Hi everyone 

Iain from www.kitefrenzy.com in Spain has been searching and finding the best wind in the last few weeks and managing to test nearly the full range of water kites, from the 5m Light 2 to the 15m Sport 2, only the 3m Light 2 left. Here is his email.

Hi Matt, here is some news from Spain…

Terrific Tenerife, this beautiful island turned into a paradise island to test the new Instinct range for 2008 this weekend. After almost a month of no wind in Barcelona and a stock room full of 2008 Instincts it was time to go searching for conditions and all the Windguru arrows were pointing at the Canary Islands. I packed a decent range of kites, from 5m Light to the 11m edge with a rabble of Sports in between.

When I arrived, Ricardo from www.azulkiteboarding.com was there to pick me up and take me to a superb apartment right on the spot in El Medano, a paradise for kiters. It is a huge bay with a relatively small launch and landing spot with amazing conditions from big meaty waves at the harbour to rolling breakers out back and choppy madness in from of the launch spot. A beginners place this is definitely not.

The wind was howling from 27 to 40 knots for the first two days and then going up to insane gusts on the last day I was there.

The local guys took the 2008 7m Sport and the 2008 9m Sport out to test and all came back with huge smiles on their faces, the wave riders loved the smooth progressive bar feeling and the massive depower the new shaped Sport gives, enabling them to make huge carving turns off the face of the wave without getting pulled by the kite, the speed of the kites turn also made wave riding a real pleasure.

The level of riding in El Medano is one of the highest I have seen round Spain, the conditions are hard and so this breeds a great level. One of the local freestylers took the 9m Sport out to test the jumping and hangtime and was really stoked with the stability of the kite during flight and the feedback from the bar that he was pulling enormous high handle passes by the end of his session, even though the conditions were pretty strong and gusty. A confidence inspiring kite.

We had the age range testing the kites too, from 8 year old Simone from Italy out all day on the 5m Light to a 68 year old, also Italian, who loved the security of the depower on the Sports and the ear to ear grin he had after the session told me he also loved the huge lofty jumps he was pulling off the swell ramps out back.

I had a blast here, we ate well in the evening and there is a great atmosphere round the small town. I took a lot of video of the riders but my camera got hammered by a blast of fine sand on the last day so for the moment it is in the repair shop, as soon as I get it back I will be able to upload the film and make a short film to back up my words.

Once again, massive thanks to Ricardo from www.azulkiteboarding.com for making our stay perfect.

After such an amazing time we moved onto the Delta del Ebro for the full gamete of wind conditions, the wind blew from 10 knots to 40 knots over 3 days of non stop riding. The Delta is a massive national park area with incredible views and great food. The water can be ultra flat to very choppy with little 50cm waves about 1 meter apart. The kites were again great and the hangtime that the riders were boosting from the flat water in 25 knots was amazing.

The 11m Edge was the tool of choice for those moments, speed speed speed then huge flights over the shallow water gave grins to all the riders. When the wind was at its most metal we got riders out on the 5m Sports and Lights, most people had packed up and were about to leave when I got the kites pumped up and begged the people to ride, everyone was impressed with the depower and feeling of safety that some were making nice rotations and boosting high even in those kind of gnarly conditions.  We camped in the wild and ate amazing barbequed Paella in the evening as it is where they grow all the rice for the Paella in Spain. A truly incredible place to spend the weekend.

Moving quickly North to Sant Pere Pescador where www.ventilador.com had just made a nice order for kites for their very popular school there. I thought I would deliver them personally as www.windguru.cz was egging me on to make a visit. I arrived on Monday and it took me 5 days to leave! We had 5 solid days of 27 to 35 knots cross shore with little cute wave ramps and NO ONE in the beach, Monday to Friday riding. Xavi the main man at Ventilador in Sant Pere Pescador was flying high and carving up the playground with his new toys while local photographer Jose “the shadow” Chiado swam beside us and took some great shots, thanks Jose. Sant Pere is another awesome place to visit, another National Park and there are better yearly wind statistics there than Tarifa, not many people know that!

We are back home now and the orders are coming in nicely, next stop will be Mar Menor and Tarifa.

Cheers and thanks for some superb equipment, hope you like the photos, Iain 

Any more info on any of the spots please contact iain@kitefrenzy.com

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