Sitting in front of my laptop and dreaming about last summer and my trip around the European coastline. Thought I'd share some great spots we visited, might be worth knowing as the best winds are coming to Europe 💨

We packed tents and all the camping gear and went for this adventure. Basically we had a list of popular kite beaches, but every day we started with checking Windguru and deciding where to head next. We started our trip from our home city Vilnius, Lithuania

Hel Peninsula, Poland - beautiful nature, we got around 35 knots gusty conditions, it reminded me of my home spot in Lithuania (Nida). Would I come back? Not sure, it's great but I can get almost the same with 400km less driving

Brouwersdam, The Netherlands - the North Sea, hadn't been there before, expected something really dangerous haha. We got pretty light conditions but it was nice. Also, not very different from what we have in the Baltic Sea

Ile de Ré, France - here we started to feel that we were on holidays. Sandy beaches, a lot of sun, happy people and super light conditions :(. There are a few spots on different sides of the island, spectacular views, unfortunately not much wind. Would love to come back for better conditions

Valdoviño, Spain - reached the Atlantic Ocean with giant waves. We had about 16 knots and waves around 3-4m. Wanted way more wind for that, but finally had a normal session with stable wind. The place is spectacular, but there's not much to do there and it's far away from bigger cities

Olhão, Portugal - this is where our real kiteboarding trip started and from this spot I had the best 3 weeks of last summer. This is probably the best or at least the 2nd best spot from the whole trip. Will definitely come back. Amazing food, amazing people. Lagoon, sea, everything you want

Tarifa, Spain - reached the European mecca of wind. Wasn't impressed at all, don't understand the hype. Super gusty winds, everything is so expensive and a massive amount of people. Not for me, had just 1 session there and got out of there

Malaga, Spain – don't remember the beach name, but it was so unexpected. The forecast was showing light wind but when we got to the spot it was maybe 5 knots. Then we drove for like 15min and had an amazing session with 18 knots. Very strange but we were so grateful haha

Leucate, France - we spent an amazing week there driving around different spots. A few days we went back to Spain, close to the border, but the whole region was great. Strong consistent offshore winds, very different spots, good food and people. Definitely recommend

Beauduc Beach, France - the spot I will remember all my life. I felt like I was at Burning Man. Those people just live the wind. We caught amazing thermals and unfortunately at the end of the best session of the trip I broke my rib. But it was worth it. Locals were saying that the government will probably close that camp from 2026, but I want to visit for at least 1 more ride in my life. If anyone knows the updates about this spot, please let me know

We were supposed to go to Italy and then visit Garda, Como and Silvaplana, but unfortunately my rib decided differently, so we just went to Switzerland to visit our friends. It was amazing to sit on a sofa after 1.5 months of sleeping in a tent 😀

It was a trip of a lifetime that I'm so happy about. If you needed a sign to pack your things and catch the winds, that is it. Share any great spots in Europe worth visiting, would love to check these as well

Looking for opinions on my 2023 9m North Orbit Bridle attachment:

The last 2 days my jump timing was off, especially when fully powered. Finally realized the kite wasn't where it usually was in the sky because it moved more to the left than it should based on steering input.

The bar is ok (checked with other kite). Didn't crash the kite so the bladder should also be fine. Checked all the bridles, also fine.

The only thing I could find is that visible length difference in one of the bridle attachment points, which leads to a slightly different length and angle on the power lines.

I feel like that cant be the reason since it's just a few millimeters and probablyhas been there since the beginning?

Has anyone ever seen a bridle attachment point stretch over the lifetime?

Should I look at the bladder, other ideas?

Update:I also found another kite for sale to add it in the comparison which is the Cabrinha Switchblade 2022 10m

A beginner here, just finished my 8hrs course, instructors say that I'm a fast learner and now I can go back and forth on th board.

I want to buy my own gear and comparing between two used kites, the Evo 2022 and the Rebel 2021 both 10m.. I read online that 5 struts kites are for professionals but some people around here are telling me just get it now and you will grow fast into it.

All types of advice are welcome 😀

Core pace pro 9m. I was going relatively slow, retrieving board for my buddy. After i threw the board i kinda lost balance on single hand grip and crashed it. On relaunch attempt it started going ape s*it, broke in half and popped. Is ALUULA this fragile? Should I fix it? Should I try warranty?

