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What are Your Favorite North Sonar Foils for Kite and Wing Foiling?with Matt Aiken from North KiteboardingJake: What is your favorite front wing for winging and kiting?Matt: For kiting I ride this big 1500. It's cool; it goes plenty quick, but it's also got a really low stall speed. For fooling around riding waves and stuff, it can be really fun, so I like it a lot for kiting.For winging, with this being my first season, I started on our giant 2200, and that was really great for learning. …

Aaron: Hey guys, welcome back. We are live on the island with Blake. Blake, where are you at buddy? What are you up to today? Blake: It's been a busy day. I'm in the BVI right now on Moskito Island, which is one of Sir Richard Branson's islands. Behind me is Necker Island, where he lives. He just got in today, actually. It's incredible here; he's got quite a quite a thing going on. Aaron: So what have you been up to? I understand there's some confidential things that you can't disclose, …

Pat: I'm Pat with MACkiteboarding, and I'm talking with Derek from Naish. Derek: What's up, guys? Pat: So Derek, you've been with Naish now for 10 years? Derek: Yeah, I came on board in February 2014, so I'll be pushing 10 years now. Pat: That's a long time with any company, really. I feel like very few people have stayed with one brand for that long, as far as the reps I know. There are a select few, but not a ton. Derek: For sure for the reps, but I'm not even close to being the l …

Aaron: Thanks for joining us. We are catching up with RyGo, who is currently located in southern Florida. Where are you at right now, buddy? RyGo: I'm in St. Petersburg right now, but I'm actually just getting the rig ready and we're gonna be heading to the Keys, probably later today. Aaron: Awesome. Well, on this quick segment today I was wanting to catch up with you, talk about your new gig with Airush, and talk about what you and Kristen have been doing in the off-season down …

Aaron: Well Dave, thank you for taking the time. Tell us about yourself and your role with Cabrinha. Give us a brief introduction. Dave: I'm Dave Hastilow, brand manager at Cabrinha. I've been with Cabrinha in some form probably from the beginning, over 20 years. I'm based in Maui, and I oversee everything visual: what the brand is, the brand itself, and the direction. That comes from myself and the guys. Aaron: We're here in Cancun for dealer week and the 03 Cabrinha release. I have b …

Pat: This is Pat with MACkiteboarding.com and we're with Sam Medysky today. We're going to catch up and get a little bit of background about him.Sam: How's it going, guys?Pat: All right, Sam. So you grew up on Lake Huron, right? How was that growing up? I know you were influenced a lot by your dad being a windsurfer back in the day, so wind sports are kind of second nature to you.Sam: Yeah, when I was growing up my parents had a summer cottage on Lake Huron in Sauble Beach, so I'd spend my …

Pat: This is Pat with MACkiteboarding.com here with Nick Baines.Nick: Hey guys. I'm Nick Baines here with Reedin USA in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.Pat: So Nick, how did you end up getting into kiteboarding?Nick: I got into kiteboarding when I was 13 years old. My uncle, who is based in Saint Croix, sent me a trainer kite. I flew that thing religiously for a full year and then purchased my first kite, a 2002 Slingshot Fuel. I took it out to the beach and learned how to fly the kite a …

Pat: This is Pat with MACkiteboarding.com here this morning with Brendan Healy from Cabrinha. Brendan: Good to be here. Thanks for having me, man. Pat: No problem, Brendan. So you came from a background of sailing, right? Is that how you got into wind sports? Brendan: Yeah, exactly. I grew up in Annapolis, Maryland. The Chesapeake Bay is almost like an inland body of water, more or less, so there are no real waves of any kind, and the breeze is pretty frontal. I grew up sailing; it's a …

This is Aaron from MACkite with Ben from Duotone. I was asking Ben about some of the overlap within the Duotone kite product line. Aaron: I've been a fan of both the Neo and the Dice because of their surf characteristics, and I started thinking how, within the entire line of kites, there is some functional overlap between the different models. What are your thoughts on the design process behind that and how those design concepts come into play? Ben: We do have quite the lineup of kite …

  Fred Hope is among the most talented kite foilers we've ever seen. He's also a Product Test Administrator for Slingshot Sports, in Hood River, Oregon.  This offseason, he'll be traveling between Barbuda, in the Caribbean and the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. Along with kite foiling, Fred is an amazing freeride kiteboarder, kitesurfer, and wing foiler. The Fred Hope Interview - Kite Foiling, Wing Foiling and Traveling Pat: This is Pat with MACkiteboarding.com, here with Fred Hope. What …

Hey, what's up guys? I'm Rygo. I'm Sensi. And today we're going to do another interview, and we're going to chat with Sensei Graves here. So it's been kind of a big year for you, a lot of change, a lot of things happening. You just got onto Slingshot. Do you mind sharing about that experience? Represent, yes! I actually was on Liquid Force for eight years prior to this. They went out of business, I broke my wrist shortly thereafter, and so I wasn't stressed at all about finding a new sponsor b …

Rygo: Hey, what's up guys? I'm Rygo.Evan: Evan Netsch here. And today we're going to do another rider profile. We're going to going to get to know Evan who's been a kiteboarder for what, like 10 years now I think? Maybe longer? Twenty. Twenty years. Okay, so you started when you were a kid. I'm older now, yeah. I'm 31 now. It's not that old. But yeah, Evan's an absolute ripper, somebody that I've known about for a long time. I've known him for a few years now and we're going to do some …

An interview with Evan on his choice boards! The Cabrinha Xcaliber, one's carbon, one's wood. Depending on the day, depending on what I'm doing, I'd use either one of these as my go-to boards from Cabrinha.  What are the major differences when you go for a wood board or a carbon board, and why might you choose one?  The main difference is the wood board's going to be a little bit of a smoother ride. It's going to be a little bit flexier, cut through chop a little bit better, …

When I first started kiting, unhooked freestyle and strapless surf were king. Athletes were pushing the sport forward at an incredible pace. We started to wonder what it would be like if athletes from other sports took notice. Would world-class surfers pick up a kite? What about wakeboarders or snowboarders? As things panned out, some did but never quite on the level we hoped for. Tye is the rare example of a pro crossing over from another sport and excelling at kite. The only other pro snowboar …

When I first started kiting, unhooked freestyle and strapless surf were king. Athletes were pushing the sport forward at an incredible pace. We started to wonder what it would be like if athletes from other sports took notice. Would world class surfers pick up a kite? What about wakeboarders or snowboarders? As things panned out, some did, but never quite on the level we hoped for. Tye is the rare example of a pro crossing over from another sport and excelling at kite. The only other pro snowbo …