Here is a really nice video with the North Kiteboarding Team. Fuerteventura is a beautiful island with perfect conditions for kiteboarding, just look at these awesome spots where
Mario Rodwald, Cesar Portas, Tom Court and Reno Romeu are kicking ass!
Archive for June, 2012
North Team in Fuerteventura
Kitesurfing in Keros beach, on Limnos Island, Greece
You wake up in a 5 star Luxury Safari tent. You have your breakfast on the padio. You have a view to the beach.
Crystal clear waters, endless sandy beach. Windy, uncrowded. Super safe bay with a stunning flat section, and a mini-wave section.
It sounds like the trip of a life time, on some remote island in Fiji. Too far away, too expensive.
Guess twice.
Welcome to Keros beach, on Limnos Island, Greece.
Keros, a vast, sandy beach, with turquoise shallow waters, blessed with Meltemi wind. A magic flat section on the North side of the beach, a bump and jump section in the middle, and small but nice waves on the South end. And the spot is empty.
Even in high season, there are maximum 50 riders on the beach, and the beach is 3 km wide, so it can handle many more with absolutely no stress.
Conditions
Limnos is an average wind spot, with the Meltemi normaly blowing force 4-6. Some days can be flat, but some days can also be super strong, like most of the Greek islands. You should expect to use kites between 8m-11m, but often, smaller. The best part is the beach morphology, offering complete flat sections and a mini-wave spot at the same beach.
For those big wave fans, the island features one of the best wave spots in Greece, Gomati, but it is mostly a winter spot, so chances are better if you visit early or late in the season.
About the island.
Far away from mass tourism, Limnos resides at the North-Eastern part of the Aegean Sea, still offering deserted beaches (more than 100), idyllic small villages, archeological sites, and natural reserves. Located where the Meltemi wind starts it’s journey over the Greek island, Limnos in ancient times was also known as ‘Anemoessa’, which means ‘windy island’.
What makes the island so attractive is the unspoiled terrain and the natives. On Limnos you can see Greece as it was 30 or 50 years ago. The local wine, the local cusine, the unspoiled landscapes and the idyllic beaches, will want you to stay forever.
Landscapes
Keros bay is within an environmental protected area. The scenery is unique: sand dunes, salt lakes with flamingos, isolated beaches full of small shells, make you feel that you are not in Europe or Greece, but in a completely different continent.
The beach
The beach is sandy, the waters are turquoise and crystal clear, and the wide bay makes it super safe. On the beach you will find Surf Club Keros, which is an International Kiteboarding Organisation Affiliated center. All instructors are experienced, but super friendly. As they say, Surf Club Keros is a kite school from kiters for kiters, so the vibes are mellow and the smiles are wide!
Equipment-wise, you can try out brand new equipment from Cabrinha!
Accommodation
Being within an environmentaly protected area means that there are no big buildings around Keros, hence no hotels or studios by the beach. But you can go ‘Glamping’. You can stay at Surf Camp Keros which is located on the hill besides the bay, in one of their Luxury Safari tents, combining the feeling of camping with the luxury of a hotel room. The tents are very spacious (25sqm for the double and 35sqm for the jumbo tents) and feature wood decking, high quality furnishing, a bathroom and shower, plasma tv, but the best part of living there is the view you get every morning when you wake up-or while you are having breakfast in bed! Highly recommended!
Otherwise you can stay in your own tent at our Camping place close to the beach!
Getting to Limnos
Flights: You can fly to Athens (ATH) or Thessaloniki (SKG) and pick a domestic flight to Limnos (LXS).
From the beginning of May till the end of October, there is a Thomas Cook direct flight from London.
Ferries: There is a daily ferry from Kavala to Limnos, and 1-2 Ferries per week from Thessaloniki to Limnos.
