The road to kite surfboard perfection...

The never ending debate about strapless kite surf boards rumbles along on the interweb forums. Amongst some of the garbage/shameless brand promotion/interesting peeved customer feedback, it seems there are basically two schools of thought.

 1. Spend big bucks, and get something kite specific/branded, and put up with it being heavy and lifeless (therefor lacking performance) but hey, it will last for ages, just like my twin tip.

2. Pick up a cheap performance epoxy surfboard, maybe 20% of the price of a kite specific one and if it lasts 6 months, great. The beater. Patch it up and if you sell it eventually great, if not make a novelty wall decoration.

My quiver has consisted of 2 boards for a while now. I have a strapped 6’2” JN Big Fish which came out of the Cobra factory in 2005, has a tucked rail, MT bolt through glass fins, very little concave and a relatively small rocker. It’s fast. You can ride it at approximately 100mph though whatever your legs can take, you can boost huge on it, and crank out big turns with a lot of confidence, but it’s heavy(ish) and it has little flex.

Although I ride strapless maybe 95% of the time, as that’s been my personal development focus for a couple of years now, there are still occasionally conditions when I prefer to ride strapped. Big onshore storm swell and unstable gusty arsed wind for instance. Or just messy bumpy short swell period wave faces. I will get more enjoyment out of a session to riding strapped. If I am pioneering a new/dodgy spot I normally go strapped as well. I love the Big Fish, and long may it live. For fast bump and jump kite led wave riding it rules supreme.

Big Fish, strapped and dangerous

The other board in my quiver has been various incarnations of cheap/free poly surfboards (previous to this I would take the straps off my various strapped boards). This originally started several years ago with a 6’6” Poly board left behind by a friend who couldn't be bothered to take it back to Australia with him. This lasted an alarming amount of time considering the instant heel dents, spreader bar sized holes in the rails. It taught me to patch things up with epoxy, and it taught me I really didn't need anything kite specific any more. The start of beater board heaven. Performance wise, it was completely different, but all in good ways. It also gives you the chance to try loads of different shapes (cheaply) and work out what suits you, and various conditions. My most expensive purchase was £80. Your only nemesis is your spreader bar.

My super slow quad, improving my shacking chances

Through pure chance really, I recently acquired some Resin8 surfboards, which I have always really liked the look of (Lee Pasty absolutely shredding on one for the last few years has helped) but have been prohibitively expensive to try one for kiting where you might murder a pure surfboard very quickly. It has been something of a revelation.

The Resin8 Tokoro precision instrument

Turns out they were too expensive to manufacture, and not enough people bought them (@ ~£600) in a very competitive surf market to make it viable, and the company has ceased production. This meant dead stock heaven, and the vultures (me) swooped. The Tokoro 6'3" rounded pin is a superb bit of kit, really comfortable carving rail to rail in bigger swell, and if you need to run round a section, you can do it FAST. Because of the slender/efficient shape, the upwind ability is ridiculous. It's super light, which is tricky if it's really windy (40 knots) as it wants to fly away all the time, and the extremely lean shape and flex means the board is very smooth through the water.

The compromise as ever is in the strength for kiting use, but thus far, after a month of some really hardcore poundings, from 90kgs of Richard, no heel dents (miraculously) and the only dent is where my spreader bar got in on the action, and that’s not really a sporting chance. It’s also nice to be back on a thruster setup after being on a quad fin (Bunty 6’2” beater poly board) for a while. This was great for stalling on the wave, and amusingly skatey, but in comparison to the Tokoro it was crap upwind, felt extremely draggy in light wind and just not that fast in a straight line.

It's a crying shame they aren't producing these boards any more, but I will be looking out for similar epoxy/vacuum formed boards. Hindsight and all that. Hydroflex make some interesting looking stuff, but it's just too darned expensive for kite use and abuse. I want a 6 month stand, not a pricey long termer. Only one thing for it, perhaps it's time to build one myself.

For Sale - Circle One Skim 54"

*SOLD*
54" Circle One Skim, perfect for light wind, and excellent training for riding strapless  and general balance, injury rehab etc.

Nice and light, and friendlier to the shins/wallet than the Nobile option. It rides well backwards and has a comfy EVA kickpad. It has a small few dings which have been repaired. It's good to go. I could even scrape the wax off if you really wanted.

£75 


(original price was £175)


I am getting a new carbon one. Saucy. 


*SOLD*

South Devon Kite Club 2011 Christmas Video

We made a very last minute video for the local kitesurf club (www.sdkc.co.uk) Christmas dinner a few weeks ago. As usual this was shot and edited in a hasty fashion, but I did actually manage to bang a tripod out for the evening and we got some nice light, even if the waves were really small, it was bolt onshore, and Sarah wasn't riding at her best! She was stacked on a 9m and strapless. I may reuse some of the footage for the English Riveira Part II, the yet to be planned or even thought about sequel. The evidence stacks up below:

Morocco - Camel Toe Adventures

When one of your best friends calls you whilst on his honeymoon, telling you that the new wifey is getting extremely annoyed because of the 40 knot wind blasting her at the swimming pool, it's time to get the devil out of Devon and slap some Moroccan waves for a week or so. Our mission was to save his new marriage with cunning, girly chat and distraction techniques.

My oh my, it was rather windy though, Sarah and I were both using a 6m PD4, which rather annoyingly blew off down the beach and had a little coral incident mid-week.

In Essaouira bay, in front/downwind of the hotel, it was extremely gusty side-off with the wind coming over the Medina, which was pretty terrible car crash style riding frankly, so we hired a Dacia, which is similar to a mid 90's Fiat, but with none of the refinement, and a clutch and gearbox comprising of Edam. We trotted up and down the coast to a few spots.

20km north of Essaouira is Moulay, a fairly deserted little town full of windsurfers. This is quite a short launch with a kite but there is a nice point / reef break and a lot of wind. A top tip would be to head there early and get out on a 9m before the wind kicks in fully and the windsurfers head out, thus avoiding crowded waves. Saying that, even when it did get busy later in the day everyone was courteous. If you want some space you can hack upwind 200m in front of the cliffs and still get great waves with plenty of space.

Sidi Kaouki is about 20km south of Essaouira and is another windsurfers' spot of choice. This is more of a beach break, and there is a lot of space. Again we would kite here before it started nuking as it was slightly side-off and clean as a whistle. The sand bars let the waves peel gently downwind and it makes for rather delightful down-the-line riding. It can be a fairly steep little wave here that can give you a right old slap if you get it wrong. It was great fun strapless. We did a hilarious downwinder with camel support, but that's another story.

Sarah wrote a lovely article for Kitegirl magazine located here:

Kitegirl Morocco Article - A wave to Essaouira

Here's the Morocco slideshow: