THEKITEMAG ISSUE #52

“The more we looked into it, the more complex it seemed… Every tulip color blooms at a slightly different time, so that the farmers don’t have to harvest everything at once. So it was not easy to find a field with everything in full bloom, that just happened to have a water channel next to it that would be kite-able, then to have the right wind direction to kite the channel and to have a sunny day as it didn’t feel appropriate shooting flowery spring content on a rainy day… Not asking much…”

On paper, a great idea. In practice… well, let’s just say that things weren’t quite as simple, or as tranquil, as Hannah Whiteley had hoped.

“On first glance it was hard to understand how this wave actually breaks. My first rides were always out of place and I was either too deep or too far forward. My knowledge of kite barrels from my Supertubes playground was obsolete.”

With little in the way of kitesurfable conditions showing up at his home spot in Portugal over the winter, Nuno “Stru” Figueiredo turned his barrel-starved attentions towards Cape Verde…

“There were icebergs floating around which got bigger and bigger as we got closer to the glacier. The wind also got stronger closer to the glacier, so we hurried to set up our kites, on an iceberg I might add! We kited right up against the glacier walls. Kiting directly in front of a 100 meter wall of ice was such a surreal feeling.”

Liam Whaley is humbled by the ice, as he joins teammates Matchu Lopes and Reno Romeu for an adventure into the glacial hinterlands of Alaska. The bear spray was also close to hand…

“On the second day we had the privilege of meeting Steve Spike, a surfer who is also very knowledgeable about weather. We visited him at his home in Kommetjie, south of the city, where he explained everything that goes on in the Cape and why and how weather fronts and water currents and systems change; from temperature to waves he explained everything.”

Stig Hoefnagel and Helena Brochocka joined the Prolimit team for a photoshoot with a difference in Cape Town, as they also got to immerse themselves (academically and literally) in the complex climate and current systems that bring the A-grade conditions to the South African coast.

“Like in F1 when it’s wet, Daniela Moroz goes full beast mode when the conditions are sketchy. She adapts faster and better than anyone. She takes a bigger kite than everyone, and smashes you on the downwind leg. You think you’ve got it in the bag and then she comes past at twice the speed and you cry.”

More sage musings from Colin Colin Carroll as he puts forward nine valid reasons as to why the 2024 Olympics should be on your radar…

“Arriving in Buenos Aires is always exciting yet challenging from a jet lag point of view, which I seemed to really battle with this year. Loads of empanadas and cups of the Argentinian tea, mate, seemed to do the trick, and Mauro and the Santa Tabla crew were unbelievable in getting me back on track and prepped for the 14 hour drive to the event site.”

Sometimes you need more than just raw talent to reach the podium. Jett Bradshaw made it with a little help from his Argentinian friends, who he now calls family.

” watched a 40-foot-tall wave have a 40-foot-wide barrel. Not only was it huge, but it was also super powerful. I can’t count how many times I’ve made the trek up to Jaws, but this was the most intimidating it had ever looked. I was worried if I watched it too long, I probably wouldn’t have gone out.”

Although not long recovered from a major operation, Patri McLaughlin wasn’t about to sit on his hands as the swell of the season rolled through Jaws. And it paid off, with Patri bagging the cover shot for this issue!

“We had planned all our excursions beforehand so we knew which spots were best for which wind direction and had checked the driving distances to them from our hotel. Little did we know that the ‘roads’ on Google Maps weren’t really roads in reality…”

Andrea Zust and Peer Schnyder were newbies to the island of Boa Vista, Cape Verde. Turns out the 4×4 they’d rented for the trip was just as essential a piece of kit as their foil gear.