Ben Wilson and Martin Vari ride Teahupoo and it’s announced on Surfline website! First kiters ever get recognized on Surfline!

Awesome sequences! See the pictures HERE

Unfortunately a fellow kitesurfer died due to his leash got clipped onto a flying line. Everyone should read this!

Please follow the link by clicking HERE

This describes what happend and now we need to discuss and make companies aware of the problems that can happen and how it can be solved.

For sure it is not a solution to have no leash, since before we protect ourselves, we need to protect others before!

Always said: the best protection is in your head…

Ride safe!

Only one day to the kick-off of the Vendee Kitesurf Pro, the only french stop of the 2006 KPWT ! After the 4th first legs of the tour in Italy, Turkey, Greece and Morocco, Portugal, the terrific course of action of the 2006 world cup season will indeed follow in the city of St-Gilles Croix-de-Vie in Vendee, well-known as one of the best water-sports centers of the french Atlantic coast, which has already held a kiteboarding stage last season.

During this event, the whole kitesurf world will be focusing on the World Cup Freestyle, Wave Masters, and Speed Crossing.

35 best Pro international male riders and 15 female competitors are expected on “La Grande Plage”, wave spot where the competition will take place : Freestyle, & Wave Masters will be the main events, with at stake a 30,000 $ prize money and points for the World Title. The Wave event will take place when the conditions will be optimum and this discipline will be completed in one day. A speed crossing and a hang time contest are also scheduled to satisfy the riders’ taste for speed, high jump and for the audience to enjoy a variety of action. We’ll also launch a Junior contest with the best youngest riders from all over the world. For sure the crowd will enjoy the show !

Aside the competition, the spectators will have the opportunity to enjoy various aside activities, like pipe and bungee sessions provided by the UCPA, attend some exhibitions or even try landsailing and surfing during initiations offered by the instructors of the Semvie Nautisme team.

KPWT Team

SA & Naish Africa rider, Sjoukje Bredenkamp
smashed the world speed 500m record by almost 2 knots. She managed an
amazing 37.26 kts on the latest 2007 Raven kites and a custom speed
board.

After beating the African and South African record the day before,
she went on to beat the old record 4 times until hitting her top run of
the day!

The event in Walvis Bay is known for high speeds, but now both
World Speed records for men & women are held by South Africans!

A small improvement has been added to www.kitecommunity.com: upload pictures of the day while you are logged in, and they will be automatically added in your gallery!

To avoid that you need to upload a picture wice, we added a tool to automatically add your picture of the day to your gallery.

Make sure to be logged in if you want the picture of the day to be added to your gallery.

But if you upload a picture to the gallery, it does not get added to the picture of the day section.

Enjoy!

Toby

I chat with Carlos Saez, one of the PKRA judges and a coach of Alvaro Oneiva about old school and board off tricks at the beach of Cumbuco during the Best Demo Day.

I asked him about a trick Giovanni Arrango once did in a Tarifa video, which looked sooo nice. It was a board off with whatever rotation. He exp,lained me how I should do it, and I tried to practise already on land, as you can see here:

So yesterday I tried to do them, 3 new rotations with board off…but they are really tough! But I will get there and show you a video one day!

It was so nice to watch Alvaro doing old school tricks, Carlos was filming it (in the picture above) and hopefully soon we will see these tricks in Carlos new video! The last one “New Era” was downloaded so far 52000+ times on www.kiteforum.tv

Young German hot shot Mario Rodwald (to the right in the picture) also got inspired and wants to learn these tricks too, since he believes that a mixture of all tricks should be the future…me too!

Yesterday the legendary best demo day, auction and party was held at the Blue Wind area in Cumbuco.

The day started with the demo of lots of 2007 Best gear.

Winds were at around 17 knots.

Click here for the pictures of the day.

The party started at around 9pm with the first round of the Best Bikini Girls. 13 beautiful girls danced and turned for the cheering crowd. The house was on da fire!

The Alex Shogren auctioned about 60 kites, used prototypes and demo gear within 1 hour. The prices made many people very happy

The election of the Best girls ended in a tie between 2 girls and Alex couldn’t get a clear audience response of which is the Best, so we had two winning girls!!!

Check www.bestkiteboarding.com for pictures and videos, coming soon!

Wow, I got such an adrenalin rush at my last ride…around 30 knots, out with my Vegas6 12.0. I always had it in my mind to go as high as possible and then to loop the kite being very high.

I knew from seing other riders, that it should be no problem, but they all have smaller kites, max 10 and then smaller…so I got ready in my mind to kick away the board and to release the kite if I see I won’t make it…I went up about 8m high…and then fully pulled the bar!

