Latest News, Blog & Videos

The Frontroll Kiteloop is one of the most exciting and scary tricks in kiteboarding. The key to learning this move is to start doing kiteloops… a lot of them! Thing is, those are kind of intimidating too! The trick to learning this is to start in extremely light winds. I'm talking about the kind of conditions where you're riding and the wind gets so light you can kind of stay upwind, you can kind of jump and you're ready to put up a bigger kite or get off the water. When this happens, you can …

This week's tip is going to be short and to the point. It’s a stylish variation of the pop and an important movement pattern that builds on many things for later on in your progression. This will be your first 180, and a good introduction to landing toeside with power. Remember, landing blind is just toeside with the kite behind your back. Aside from that, you'll be learning how to rotate frontside. This is important for tricks like the rally to wrapped or the back to revert. Later on, this i …

Today we're going to break down another must-have basic for progressing your unhooked riding: the front roll. Of all the basic moves, this might be the best looking and will give you the most bang for your buck as far as style. This is usually learned after the back roll and, while it's not difficult, it can be harder to learn if you don't have the right technique. Speaking of technique, there are two ways to initiate the front roll. Two variations While learning, I struggled to get this rig …

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 …

Today we're going to break down a heelside back roll. This might be the most popular trick in kiteboarding. This is actually even easier than the raley. This will be your first roll in kiteboarding. It's going to open the door to many other more advanced tricks that begin with this rotation. The back roll is often a misunderstood trick, not because it's overly difficult but because people often mistake it for a flip. While you can invert your back rolls into a flip, more often than not they l …

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 for. …

With the Red Bull King of the Air competition having just wrapped up, we wanted to do a video on big air, specifically on how you can trim your kite to get more air and hangtime! This is an easy tip that will make a big difference in your kiteboarding. Rather than our normal ride with Blake blog, we decided to keep this one right to point. Enjoy!  Step One - Trim your Kite for Hangtime The point of this is to trim your kite so that you can sheet the bar all the way in without the kit …

Welcome to our latest playlist: The Unhooking Fundamentals. With freestyle kiteboarding being so advanced these days, it can be overwhelming. Strangely, unhooked riding has a weird reputation. You see it all over in the magazines and in pro rider videos, yet on the local beach it has become far less common. Often people are worried that it's too intense or dangerous. In truth, unhooking is one of the most fun aspects of kiteboarding. If you learn to do it right, it's actually easy and jus …

Nuke or Crail? It has come to our attention that this particular grab is actually a Crail grab. In the video we call it a Nuke, however for the written steps, I'll be using the correct name. My apologies for any confusion. The Crail Grab is your backhand reaching across to the nose of the kite. The Nuke is technically when you take that a step further to your heelside edge. -Rygo  Today we are going to go over how to do a Sent Crail grab. This is one of the more early intermediate leve …

Today we are going to go over how to Toeside backflip transition. This is the second video in our intermediate to advanced transition playlist. Normally we focus on beginner and intermediate level tricks. Don't worry, we have some easier transitions lined up for this playlist. This trick is an interesting variation of the back roll. You're adding some style and difficulty by popping toeside and adding a jump transition into the kite movement.  We recommend you download t …

Heads up. We do not recommend you try this with solid objects. This is a very advanced trick. Today we are going to go over how to do a handplant transition. This is the first video in our advanced transition playlist. Normally we focus on beginner and intermediate level tricks, so don't worry; we have some easier transitions lined up for this playlist. Even if you're a newer kiteboarder, this is a fun one to practice. Just make sure you avoid solid objects at all costs. The trick, broken d …

Last time on Sessions, we were in Portugal catching up with Christophe Tack in his home lagoon. It's been a busy summer since then. Blake and I were able to check out the 2020 Cabrinha products in the Florida Keys. From there we made our way to Spain with Duotone and eventually Morocco for the new North product release. Normally I'd release our Sessions chronologically but I wanted to introduce a couple of new faces to the team. This week we're visiting the heart of North American kiteb …

We’ve had the new Moto for a full year now and we wanted to give you an updated review. This is going to be a shorter video but, unlike the Switchblade, there are some new insights we wanted to share. If you’re not familiar with the Moto, last year Cabrinha released a new kite in the lineup- something not to replace, but to complement the Switchblade, essentially a lighter and faster 3-strut version with characteristics of its own. This was a clever solution to a big problem for Cabrinha.  …

For 2020, Cabrinha has two kites that might interest the same rider. They are both aimed at big air riders who want to jump high and enjoy a kite with good hangtime: the Cabrinha Switchblade and the new AV8. While they have some cross-over characteristics, these are different kites designed for a different purpose and a different kiteboarder. I've noticed some people get annoyed while watching the product videos that claim the AV8 is a boosting machine or that the Switchblade has even lig …

Last time on Sessions we explored Key West and the Canary Islands with our team rider Blake Olsen. We were filming for our  kiteloop playlist and just enjoying the islands with good friends. It was so much fun visiting what has become one of my favorite cities for kiteboarding in the USA. The only downside was that I had just injured my knee snowboarding and I had to sit out on most of the riding on both of these trips!  Testing the Liquid Force NV V9 Getting back on the …