kiteboarding | Kite 2012

Rapace kites

Posted by kite2012 On May - 26 - 2012

Ever heard about Rapace? Or have you ever seen a Rapace kite? No?, Well, the probability is quite small since Rapace just recently entered the kite manufacturing market. Currently they only have resellers in Canada, France, Italy, Slovenia and the Netherlands. They are actually looking for resellers, so if you want to sell kites, now is your chance!

Rapace produce kites both for snowkiting and kitesurfing. They also produce boards, harnesses, so Rapace pretty much cover the whole spectra. However, their range of products is still small, but I assume that it will grow larger with time.

The one and only kitesurfing kite that is for sale on the market is the Rapace RW1. It’s a 9m hybride kite. Let’s take a deeper look into it. Note that this information is taken right from the Rapace official site (www.rapace-kiteboarding.fr), so the drawbacks with this kite, if any… are of course not stated ;)

The RW1 is easy to use. No oddities or special features, therefor suitable for beginners.
It comes with a one pump system so you don’t have to worry about being the last one that enters the water.
The RW1 is very stable, yet lively and responsive.
The shape of the RW1 allows for a huge lift for those who love long flights when attached to the harness.
The large depower allows you to ride in a wide wind range.

Technical details:

* One pump
* Bar with double stoppers
* Security system + trim piece
* Reinforced fabric on LE and struts
* 25 meter lines
* Non-return ball in the valve on the leading edge
* Quick and easy trim over the bar
* Teijin fabrics
* Reinforcements struts

Shape:

* Hybrid
* 5 struts
* 4 lines
* double pullies
* Freestyle/freeride

Nothing new really. All kites manufactured today are more or less constructed in the same way with one pump, teijin fabrics, reinforcements etc…

However, what I find interesting with this kite is the price! You can buy this Rapace RW1 kite for as low as $815 or 650 € including bar, pump, bag! The url to the online shop is www.rapace-shop.fr

Finally, here is a video that shows that it’s fully possible to perform well with this kite in the water!

All, Kites, News, Rapace kites, Videos

Kitesurfing in Bali

Posted by kite2012 On May - 25 - 2012

Kitesurfing, also known as” Kiteboarding “started at the end of the 90’ and become one of the most popular extreme water sports gaining followers all over the world.
Kitesurfing is a unique and exciting sport that is the combination of many other watersports: The speed of water skiing, the acrobatic moves of wakeboarding, the precise curves on the waves like surfers and the amazing jumps that makes you literally flying!

Hearing all of this makes you feel like you want to run to the beach, get a kite a board and launch yourself into this incredible adventure.

But like all extreme sports is not as easy as it seems and could be very dangerous! Numerous deaths happened around the world…

Watching experience riders flying effortless on their boards and shredding havoc on the waves or jump as high as a bird really looks like it’s nothing and anyone can do it…

Kitesurfing is a sport to be taken with extreme respect! The kites are extremely powerful and can easily become a danger to yourself and to others. Like a wild horse can drag you on the beach or thrown you in the air like a twig.

So try to follow the few tips that are listed below trying to avoid those mistakes and mishaps that all of us pioneers of this sport have happened sooner or later during our first steps:

1 – It’s always best, at least at the beginning, to use the services of a professional school, this will help you to learn more quickly and way more safely than if you try on your own.
Not only that but you will save money! Because crashing and destroying a brand new kite can seriously hurt your bank account.

2 – Get informed! There are hundreds of sites on the web where to find information’s about kitesurfing, how to learn, types of kiteboarding equipment, where to do it and all the dangers related.

Here are few very good:
– Kitesurfing School, pretty much the bible for those who want to learn the sport,
https://kitesurfingschool.org
– Kite Forum, a forum where thousand of fans enjoy discussing their favorite sport, www.kiteforum.com
– Bali Kitesurfing, the original and most informative guide about Kitesurfing in Bali and all of Indonesia www.bali-kitesurfing.org

– Bali Kitesurfing on Facebook, get all the latest news and find a daily wind report of the conditions in Sanur at Kite Beach

3 – If there are no schools in your area, try to learn on your own but step by step.

