Check out the first stop of the NAST Tour in Jackson Hole

F-One SUP Demo Week End in Morro Bay, February 25-26

Bay Area Kitesurf, the North American F-One distributor, in conjunction with Central Coast SUP will be presenting the 2012 F-One Stand Up Paddle collection on February 25th and 26th from 9am-3pm, in Morro Bay, on the Central Coast.

Demo boards from Manawa, Anakao, Race and Madeiro series

Come checkout the latest SUP’s, paddles and the recently release MANERA travel gear from F-One. With twelve different models to choose from F-One is one of the few companies to offer a full range of high performance boards starting with the 7’7″ surf models up through the 14′ carbon/bamboo race.

Saturday will offer flat water board demos in the bay. We will have the Manawa, Anakao, race and Madeiro series boards to try. The Manawa line is great a great all around board that does well in the waves or on the flats. The carbon fiber/bamboo 12’6 race boards will also be available for demo this day. These race boards are quickly becoming a favorite with a number of paddlers.

Sunday we move to the surf at 24th st. in Cayucos from 9am-3pm. The surf specific 7’11″ Madeiro and 9’1″ and 8’4” Anakao will be available to test as well as the Manawa lineup above for surf demo.

So come on out and test drive the boards that have been two years in the making. For more information and board specifics

please visit F-One SUP 

For more information, please contact Brian Friedmann at brian ( at ) bayareakitesurf.com

When: Sat Feb 25 9am – 3pm &  Sun Feb 26, 2012 9am – 3pm

Where: Saturday flat water demo takes place at the Morro Bay waterfront across the street from Coleman Park next to the Rock. Sunday surf demo takes place at 24th st beach in Cayucos
Look for the F-One flags on both days.   Click here for map

Join us at Cayucos to demo SUPs on waves

The Kiteboarder Magazine’s La Ventana Classic has become so much more than an a competition and expo. It has become a cooperative effort among the many brands, pro riders and kiters from around the world to support the local community. Last year $18,500 USD was raised and used to directly support the local community and schools. Events include not only competitions, kiting clinics and gear demo but also gringos and Mexicans working together to clean the neighborhood and repair and build community structures.

The sense of community and camaraderie and just plain fun of this event makes it one of the Bay Area Kitesurf crew’s favorite of the year. We will be bringing all the 2012 F-One goodies. We will have all the B5 kites,twintips, surf boards, and SUP board. The entire catalog will be available for demo.

Check the pictures from last year and join us for a week of fun in La Ventana from January 15th to 22nd, 2012.

Etienne Lhote, F-One team,  and french snowkiting school KITE LEGENDE will organize a series of kite camps at Col de Lautaret (Lautaret Pass) this winter. Nico, who is a co-founder of the F-One distribution in the US, grew up in that region and will tell you this is one of the best spot on earth for snowkiting. The surroundings are magnificent, skiing in nearby Serre Chevallier or La Grave is exceptional. This pass is a legendary pass for the Tour de France in the summer.

You can choose the introductory classes or if you are already a proficient kiteboarder you can opt for a freestyle or freeride camp.

For more info check:
http://etiennelhote.com/

This winter, this could be you…

The 12 fastest kitesurfers in world history will race, including multiple world record holder Alex Caizergues, the fastest women sailor Charlotte Consorti, the first kitesurfer to break 40 knots, Manu Taub and current Outright World Record holder Rob Douglas. State Beach, Cape Pogue Bay and Katama Bay. Disciplines: Speed & Long Distance course races (if needed). Prize money available $27,000 US

The event was organized by The North American Speed Sailing Project (NASSP) and under specified conditions laid down by the International Kiteboarding Class Association (IKA).

NASSI 250 meter and 500 meter courses – speed courses have good angle of approx. 130 to 150 degrees for all wind directions. Cape Pogue courses on north and northwest wind directions can provide 500 meter speeds greater than 48kt average with Vmax greater than 52kts.

NASSP was founded in April of 2008 in order to build a team of American speed sailors that would compete on the world stage in any class of sail to bring Speed Sailing records and results back to American Shores.

More info at www.nassp.net

by Micah Sanders

4th of July at Floras Lake, OR. Saw, light wind, heavy wind, flat water, waves, Zombies, Pirates, Wild animals, and even some fireworks.

