Features

51st State

As humans we occasionally feel compelled to make lists. Generally this is so we don’t forget things and to bring order to the chaos in our complicated and squidgy brains. Since its inception, kiting has been off on so many tangents, and has produced so many landmark moments, we may be at the point where a concise record needs to be taken, and maybe even in some loose order of significance. Colin’s probably not old enough to remember a pre-internet 90’s pop singles chart – horrible moments like Bryan Adams at number one for 16 weeks straight with that dire Robin Hood Prince of Thieves soundtrack for instance – but regardless, we managed to distract his digitally augmented face from Instagram just long enough to commission our Top Fifty Moments in Kiting. This was originally to coincide with fifty issues of TheKiteMag, but in true TheKiteMag style there was a last minute change of plan. The KOTA report last issue was deemed more important and eclipsed the moment somewhat, so here we are at issue 51.

Hot Dog

Dice the dog, who has already made a guest appearance on these illustrious pages back in issue 41, could be the most traveled kite dog in the world, getting to accompany Big Air star Zara Hoogenraad on kite trips around Europe. She can now add Brazil to her list of countries visited, as Zara took her along for the ride, both on the plane and on the water – Dice happily piggybacked for some kite sessions, which we think deserves a round of a-paws… Zara tells us all about their trip along Brazil’s northern coastline.

READ MORE

Cold as Ice

Would you be willing to sacrifice your love of warm, tropical kite spots to hit up iceberg-strewn beaches and glacial lakes instead? Oswald Smith and Camille Delannoy went on a mystical mission and fully embraced the chilly waters of Iceland. Clad in Mystic’s latest winter gear, they were ready to face whatever the Land of Fire and Ice threw at them.

The Creators: Dano See & Jaimie Scott

With the recent release of North Kiteboarding’s updated Surf range, we thought it was a good time to meet the designers behind the products. Dano See, who has helped develop the latest Carve kite, joined North last year, bringing with him more than 20 years of experience working in the industry. And Jaimie Scott, surfboard shaper for North, has been applying his experience in board shaping to their latest surfboards, including the Cross and Charge.

Reflections: Behind the Lens

What do you do when you need to get some top-drawer photos but Covid restrictions have scuppered your usual photoshoots? Hawaiian wave slayers Moona Whyte and Keahi de Aboitiz took matters into their own hands and got behind the camera as well as in front of it.

On Thin Ice

When Ben Beholz was invited on a photoshoot to capture Prolimit’s winter collection, he wasn’t going to let meter-thick ice stop him. He embraced the chilly temperatures and got fully immersed in the icy, alpine waters of Lake Silvaplana, Switzerland.

Tangled Lines Legends: Lasse Walker

Lasse Walker has been at the forefront of extreme Big Air for quite a few years now, appearing on the podium at such events as the Red Bull Megaloop Challenge and Cold Hawaii. He recently released Skywalker, a documentary about overcoming the physical and mental setbacks of his crash at Red Bull King of the Air in 2016. He discovered for instance how freediving can help him stay calm and fight fear – worth checking out if you haven’t already.

Route 101 Northbound

Noè Font and Xander Raith, together with photographer Toby Bromwich, loaded up a pickup truck with all their kiting and camping gear and headed up the Route 101 highway that runs south to north along the US west coast. They scored themselves some memorable sessions – usually having the water to themselves – in an epic off-the-beaten-kite-track mission.

Vitamin C

This summer Cohan van Dijk headed to Tarifa in his van to train, take part in the Full Power Tarifa Big Air Kite League event and the Qatar Airways GKA Big Air World Championships, and do a video project – check out Vitamin C on YouTube. But as he discovered, the trip wasn’t just about kiting. It was also about the people he met and the friends he made, and it turned out that Tarifa had more than just exhilarating kite sessions in store for him…