Source: PKRA

The first day of the Euro Millions Kitesurfing World Cup 2006 in Knokke-Heist, Belgium dawned cloudy and cool.  Rain showers and fluky wind kept the competition at bay during the morning hours.  Spectators and riders bundled up due to the sporadic showers, the brutal wind chill and temperatures below 10 centigrades.  Event organizers had a cool rider’s tent set up with DJ’s of the house Lady Kay, Mr. Ben and Timaxx mixing the tunes up, excellent food and beverage stations, large flat screen TVs playing PKRA World Tour kitesurfing videos and comfy chillout seating and eating areas.   Everyone hung out keeping warm in the main tent or checking the internet at the VVW Heist Sport Center tikki hut café and bar. Riders were psyched about new features on their rollover pop-up on the live results ladder at www.caribbeanwinds.com, such as competitor statistics and win/loss records.

 Source:  PKRA

The second stop of the 2006 PKRA World Tour, the Euro Millions Kitesurfing World Cup in the beautiful seaside town of Knokke-Heist Belgium looks promising for May 24th - 28th.  Registration day was partly cloudy with some showers in the morning clearing to a nice, brisk, sunny day with riders taking to the water to get used to the colder water temperatures and wind conditions.  Wetsuits helped them brave the elements and play on the North Sea’s 2-3 foot swells.  Among the 32 men and 14 women registered, representing 17 countries are several Belgium champions all geared up for the start of the main event and $40,000 in prize money.

The Shockwave has been widely accepted amongst the wave-heads and inland gust-busters, and has set standards within the SLE market.  The Octopus is proving it's self as the lightest and most reliable single point inflation system available and the shear stability of the kite in unrivaled.  Packaged together with Naish build quality, the Shockwave is a load of fun.

The Shockbar's design with it's 2 to 1 depower system creates a bar position and depowability essential for the flight of an SLE.  Bar position is everything and to ride with a bar far away from your hips and to be in the ""Poo" stance is bad for learning tricks and even harder on your forearms.  A comfortable stance and short, easy sheeting, for maximum depower, are the key to; learning moves, riding for long periods and of course, looking good!  If you ever have questions on bar set-up or any other issues, give us a call or drop us an email.

We've been playing around with different bridal modifications and bar changes to provide a softer feel to the bar when under-powered or in light to moderate winds. One of them is as follows and it is a simple and quick way to reduce bar pressure.  This is not an essential fix, but an adjustment for under-powered flying.