THEKITEMAG ISSUE #50

“Complementing this natural phenomenon was riding at 1am. This might sound ludicrous to some, but Iceland only has about four hours of darkness at night during summer. I remember coming out of the water at 2am and couldn’t believe my eyes; what a time to be alive!”

Oswald Smith and Camille Delannoy switch out the boardies and don some suitably thick Mystic neoprene to take on the chilly winds and waters of Iceland…

“Although the 45-knot wind we were hoping to bag only revealed itself on our last day, we got some epic sessions throughout our stay, and the footage Kyle captured got better and better. The remoteness of the spots takes one’s psychological experience on the water to another level.”

Jett Bradshaw, Graham Howes and videographer/photographer Kyle Cabano stock up on road snacks and head for Namibia, chasing the wind on a 3000km round trip.

“No one who knows anything about anything predicted Lorenzo Casati as the next King of The Air. He has been resting in the shadows of Andrea, who has had one of the most successful years in kiteboarding competition, ever. Lorenzo has been in the wings, waiting for his time, whilst his sparring partner stole the show. Everyone feared Andrea. Until round one…”

If there was a Pulitzer prize for kiteboarding journalism, we’d be submitting this piece by Colin Colin Carroll. In the year the young guns bust down the door of KOTA, Colin takes a look at exactly how, and what this all means for the future of Big Air…

“I’ve kited in turquoise waters in such places as Bora Bora and Turks and Caicos, but this spot Teme is absolutely unreal. Andre spotted a great reef mushroom and we set our sights on scoring some shots there. The current was really strong so it was hard to stay upwind, but it was totally worth it.”

After his last trip to French Polynesia was cut short by you-know-what, it was only going to be a matter of time before Victor Hays made plans for a return. And happily, photographer Andre Magarao wasn’t a million miles away either.

“Most of the young bloods arrived a few days prior to the official kickoff. The forecast was looking exceptional for the first couple of days, but less promising for the rest of the week. Not wanting to waste any time or wind, everyone went straight into action.”

Nathalie Lambrecht gives an overview of the latest Duotone Young Blood Camp in Egypt, where past and likely future champions cut their teeth as they prepare to commit to the pro rider lifestyle.

“I wanted to take Dice with us, so I decided to put her in my kite bag and see what happened… I couldn’t believe it but she was very happy to stay in the bag for the whole upwinder which took us about 25 minutes. The next day when I got my kite bag ready to take her upwind, she knew what was coming and very excitedly jumped right in!”

The world’s best traveled kiteboarding sidekick, Dice the dog, once again joins Big Air star Zara Hoogenraad on an adventure – this time touring the northern coastline of Brazil.

“The next day we got lucky. The boat left at 9am and we sailed into sunshine. It was a stunning day with blue skies and 23 to 26 knots. On arrival, we quickly dropped our stuff off and rushed to the beach. We found an insane spot with sandbars, rocks and butter-flat water.”

A kite trip to Scotland was always going to be a game of odds with the weather and conditions. But Youri Zoon and photographer Orestis Zoumpos come from hardy stock, and the promise of crowd-free spots and majestic scenery was well worth the gamble.

“Our mission on this trip was not to bring you a progression-focused riding edit, but to show the landscape, have fun, and make a dream come true for the riders. So we set off into the desert- like dunes and tried our luck at a new sport: buggy kite jumping.”

Top tier Naish team riders recreate the communal living space originally conceived for the first Naish House film, many years ago. This time they came together in the heart of Brazil’s freestyle scene…