PKRA LIVE !!!

The PKRA has gone live!  Check it out at:
http://live.prokitetour.com/?id_comp=92

Live video and live results~!

Chamonix in the spring

Nice little hike to the Gorges de l'Aveyron.  I'm loving Chamonix in the spring: tons of walks, biking tracks, etc....

Snow desktop background

Vidéo de la compet à Oleron

http://www.oleronsurfkitefestival.fr/component/content/article/38-surfkite/103-la-video-du-festival.html

Live results PKRA Argentina

 http://www.extremeelements.tv/live_results/results.php?TNID02=68&TYPE04=SINGLE&SEX01=M

Oleron Surfkite Festival

Un bon événement qui s'annonce sur l'île d'Oleron.  Bonne météo vague et vent, passer dire  bonjour a Franck Socha, Antoine va juger.... ça devrait être bien sympa!

Life in France

About a month ago, Antoine and I decided to leave Puerto Rico.  Where to? We were not quite sure, so we headed to the south of France for a trip of kitesurfing, windsurfing, surfing, skiing, hiking... anything fun, you name it, and we're up for it!!!  

We are gathering our thoughts at the moment, and making decisions on what is going to come next.

In the mean time, this is what has been going on:

Beauduc Trip

Beauduc is large bay an hour from Marseille, where the wind almost always blows, super fun flat water on the inside (see pics below), and little waves for perfect kickers on the outside.  When it's under 25 knots, it's perfect... but you can also wake up one morning, and it will be blowing 60 knots!  That happened to us!  Antoine could not hold on to his 3.7m windsurf.... so time to go!

Carcassone Trip

I had never seen Carcassone: it's a fortified city about 1h and a half away from Montpellier, and that also happens to have a great windsurfing/kitesurfing spot next to it: Lac de Guanguise (see above).  It was kinda of gusty, but still fun to be in fresh water, and in a new place.

Carro Trip
Who wants strong wind? Carro in 45 minutes away from Marseille, and is a Tramontane spot.  It's a beautiful place with waves (not easy to find in the south of france), but the only problem is that it blew 50 knots   constantly gusting to 60 all the time we were there!  I tried windsurfing on 3.7m but could not even hold on to that.  I mostly spent my time taking pictures then!

Me thinking: "hum, looks windy!"

Antoine thinking: "hum, this is fun!"

And then of course, there was the amazing skiing trip in Chamonix

More great adventures coming soon!!!

First Instructional Up on my website

Check out my NEW Instructional page on my website!
I will add new "lessons/tips" regularly. 
Feel free to let me know if you would like to see a specific one.

Foilboarding 105

Fun Times in PR: Today was a light day in PR, so again, perfect for me to keep on trying the foil board!  It's really starting to get fun, but still feel like I am on a roller coaster. On my 5th time taking it out now! It's funny because it feels like learning on how to kiteboard all over again!  The first time I tried it, I could barely put the board on my feet! Oh and also, I am pretty sure I'll steel legs with it! 

Foilboarding 102

Wind at about 10 knots, flat ocean.... hum let me think: let's take out the FOIL!!! Antoine and Phil at Kitesurfpr have one, so I went for it.
I tried it out yesterday for the 2nd time (1st time was ... a long time ago), and actually had a lot of fun.  It took me a little while just to figure out how to put my feet on the things!, and then how to go straight... but I eventually got it.  I also had to go for shorter runs because of the reefs inside the bay!  Now I just have to learn how to get it out of the water, and keep it hovering there... instead of just climbing and then crashing!

Merry Christmas

I wish every one a Merry Christmas,

and a 

Happy New Year!!!

... and that we all get great kiting and surfing conditions in 2010!!!

America's Cup sailing

I was  lucky to go sailing today on one of the America's cup boats in the Auckland Harbor.  The 2 hours sailing went by really fast.  The sails are huge (205 sq. meters for the main sheet, and 400 for the spi!), and the whole boat is just amazing.

I had a really good time here in Auckland with my sisters, and the local kiteboarding crew.  It is now time to go back to Puerto Rico: home sweet home, waves and good bye wetsuit!

Rangitoto Volcano

My trip in New Zealand is coming to its end, and I am leaving tomorow.  As a good tourist, I took a day trip to the Rangitoto volcano in the center of the Auckland bay. The view was absolutely stunning from up there!

Raglan

Raglan is on the west coast about 2 hours away from Auckland.  There are 2 spots: the wave and the flat water one.  We kited at the flat water which is a river mouth with a lot of current.  The current was opposite to the wind, and pretty fun to just sit in the water and start going upwind! 

The weather was pretty bad when we arrived, but soon cleared up and the wind got steady around 20 knots: big jumps on my 9m. My sisters and I were able to all kite together...it's pretty rare, and we really enjoyed it.

Later on, we went to checked out the surf spot... but I decided to stay out of the water.  Too much current for me!

Little "Bucks" Bucklands Beach

The wind picked up early this morning... even before I was up! My transportation (my sister's cars!!!) was busy today, so I decided to give the "in front of the house" spot a try... and it ended up being quiet fun.  It was a little bit on the gusty side because of the wind direction, and I shared the space with the ferry... but I enjoyed kiting powered up on my 7m. Big jumps guaranteed!