My heart got busted, once you see the kite lower than you and you know you are very high knowing you need the kite to catch you to avoid getting busted…

You know what? It is so easy! Once you got the balls to do it, it is very easy. Of course, always an adrenaline kick, but works! And funnily my first try was the best…after that the kite never really catched me good enough to lead to a good landing…I still don’t know what I’m doing differently, and I even go higher.

But one thing you have to do for sure if you want to try it out…take a small kite and committ to it, don’t think and don’t hesitate, it will smash you. Have the balls once and just pull it all the way, and you will see, it is not that tough…but you need to jump high!

Maybe someone took pictures or even filmed it, then I will post it for sure.

Looks like the season is heating up quickly this year. Thanks to all that came and showed their support at the last Kite Nite at the Treasure Trove what a night that was!
Here is a list and update for what is instore for the next couple of months:

1. We are going to have another Kite Nite at Automatic Slims on Thursday 19th of October. We need to all make this the biggest ever as the club is making a reality TV show about there club specializing in the surf and skate world.
They have given me the go ahead to do, decorate whatever I want to for that night and the entire time will be filmed by a CA production company aimed at TV channels such as MTV and the E channel.
This is huge for all of us and our much loved sport and to show the nation who we are and what we do. Lets all come together and make this the all time biggest ever and if anyone has any ideas or suggestions on how to make it more fun than ever feel free to let me know.
All kite companies, kiters and friends are welcome. Call or e-mail me with any questions or ideas. LETS REPRESENT OUR SPORT!

2. Halloween Blast in St. Augustine.
The Extreme Kites Halloween Blast will be held October 28th and 29th, 2006. All proceeds will go to benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital:
http://www.stjude.org/
Here is the schedule of events:
Friday Night – local kiteboarder D.J. Raggamuffin spinning reggae, dance hall, and hip hop at the Dunes Cracker House in St. Augustine Beach. Free drinks from 10:30 to 11:00 p.m. Bars close at 1 p.m.
Saturday – brunch at Café 11 at 10 a.m. followed by free ride session in St. Augustine Beach. Downwind race check-in at noon at the pier parking lot, and then race starts at 1 p.m. from the pier to Matanzas Inlet, a distance of 10.5 miles. Free ride at Matanzas Inlet once the race is over, and then dinner and gear raffle at 8 p.m. at the Matanzas Innlet Café.
Sunday – brunch at Café 11 and downwinders all day.

3. Tampa Bay Kitemasters in November. This is going to be a blast and one of the events I will be riding in rather than organizing this year. A 25 mile downwind race. Last I heard they had about 80 riders entered This is going to be amazing, thanks to Jason/Julie Orkins and Chris Moore from Tampa. For more info go to www.tampabaykitemasters.com.

4. The X-treme X-rated Downwind Race. This is going to happen the following month and will be similar to the Tampa race but 3 times the distance with no cap on how many riders.
This race will take place in rough NE conditions from Jupiter Kiteboarding (the inlet) to the new Tiki Beach (Ft. Lauderdale). Anyone can enter if they feel they can handle the endurance, there will be a check point at Delray beach that has to be made within a certain time of the start.
The website and registration form is being built right now and should be up in about 1 week. Lets see if we can not only have the worlds longest kite race but the largest also. My goal is 100+. This will also act as one as the qualifying events for the next Bahamas Race.

5. BVI X-rated Trip.
This is set for the 29th of January for one week. We will fly into St. Thomas and join our private 47′ catamaran and traveling the entire BVI’s for a week. The cost will be $1,300 p.p. and will include breakfast, lunch, soft drinks and rum. On the boat 3 of the cabins do have double beds and one with a single so it may well help if you know and do not mind sharing a cabin with another person, deck space is also available. If this boat sells out we have another 50′ cat on stand by.
This is only for the serious kiters and surfers among us. We will require a 50% deposit before your spot is confirmed. Space is limited so get on it, if you want in, e-mail me directly.
X-rated will also be running numerous Boarder X contests though out the state this year on short term notice in relation to this wind, so stay tuned to the x-rated site.

Hope to see you at Slims a week from this Thursday and all other events this season.
Cheers Neil

Plenty of action and excitement filled the 2006 Professional Kiteboard Riders Association (PKRA) World Tour. With nine scheduled stops ranging from South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Canada, competitors got to experience everything from flat water and brilliant skies to some of the most challenging conditions ever faced by professional kiteboarders. Several new spots were added to the tour, such as Portimão, Portugal and Tarifa, Spain, as well as new locations in St. Peter-Ording, Germany and João Pessoa, Brazil, along with regular stops continuing in the popular destinations of Coche, Venezuela, Cabarete, Fuerteventura, Knokke-Heist, Belgium and the Isles De la Madeleine, Canada. Over thirty countries were represented and the battles were close for both the 119 men and 37 women who competed, with only several hundred points separating those in the top ten for freestyle. Aside from freestyle, the main event of each competition, several second disciplines were also held throughout the year, including Big Air/Best Trick, Boardercross, and the inaugural Kite Racing Championships, in association with Cabrinha and Caribbean Winds.

