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Today Rygo and I are going to be covering a very important topic, one that will change the way you transition forever. The reason downloops are so cool is because they're basically a shortcut to more powered transitions, used for riding waves, carving turns and riding in light winds. Make sure to do this while slightly under-powered to minimize risk of injury. This is one of our more advanced videos. The good news is that we have three tutorials you should master before attempting this trick. …

Welcome to Destinations, your one-stop kiteboarding video travel guide. If you have any questions when planning your trip, don't hesitate to reach out. SPOT GUIDE There's a place way down in the Southern Hemisphere where the scenery will steal your heart and the wind will knock you off your feet. It sounds intense and it is... in all the best ways! In this edition of Destinations, we're checking out a kite spot that's close to my heart: Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town is the home …

Get to know the crew Last week on Sessions, we made our way to Orlando, Florida where we caught up with one of MACkite's original team riders and of my closest friends, Steve Lee. Every winter I find myself spending more and more time in Florida. As much as I like snowkiting and snowboarding, spending a couple weeks in the sun and in the water is good for the soul. Steve isn’t our only team rider who migrated to Florida. Blake Olsen has also been living down there for years now, ori …

Unhooked Back Roll Basics Difficulty 2 Today 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 …

Down Loops are the first step in learning kiteloops. Today we are going to be going over how to land with a downloop. A downloop is different from a heli loop because they are more of a transitional loop used at the end of a jump, trick or transition. A heli loop will catch you softly, whereas a downloop will help, but more so pull you into the other direction. You may land hot, but it won’t be the same amount of pull as a kiteloop, Make sure always to land with your board pointed downw …

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 B …

Freeriders, foilers, jumping junkies, take note.... Newly released from Cabrinha for the 2020 season is the new Freeride kite, the AV8.  It is designed for maximum power and efficiency in a user-friendly kiteboarding kite.  Taking lessons learned from Cabrinha's previous powerhouse kites such as the Contra, Crossbow, Velocity, and Apollo, the AV8 kitesurf kite is a two decade long pursuit of easy-to-use power combined with cutting edge hydrofoiling concepts. With a 5-strut, durable …

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 g …

In season three of Ride with Blake we decided to focus on producing themed playlists. Blake and I took an RV road trip along Michigan's west coast to produce a "Jump with Style" playlist. Our aim was to teach kiteboarders how to improve the way they jumped and to help them develop a large bag of easy, yet awesome-looking kiteboarding tricks. For season four we decided to build on that idea. We'll be producing the ultimate kiteloop playlist- a progressive kiteloop playlist starting with the b …

A foil is no longer simply a foil. There are so many flavors of hydrofoil wings around these days and some really compelling reasons to have more than one at your disposal. The vast range in wing size, new designs, and how they complement your given condition or riding style can really expand what is possible when you are out foiling. In this blog, we are going to walk you through some good reasons and common choices to add to your kiteboarding hydrofoil wing quiver. Wing 1 - Large wing W …

A complete review of the 2018 and 2019 Liquid Force NV  In 2010 the Liquid Force Envy led the charge with a bold new three-strut hybrid design. It was faster than the standard bow kites of the time. It bridged the gap between the heavy freeride kites and the fast performance kites. It was something special as it was user-friendly and performance oriented, something hard to find in one kite back then. In 2019 we have two versions available, the V8 and the V9. The NV led the charge with the …

A review of the 2019 Slingshot RPM Slingshot is hyping up the new RPM hard and their videos are hilarious. However, they do leave some questions at hand. Namely, what can you expect from the new RPM, and how does it differ from the original? More importantly, are they fixing something that's not broken to get it back on your radar? We'll cover all of that and more in this complete review. If I had to sum up the new RPM in three words it would be, "smooth, consistent and grunty", but that do …

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 are …

All wakestyle is freestyle but not all freestyle is wakestyle. This is a video I’ve been meaning to do for a long while now, but I’ve put Versus on hold the last few months. It’s a common question I hear and there are a few opinions floating around on the topic. Kiteboarding borrows from a lot of sports! There are plenty of crossovers, from surfing and wakeboarding to snowboarding. And of course there is the unique big air aspect of our sport. It’s one of the most …

The kiteboarding back roll with style  The Back Roll is often the first trick new kiteboarders learn. The thing is, as exciting as they are, at the end of the day, they don't look that great on their own. Now, add a grab. The Tail Grab is the easiest grab to pair with your Back Roll. It's also one of the better-looking grabs. For this playlist, our aim is to help you add a bunch of safe, good-feeling, easy tricks. These will improve your riding and style fast. These are non-inverted, si …