Visit the Surf Club Keros website for more info and directions
Contact:
Surf Club Keros
www.surfclubkeros.gr
info@surfclubkeros.gr
Surf Camp Keros
www.surfcampkeros.gr
info@surfcampkeros.gr
Kai Lenny Episode 7
Here is a nice video with Kai Lenny and his fellow Naish riders Sam Light, Rick Jensen, and Jesse Richman. These guys pull of crazy tricks totally effortless, while another friend of Kai Lenny, Kainoa McGee, is struggling to get up on the board for the first time in his life, a situation we´ve all been in once in our life =)
Mario Rodwald – PKRA 2012
This video features Mario Rodwald during the PKRA 2012 competition in Adicora, Venezuela. Mario has been kiting for 11 years, he started when he was 10 years old! So, this 21 year old boy is pretty good by now, perhaps a new Youri Zoon… Mario took the 2:nd place in the PKRA in Venezuela, beating Alex Pastor!
Aaron Hadlow, Ruben Lenten and Susi Mai on the Loose!
Aaron Hadlow, Ruben Lenten and Susi Mai is currently travelling around the world, pushing their limits to create a sick kiteboarding video called “On the Loose”. Here is a little teaser of what´s coming!
Related External Links
Navis Boards in Africa
Here is a little promo video from Navis Boards, filmed in El Gouna in Egypt and in Dakhla in Marocco. Moreover, the only video I found this morning that is worth watching. I have a Navis board myself and I like it a lot! If you ever get the chance to try one in flat water and light wind, you´ll understand why :)
Related External Links
Christian Winkenjohann Kiteboarding in Greece
Christian is another example that shows that it´s fully possible to start kiteboarding again after an injury. Christian broke his hand back in April, but he is now back in action again! Watch him in this video doing kiteloops, darkslides with his Flexifoil Hadlow ID.
Related External Links
Kiteboarding somewhere…
Found this nice clip with one guy that is kiteboarding in somewhere. He is not at the same level as Youri Zoon, but still at an quite advanced level. The choice of music gives this clip a higher rating =)
Related External Links
Kitesurfing Girls – You Can’t Help Loving Them!
Kiteboarding – a new olympic sport!
In the last 20 years kiteboarding has gone from almost nothing to a big deal, so big that Kiteboarding probably will go to the Olympics in 2016! It´s said in this small documentary from CNN that Windsurfing has to go out of the Olympics if Kiteboarding is voted in. A pity for all wind surfers, but I think the majority of us will be happy with this decison :)
Related External Links
Reno Romeu in Rio de Janeiro
Reno Romeu kiteboarding at his home spot Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro.
The video is not bad, but the shoter Andre Magarao obviously has a pretty bad taste when it comes to music. I think the natural choice of song to this video of course should have been Solid Sessions – Janeiro!
Hannah Whiteley in Venezuela
the bst video I could find today is this video featuring Hannah Whiteley. Here kitesurfing at Coche Island in Venezuela, enjoy!
Epic Surfing in Fiji
Kite 2012 is a site mainly focused on kitesurfing. However, in rare occasions surfing or wake boarding videos are published on the net that are so great that they deserve some space here on Kite 2012. This surfing video is one of those rare occasions. John Eaves has filmed a giant swell rolling in over Cloud Break in Fiji. This swell apperantly created some sick waves! The guys in the water must have had the most epic surfing session in there whole life!
John Eaves own words:
Cloud Break, fiji, june 8th, 2012 during the Volcom ASP surfing event a giant swell rolled in from the south. the contest was running all morning until the waves got so big, the contest organizers called it off for safety reasons, a call that will be forever debated in the surfing world. Regardless, it opened the doors for anyone willing to go for it, and there were many big wave riders that had flown in on news of the swell. the afternoon provided us with non-stop entertainment.
I have been a fan of surfing ever since I saw Simon Anderson introduce the Thruster at Pipeline in the early 80’s. I had a ring side seat and just happened to pack my Canon 5D in the bag that day!
It will go down in my memory as the best surfing I have ever seen.
Related External Links
Youri Zoon in boots!
For a long time Youri Zoon refused to ride with boots, but apperantly he has finally realized that he is forced to ride with boots if he wants to beat Alex Pastor. His obvious sponsor is of course Brunotti, but it looks like they forgot a small detail when they were mounting the boots on the board… =)