Innehållsförteckning för #44 från TheKiteMag

A MATERIAL WORLD As the world begins to return to normal-ish, supply chains begin to remember where they last were, and you can, finally, expect to find stock of whatever it is you’re looking for in your retailer of choice, it’s easy to forget that we have gone through a couple of years of product development during this whole sorry affair… While you’ve been tearing your hair out, those clever science-and-engineering people have continued trucking along and looking for new ways to make our kite gear better… They don’t care if the fruits of their labor will spend three months stuck in a container somewhere in the Indian Ocean, they don’t care if the raw materials required for their creations are nigh impossible to source, and they don’t care if…

As we know, Colin Colin Carroll is a humble individual, so he hasn’t told many people that he has recently graduated (with slightly below average marks) from his PhD in Advanced Kitesurf-Boarding Social Anthropology, attained from five years of dedicated field work at the University of Novotna, Czechoslovakia. To mark this monumental academic achievement, he offers an excerpt from his soon-to-be-published thesis, boldly titled ‘Social Observations of Kite Propelled Humanity’ – it’s an intimate appraisal of commonly observed demographics and their behavioral patterns that surround us at local kite spots. At least he’s doing something constructive with himself and not just relentlessly fawning over Tom Bridge on social media to pass the dark hours… Think you’re unique? Bit of a maverick? You’re not, mate. Come off it. You’re a product…

“When you make something really, really good, there’s no point in changing much!” grins Nick, still fizzing on his new season Orbit. It’s the kind of kite you want when you’re jumping off, or over cruise ships, islands, forts, and the world’s tallest building. While his R&D contribution to the new kites has been limited during Covid, Nick gave the design team feedback throughout the year with small details like the bridles and the arc. “The 2022 Orbit is slightly lighter, and I feel like it boosts a little higher. We’ve eliminated those rear pulls you get in gusty winds, and we’ve focused on finding a balance so you don’t overloop the kite and it doesn’t back stall. I think we hit the spot perfectly.” What makes Nick want to…

One thing we’ve learned from 2020 is that people are adaptable. Last year’s photoshoot in Corsica was, in the end, incredible despite all the twists and turns of the pandemic. Heading to Mexico for this year’s shoot, while some countries still have their borders closed, and with no guarantee of what the pandemic will bring next, was once again a challenge for the whole team, but a challenge we were all ready to take on. Our lives as riders had changed so much – we were used to chasing the wind and waves, and in the blink of an eye everything had stopped. So when F-ONE came up with the idea of going back to the origins of the Bandit for its 15th version, I once again felt the excitement…

STEP 1 Load up with lots of speed and edge upwind as much as possible. Speed is crucial – the more speed you have, the better pop you can get. This creates the slack in the lines you need to complete the full rotation. STEP 2 Pop hard after you edge upwind. When you have initiated your takeoff, you have to engage into the frontroll rotation. Turn your head into your front shoulder to initiate an inverted frontroll. STEP 3 Once you are halfway into the fully inverted frontroll, you have to bring the bar to your back hip, as you start releasing your hand from the bar. STEP 4 Your body then has to counter-rotate into a frontside rotation – grab the bar at your lower back and pass…

I broke the WOO record at Leucate in January. I headed there as the forecast was looking insanely good. On arrival there was actually no wind, but after a trip to the supermarket the wind started picking up. Although it was only 12 degrees Celsius it was sunny with not a cloud in the sky. We started the session with around 30 knots but the wind kept picking up, and our jumps got bigger and bigger. Then I got a perfect 60-knot gust and flew higher than I ever had before. In the air I was already wondering if I’d hit the magic 30 meters. When I downloaded my WOO session and found out my height I was extremely stoked; it was an incredible feeling! To deal with stormy conditions…

As I write this I'm just a few days from my 34th birthday and it was 16 years ago to the day that I got my first DSLR camera. I then fell in love with kiting photography when I moved from Australia to Cyprus 10 years ago, with my favorite toys in tow – my camera and underwater housing. I was spending most of my free time at my friend’s kite school, Kahuna Surfhouse, and after years of shooting the locals I decided to take a trip to Greece to see if I could get the chance to photograph some of the best freestyle riders on the globe. It was one of the best decisions I ever made! Last year I got to photograph some of the world’s top riders…

The first stop of the GKA Kite-Surf World Cup took place on the stormy island of Sylt off the northern coast of Germany. The riders were thrilled to be back in action and battling it out on the water after nearly a year and a half of not competing. Sylt offered the ideal location to hold the event. The island is renowned for its northwesterly winds and solid surf all along the coast. The forecast was good for the start of the waiting period, and the judges took full advantage of the strong winds and managed to finish the competition in two days. The riders put on a great performance, showcasing what they have been working on over the last few months and pulling a few never-been-done moves out of…

Sicily is officially part of Italy, but I barely consider it so. The weather, the places, the people… everything is different and unique down here. It’s my sixth year now being based pretty much permanently down here in Sicily and I couldn’t be happier to have made this move. The chance to kite and surf all year round, as many can only dream about, is something pretty special. All around Italy, and indeed most of Europe, you can get in the water in winter, but there is a big difference when you can do that without boots, gloves or freezing your nose! Temperatures very rarely drop below 15 degrees Celsius in winter, and on a nice Scirocco day (south east wind) in December you can easily get up to 25…

