exercise I have chosen…