Start by flying a small trainer kite specially designed for learning safely also call “stunt kite” normally about 2 square meters.

Then read everything possible in the web sites mentioned above and get an instructional Kitesurfing DVD professional made like the one from Progression.

Learn to Wakeboard behind a boat to help with your board riding skill.

In Bali the best place to start is at kite Beach in Sanur “Pantai Pura Mertasari” where there is huge lagoon with calm water that is perfect for practice.

The wind intensity in Bali is never too strong so is very rare that it reach a force such that kiteboarding become really dangerous.

Rather there are more days when we wander from one beach to another desperately looking for that gust of air that allows us to glide over the water and dream.

To learn kitesurfing in Bali there are already few schools and they are all located in Sanur:

Bali Kitesurfing School, is owned and run by the Balinese kite team, they are very patient and very good in teaching.
They only use the latest and best equipment on the market.

Water Lessons are all One on One and the instructors follow you at all time in the water in a motorized boat.

Rip Curl School of Surf, is an international Kitesurfing school that is associated to IKO.

In Bali and all of Indonesia at the moment there is only ONE shop where to find all you need.

KITE & SURF BALI – THE PRO SHOP located in Sanur very close to Kite Beach.
Prices are really convenient compare to any other place in the world and they sell equipment from the best brands like: Cabrinha, Ozone, Underground, Flying Object and more.

It´s fun to jump with your kite, but be careful…

Posted by kite2012 On May - 24 - 2012

You´ve done it thousands times or even more, perhaps 10.000 times. You’re skilled and you think you´re the master of jumping. And yes, you might be damn good at jumping with your kite, many of us are. Me myself love to jump and as well! I do it often and I’m usually dumb enough to do it over shallow water. 99 jumps out of 100 may be nice with smooth landings, but I don’t think none of us make 100% perfect jumps, not even Ruben Lenten does! Ok, I know that Ruben likes to ride in storms, but still, you hopefully get my point. To take precautions is quite easy, don’t jump over shallow water and use a flexible board, preferable without heel straps or boots. Simple precautions that can save your knees. Another tip is to land with your ass instead of on the board if you feel that a landing have the potential to become hard. Is it a good idea to land with your ass when jumping in shallow water? Exactly, that’s why you better make those “personal height record jump” in deep water, or at least where it’s about 3-4 feet deep.

This guy from Sweden is one that did not have the luck on his side one day when he was kiteboarding. This is his story that hopefully will get some of us to think before when we are out kiteboarding this summer.

When is it time to leave the water?

Posted by kite2012 On May - 23 - 2012

Under your kiteboarding lesson you probably learned that it´s important to keep an eye on the sky to see if there are any weird cloud formations going on such as dark clouds or cumulonimbus clouds. Rain fronts are usually easy to spot in time to manage to go back on land and bring down your kite before the front is over you. Or you can of course stay in the water and get prepared for an insane jumping session, just don’t lose your board since it can be difficult to recover it in very strong wind. Sometimes rain fronts come and go frequently and you can often see if it´s a big front or a smaller front. The size of the front determines how long you can expect the temporary strong wind to last. Landing a kite in strong gusty wind can be very dangerous, so it´s better to stay in the water and let the front pass than landing the kite while the wind is at its peak. If the whole horizont is dark and cloudy, then you might consider to get back on land after all even if you’re a skilled kiter, since you cannot estimate for how long the bad weather will last. There are however some occasions where you really shouldn’t stay in the water to prolong your kite session. One of these occasions is if the sky looks like this:

What you see here is a Shelf cloud which is a type of an Arcus cloud. This cloud could be seen in Hatteras yesterday the 22nd of May and I doubt that any kiteboarders decided to take a session during the time.

