< KITEWORLD #4094
KOSRAEGood evening ladies and gentlemen, this is Jay Hata from the flight deck. We've
reached our cruising altitude of 36,000 feet. The weather going into Honolulu
Looks fine and I've turned off the fasten seat belt sign. I wanted to point out
to you folks that we have some of the greatest athletes in the world on
board with us tonight. They're coming home from an exploration of
the Micronesian Islands and I just wanted to introduce them to
you and wish them good winds. In 19A we have Mauricio Abreu, in
23B is Ben Wilson and in 23D is Josh Mulcoy. These guys are
professional kitesurfers, living the dream.
Reality CheckWords and Photos > John Bilderback
Caption > One board, one kite... one dream Caption > Team Disco'
Caption > Chomping to get out
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ho is this pilot? And couldn't we find someone sober
to fly this thing?
I was amazed, but the pilot had recognised Ben as
we got on board. Captain Hata was a kiter too, from Kauai.
He hung around our seats and talked story while the other
passengers got settled, asking questions about where we'd
gone and what we'd found. He told us he'd flown Kelly
Slater and Andy Irons in and out a few weeks back for a
swell and, I suspect, he probably made a similar PA
announcement. The thought that we also merit such
treatment made me laugh. The disparity between Kelly or
Andy's world and ours seemed just too great: their market
and ours, their contracts and ours, their bank accounts and
ours. Yet strangely, at least one person on board knew what
we were about, and that made me think. We drank the
complimentary beers that soon appeared and I couldn't help
but ponder the whole progression of kiteboarding - from
hair-brained idea to professional sport.
Huddled under the canvas onboard Discovery, weathering
an unfair amount of rain over the previous two weeks, our
crew had plenty of chance to talk about what 'we as a sport'
were doing, what we were doing wrong - more likely. How
the sport should be portrayed. What the magazines were
doing well, and horribly. What moves were gay, and the like.
It was quite a long, soggy self-critique. I learned that even
certain pieces of equipment needed to be shunned.
Evidently the worst danger to kitesurfing's future: innocent
foot straps - or as they came to be known 'foot-handles', or
w
Caption > Here and below: Wilson: fruit-loop-free rider
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< KITEWORLD #4096
even worse, 'fruit loops' - took hours of abuse. I
listened to some big voices in the sport as they
explained the dire evils of being attached to your
board. (To me foot straps are philosophically no
different from wax. I just kept quiet.)
The thing was, the motivation for all this talking
was clearly the fear that the sport wasn't growing
fast enough; that it didn't match some pre-
supposed trajectory. The surprise here was not
that something was being perceived as bad for
the sport, but that we were actually looking for
something. You see, I go back to the days when
surfers were doing these exact kinds of trips -
finding new spots, but squeaking by on little
support, travelling with little cushion or security
back home, questioning our choice of 'career'
constantly and endlessly rationalising that our
lifestyle (riding waves) outweighed the need to
regularly pay our bills. It wasn't really that long
ago - less than thirty years. It's easy to remember
when surfers were building surf wear companies,
not the other way around. Telling someone you
were a surfer 'for a living' would inevitably lead to
being brushed off as a dreamer or drug addict.
Now, of course, everyone in the world needs
Quika-bong shoes, shorts, hats and sunglasses. So
the laments of my current companions, that
kitesurfing was being held back by foot handles,
or bridles, or advertising, largely bounced off my
KOSRAEReality Check
Caption > Mulcoy ploughing out a turn
Caption > Steady and solid... and that was just the waves. Mauricio pulled out a few nice moves, too
Caption > Captain and First Mate
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weathered perspective.
But what of this concern? We as surfers
never gave a crap if the sport grew. We
didn't fear that using traction pads might
make us all homosexuals, or if 'other
sports' thought we weren't core. Kiting's
insecurity had started to wear on me.
Our plan had been to hit Pohnpei, the
home of perhaps the world's greatest right
hand wave, 'P-Pass'. This break has
dominated the surf media over the last
several years achieving iconic status. It
has become like Pipeline or Teahupoo and
people spend mountains of money and
long hours to get to it. It's a magic set-up,
the wave being a true wonder of nature.
