Latest News, Blog & Videos
How to Nail the Front Roll Hand Drag with Precision Kite Control
MACkite's Dave has been spending some time in Brazil working on one of his favorite transition tricks, the Front Roll Hand Drag. It's a slide type trick that's a play on the Back Roll Hand Drag. While nearly identical to that in terms of the kite movement and steering, it's very different when it comes to body movement and positioning, so he's put together a guide to walk you through nailing your own Front Roll Hand Drags.Prerequisites
You'll want to have your Back Roll Hand Drags d
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24th Oct 2024
Kiteboarding Tricks | Adding Style to your One-Footers
David is back with the sequel to his How to Do One-Footed Airs video. Here, you can learn some variations on your one-footers. Remember that you can add these into tricks like Frontrolls or other rotations!Standard One-FooterWith the standard one-footer, which we covered in the previous video, you're pointing your leg straight down. You're not going too wide, though you can tweak the board itself a bit to make it look a little nicer.For example, you can extend both legs, and then the b
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6th Aug 2024
Kiteboarding Tricks | How to Do One-Footed Airs
David is in Brazil for the rest of the 2024 season, but that doesn't mean the trick tips are going to stop coming! Up today is an intro to One-Footed Airs. This is a great trick you can perform fairly early on, and it's worth learning because you can not only add on things like rotations or grabs to it, but you can also add it into other tricks to make them a bit more stylish.Prerequisites
You will need to be comfortable doing some other things before you're ready to start practic
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5th Aug 2024
Kiteboarding Tricks | How To Do A Backroll Hat Drag
You can use a little creativity to switch up even the more basic tricks and add a little flair and style. David has a couple simple tips for your Backroll Hand Drag... and one involves your favorite beverage!The Backroll Hat Drag is a natural addition to the Backroll Hand Drag. You won't really change how you do the trick, but it'll look that much more impressive.First, make sure you've got your Backroll Hand Drag locked in. Next, wear a hat you can take off and put back on.As you come i
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26th Jul 2024
Big Air Kiteboarding Basics, Episode 3: Full Scorpion to Front Roll Waterstart
Crashing is an inevitable part of big air, but the good news is that there's a way to get back up in style after you find yourself floating on your belly in that scorpion position. Sure, you can simply send the kite up, sheet in, and pop up and out of the water, but why do that when you can add some flair and turn it into a trick? David has a tip on how to do exactly that.
Add a Front Roll Rotation to Your Waterstart
1. You're in the water, on your belly, with your board attache
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11th Jul 2024
Big Air Kiteboarding Basics, Episode 2: How To Get More Inverted Front Rolls
Are you looking to add more style and more inversion to your front rolls? David is back with another guide on how to progress your kiteboarding skills, and here he presents two different ways for you to have a more stylish front roll to show off. Plus, it's just more fun this way!
First, you'll need to already be able to do a front roll smoothly and consistently. Once you're ready to take it to the next step, try these methods:The Cartwheel Method
1. Come in with speed and th
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11th Jul 2024
Big Air Kiteboarding Basics, Episode 1: Learning and Perfecting Your Kiteloop
David is kicking off a new series focusing on big air. He's not an expert in big air, but rather an experienced kiteboarder who's ready to progress his skills. If you're ready to delve into big air yourself, come along for the ride as David shares any tricks, tips, and lessons learned along the way.Kiteloops: The Foundation of Big AirBig air builds on your kiteloops. If you're just getting into kiteloops, Blake has a great intro. Here, I'm going to share what I've learned about kiteloo
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27th Dec 2023
Kiteboarding | How to Go Upwind Through Technique and Understanding
Kiteboarding is an exhilarating sport that combines aspects of wakeboarding, snowboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding, skateboarding, and sailing into one high-octane activity. One key skill that every kiteboarder needs to master is the ability to go upwind.
While going downwind is straightforward, moving against the wind presents a unique challenge. This blog will guide you through the fundamental steps to successfully kiteboarding upwind.Understanding the Concept of Upwind
Upwind
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22nd Jun 2023
Kitesurfing Lesson: 5 Tips to Ride Upwind
This is Blake from MACkite here with 5 tips to help you ride upwind.Tip 1 - Twist Your Body UpwindTwist your shoulders and lean back over your back foot. This weights your back foot rather than both of your knees. This lets you get a stronger and harder edge.Twist and lean back, looking upwind. Twist with your shoulders and your hips, with your feet, and even point your toes upwind, and all of those little things together will make it so much easier for you. If you instead close your s
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9th May 2023
Why a Wing Board and a Kite is Awesome for the Lightest Winds
Welcome back to Wing Wednesdays, or Foil Fridays... whatever we're going to call this one. This is Tucker with MACkite, and today I'm going to talk to you about my new fascination. We're going to maximize our light wind fun, maximize our time on the water, and maximize the gear we already own. I can guarantee you'll get a lot more time in the water, have a lot more fun, and use your equipment more effectively.Ride in Almost Any WindLet's talk about how kite wing foiling can maximize ou
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9th May 2023
The Most Important Part of Kiteboarding: How to Fall
Blake from MACkite here. It's good to be back! I'm recovering from a torn ACL surgery, and just being able to walk is so incredible. So I figured... why not teach you one of the most important things in kiteboarding, which in my opinion is how to fall.Get StrongI have a lot of experience in falling; I've been injured a lot. Throughout the years of teaching myself how to kiteboard and do all of my own tricks, I have had to learn how to fall through trial and error. Now I've got it down
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3rd May 2023
The Benefits of Learning to Kiteboard in Lighter vs. Moderate Winds
Welcome back to MACkite. This is Jake, and today we are talking about whether it's better to learn in lighter winds or heavier winds. Of course, this is just my personal experience and, being here in Michigan, we probably experience more light winds than heavy winds, so that's going to impact my answer slightly.My personal thought is that light wind is a better environment for learning to kite. I think it's probably easier to learn in heavier winds, but that doesn't necessarily translate
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21st Feb 2023
Get Ready To Ride! Learn The Essential Steps For a Smooth Kiteboarding Water Start
This blog post provides an in-depth look at the five key steps necessary to learn how to water start when kiteboarding or kitesurfing. The first step is to get comfortable with the kite, learning how to launch and land it, as well as understanding its wind window. The second step involves compressing your body into a smaller package, which involves using the power of the kite to pull you through the water and upwind. Step three is getting onto the board, where you will need to carefully
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29th Dec 2022
Learn How to Kiteboard Upwind With These 5 Beginner Tips
Kiteboarding Upwind Is Your First Beginner Milestone
If you’re a beginner kiteboarder, going upwind means not walking back up the beach after each ride. If you’re jumping, you need to march upwind easily because every flight takes you downwind fast.
Back in the stone age, with 2-line kites, riders would pressure their back foot edging hard to slow their board speed allowing the kite to move to the edge of the window so they could ride upwind. We even used the pickle fork tail like ski brak
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30th Aug 2022
How to Master the Kiteboarding Front Roll Tail Grab
The Front Roll is usually the second trick everyone wants to learn right after the Back Roll. It's a simple trick that always looks good, especially if you add a grab to it. The easiest grab to start with is the tail grab.
This is one of my go-to tricks every session because it just feels so good.
For this video, I'll break down the freestyle pop technique. This can be done hooked in, and you can actually do this with a sent jump. This technique will help give more power to your p
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23rd Mar 2021