Lake ride! - Kitesurf Sessions 93 and 94

Last weekend, not wanting to "eat" sand for two days due to the very strong winds expected on the coast, we decided to try something different... With some friends, we headed down to the Naussac lake, in the Lozère region of France.

It's a beautiful spot, with a great camping site nearby. The surroundings and the possibility to explore all the corners of the lake compensates for the less than regular winds (from 10 to 20 knots on saturday and 11 to 28 on sunday, I would say).

It's definitely not a spot for beginners and I was happy to have a kite that sustains the wind gust so well (my 12m Cabrinha Switchblade) and also offers a great low end power, otherwise I wouldn't have enjoyed the ride so much!

With Ghis not at ease and Chris less motivated due to the gusty wind, I ended up doing most of my ride with Olive. We'll keep a special "souvenir" from the session on sunday, when we both went exploring up the lake and then did a beautiful downwind along the western coast...

A really cool and funny weekend with friends on a great spot that we'll test again, with NW or SE winds, the best orientations due to the lake's configuration. A special thanks to Olive for most of the photos, except one done by Mathilde and another by Sigo!

Cabrinha Kites 2013 - Video

Mister Pete sure knows how to sell his kites... Just watch the "Coming Soon" video below!

A new version of the dedicated surf kite (the Drifter) and a new C-kite (the Chaos - and I thought Pete Cabrinha said, a few years ago, he would never build a C-kite again...), means the Nomad goes away. The always present and ever faithful Switchblade gets a "girly" version for the next year. And, for a sneak preview of the 2013 Cabrinha Kites line-up, click play above!

Up, across and down Almanarre - Kitesurf Sessions 91 and 92

What better way to start the week than with two great sessions? While everybody was back at work, on monday and tuesday, I went down to Almanarre, again squatting at Julien's house. I left Lyon at 7h30 on monday and 4 hours later I was at the spot...

I just had time to go say hello to my friend, grab a bite to eat and, at 12h30, I was ready to ride! The wind was already blowing strong, so I got my 9m Nomad and got on the water, for a session that would finish only at 21h30, with the moon already high in the sky.

Tired from the previous day (and from one too many "caipirinhas"...), I slept late on tuesday. The wind also woke up late, so nothing was lost! Conditions where a bit mellower, so we got on the water with Julien around 15h on our 12m kites, for a steady 3 hour ride before he had to get back to work. Me, I had a little break and then got back in, to ride again until sunset...

From 18h to 20h30, I took my GPS tracker with an idea in mind: a nice "promenade" on this beautiful spot to dedicate the resulting track to my friend Olive. You can click on the map to access the interactive track.