Hi Everyone,

Ozone riders Laurent Benamon and PhatDan (Dan Vaughan) have just returned from a photoshoot with Gus Hurst in Tunisia. The guys flew into the capital, hired a truck and headed out into the desert to check out the countries potential for landkiting. Sleeping out and moving everyday the intrepid trio had a few adventures which will soon grace the pages of “Powerkite Mag”, ” Kite & Friends” and the Powerkite section of French magazine “Kitesurf Mag”. They had everything form 30 knot sandstorms to zero wind so a wide mix of conditions can be expected!!! Gus’s camera filled up with sand and probably every other crevice which we won’t go into here….(!)

Read on for Gus’s short report on their trip, keep checking back for updates for more pictures of their trip

Cheers Matt  

“A 4WD drive vehicle, heaps of Bedouin bread, all the new range of 07 kites, and two of Ozones pro team riders in North Africa, was a perfect recipe for a wicked Powerkite adventure in Tunisia.

Smooth winds pumped on our first day, exploring the Chott El Jerid, with a steady 15-20 knots blowing, PhatDan (Dan Vaughan) and Bennie the Bedouin (Laurent Bennamon) soon had my lenses ripping as they kicked up dust on one of the huge expanses of dried salt in the southern areas. These lake beds are enormous, masses of terrain to play, with a variety of surfaces, good, bad and ugly, and we found all of them!

Hooting winds, created desert storm day in the Sahara, dodging camels and Bedouin horses, Bennie demonstrates the Cults ability to create smooth power and munch up ridiculously gusty conditions. I demonstrate that Canon cameras don’t like 35mph sand blasting sessions, an expensive lesson in photography!

Discovering the massive potential of Bedouin bread for flatulence, we left the Sahara behind, and found ourselves on the most polluted beach in Tunisia with crap wind – Dans’ mishap with a front wheel, and his good fortune of finding a moped wheel replacement, complete with disc brake, made for one of those days when you say ‘you cant win ‘em all’

Bennie discovers the worst possible terrain for wearing mountain board tyres, mud and salt mix and dry in a small Chott we drive out to, cracking in the sun to form sharp razors of rock hard, rubber piercing nastiness. But still, with mountains on either side, it looks great in photos and made for more excellent wheel based mishaps.

Tunisia is a welcoming and spectacular place to visit, cheap to fly to and cheap to eat and sleep. Definitely go there; I am sure we will be back for more kite adventures there, in the meanwhile check out the stories to follow in magazines such as Powerkite & Kite & Friends.

www.airfrance.com and www.ba.com will fly you to Tunisia cheaply

www.tourismtunisia.com has more information on your stay there

Enjoy, fair winds

Gus Hurst”