Although it was often neck and neck during the year with many close outcomes, two time, World Champion, Aaron Hadlow, (Flexifoil, UK), powered by Red Bull, once again won the #1 title for the third straight year in a row. Close on Aaron’s heals, with several wins to their names, were fellow Dutchmen Kevin Langeree (Naish) and Youri Zoon coming in #2 and #3 respectively in the 2006 rankings. All three raised the bar for the sport, taking their performances to the next level of power, speed, height, technicality, variety and innovation. Some incredible, new moves were demonstrated, including Aaron’s true mobe 7, or double aerial handlepass, shown off for the first time in Coche and answered back by Kevin, Youri and Alex Soto at subsequent events. Kevin’s double front to wrapped in Brazil was also never seen in competition before. Both he and Youri will be a force to reckon with next year as they take the next few months to practice and create new tricks and routines for 2007.

Rounding out the men’s top ten for the year, and where another extremely close race was waged with as little as an average of 100 points separating each, are #4 Alvaro Onieva (Best, Spain), #5 Mikael Blomvall (JN Kites, Sweden), #6 Petr Tyushkevich (Cabrinha, Russian Federation) #7 Rui Meira (Naish, Portugal), #8 Cesar Portas (North, Spain), #9 Etienne Lhote (F-One, France) and #10 Mallory De la Villemarqué (North, France). But don’t count out #11 Randy Hereman (F-One, Netherlands), #19 Alex Soto (Cabrinha, Dominican Republic) and of course the “Dutch Destroyer,” sidelined with an ankle injury for most of the year, Ruben Lenten (Slingshot), in the battle for the #1 seed in the world for next year. With the extreme efforts exerted by so many, an amazing amount of pressure is sure to continue on the top riders, guaranteeing that next year’s title is still open for grabs.

The action was also intense among the women as the year drew to a close, foreshadowing a thrilling 2007 season of new feats, surprises and possible upsets. Kristin Boese (Germany), riding for Best Kites and Caribbean Winds, once again rose to the top, taking the award of Women’s World Champion for the second year in a row. Her top spot on the podium was not earned without fierce battles waged on the water with other top female competitors such as Bruna Kajiya (Best, Brazil), who earned #2 in the rankings with her three wins during the season, including her home country Brazil as the grand finale, beating out last year’s second seed Ania Grzelinska (North, Poland), who finished #3 for the year, with only 95 points separating the two. Both Ania and Bruna got off to a slow start to the year, Ania having little time to train over the winter months due to school and Bruna seeming to hit her stride finally in Cabarete. They quickly made up for any lost time by consistently demonstrating strong, technical, and stylish performances landing them on the podium on a regular basis. Meanwhile, Jo Wilson (Naish, UK) earned the rising star of the year award, going from #13 in 2005 to #4 in 2006, her performance sparking in Portugal and then consistently burning strong the rest of the tour stops.

Other top ten women include #5 Angela Peral (North, Spain), another up and comer who was #20 in 2005 and #6 this year, Karolina Winkowska (Naish, Poland), #7 Wiktoria Boszko (North, Poland), #8 Katja Roose (Airush, Netherlands), #9 Jalou Langeree (Naish, Netherlands), and #10 Pauline Boussard (Wipika, France). Also a contender, and possible threat for next year, is young Gisela Pulido (Airush, Spain), who only competed in two events, winning one and placing fourth in the other. The women really reached new heights in 2006, with more and more aerial handle passes attempted and completed by other riders than just Kristin Boese, as well as more technical and powerful handlepass moves usually reserved for just the men, such as the blind judge successfully performed by Bruna Kajiya at several events and a mobe by Karolina Winkowska in Tarifa. With all the new moves being attempted, and only a couple hundred points or less separating the top women, 2007 should keep everyone on the edge of their seats.

For more information on rankings and exact year end point standings, as well as other tour highlights, be sure to check out the official Professional Kiteboard Riders Association website, www.pkra.info. And, for result ladders from each tour stop, along rider’s pictures, and competition statistics, as well as daily photos, commentary, and recorded video, go to Caribbean Winds, www.caribbeanwinds.com, Media Directors for the PKRA 2006 season.