We just got our big pallet delivery of SST & SRT Quadfin Surfboards, the new 09 Ben Wilson Pro Model and the 09 Celeritas, both new to the line-up for this year. These boards are sexy to say the least. Glen’s been shredding waves on the quadfins all winter in La Ventana so we’re excited to hear how he likes them. Here’s a little run-down on each board.
(FYI, last year’s SST and SRT are on closeout for $499 brand new!)
The Celeritas-Fast, fast, fast! Stubby surfboard with exaggerated concave. Excels in small and mushy waves. 5′4″ with built in afterburners!
Ben Wilson Pro-If it’s good enough for him, it must be damn good. A high permance, aggressive, 6′2″, tri-fin setup. Can draw a line in any condition. Slightly domed deck with a single concave bottom that zeros out at the tail to control speed.
SST Quadfin-This 6′2″ quadfin is the most versatile board in the lineup. Great for bigger riders who want excellent upwind ability in light wind. Drives hard into turns. If you can only have one surfboard in your quiver, this one is it.
SRT Quadfin-A 5′11″ quadfin that’s perfect for lighter weight or aggressive riders who want a fast, forgiving board. Flat entry rocker, “no nose”, slight single concave in front. A light and lively board.
Headed to the coast on a hunt for tasty waves? Stop by and grab a demo from us before you go!
Slingshot has done it again! We’re able to offer a kiteboarding package that is truly the best in value, performance, and quality. Starting at $999, you can get brand NEW equipment.
The Slingshot Ignition is hot off the press, not some older discontinued model. Alone, the Ignition Kiteboard retails for $600. It has a user friendly outline, high quality construction, progressive design and technology, it’s affordable, and of course it comes with Slingshot’s unprecedented customer service. (They were just voted #1 in customer service in the industry!) The Ignition is the perfect answer for beginners or anyone looking for amazing value! It comes in a 138cm or 144cm only.
The Slingshot Turbo3 kite is a leader in bow kite technology. And the Slingshot bar system, has always been a step above the rest. The T3 delivers all the requirements of unmatched range, instant 100% depower, safety and instant relaunch ability. The T3 bar can be set up as either a 2:1 pulley ratio or a 1:1 direct drive system.
Slingshot has only produced a limited number of boards so this package will go fast. Not only is it a great opportunity for beginners looking to get into the sport inexpensively, but all the gear is performance oriented so even intermediate and advanced riders can take advantage of it.
To make it a true package, you can add on a NEW 2009 Dakine Renegade waist harness for an additional $125 (complete with spreader bar & spreader bar pad). Normally $160 complete, the Renegade is one of the most minimal, body conforming, comfortable waist harnesses on the market. The back is pre-curved to fit into the small of your back like a glove. We’re big fans of it!
Last Monday was the “unofficial” opening day of the Jetty Island kiteboarding season. We had an uncharacteristic 75 degree April day which caused the Jetty thermal effect to kick into full gear. Although it was a weekday, about 35 kiters peppered the shallow Puget Sound waters. Jason was able to take a break from kiteboarding to get some filming in and put together this short video for everyone to watch.
Hopefully this will get you excited for summer kiteboarding!
Last week we spent the day doing some trainer kite filming at Magnusson Park in Seattle, Washington. Our hopes was to put something together that people could view before taking their new trainer kite out to the park. We cover finding a good spot to fly the kite, setting it up, understanding the wind, self-launching the kite and relaunching, and skills to work on that will then apply to kiteboarding on the water.
We think it’s important for people to put in a good 20 hours at least on a trainer kite before getting into a water lesson in order to really make the most out of their lesson. We see it time and time again that someone with trainer kite experience will progress much further during their lesson than someone with no experience at all.
Hopefully you will find this video helpful! Please pass it along to anyone you know who might be interested in learning to kiteboard or flying a trainer kite.
Earlier this week, we kited the Jetty! With an unexpected few days of 70 degree temps, the thermals kicked in and the Jetty fired up. Here are a few pics that James Stringfellow (www.jimstringfellow.com) took on Monday.
Now that the Jetty Island season has started, it’s time to get our anemometer up and running. We have some troubleshooting to work on as usual after our winter hiatus but we hope to have it up to snuff again sometime next week. Stay tuned!
In my last blog, I mentioned all the different ways we’ve ventured into the world of social networking, like MySpace, Twitter, and Vimeo. I also hinted at the fact that we’re working hard on developing a new website. Sadly, while our business has grown immensely over the last 3 years, our website has remained stagnant. Our goal is to freshen up the look and feel of the site, streamline the buying process, make it easy to navigate and provide helpful information that is easy to access. We also want to give you reasons to keep coming back to our site by keeping an updated blog, new video uploads, reviews, and current wind readings.
