North Rebel 09 introduced

As you can read from www.northkites.com there’s new Rebel out. What’s introduced as Snappy, Reactive and Most Agile kite ;)

Main New things I noticed were: 4 ribs instead of 5 (missing the middle one) and  ”lazy pump” system.

Available sizes are: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16 m²

We made some pre-orders for those kites (7m² ones;) So I hope I can write about this new Rebel while I have had some hands on experience in the middle of september.

It’s soon autumn here, so we are few steps away from the windy period of Estonia.

Takoon Sutra

Here it is, my own and precious freestyle 129x40 Takoon Sutra. Had a chance to do my first rides with this beauty, damn it’s sharp :) Don’t have skills enough to try it’s POP etc yet.. but my 1st impressions are great! Good whoo! goes to my Mystic Darkrider harness also, no more ballbreaking experience, my ribs did hurt a little but that was my own fault :P

In other news we had a really nice kitesurfing saturday on the north side of Estonia, place called “Valkla” with long sandy and empty beach with big wakes and deep sea from 8:30 to 14:30 ;) Burnt my head a bit.. so it looks more like a emergency button atm, but thats nothing compare to the feeling we had in the water!

More wind please! ;) kthx

Introducing Mystic Darkrider ‘08 aka R.I.P ballbreaker seat Harness

There it is, Mystic Darkrider 2008. As I have had too much bad ballbreaking experience with my cheapo Cabrinha seat harness, I decided to move to the 2nd level - chest harness. Hope it’s more gentle with me ;) There are always  ”buts” about chest harnesses for noobs, that they can start climbing up, hurt your ribs etc - but nothing is more annoying than something is squeezing your balls :P

Okey, enough about balls’n’shit. I’ll write you more about this Rider in Dark, while I have had a change to try it out in real conditions :)

Second time with my Rebel, first time on Stroomi beach

Had a nice windy day in Estonia (~10m/s but a bit holey). After work, took my Rebel with me and went to kitesurf on Stroomi beach what’s about ~10min ride from the office by car. It will be probably the main beach I’ll visit with that wind angle (good conditions, nice waves, short ride).

Second time felt like - second time.. longer stripes, better upwind. Tried my fellow-surfer Kristjans North Jamie Pro ‘06 (128) what’s way smaller than North Defender ‘06 (141) what I’m using to get on track… allready looking for small and cute Jamie ;)

One thing what was annoying like hell.. was my Cabrinha Seat Harness, what made my eyeballs pop out when it squeezed my balls while kite was hanging in depower :S Gotta find a solution for that..

Conclusion - can’t wait for another windy day ;)

North Kitesurf wallpaper for 1680x1050

As there were no wallpapers for my resolution on http://www.northkites.com/ I took ones I liked and formed a bigger one out of them. So these shots are under Copyright 2008 by NORTH Kiteboarding ;) I suggest you to check http://unitedkiters.com for more kitesurfing community related stuff.

First stripes done, with my dear yellow Rebel

Today it was pretty windy in Estonia. We got to the beach (named “Kloogaranna”) around 18:30, it was blowing 8-10+ m/s but a bit holey. Not perfect conditions for a noob like me. But in other hand.. we got my brand new Rebel together, got it up.. and I started bodydragging.. while doing this wind dropped a bit to around 7-8m/s. So I decided to give it a try to get on the board.. First it was a bit tricky to get feet into bindings, but when I got it, it went smooth and I made my 1st stripes (~200m longs) It made me go WOW! I was pretty amazed.

One thing I found out was how bad holey wind can be. Had my kite with total de-power over my head (12 a clock). Suddenly no wind a all, kite started coming down and lines lost their tension, surprise surprise wind came back.. a nice takeoff from the water, around 6-7m flight and landing balls facing the water - PRICELESS! atleast my kite didn’t fall down ;)

Conclusion, it was a very nice evening and big thanks to peeps who got me that far!

North Rebel ‘08

Here is my brand new North Rebel ‘08 12m² (yellow tho), now let’s wait for windy days and try to get some skills also! :P