A shelf cloud is a horizontal wedge shaped cloud that rush forward along the ground. The shelf cloud is in turn connected to the base of a parent cloud, usually a thunderstorm i.e. a big cumulonimbus cloud, but it can be attached to other convective cloud types as well. The leading edge of the shelf cloud gets its characteristic shape due to the cold sinking air coming from the storm cloud behind it. This downdraft spreads out across the land as the leading edge is heading towards you. With this leading edge comes a strong gust front.

The storm cloud behind the shelf cloud might be very high (1,5 miles up to 14 miles) with strong upwinds. These upwinds are caused when the warm air in the middle of the cloud rushes upwards through the cloud. The cumulonimbus cloud often show up with its characteristic appearance of an anvil. The anvil consists of a veil of ice crystals in the upper part of the cloud, just at the bottom of the tropopause. The upwinds that reach this level is relatively colder than the tropopause, hence the moist air is diffusing laterally. This cold air in turn creates downdraft on the outside of the cloud. The rain and hail in these downdraft bring a lot of air that smashes towards the ground where it is being pushed forward in front of the cloud. This is the strong cold gust that we feel just before a bad weather cloud is coming in. The upwinds in the cumulonimbus clouds can be as strong as 20-30 m/s. They are therefore extremely dangerous to kiteboarders. In other words it´s not a good idea to be out kiteboarding either if you see a shelf cloud or a cumulonimbus cloud. There is a high risk that you get lofted, which happened to the guy from the unbelievable “Top Hat video”.

Massive cumulonimbus clouds can, if the conditions are right, transform into supercells. Supercells can be described as cumulonimbus clouds with strong rotating updrafts. The rotation occurs when the updrafts are combined with wind shear. The wind shear make the air turn into a huge vertical spiral inside the cloud that is being bended upwards thanks to the updrafts.

If you face a supercell when kiteboarding then you better not just head toward the beach asap, but packing down your stuff and get the hell out of there!

All, Cape Hatteras, News, Pictures

Kiteboarding in Cabarete

Posted by kite2012 On May - 22 - 2012

Discover Cabarete

If warm and sunny beaches are the perfect holiday destination for you then Cabarete would be a great place to visit! Cabarete is a wonderful town located in Puerto Plata a province of the Dominican Republic. The city was founded in 1835 by Zephaniah Kingsley along with his family and 53 slaves he brought from Florida. It is now famous for its sunny beaches and also for being the location of professional kitesurfing contests such as the World Cup and the “Master of the Ocean” competition.
Most of the people are going to the tropics simply to relax and lay on the beach all day long. But Cabarete is offering much more than this and it is a great place for all kind of interesting sports and outdoor activities. For example you can windsurf and Cabarete is among the top ten places in the world for this activity. You can also perform the classic surfing and the waters here are perfect for this! They are safe, warm, not crowded with people and they deliver perfect waves for surfing. Here you can also do Boogie-Boarding, Paddle Boarding, Canyoning or Wakeboarding. If you like exploring then you can choose to scuba dive and discover the wonderful marine life of this place. You can also choose to explore the caves found at the edge of the Cabarete or see the surroundings of the city by riding a mountain bike. If you prefer riding a motor bike instead then you can take motorcross lessons do enduro tours or dirt biking. The mountainous terrain from this area is just perfect for that. In case you are not a fan of such extreme sports then you can simply play some golf or take sightseeing expeditions around the city.
But the most interesting activity you can try here is definitely kitesurfing in Cabarete. (also known as kiteboarding). It is one of the newest and craziest water sports of the world and it can be done perfectly on the waters of Cabarete. The city is famous for the great conditions offered for kiteboarding and there is no wonder that it was the host of the Kiteboarding World Cup as well as the “Master of the Ocean” competition for many years.

It doesn’t matter if you are a total beginner or a pro that knows plenty of kitesurfing techniques because Cabarete is great for everyone! The entire industry of the city relies on tourism and water sports and there are lots and lots of stores that are offering all the tools you need for surfing kiteboarding and all the sports mentioned before. Besides that there are also plenty of Kiteboarding schools and clubs that are ready to prepare any newbie for his first kitesurfing experience.
If we made you curious then don’t hesitate to make Cabarete your next holiday destination. We are sure you will enjoy it and we are waiting you to tell us all about your experience. Have fun!
Related External Links

Information about Cabarete in French, Cabarete dr

News about Cabarete www.cabaretenews.org

Finally, here is a nice video from Cabarete

The most well-designed kite on the market!

Posted by kite2012 On May - 20 - 2012

Which kite is the most well-designed kite on the market? I find it hard to answer that question. Is it the Slingshot RPM, Cabrinha Crossbow, BWS Noise? I´ve been an owner of several different kites and I can’t say that I´ve been fully satisfied with any of them, there has always been something in the construction and the design that has been bothering me. The center-line and depower strap on Slingshot’s control bar system sucks in my opinion, not only do these “ropes” wear easily but giving me blisters between my fingers. The lines that Cabrinha provide are crap, after a season they are at least 1 inch longer. The control bars that came with my Royal Kites proved to be fairly easy to crack (I’ve managed to crack 2 Royal control bars!)
Just recently I noticed that the donkey dick on my new “smartbar” for my Airush Varial X 2012 was broken. A bar that have been used about 5 times!
What I´m trying to say here is that it obviously is hard to design a kite that last!
I understand that the manufacturers do what they can to cut the costs, for instance by using cheap materials. Not saying that cheap materials necessarily must be of poor quality, but I assume that it´s more likely to find crappy materials in China fabric than in NASA’s development centre. So I find it natural that the kites from different kite manufacturers have “weak” and “strong” parts in their kites depending on whom they have chosen as for their suppliers.
This brings us to another rather difficult question, which kite brand that has the best suppliers? Best in terms of supplying quality parts.
I guess that it could be possible to tell which kites that are more likely to last if we had information about their suppliers, but I don’t, and it would require a thorough research to unearth that information…
I wish someone out there could give me solid proofs that showed me black on white which kite that is made of the highest quality materials. Or to put it in another way, I´d like to know which kite to buy to get as much kite as possible per dollar.
Until that day I assume that I´ll have to live in uncertainty and rely on what I read on kite forums and what I see in kite promos :P

Finally, if for some reason bothered to read all this, then you might as well take a look at this promo for Gin Guru. My old picture of Gin kites is that they are just another newcomer located in Switzerland that tries to take their share of the pie in the kite selling market. But lately I´ve read lots of positive words about this kite. Perhaps is Gin making the best kites on the market? Who the hell knows… Anyway, I like their new promo. I bet they manage to get some new followers thanks to this short clip, you should not undervalue the effect of good marketing! :)

KTA China Pingtan 2012

Posted by kite2012 On May - 19 - 2012

They finally got some wind in Pingtan! Here is a bit of freestyle action from the mens and female single competition as well as some racing competition. As you can see they ride a lot of Ozone kites, I guess Ozone has done some serious marketing in Asia :)

The guy standing to the right in this picture is Ken from Boracay. He runs a kite center on bulabong beach, “Kite Academics” or something like that. Anyway, he is a friendly guy that you usually find on the beach or in one of bars in the evenings.
Don’t know his place in this KTA tournament… he doesn’t seem to look to enthusiastic some reason…

Cape Hatteras Kiteboarding

Posted by kite2012 On May - 19 - 2012

Ever been thinking of doing a roadtrip through the states? then you might wanna stop by Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. Here is NY kitecenter located (nykitecenter.com) who organize trips to the best kiteboarding spots in the area.

Are you thinking of travelling to Brasil this year to kiteboard?

Posted by kite2012 On May - 16 - 2012

Are you thinking of travelling to Brasil this year to kiteboard? Do you want an adventure and endless wind? Then here is the kite trip you don’t want to miss.