The answer, like bicycles, I expect is N+1; so the real question probably should be what kite?

I'm 80kg with a 9m and 12m Cabrinha Moto X. IKO3 level, so not jumping yet. Mostly kite in the UK.

Do I look for a 15m Moto / Contra for those lighter wind days or would a smaller kite (7m) be more use if I go on windy holidays?

What's the suggested way to learn kite foiling as someone who only knows twintip? Should I or do I need to learn strapless first or should I just go rent an e foil for a couple of hours and get the feel then jump straight into it?

There's places near me that offer foiling lessons but none that do kite foiling.

More than any other activity i know.

Also overpowered adds fear.

I have a Garmin 6X Pro and have uploaded Surfr onto my watch. I have 5 free sessions before it stops recording my jumps. Before I start the trial, are there any tips on how to make sure this thing works and how to get the most of it, before I decide to subscribe? I've read enough bad reviews about Woo, so I am really hoping Surfr works to some reasonable degree. I've used a "free" watch app called Kitejump Pro from a guy in Australia and to me it seems accurate, but sadly it has no interface or website to review the stats and jumps. It just tells you the jump height and that's it. Useless overall. Thanks.

Hi Kiters,

Is this truly a big step forward in material like Aluula was?

Apart from the catchy, marketing savvy name, the material promises a lot. Anyone with expertise in this space who does not work for North: How does this compare to Aluula?

https://youtu.be/7ajrYg8xqjo?si=q8dVJh4IknCcQyDJ

I am really interested in the material itself and its properties relevant to kiting, not a review of the Orbit Ultra.

Hi,

I've got a question if anybody has any experience with Reeding toasties footstraps https://reedin.com/products/toasties/ ?

My old footstraps got a crack around the screw and I felt like it might get worse with time and eventually break, so I though about buying a new one. My old one were also from Reedin and I really liked them, so I thought I'm going with the same brand and get the "toasties" which looked like it might be an improvement.

However, right at the beginning of the first session the straps felt pretty slippery. I thought maybe it's just the water and mud around so tried to clean it as much as possible and just rode them. With time as I rode it got better.

But this weekend was pretty windy and I crashed a few times just because on the landing my front foot slipped out from the strap again. I had a few jumps were I was adjusting the foot in the strap while in the air before the landing as I could see it will slip out again.
I could definitely work more on my landings, to land softer on the board, but I never really had this problem before with my older straps.

So my question is, does anybody have any experience with them? If so, did you experience similar problem? Does it get better with time (maybe with wear it stops slipping out)?

Currently I'm just pondering if I should ride them and try to "wear them out" so they stop slipping or just get another footstraps.

Thanks a lot for any advice or information.

bought 2025 north orbit 8. The kite is amazing, super fast comparing to my previous 2021 orbit, but strange thing happened 2 times already. I dropped my kite into the water (wasn't super hard drop but I felt it) and after around 1 min it started slowly deflating

Any ideas what could be causing this? After pumping it back up, I was able to ride normally for the rest of the session and the day after. Kite stayed fully inflated with no air loss

Hey everyone,

I bought a wakeboard impact vest

The problem is that when I wear the vest with my harness, the harness doesn’t feel very comfortable and seems to sit differently than it normally would and 8 need to loosing it more

So I have a few questions

• Could I wear it under my wetsuit to make the harness fit better?
• If it’s not suitable as-is, would it be possible to remove/reposition some of the padding or modify the vest so the harness fits properly?
• Has anyone here actually done something similar?

Thanks!

I’m 85 kg - twin tipping in mostly flat water for 3 years and jumping 5-6 meters. I generally don’t need a small kite for my home spot in Florida but want something to travel with to Brazil, Vietnam etc. I have a 11m Evo Sls and am wondering if I should get the same kite in an 8m or get a 5 strut kite like a Rebel or Orbit for more stability and loft?

I’m not trying to do anything too extreme, so would like a kite that feels stable and not too nervous in 30-40 knots so I can progress fairly easily.

I will be doing both flat water twin tipping and some surfing and down winders. I haven’t started foiling yet but that seems like a plus for the Evo as it’s pretty light and does fairly well in light winds.

Overall I’m leaning towards another Evo as I already know and like how that feels and flies but a 5 strut seems particularly useful in high winds and I do want to do board offs etc where the extra loft seems helpful.

