Recent features from the print magazine...
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Fadi Issa was one of the original pioneers of kiting on Maui back in the day. Now living on the windy island of Fuerteventura, he is a respected judge for the GKA and GWA, as well as being a super talented rider himself. He has also become creative with his love of the ocean, embracing the Japanese art of Gyotaku…
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It’s a big deal for our oh-so-nichey sport when a kiter winds up on the TV, particularly back in 2008 when the sport was in its oh-so-exciting infancy. Way back in the day, when we used jumpers for goalposts, our friend Murray Smith ended up on series two of the BBC’s seminal reality TV work, Last Man Standing, proudly branded as a ‘kitesurfer’. Highlights included him battering a fellow contestant with a seven-foot-long pole, in a borderline culturally misappropriated Ethiopian Donga ceremony that probably wouldn’t wash in our now more enlightened times. The boy did well though, narrowly missing the win in an emotionally charged canoe-based finale, but did a fabulous job representing our sport, although ultimately losing to a boxer from London.
Post his reality TV experience, he was promised further fame and riches, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for Muzza) absolutely tap all ever came of it. You’ll be glad to hear he now lives happily with his family on a farm near Dartmouth, and as a testament to his endeavor, Murray has been permanently etched on my phone contacts as “Murray off the Telly”. All in all, it’s a happy ending for Murray.
Here we are, 15 years later, in the same situation with young Edgar Ulrich on Love Island. In that timespan, and with the terrifying evolution of social media, reality TV has morphed into something far more complex than twatting each other with big sticks or some casual Indian mud wrestling. Luckily Colin has applied some vigorous psychoanalysis to the situation to help the more world-weary among us make some sort of sense of it all. Unlike Murray though, Edgar only went and won it…
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Anthony Green, a keen kiter and paraglider, is the Graphic Designer for Airwave. With Covid and improved satellite internet making working remotely easier, he set off on his catamaran with his family, to sail round the world and kite at spots inaccessible to those without a boat. If you’ve ever fantasized about doing the same, read on…
Roderick Pijls agreed to accept a mission not knowing anything about it other than where and when he had to be with his kite gear. Without giving too much away, there was an open ocean kite crossing involved, a trek up an active – and smelly – volcano, and some philosophical pondering… It was mission successful, and getting back home brought Roderick more joy too.
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Naish Team Europe, which helps young riders with talent like Timo Boersema on their path to becoming a pro, last year did a trip to Leucate, France. Timo has grown to the international team and fresh talent has since been added to the Europe team. So with more nationalities on board, it was time to pack the bags again. This year, again joined by Stig Hoefnagel, they flew further south to the windy spot of Dakhla for another week of fun, sand, action and sore muscles.
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The Cabrinha team has had a number of changes recently with UK legend Hannah Whiteley and Denmark’s Lucas Gramstrup joining the team in the last year. Cape Verdean Hendrick Lopes also recently joined the Cabrinha family and headed to Tarifa to compete in the GKA Big Air Kite World Championships on his new gear.
Andrea Principi is at the forefront of the evolution of Big Air tricks, and in June won the GKA Big Air Kite World Championships for the second year running. He puts his success down to a love of adrenaline, and a recent trip to windy Namibia with fellow GOAT nominees Aaron Hadlow and Liam Whaley also helped, as the boys all egged each other on to go bigger and better…
Take four of the world’s most extreme kiteboarders – Cohan Van Dijk, Graham Howes, Jett Bradshaw and Luca Ceruti – pair them up with a handful of the most creative and capable camerapersons in the scene, and sprinkle some Dutch spice over the mixture… A recipe to triumph over disaster… A recipe of legends… An expedition to go down in the kiteboarding history books… And a cover for TheKiteMag…
Videography: Adam Sims, Kyle Cabano and Maarten Molenaar
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Acclaimed photographer Ydwer van der Heide has been a perennial favorite here at TheKiteMag since the magazine’s inception, and we have featured numerous shots of his over the years, including some of our most iconic covers. When life changed drastically for him after a serious accident, he didn’t let it stop him pressing that shutter. His methodology for taking photos had to change though, resulting in something different to his previous style but, as you’ll see here, equally epic and succeeding in truly getting under the skin of the world of kitesurfing…
Hydrofoiling enthusiasts Andrea Zust and Peer Schnyder from Switzerland headed to Boa Vista, Cape Verde for some winter sun and foiling fun. They wisely rented a 4×4, it being nigh on impossible to explore the island without one, and hit the sandy tracks that permeate out from the main town, Sal Rei.
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How could we not give Patri McLaughlin the cover for that insane shot at Jaws by Daniel Sullivan? Patri tells us how he managed to bag the biggest wave of his life, and possibly the biggest wave ever ridden in the world… Here we take a look at that wave and at some of the other beasts tackled that day…
Photo here: Adam Carbajal
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Historically, when a free sport elects to become ‘Olympicized’ for some die-hard roots participants, we’re entering dodgy ground. Take snowboarding as an example… Off the bat, the pathway to get kiting to the Olympics has been a tumultuous one politically. For the common or garden kiter, it’s a long way from what you’ll experience on the beach with its hyper-expensive and technical foil kites, but there’s no denial that hydrofoil racing has helped finance and turbocharge foil development. This has already trickled down to what we use for freeriding on a day-to-day basis. Colin is trying to convince us to take notice, and it’s undoubtedly an area of the sport that is perhaps an unsung hero currently. But will it ever become more relatable to the mass market…?
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Ever wondered what it’s like to kite in front of a 100-meter wall of ice? Duotone team riders Liam Whaley, Matchu Lopes and Reno Romeu headed to Alaska to find out. They spent hours on the road, on the hunt for some unique kiting in mind-blowing scenery. Despite the icy water, or perhaps because of it, they were rewarded with unforgettable memories and these insane shots…
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