This website has been my personal pet project. Unfortunately, it’s pulled me away from the blog, but for good reason. I spent days on end photographing every single product in the shop, and then it took me another few days to edit them all, sheesh. Our fingers are crossed that things will be up and running in another week or two, and when they are, you’ll be the first to get a sneak peak! I’ve been wiped out from the stress so we hit a local housing development to do some longboarding on Saturday night. I had so much fun that I was still on a high from it all day Sunday. You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face if you tried. : )
I’ll be sure to fill you in as soon as our new website goes live. We will be welcoming feedback during the early reconstruction phase, while changes can still be made easily. Until then, here’s the link to our photobucket album from this weekend:
Happy Wednesday! With the economy in the dumps, I am constantly looking for new ways to reach out to our client-base and friends. I work with a network of dealers and vendors in the sports industry to brainstorm ideas and find out what is working for other shops. It’s been great putting our brains together to come up with a plan to weather this economic storm.
The blog is great for sharing extensive information, photos, videos and personal stories, but not everyone has time to check my posts everyday. We’re in the process of completely revamping our website (that’s a whole other story…) and creating a brand that encompasses all the sports we’ve gotten into besides just kiteboarding. That in and of itself is worth a whole new post to get everyone up to speed. Basically, we’ve created “Motion Boardshop” which you’ll be able to find at www.motionboardshop.com. Right now it just redirects to gokiting.com until the site goes live. It will contain extensive info on kiteboarding, longboarding, stand-up paddling, and skimboarding. We will still keep gokiting.com and it will remain a kiteboarding specific website and will be the online home for our lessons program.
We’ve taken the plunge into the world of MySpace and you can find our profile under Motion Boardshop. We’ll be posting links to the blog, videos, pictures, and updates on what’s new in the shop. I’ve also created a Twitter account under MotionBoardshop. I’m still figuring out how it works but Follow us and we’ll Follow you back! We plan on having regular give-aways for people who follow us on Twitter and my blog.
We have also been hard at work creating tutorial videos that you can find on Vimeo under Motion Boardshop as well. If you click on the link, you’ll see all the videos on our channel so far. Lately, we’ve been focusing on the longboarding videos that we can film inside our shop on these snowy, March days. You can see the format of what we’ll be making in the future for kiting videos. They will include clinics on picking out a wetsuit or harness, changing bladders in your kite or fixing leaks, how to get the most out of your trainer kite, and lots of safety videos.
There are many exciting things on the horizon for us. In a time when it’s easy to get depressed about the state of affairs in this country, we see opportunity! So look us up on MySpace, Vimeo and Twitter and we will continue to keep you up to speed on our lives and business.
I woke up this morning bored of blogging about kiteboarding products and demos. Instead, I’d like to give you a glimpse into Jason and I’s personal life and show you something we’re REALLY proud of. Last year when we returned from La Ventana, I gave an update on the buying and building process in Mexico. So once again, here is the latest and greatest from our adventure south of the border. I narrowed this down to about 23 pictures of our house and life in Baja, but we also made a 6 minute video giving you a tour of our property. I watch it all the time when I need to “escape” from Seattle. : )
Here’s a brief run-down. Last year, we hired a contractor to take care of everything for us. He got us to the point where we had a fully-enclosed, secure garage and an open 2nd story shell. All we had to do was show up every morning and draw pictures in the sand of what we wanted, or tape index cards on the wall where we wanted light switches and outlets. Lucky for them, we are very easy to please so they could do no wrong in our book. Here’s what things looked like when we showed up in January:
Our contractor Marcello did an amazing job and was so easy to work with. He was always on time and kept his promises so I would recommend him to anyone building in LV. We would have loved to have continued to use him but he gave us an outrageous quote on the stucco we needed done on the outside of the building. So instead, Jason took the role of G.C. and spent his hard earned vacation working on the house. Here’s one wall with the initial scratch coat of stucco.
Jason hired Santana, a local who we got to know last year while we camped at Glen’s house. He did great work for Glen and has proven to be the Da Vinci in the art of stucco. He took great care in his work which we appreciated immensely, and in turn we took care of him the best we could. We chose to go a different route than most traditional “mexi-houses.” Instead of the rough stucco you’re used to seeing, we added an extra smooth coat to give it a more modern look.
Jason and Santana
The same wall, but with the finished smooth coat which they call “suave”
We also hired our next door neighbor to finish small projects for us. Frederico and his son added a 3-block high barrier around the roof so people can’t fall off. They also added 3 rows of blocks around our staircase to complete the look. People ask us all the time about building codes down there and the answer is: There are none. Obviously we don’t want anyone hurting themselves so we made it as safe as possible but no one will come by with a ruler to check railing heights.
Our view from the roof, looking east towards the mountains.
The ladder to climb to the roof for now. You can see where we’ll have two sliding doors facing the water.
Frederico also poured us this “mesa” in our garage to use as a workbench and to store our belongings up high. That way if there’s a hurricane, they won’t be damaged by water. This mesa took one day to complete and cost us about $100!
He also poured a beautiful, smooth, concrete walkway that wraps around the side of the garage to the bathroom and laundry room.
The same path but from the other direction. Once again, this project took about a day and a half and cost around $150. Truly unbelievable! And it made the property look so much more polished. Now we just need to add groundcover around the walkway.
