The Wind Report

- Newsletter from Kiteboarding Australia -

The Wind Report is Kiteboarding Australia's new way of communicating with our community. In this newsletter, we will update you on all things related to kiteboarding and winging to ensure you don't miss out on the latest events, clinics, competitions, industry news and cool initiatives across the country.

Season re-cap

The 2022-2023 season has been big and Kiteboarding Australia delivered on its promise of bringing together the kiteboarding and winging community with a number of competitions, social events and clinics held. With no more COVID restrictions and La Nina coming to an end, Kiteboarding Australia, along with our amazing state associations, sponsors and collaborators, had a jam-packed schedule with riders coming together to learn, progress and share the stoke across the country in 50+ events and activities in the last few months.

Big Air

This year the Big Air discipline truly took off with major events in NSW, SA and WA. As our community grows more fond of the Big Air, we look to build on the experience from this season and come back with an even more impressive line-up next year, looking to gain consistency across the discipline and prioritising progression, learning and community.

Read more about the most recent Big Air Sydney event, which brought together over 40 riders and 200 spectators. There are plenty of photos to check out as numerous photographers were snapping away to capture the mind blowing action. Spoiler alert, there is a sentimental story with a plot twist to warm up your heart:

https://www.kiteboardingaus.com.au/news/big-air-sydney-2023-results

Photo credit: Fabio Silvestre, Flair Captures, Hidden Studio

Wing Racing

Kiteboarding Australia is committed to building the winging community and growing the event offering across a number of disciplines as this new sport is exploding around the country.

This year, we ran a number of wing racing events with the Nationals held at Rose Bay on Sydney Harbour. With the iconic backdrop of Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge setting the scene, over 40 wingers of all ages from across Australia, NZ and even New Caledonia came together to shred, share their skills and battle it out for their chance to go to the ANOC World Beach Games. It was a truly magnificent sight and the competitors left the event inspired to keep building their skills in anticipation of the next year's state titles and Nationals in WA.

Read more about the event here

Photo credit: Tom Squires

New Wing Channels

Most recently, we have launched two new social media channels dedicated to the winging community on Instagram and Facebook. If winging is your thing, be sure to follow these two pages to stay connected.

Downwinders

Kiteboarding Australia and the State Associations have been listening to the feedback from our members on how we can best give value to our members. Throughout many surveys, downwinders have been raised as key activity members would like to see more of.

Over the summer, Kiteboarding South Australia (KSA) launched their downwinder summer series which included 5 separate downwinders across the summer. It was a huge success with over 60 participants taking place. We hope to see more of this type of activity take place in more areas in the years to come.

Photo credit: Adam Gajdul

Kiteboarding for Life - A Story of Hope

This week a fellow Kiteboarding Australia member departs Port Philip Bay to Kitesurf around Australia.

Nik Shepheard established Kiteboarding for Life to increase awareness of depression and the risks of suicide. He aims to raise 1 million Australian Dollars for Beyond Blue – the leading mental wellness charity. Nik has faced challenges with depression and Kiteboarding has been an important part of his path to mental wellness.

At each stop he makes, Nik will be running BeachReach sessions – informal family gatherings with the local community where he talks about his journey. His message is “ Depression doesn’t Discriminate” and he is trying to promote open conversations about mental wellness.

He has a support team with him on a 34 foot Skippercraft – kitted out for a kiter and with all modern safety equipment. If Nik achieves his goal of Kiteboarding around Australia it will be an extraordinary achievement and if he helps a few people manage depression and suicidal tendencies along the way, it will be worthwhile.

Please support Nik’s journey by following him on Instagram #kiteboardforlifeaustralia and join him at a BeachReach session with your mates.

Good luck to Nik and his team from all of us at Kiteboarding Australia.

Support Nic's cause

Beach Access Advocacy Success

Kiteboarding South Australia has achieved a significant milestone in re-opening beaches in the Adelaide Metro coastline.

We would like to celebrate the efforts of the team of committee members and volunteers that worked tirelessly to achieve this incredible milestone. Just from a quick look at the map below, it is clear that this a huge win for the entire kiteboarding community in Adelaide and South Australia and we look forward to kiteboarding together with the local riders at the spot. Please exercise caution, respect marine laws and practice common sense when kiteboarding, so we can continue keeping these beaches open.

Kiteboarding Australia is committed to continuing advocating for the sport with local councils and government bodies to assist with open beach access and growth of the sport.