eco tow-in

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eco tow in:

We have featured kiteboarding on this site for quite a while now. But, to be honest, itīs allways been a sideline. The main issue of this site is riding waves. And the kiteboards that were used the past years just werenīt made for riding waves. Those wakeboard type vehicles were good for jumping and doing tricks and “freed” the riders from the urge to change the stance when changing direction. But these boards were not made to carve as they were so small and thin that they started to slide as soon as you wanted to turn with speed.

So we saw incredible high and complex jumps performed by guys in silly trousers. But when they tried to ride a wave and place a halfway solid turn they started helplessly sliding. Riding a wave in a decent way was just not possible.

But about a year ago the first guys were seen, that just something ling a 5`8`` thruster surfboard for kiteboarding. At the beginning they didnīt even have straps.

 

But despite this very loose conection to the board they could go out in onshore conditions and started to ride waves in a way very similar to surfing. This was the moment when kiteboarding really caught my interest.

I started to think about ways using kites as a towing tool for surfing waves.

Then I read an article about guys in Bali using kites to surf solid waves in the typical mid day onshore wind conditions. In some adds you could see guys kitesurfing waves like Punta Preta.

The boards used for this either were small surfboards or large kiteboards. They still didnīt seem to be completely right but things definitely were getting serious.

Especially in Denmark the performance of these guys became markable. As the waves in this area come very often with onshore winds, they had a clear advantage. Getting out was not a real issue for them as the kite easily did that work and helped a lot with picking waves. If these waves were closing out, a little drag at the kitelines was enough to get up above the foam and get back out with no effort.

Surfers didnīt like those guys a lot though, partly because some of the kiteboarders had the bad habbit to drive through the lineup or even jump way to close to the surfers, partly because they were a bit jealous about the fact that these kiteboarders didnīt have to paddle.

So surfing and kiteboarding mostly stayed seperate wourlds.

This is very likely to change now.

As seen in Denmark this autumn, there now finally exist kiteboards that are designed for classic kiteboarding and surfing waves.

The boards look very much like tow in boards and one can definitely surf with them. They hold a powerfull turn and allow surf style waveriding.

And they still make those spectacular jumps possible. You only have to learn how to jibe on them as they work unidirectional.

So right now, kiteboarding is a real alternative for every surfer with the urge to maximise surfing time. The boards easily go into a standart boardbag and you need just an extra backpack when you want to surf in onshores instead of hanging at the beach.

Just call it kitesurfing when you donīt want to become mistaken for a fancy-trouser-wake-style-posing-kiteboarder.

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