This year I have spent most of the time traveling with the same small crew, which has been really nice. Ewan Jaspan, Ramiro Gallart and I have spent almost every day together for the last four months. Since leaving Australia back in March, we’ve constantly been moving: photoshoot in Maui, riding the kite park at REAL in Hatteras, then a quick stop off in Europe for freestyle riding, surfing, and competing throughout Portugal, Greece, and Spain. With Covid making it much harder to travel, we then had to spend two weeks outside Europe before being able to get back into the US. After changing our minds multiple times a day on potential locations to visit, we finally decided on the tropical Caribbean paradise of Turks and Caicos to visit our…

I had this notion that if I jumped on a plane, I could make things work for me this year. After 12 months of not knowing where I stood with my kitesurfing career, sitting and waiting for something to come up, I had a ‘to hell with it’ moment and booked a one-way ticket to Maui. After a year of so much uncertainty, I thought, “What’s another year of exactly the same?” When I was tossing up whether to leave home, knowing I might not see my family or best friend or plant babies any time soon, I started asking people what they thought I should do. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I already knew the answer – follow that gut feeling and get the…

JAMES BOULDING As a fellow UK northern monkey seeing you develop and compete on the UK national tour, how did these experiences shape your life and career now? Yes James, shout out to all the northern monkeys! Competing on the UK national tour was definitely a fantastic stepping-stone. It’s one thing throwing tricks freeriding and a whole other thing performing them in competition. The British championships helped me so much to go on and compete internationally. I built my name and career in kitesurfing from competing, and it all started on the British tour back in 2007. ALINA KORNELLI What have you learnt most about yourself and the world during your time traveling so much? I think traveling educates you greatly. I’ve learnt so much, and become so much more…

WHAT ARE YOUR FIRST RECOLLECTIONS OF THE BEACH? It is for sure the crystal clear water with all the beautiful mountains around. Always when I talk about my favorite lake at home, I have to mention the beauty of the spot. CAN YOU REMEMBER ANY OF YOUR FIRST SESSIONS? I first kited in the Netherlands then in Tarifa as Walchensee itself is not a good spot for beginners, so I had some experience before I first rode there. The launching area is not that easy, as the wind tends to be gusty. I remember the water was still chilly as it was spring, and I was not that experienced at the time as I was only 11 or 12. But I think I handled it quite well as a young…

I can remember first seeing kitesurfing – I thought it looked so much fun and really beautiful. I am Bulgarian and the town I’m from is on the seaside, so access to the water was very easy for me. I have always loved the sea and it didn’t take me long to find a way to get on a kite. Before I’d even had a go I’d already bought a wetsuit, kite, harness and board. Like a lot of women, I was incredibly scared, but maybe that made me more determined to test my limits, overcome my fears and prove to myself that I could do it. The conditions in my town are unique – there is a long sandbank running for 10 kilometers, with sea on one side and…

1 // CORE XLITE 2 CORE have hit the ‘foil’ button big time with a foil, foilboard, foil-specific bar, and now the XLITE 2 to create their ultimate foiling combo. The one-strut XLITE 2 answers the call for a dedicated, high-performance foil kite. It drifts in virtually no wind thanks to the stiffness of the ExoTex Light frame, and the new CoreTex 2.0 canopy material means more muscle and durability. Plus it also now comes in 2 and 3m sizes so you can foil on days you’d usually head out for a Big Air session… 2 // Eleveight CS+ Vary & Master C+ This is Eleveight’s highest performance bar yet, featuring a redesigned quick release, and uniting leading industry features in one simple yet ultra-intuitive system, taking safety and control…

LET’S START WITH YOUR FREERIDE RANGE. HOW HAVE THE LITHIUM AND ONE KITES BEEN UPDATED? The Lithium is a massive focus for us, and this year we redesigned it from the ground up as the ultimate all-around freeride performance kite. For years this product has defined the freeride space in many of our key markets. This rider group is constantly evolving, as they look for more versatility, better jumping, better high end, but still want the same absolute ease of use. Besides a new planform and shaping from designer Mark Pattison, our design engineer Dave Kay assisted by developing a new bridle program that enables us to adjust and tune the loading through the bridles, and really fine-tune the performance. The result is absolute refinement in a kite that blends…

HOW HAVE YOU CHANGED THE TECH AND MATERIALS OF THIS VERSION? According to our customers and online reviews, the Imperator 6 is at the very top end of what you would expect from a first-class twintip. But over time you discover things that can be improved, especially when you have no fixed product cycle. Over the past few years we found that the high-speed control had room for improvement. So we started looking for new materials and production processes that led the R&D team to our new exclusive carbon Cartan 2 which is at the heart of the Imperator 7. HOW DOES THE NEW CARBON IMPACT ON THE DESIGN OF THE REST OF THE BOARD? As soon as you start to change build materials the whole board needs to be…

It’s no secret that kite wave pioneer Ben Wilson has re-joined the Slingshot team after developing his own brand, and brings a fresh and experienced set of eyes to the Slingshot R&D department. The SST has had five iterations, all of which build on the same solid and well-received platform. The new V6 heralds the most significant redesign in the product line’s legacy, and it’s clear that Ben has been able to breathe some of that self-earned product development knowledge into the new model. Visually it’s a very different beast in the sky and there’s some stand-out new features for anyone familiar with the previous kite. Slingshot have implemented some ultra-skinny struts which reduce drag and weight, and efficiently push profile back into the canopy quite a way into the…