The basic frontside off the lip is every rider’s introduction to riding a wave with a kite. A good top turn involves a lot of timing between your kite, your board position, and the wave and it can take some time to pull it all together.

credit: Paul Lang / The Kiteboarder Magazine
rider: Alec Dektor /Team F-One US
location: Leo Carrillo, SoCal

   Written By Alec Dektor

Kiteboarding at Waddell was a great experience.  Last weekend was my first day out there and the conditions were definitely less than inviting.  Brian Friedmann and I both pulled up and contemplated going out for a while.  The wind looked like it was turning off shore and numerous dust devils raced through the parking lot.  The mix of gusty off-shore wind and big waves made the water look treacherous.  Upon seeing a few riders make it outside in straps I decided to pump up an 8 meter kite and give it a try.  I was a little uncomfortable in the beginning but as the day progressed I felt more and more comfortable.  My kite helped me escape big surf and potentially dangerous situations a few times and allowed me to have a very memorable session.

The next day I got to the beach early to wait for the wind.  Watching the surf made me anxious; the swell had barely dropped off compared to the day prior.  As soon as the wind was up, I was out there on an 11 meter kite.  It was coming up pretty     quick and I switched to an 8 soon after.  The second day I was equipped with a much bigger board that allowed me to make smoother, more controlled turns on the big choppy waves.  I felt more confident to try bigger airs and hit the lip harder in more critical sections.  Shal Jacobovitz was also there on the second day shooting pictures.  My second session at Waddell was just as fun if not better.  All of the local guys I met were very inviting and gave me a great vibe.  Waddell is a great spot to kite and I will definitely be returning soon to shred some more waves with the F-One team!
Alec was riding: F-One Bandit 5 11m and F-One Surf 6’2.

Original Post: Stanceplanet
Etienne Lhote shows a day out Brittany’s waves is worth braving the cold!

1 day 2 sessions // Etienne Lhote by stancemag

Source: KSP

September 28, 2011: Kicking off the last six heats of the 2011 KSP One Eye Pro in Le Morne, Mauritius, Airton Cozzolino (Italy/North) faced Mauricio Pedreira (Brazil) in the first of two strapless semifinals. Early in the matchup, the 17-year-old Cozzolino was called on interference, resulting in his second highest wave score to be slashed in half. Nevertheless, his progressive kite surfing advanced him to the finals by a slim margin of .47 points.

Next up, Jesse Richman (Hawaii) faced 2008 Kite Surfing World Champion Mitu Monteiro (Cabo Verde/F-One) in the side-offshore winds and overhead surf. Displaying a unrivaled degree of flow, diversity and innovative strapless riding, Monteiro’s seemingly effortless style and 19-year background in surfing really shined.

While the 19-year-old Richman put up a good fight, Monteiro bagged a near-perfect score of 19.16 — the second highest of the whole competition (next to Cozzolino’s 19.5 in yesterday’s Quarter Finals). Redefining the standard of top shelf kite surfing with his highest scoring wave, Monteiro rode super vertically top to bottom — switching stance mid-ride — while staying in the pocket, smashing the pitching lip, tucking in for a barrel, and linking progressive maneuvers together.

Women’s Finals came next, which commenced with Steph Bridge (United Kingdom/North) facing Kristin Boese (Germany/Best) in a strapless showdown for third place. By a margin of 3.94 points, Bridge won. Then, with a fairytale ending, women’s kite surfing concluded with the unsponsored KSP Wild Card winner Ninja Bichler (Mauritian local, originally from Germany) taking home the 2011 One Eye Pro title as she faced off with Marie Gautron (France). Reaching the 15-wave limit, the 29-year-old Bichler left no set wave unslayed while scoring a 17.16 in her first ever final.

Drawing the elimination ladder to a close, the all-strapless Men’s Finals began with a matchup of two great watermen: Richman verses Pedreia for third place. With a tuck under the lip, good flow and some great top-to-bottom hacks, Pedreia bested Richman by 2.76 points. Richman pulled into numerous tubes of his own but was unable to find a clean exit to find the winning scores.

Then in Heat 36, the very last showdown of the event, Cozzolino rode against an injured Monteiro who hit the water wearing a knee brace after buckling his back knee at the end of Heat 34. Nevertheless, Men’s Finals ended on an exhilarating note — first and second place separated by less than three-quarters of a point. Riding an 8-meter kite, Monteiro demonstrated a wide variety of surf-influenced and innovative moves, lots of switch riding, impeccable wave selection and even a great cover-up. However, Cozzolino won a majority of the judges over with his performance as he rode top to bottom more vertically, with a super-committed and crisp flow, progressive moves (including an aerial re-entry) and his signature move, squaring up off his bottom turns with an unparalleled amount of control and power when setting up for his radical hacks.

The final results and heat-by-heat video clips can all be found online at kspworldtour.com/ladder.

Watch the clip of the day:

Check out the pictures of the day at http://www.kspworldtour.com/one-eye-pro-day-6.

The KSP Mauritius One Eye Pro 2011 is sponsored by the Indian Resort & Spa, MTPA (Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority), Air Mauritius, Mauritours, Le Gall, Habit, Club Mistral and Silent Partners. The KSP World Tour is supported by ION and Vitamizzer.

Don’t miss the live coverage of the remaining two 2011 KSP World Tour stops: Pasacamayo, Peru and Ponta Preta, Cape Verde — October 19 to 28 and December 2 to 11, respectively

Follow the KSP World Tour on Facebook at facebook.com/KSPworldtour as well as on Twitter at twitter.com/KSPworldtour.