Latest News, Blog & Videos
30 Days From Clueless Observer to Confident Beginner Kiteboarder
Getting InspiredGetting Hooked On KiteboardingWhether you hit the beach one day and saw some crazy kiteboarders flying in the air on a windy day, or you saw Kevin Langeree’s 28.3-meter jump in an Instagram video, you’ve somehow been introduced to kiting, and now you’re hooked. You’ve done your research, watched youtube videos, bought all your gear, and are ready to hit the water (with either an experienced kiteboarder or instructor, of course). The wind is cranking 25 knots, and you can see the
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28th Jan 2022
Kitesurfing: Getting Started - Ride with Blake
This is the first blog of the ultimate beginner guide. This is a series meant to be used as a companion to actual kitesurfing lessons. So give this a watch before, during and after your lesson with a certified school. Do not attempt to use this as your sole source of lessons. We've left a great deal out and nothing beats real professional instruction. You will save yourself time, and most importantly you'll be keeping yourself safe and the local beaches in your area open to kitebo
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12th Aug 2020
Kiteboarding Control Bar Size & tuning your kite
Kiteboarding Control Bars
The first step in tuning your kite is choosing the right size control bar.
The standard pairing is
43 - 47 cm bars for 05 - 10m kites
50 - 55 cm bars for 11 - 13m kites
58 - 63 cm bars for 14 - 19m kites
These are just guidelines, of course. You can pair any size bar with any kite, but you will change how it flies. If you put a small bar on a large kite, you will slow it down significantly. If you put a large bar on a small kite, you will speed it up grea
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26th Feb 2020
Can I Mix Kiteboarding / Kitesurfing Control Bars
I wanted to cover a topic that comes up all the time. Can, or should, you mix control bars? The short answer is yes. The long answer is... maybe.
The last few years, I've used a ton of different brands. Cabrinha, Slingshot, Liquid Force, North, Duotone, Naish, Airush and more. When I started at the shop, I was surprised to see the crew was always mixing control bars. More often than not, you can mix any modern 4-line kite with any 4-line bar. However, there are some things to watch out
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10th Feb 2020
How to Choose Your First Kiteboarding Kite Size (With Chart)
This is going to be another quick, information-packed blog. I wanted to cover a question we get almost daily: How do I pick the right size kite? This video is aimed at new riders, but I will address intermediate riders at the end of this blog.
When picking the correct size kiteboarding kite, there are four things to consider:
How much do you weigh?Is this your first kite or are you adding to your quiver?What kind of conditions will you be riding in?What style of kite are you looking at
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29th Jan 2020
How to Do an Unhooked Back Roll
Unhooked Back RollBasicsDifficulty 2Today we’re going to breakdown a heelside back roll. Learning the back roll is going to open the door to many other more advanced tricks that begin with this rotation. Tricks like the Back to Blind, the KGB or even Back Mobes. Like all sports, it comes down to repetition and practicing the basics. The Back Roll is often a misunderstood trick. Not because it's overly difficult but because people often mistake it for a flip and while you can invert you
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25th Apr 2019
How to do an unhooked raley
The Raley
Level: Basics
Difficulty: 2 of 10
Today we’re going to break down the raley. This is usually the first trick aspiring freestyle or wakestyle riders learn. It’s a must if you hope to progress into any other air tricks as they all stem from this basic maneuver. Best of all, it’s a lot easier than you think. While not overly difficult, the raley is at the heart of most freestyle tricks. Loads of tricks start with the raley and incorporate rolls or spins.
For example, a Blind Ju
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17th Apr 2019
Kiteboarding - How to pop unhooked
This blog will eventually be made into a complete beginners' unhooked playlist. Stand by while we film this spring.
This week we're going to break down the most fundamental move in kiteboarding: the pop. In freestyle kiteboarding, all advanced kiteboarding tricks can be broken down into smaller tricks. That means you have to master the basics, and it doesn’t get any more basic than a good pop. Think of this as your foundation whether you want to progress into air tricks, the park or just ge
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10th Apr 2019
Cross-Training to Improve Your Freestyle Kiting - Sessions w/Rygo
Last week on Sessions, we made our way to Brazil. In that special two-part episode we spent a week in the Village of Taiba. We caught up with Cabrinha's newest international rider
Lucas Arsenault and talked kiteboarding gear with him. The following week, we visited the kite park league down in Icapuí. While there we filmed with two of the industry's hardest-working riders, Colleen Carroll and Sensi Graves.
While filming, it occurred to me that these riders
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12th Feb 2019
Foilboarding Basics: Pumping Your Foil - Ticket to Glide Ep 07
Learn how to Pump Your Foil
There are a lot of new skills to learn with foiling but the most frequently asked about is, “pumping”. Videos online show talented athletes pumping back out to the lineup, off docks, and around boats; pumping certainly draws some attention to the sport as well as lots of questions.
Everybody wants to pump it up, but how is it done? The short answer is, “technique, practice, and/or immense talent”. Let's take a look at some ways to “pump up” your pump skill
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4th Jan 2019
Expert Foiling: Duck Tack to Toeside - Ticket to Glide Ep 05
This trick is really awesome, it’s tons of fun, it keeps you blasting upwind without losing any ground, and it’s also going to lay the groundwork for some more advanced tricks such as the duck tack with a stance change, as well as carving 360s. Those are some of my favorites; they’re tons of fun, and are always a crowd-pleaser. This is going to lay the groundwork and build some skills for that.
The prerequisites for this trick are found in some of our previous videos. You’ll want to b
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7th Dec 2018
What You Need to Be a Kiteboarder - Ride With Blake Special Edit
Heads up, this is a special edition. If you've been following our bi-weekly "How to Jump with Style" videos, stay tuned. We’ll be back on our regular schedule with these next week.
So you want to become a kiteboarder? Maybe you’ve seen it on your local beach and now you’re curious what it takes to get into an adventure sport like this. This video and extensive blog should break down the steps you need to take, and breaks down in detail many questions you might have. We’ll also include a nu
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8th Nov 2018
Kiteboarding How To: Jumping With Style - Ride With Blake Ep 01
How to Jump with Style So you want to learn how to jump with style? You’ve come to the right place. In this video and blog, we’ll break down five practices to implement into your kiteboarding every session. Regardless of your level, adding these concepts to your riding will give you something fun to try and it might turn a few heads or two when you seemingly upgrade your style overnight. For season three of Ride with Blake, we wanted to take things up a notch or two. Blake and I thought it
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8th Nov 2018
Hydrofoiling: Learn to Surf Foil - Ticket to Glide Ep 01
The printable steps are at the bottom of this blog
So you want to learn to hydrofoil surf? Congratulations! We too have caught the foil bug for all of our board sports. Surf foiling is truly a one of a kind experience that makes even the most marginal days into magical sessions.
Aside from the silent, smooth, and effortless glide, surf hydrofoils tap into the most powerful part of the wave just beneath the surface. This allows you to keep momentum and connect sections on the
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25th Oct 2018
How to Wakefoil Without the Rope. Foil Fridays Ep 15
Foiling has changed everything. With so many applications, we find ourselves practicing a lot of crossover sports.Wakefoiling included. One of the most fun aspects of the sport is the freedom of just riding the foil be that on a wave or behind the boat. We decided it would be fun to do a tutorial on how to do this. In case you're new to foiling, we did a video on learning to foil behind the boat. You can check that our here.
If you're watching this, there is a good chance you alre
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9th Aug 2018