Features

Parklife

We were stoked to see an international park style event back in the public eye, with the recent Kite Park League’s Team Battle held in Hood River. The event had a different format to previous park events, and we spoke to Noè Font, organizer and competitor, to find out more about the event and what the future holds for park riding…

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What to watch for at King of The Air 2022

For a gentleman as invested in Big Air as our beloved Colin, the KOTA is the equivalent of Christmas morning to a seven-year-old. It’s the Super Bowl to an American, or the World Cup final to people that enjoy kicking inflatable pig bladders of a Saturday. Whilst it’s unlikely they’ll wheel out Beyonce or Snoop Dogg at half time for a musical number, kudos to Red Bull for consistently putting on a fine event for TEN FLAMING YEARS, which is without a doubt the pinnacle of the kite calendar. It’s clear Colin has an awkward tent pole forming in his (off-beige corduroy) pants already, and it’s not even November yet. With recent advances in Big Air trickery, this year is – without a doubt – going to cause him an absolute knee trembler.

A Material World

The kite materials revolution is well and truly upon us. We thought it an interesting idea to round up some of the most active brands in the light materials world, and ask them a few awkward questions to try and achieve a broader picture of where this is leading for design and manufacturing industry wide. Ocean Rodeo, Airush, CORE, Duotone and Eleveight give us their honest insights…

Young Guns

Naish Team Europe was established to find young riders with talent and help them on their path to becoming a pro rider. Adriano Gazzoli from Italy, Arne Thiebaut from Belgium, Nathan Texier from France, and Jinne Boer, Teun Spliethof and Timo Boersema from the Netherlands recently joined Big Air legend Stig Hoefnagel and freestyle wizard Louka Pitot in Leucate, for a week of fun, kiting and getting some tips-from-the-top for guaranteed kite-world domination!

Wherever I Lay My Hat

Where is home if you’re often on the road traveling to kite events? Camille and Capucine Delannoy, although originally from France, currently call Brazil home, as their family all moved out there when Camille was 12 and Capucine seven. But a recent trip to Maui has seen it steal a little piece of Camille’s heart, as he told our editor Sarah, and their current, temporary home is Tarifa. Celtia Rebolledo Heil caught up with Capucine there to find out more about her competition mindset and preparation for the GKA Big Air World Championships. [Note as we were going to press: she won!]

Proven Wrong

Roderick Pijls recently signed with FLYSURFER, and for his first photoshoot with them, headed to the beautiful south west of England with the rest of the team – Olly Bridge, Johanna-Catharina Edin, Alina Shalin, Matias Lee, Megan Barnett, and Marketing Manager Ines Rodlauer. It may not have been boardshorts and bikini weather, but the turquoise water and head-high waves of Cornwall won Roderick over to the UK.

Highs and Lows

Carl Ferreira from Cape Town was looking forward to his trip to beautiful Italy to meet up with the team from RRD and feed back into their kite development. He got some fun sessions in and plenty of espressos, but the trip didn’t quite end as he would have liked…

Lost and Found

Joshua Emanuel made the most of a recent trip to Madagascar, where he helped judge at the country’s first kite festival, Festikite. He kited his heart out, explored beautiful beaches and forests with photographer Sacha,  enjoyed the generous hospitality of the locals, and ran into a few of Madagascar’s unique animals… Busy times then.

THE MISSION: FOLLOW THE WIND

The Netherlands has spawned some of the world’s best kiters with its stormy winds. But when conditions weren’t playing ball, Evan Klijn, who came second in last year’s Big Air Kite League competition in Cape Town, jumped on a plane and headed to Tarifa, the intensely windy, southernmost point of Mainland Europe.