Bill and Anna from Kite Zombies were up from Nor Cal. Which must have made Nate from Air Pirates www.air-pirate.com in Nor OR. Jealous, because he made it down too! Everyone, including Andy from Floras Lake Kiteboarding www.floraslake.com, got to put the Bandit through its paces. We saw anything from 14m light wind fun to heavy wind kite looping (I’m talking about you Nate and Andy).
Tuesday on the way out of town I hooked up with some great locals who were kind enough to share a down wind ride and some head high waves with me at Whiskey Run. Can’t wait until next year and if you’ve never made it to Floras Lake before, do yourself a favor and get out there! A shallow fresh water lake with ocean wind, miles of downwind wave riding opportunities, does it get any better? Yep, killer seafood, amazing hot dogs (Langlois General Store), a Wild Animal Park, and great people.

By Bruce Johnson /F-One Americas

Seems like we picked the perfect week to head to San Diego for a long overdue demo weekend.
Accompanied by fellow F-Oners Sylvie and Zola , Friday afternoon greeted us with perfect 15 knot Silver Strand conditions….who says it does not blow in the summer !

The day called for our 13m Volt and 14m B4, paired up with the Trax 6 138 and 5’4″ Fish combo proved to be the perfect set up for the knee high waves and semi onshore conditions.It was great to hang out with local riders Thomas and Marko and share a sweet afternoon on the beach.
Saturday was time to groove on our SUP line up at Cardiff Reef , one of the many perfect SUP locations sprinkled throughout the San Diego area . A river mouth flat water area flowing out to a beach break and reef set up , perfect ….yes ! The day brought John Cuchna of Xdream Sports out to the beach as well as our good friends Yoko , Vanessa , Benjamin, tata Claude , Kiko , Marko and Miguel … boards were demoed and smiles and positive feedback followed shortly thereafter.
Our gracious hosts Yoko and Vanessa provided an awesome BBQ Saturday night with more friends joining in . BIG thanks to you guys for making us feel right at home , cheers !
We headed back to Silver Strand on Sunday , only to be greeted with more perfect 15 knot conditions ( remember , this is San Diego )…… the demo was on !
Good times , good friends , a little wind , a little Source and some SUP made up for the perfect demo weekend….cant wait to head back .
Until the next one , cheers ,
Bruce

We’ll be in the Floras Lake/ Bandon area with a whole bunch of 2011 gear to try out for the Holiday weekend. Check the F-One or PDX Kites Facebook page for updated locations and times. Chances are pretty good that Floras Lake will be on the list as well as some other classic coastal spots (weather depending). We look forward to seeing you on the water. Feel free to email Micah directly at pdxkites@gmail.com with any questions or requests.

lens: Tehben Dean

By Traveler Terpening/Kitesurf Alaska

While bears, salmon and glacier-enrobed mountains might be synonymous with Alaska for many people, for me, Alaska is synonymous with kiteboarding. Although the water can be a little chilly, the price of admission is little more than a sturdy wetsuit and an adventurous disposition. And the perks are many: 44,000 miles of coastline; lots of beaches, some of them hundreds of miles long; loads of wind; no crowds and unbeatably scenery. These are some of the reasons over 100 future and existing kiters turned out for the fourth annual KiteFest Alaska this past weekend in Homer, Alaska.

Alaskan weather is fickle so when Friday, the first day of the event, dawned cloudy, we anticipated a windless and wet weekend. But as screws were sunk into demo boards and kites were inflated at the high tide line, the low overcast started to fracture and the glossy ocean bristled with the first fingers of wind. By noon it was cranking 20 and kites darted around under a bright blue sky with soaring snow-capped peaks in the background––it was on!

Four years ago Trace Carlos and I were getting some lunch and doing what we did a lot of in those days: lamenting the lack of local kiters. We had the wind, the water, a great beach, but on a blue-bird day with 20 knots of wind there were still never more than a few kites in the air at one time. We knew there were other kiters in Alaska but in such a big state, how would we find them? Besides Trace, a guy named George, myself and the occasional transient kiter, there were only three of us and we craved the comradery, talent and gear of the kite scenes we saw in magazines. We each had one board, one kite and one move and no one was going anywhere fast with so little stimulation. After throwing around a number of ideas, most of which revolved around us moving to Maui or Cape Hatteras, it hit us: why not have a kite party to bring in kiters from around the state and to train new ones?