Every night I loved to have “Happy Hour” on the roof and watch the sunset. With a little cloud cover over the mountains it was absolutely spectacular. It’s so awesome that looking to the east there isn’t a single house behind us. It really feels like we have the place to ourselves. At this point, the lots behind us have not been drawn up so it will likely be 3 years or more before anyone can even buy back there.
The view from our roof looking towards the bay.
Tatiana and I enjoying the sunset after a full day or kiting.
It ended up taking about 5 to 6 days to complete one wall with stucco. Almost every day, Jason would run to the hardware store and buy bags of cement. Then he’d have to haul our water tank to our neighbors to fill it up for mixing concrete. He spent more time running around town and babysitting our workers than he did having fun in the sun! By the time we left, we only saw two and a half walls completed. But luckily, they continued to work and friends have sent us pictures of the progress. At this point, we’re ready for windows and doors!
One of our main goals for this trip was to get hooked up with city water. Being a desert town, water is a huge commodity and it’s not a renewable resource. They’ve built a desalinization plant at the start of town but there’s no guessing when it will actually be up and running. We got all our permits and were waiting patiently to get water when we got hit with some bad news. They put a moratorium on water hook-ups just a month or two before our vacation. Luckily, one of our workers, Phillipe, happened to be very politically connected and knew someone who could push it through for us. It’s just too bad that those things always come at a cost…in our case, it was no cheap venture. But on the bright side, we have water! We were down to the wire but it all came together less than 48 hours before our plane took off.
I always say, if you want things done right, sometimes you have to do it yourself!
Rocky and his guys laying our water pipes.
Ta-da! That is one expensive little hose, but now we can have plants and take showers and finally move in!
It’s amazing what we accomplished in just 3 weeks time. I’m so excited that we can actually stay there on our next vacation. From the time we purchased the property, it’s only been 2 years and we have a lot to show for it. We can’t wait to share it with our friends and family. If you have any specific questions about the process, don’t hesitate to ask. I’ve obviously glazed over the details for the sake of most people’s attention span, but I love talking about it. Hopefully, we can show people how easy it is to make your dream a reality.
The 09 Slingshot RPM is their answer to riders who are looking for a kite with the safety and depower benefits of an SLE but the looping, performance and grunt of a C-kite. It’s the best of both worlds. It boosts to the moon and relaunches like a dream. Here’s a video that Chris Shay from Slingshot put together.
Here’s what our teamrider Glen Mulvey had to say about the RPMs after riding them:
These RPM’s are amazing! I thought I would write you a short review so you could share the info…
First thing I noticed was how easily the kite flew in light winds and how light and friendly they felt in the air, not wanting to fly backwards or stray in any way. Right off the bat at the coast the RPM’s were at home, they seem to me to be the perfect wave kite. I did a dozen downwinders and was hooked on the constant power feel and again feeling super light in the air, very responsive.
With just three struts, they are easy to roll or fold for transportation. Also with two less struts, it seemed to work effortlessly and went upwind better than even some flat kites. I liked the initial shape, it had more of a “C” kite, chubby shape with wider wing tips.
The 8m is a super fast kite and jumped to the moon. The 10 is just the perfect all around size and also jumped to the moon. (Super fun kite!) The 12 I enjoyed riding and also jumped well, I only rode it in light winds and need another day on to see how it flies in higher winds. The 14 was flying with almost no winds on demo day. We were the first kite out and the last one to fly when the wind was fading. We pretty much killed it at the kite expo, with everyone wanting to try the RPM’s. (The 14 is going to do well at the Jetty!)
AllRighty, I will fly these things for a few more months and probably be hitting the coast at least once a week! So glad to be riding the RPM’s, finally the perfect kite!
We have an 8m, 10m, 12m, and 14m RPM available for demo anytime, any day! 206.372.5268
We do out best to let anyone try a product before buying, even if all we can offer them is something brand new, straight off the rack. All we ask for in return is an honest review of whatever it is they tried. Local Carkeek ripper, Nick Ward, gave us his unbiased thoughts on the 09 Slingshot Lunacy and I thought I would share them with anyone who’s in the market for a new board or just curious.
“The board excels when you’re really powered, but also has very good low end range for a twintip its size (probably since it’s relatively flat). It’s great for popping big, stomping really hot landings and carving hard turns. Come to think of it, I don’t really have any complaints about the board, although it’s not a rockstar in heavy chop.”
Here’s a little blurb or how Slingshot describes the Lunacy:
“The Lunacy is a super aggressive twin tip and maintains a wide shape, sharp rail and extreme tip power. Translation, it delivers unmatched drive and massive pop!” The 09 Lunacy comes in 129cm, 132cm, and 135cm length. It also happens to be Jason’s board of choice, though he could be riding anything he wants.
I’ve had a hard time finding any other reviews on the Lunacy online but I think Nick nailed it on the head. However, I have yet to find a board that truly excels in heavy chop! I must say that from personal experience, the white board is super easy to spot in the water when I’ve been yarded unlike boards that are blue or dark colored. I also noticed how easy it was to land a jump on! It wasn’t slippery at all and the added width it has makes it very forgiving. Check back because I have a review on the 09 Slingshot RPM kite that I will be posting in the next day or two also.
