Reality Check

< 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

bilderback.qxp:Layout 1 24/6/09 00:44 Page 3

WWW.KITEWORLDMAG.COM > 95

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


< 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



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


< 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



Caption > Mulcoy

Caption > Abreu


< 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



Caption > Ben 'hacking the crap out of it'

Caption > Scott Wisenbaker breaking free


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