Fortunately we had a back road in; the
sailing vessel Discovery. We wouldn't need
to book in at the camp. We didn't need to
share the little Ponga boats that ferry the
two-hundred-dollar-a-day guests in and out
to the reef. And we would embrace the
ever-present wind. But, we realised that
we would have to share the wave, eight of
us, with who knows how many of them.
And we could only be out of sight until
the time came to drop in. Then our needs
and the surfers' would necessarily
intersect and the prospect of getting any
love or co-operation from the high-paying
Caption > She needs a rescue
Caption > Wilson
Caption > To stop scaring the kids, Mauricio
keeps his glasses on
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< KITEWORLD #4098
surf-campers was very, very low. Particularly when they've
stumped up big money and gone to the ends of the earth
for the ultimate surf fix, surfers don't want to find parasites
like kiters infesting 'their' line-up.
Just days before our trip the idea arose to go explore a
nearby island instead. When that email came in, my heart
sank. I've been trying to go to P-pass for several years. Yet
after consideration of the above, I too voted for a
somewhat risky exploration over a certain conflict with pro
surfers on a mission. And heck, what's three hundred miles
after all? Couldn't there be another P-Pass just one island
over? Why not go somewhere new and see what we find?
Ben Wilson has been to P-Pass several times and, on
better weather forecasts than we were seeing now, so he
was okay with changing. Mauricio is happy anywhere and I
don't believe he even weighed in. Josh Mulcoy may have
been the one who was most sceptical. As a pro surfer he
knew full well the gravity of the call we were making by
passing on P-Pass. But Josh loves Discovery and her crew
after our trip to Tahiti and put faith in the jpegs Gavin had
KOSRAEReality Check
Caption > Josh
Caption > Ben in the line of fire
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Caption > Mulcoy
Caption > Abreu
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< KITEWORLD #40100
sent from his kite sessions in between
trips. We were all in.
So with a few more tasty images
attached, Gavin McClurg, leader of the
Best Odyssey, sent out an email that we
were changing course.
Had we been top-dollar pro surfers,
sponsors would have flipped out. Editors
would have been devastated. We would
have had some real explaining to do. And
there was my revelation. We kiters still
haven't managed to sell out. We're small
(too small if you agree with the status
quo), but that to me meant our sport was
still pure. Our images hadn't become
marketing tools, our lifestyles sold to the
masses. Our decisions were ours, our
search was still untainted. Often
perspective is easier to find in reverse.
We couldn't see how good we have it.
As we pulled up to the mooring ball at
the end of a bowling right, perhaps the
truth of how lucky we were slipped by
us. Yes, the rain was falling, but no ad
agency was holding its breath for the
photos. No one was going to freak out if
we didn't score. No one back at
corporate was pissed. So we surfed. And
we surfed. The waves were deep blue 85
degree lumps that reached the end of a
tapering reef and stood up before
bending around into the lagoon. It was a
sweet deal: the boat anchored in true
Gavin fashion, directly at the end of the
wave, chefs Soledad and Pia filled our
stomachs with incredible food and there
was no one but our crew in sight. By
mid-afternoon the wind filled in. We
changed gear and thoroughly enjoyed our
small-time, slow-growing, borderline
homophobic sport. Mauricio did huge
backhand gouges, Josh floated some long
sections and Benny Wilson hacked the
crap out of every possible vertical face.
After about two hours we were back on
board Discovery once again abusing foot
straps and magazine editors. A regular
pattern that developed over the course of
the week.
Days later as we left for the airport.
Dragging our gear across a wet dock, I
was still musing on the possibilities and
our perceptions. The hard core strapless,
unhooked guys all seem to believe the
best we can ride waves is just exactly like
surfers. The wake-style guys all want to
do tricks just the way wakeboarders do.
While it's good to refer to our roots, this
underestimates what we're capable of, I
think. We have the tools and the
opportunity to learn from everyone before
us and go far, far beyond. And anyone
that doubts me should check back in
about thirty years.
KOSRAEReality Check
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Caption > Ben 'hacking the crap out of it'
Caption > Scott Wisenbaker breaking free
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