That first festival lacked advertising beyond a few calls and emails and any organization beyond Trace and I hanging out at the beach waiting to see if anyone would actually show up. A few hardy kiters did show and we got kites in the hands of a number of beginners as well. The following year George came onboard as an organizer but in order to get his help we had to organize the festival around his commercial fishing season. That second year we had a poster, some media attention, well over 50 people in attendance and we became not only the first and only kiteboarding festival in Alaska, but probably the only kite festival in the world organized around commercial fishing seasons.

While the weather didn’t always cooperate (OK, it never cooperated), we watched our festival grow and attendance soar to near 100 participants by its third year. We started to see kiters on the beach we had trained and often rocking tricks twice as hot as ours. We had connected with kiters from around the state, had taught many new kiters and when the wind blew there were a few more kiters to call up. Our local kite scene was on the verge of exploding.

It all came together at this year’s Kitefest and our original dream of forming a local kite scene worthy of telling people about when we left Alaska was realized. During our four day event we hosted over 100 participants, a full roster of psyched sponsors, classes, demo gear, a live auction and raffle, great weather and, that one thing so elusive to many kite festivals: wind. When George came up to me Friday evening and told me he had counted 17 kites in the air at once (a Homer, Alaska record), I knew that, while our kite scene may not have exploded, it had certainly taken a big step forward.

This year’s KiteFest ALASKA was, without a doubt, the best KiteFest yet. And after four years, that’s really saying something! The first day of the fest, Friday, started with some light clouds but that soon burned off and brilliant blue skies brought us 17-21 mph of the best clean wind we have felt in weeks. Beginners started to show up and we set them up with trainer kites and a professional instructor out on the beach. Kiters from all around Alaska started to show up and pitch their tents right there at KiteFest HQ. That night we headed up to Homer’s own kiter-owned restaurant, Cosmic Kitchen, for a great meal.

Saturday was a little chilly but 15 mph kept the larger kites flying and beginners learning on trainer kites all over the beach. We put on 3 or 4 trainer kite classes, a couple of more advanced intro to LEI classes and worked with students individually in the water. That evening we built up the bonfire and raffled off 2 harnesses, a number of trainer kites, kite leashes, kite lines, shirts and more. After tossing some additional free gear to the crowd, we started the live auction. With so many new kiters at the event, there was some fierce competition for many items. Anders did a great job of keeping the auction fun and making sure it was a worthwhile fundraiser. The auction included a brand new board, 3 harnesses, a couple of trainer kites, impact vests, kite leashes, 2 kite bars and more. Everyone walked away with a great deal on gear they need and they did their part to support the event. That night we got down with Tom’s home-brewed beer!

Sunday was another blue bird day with 15 mph and again the larger kites prevailed. Some of the kiters that were just getting going on Friday hit the water with confidence and made some of their first runs on the board. After more classes, clinics and a killer 2 hour session I had on the buggy with the HQ Montana 9.5m, some of us crashed the Cook Inlet Keeper party.

Monday brought more blue skies but this time with some good wind. By 3 pm the wind was blowing 18-20 mph and kiters hit the water on thier 12m and 14m kites. After a few more lessons and beginner kite clinics, the organizers decided to hit the water themselves. Trace, George and I all grabbed kites and had a great session on our 12m kites, trying all the amazing new boards our sponsors shipped us. While George tore up the small waves on the F–One Fish, I tried some moves on the CrazyFly Pro Tour Model 130cm followed by another freestyler, the F–One Acid 130cm. What amazing rides these decks were.

While we always have great people at our event, this year was made so much more special because the wind and weather were so good too. Thanks to all our sponsors and to everyone who came out and helped or just had fun.

KiteFest Alaska is an annual gathering of kiteboarders from around Alaska. Every year over 100 kiters descend on Homer to kite, learn to kite, trade or buy gear, meet other Alaskan kiters and to just generally have an amazing time. Now in its fourth year, KiteFest Alaska has really grown and now brings kiters in from around the country. The event’s sponsors include many leading manufacturers in the kiteboarding industry. Our event is one of the only kite events out there were beginners can come and be introduced to kite sports for free by certified instructors. The event is also a wonderful place to get your first gear or improve your existing kit.

Wonderful 2011 Volunteers:

Auctioneer – Anders Gustafson

Photographer – Tehben Dean

–Mike Mum

–Steve Carr

–Obedia Jenkins

–Gavin “The Kiwi”

–George Overpeck

–Trace Carlos

–Traveler Terpening

And many many more.