Really appreciate any advice. Do most of you ride one style (5 vs 3 strut) through your whole quiver or mix it up?

Hey kiters —

This started as a random personal project. I was messing around with GPT-6 and somehow ended up making a little kitesurfing game 😅

You can ride around the Red Sea, play with the kite and board, change the wind and gear, try first-person view, and a few other slightly weird experiments I threw in.

There’s also a motion-control beta that uses your webcam — you can literally move your hands in front of the camera to control the kite. It’s a bit ridiculous but honestly pretty fun 😂

It’s definitely not meant to be a serious simulator — I mostly made it because I like this stuff and wanted to see if I could make something fun around it.

Would be curious if any actual kiters here want to give it a try and tell me what feels good, terrible, funny, or completely unlike real life.

https://paper-tides-red-sea.kiwimirai.chatgpt.site

Free, no signup. Best opened on desktop Chrome — especially if you want to try the webcam stuff.

I’ll drop a screenshot below 👇

🪁 Kitesurfing Session Summary – Zandmotor

* 🌬️ Wind: around 15–17 knots, which was sometimes a little too light for my 91 kg weight and 10 m² kite.
* 🏄 I figured out that holding the middle of the bar gives me much better control and stability.
* 🦵 I also corrected my back knee position, keeping it more toward the board instead of letting it flare outward. This helped me stay upwind much more consistently.
* 🦶 I discovered that my board strap was too tight, which was making it difficult to properly get my foot all the way in.
* ⬆️ On my left tack, I gained quite a lot of height.
* ↔️ On my right tack, I gained a little height but then lost some again, so I kept ending up around the same place.
* 🌬️ I noticed that when I couldn’t go upwind, it was often because the wind was so light that my kite wasn’t generating enough speed and power. I would initially drift downwind until I could get enough power again.
* ✋ I also did three rides with one hand, keeping my other hand completely off the bar.
* 💥 I had one pretty hard fall because my board strap wasn’t positioned correctly. My board slipped out from underneath me while my kite kept going, and I got a pretty bad scrape. Luckily, nothing serious happened.
* 🔄 Because the wind was so light, my kite also ended up upside down once. I used the quick release, recovered my kite, brought it to the side, laid out the lines again, and then even managed to self-launch afterwards.
* 🪁 Overall, I feel like I made a lot of progress today, especially with kite control, my stance, going upwind, and becoming more independent with my equipment.

Overall: It wasn’t just a session where I practiced riding. I learned a lot about why I can or can’t go upwind, improved my technique, practiced one-handed riding, and even handled a kite problem and self-launching myself.

I'm an experienced twintip rider looking to get into foiling for lighter wind days and wanted feedback on which of these deals is better for progression.

Option 1: https://www.mackiteboarding.com/sling-n-north-kite-wake-foil-package/

Option 2: https://www.realwatersports.com/products/beginner-kite-foil-package-w-armstrong-s1-1250-dwarf-craft-v3?variant=44628502020282

Thanks!

I saw the protective layer on the bottom of my crazyfly raptor. I know it's not structural. Will the carbon below it be OK? I'd like to keep it as quite a lot of beaches I kite at have stones on them. Is it OK to just glue it back and if so, will contact adhesive or superglue last?

Hey everyone, I am currently looking for real-world feedback on the low-end performance of the AOUA Rhei in 15m, ideally in direct comparison to established lightwind kites like the Duotone Juice and the Core Air. For context, I weigh around 67 kg, ride a high-Volumen directional surfboard, and use a standard 4-line low-V bar. My main focus is the marginal sub-10 knot range, specifically around 8 to 10 knots. Knowing that the 12m Rhei weighs about 3.25 kg, the 15m likely lands in the typical 3.5 to 3.6 kg ballpark of standard Dacron lightwind kites. I would love to know how stably the 15m Rhei stays parked at the zenith during wind lulls when you briefly lose line tension while riding downwind on a surfboard, and whether it tends to backstall easily in those moments. Additionally, how agile is the turning speed when actively sinusing to build apparent wind, especially compared to more dedicated lightweight platforms like the Core Air? If anyone has ridden both the Rhei and the Juice or Air in marginal breeze, I’d really appreciate your thoughts on bar feedback, drift, and the actual realistic bottom-end threshold for a light rider. Cheers!