Kiteboarders travelling to Brasils’ North East coast of Ceara can now go where few have kited before, on a Private kiteboard trip that explores beyond the “regular tourist” spots. Previously, most have stayed pretty close to Fortaleza because of its’ international airport, but, over the last 5 years Brasil has grown and improved in many areas. The most important improvements have been to the roads, safety, transportation and hospitality industry which has opened up the North to fantastic kite adventure trips.

Kiters looking for a trip to remember are now leaving the known spots in search of more wind and incredible kiting spots just a few hours further. As a result more and more people are booking kite trips that showcase various spots with a wide variety of conditions and sights. The trip locations will highlight sliding down giant sand dunes to jumping over small sand bars, from kiting big waves to flying across flat water. The trip organizers at Windy Addiction will help you to avoid the common tourist trap mistakes and navigate quickly from city to kite town to the beach with ease maximizing your fun and time on the water.

The best kite trip now available in Brasil is with Windy Addiction. Their office, kiteschool and Pousada (bed and breakfast), is centrally located in Ilha do Guajiru, approximately 2 hours North of Fortaleza. This spot is fantastic for beginners are pro-kiters since it has a wide shallow flat water river lagoon, each kite trip will start and finish here. Your trip includes; breakfast, accommodations, transport, a one hour free kite clinic
to all group members and of course more wind than you’ve ever seen! The trip is divided to take you to some famous spots as well as some hidden treasures and secret spots that only the locals and your guide know about.

Your personal guide, and kite instructor, will speak Portuguese and English and organize 7-10 day trips specific for your groups kiting abilities. Imagine…waking up along the beach with the wind already blowing, kiting some epic flat water and then doing a downwinder into waves! At the end of the day you will be welcomed back by
friends, treated like family and share great stories while enjoying some world reknown Brasilian Caiparinhas.

The trips do need to be booked in advance and have a minimum booking requirement of 3 persons. For more details and pricing please see “7-10 Day Kite Adventure trip” there you may see an example trip itinerary.

For any other questions or help regarding kiteboarding accommodations, lessons or trips in Brasil, please contact David at kiteboarding@windyaddiction.com.

Hooked 2012

Posted by kite2012 On May - 13 - 2012

HOOKED is the largest adventure sports event of Friesland and takes place the weekend of 12 and 13 May 2012 on the beach of Workum. Kitesurfing and windsurfing are the main elements in which visitors can participate in lessons and professional surfers can watch, but that’s not all. HOOKED distinguished by the different popular extreme sports by visitors are polite and experienced. Wind or no wind, HOOKED is always a success!

The activities of 2011 included Kitesurfing and windsurfing lessons, BMX demos and lessons, Loangboarden, SUP (stand up padle) and as a great spectacle the BigAirBAG. This is a big cushion where PRO BMX’ers from a ramp in flies. For 2012, the organization began to fully achieve the superlative.

Kiteboarding in Almanarre

Posted by kite2012 On May - 13 - 2012

Kiteboarding in Almanarre, France. This is a really nice kiboarding video from some guys that seems to have a perfect local spot!

Stefan Spiessberger – Capetown 2012

Posted by kite2012 On May - 9 - 2012

Stefan Spiessberger has spent the winter in Capetown in South Africa which seems to be a damn good way to spend winter! Awesome scenery and great action + good music in this video!

Kiteboarding in Gulfport Mississippi

Posted by kite2012 On May - 9 - 2012

Here is a cool vid from Gulfport in Mississippi. Nice footage and good choice of music, just the way I like kitesurfing videos!

All, Gulfport, Mississippi, Videos

Movistar Kitesurf Tour 2012 in Matanzas

Posted by kite2012 On May - 7 - 2012

This is the 3:rd episode of the Rise Kitesurfing Podcast series featuring JP Diban and the Chilean National Wavemaster, The Movistar Kitesurf Tour 2012 in Matanzas. The video is far from the best I´ve seen, but I like the music, so I decided to post it here :)