You’re one of the DC area first kiteboarders, aren’t you?

Dave Loop is the father of Mid-Atlantic kiting. But I may have been the next guy in DC to own a kiteboard. I remember buying one of Dave’s used boards at the spring East of Maui swap meet in Annapolis 2000 and everyone that saw me carrying the board either stared or said,”What is THAT thing?” It didn’t resemble a wakeboard, or a surfboard. It was a Hana Crew, foam core and glass twin tip, hand built just like a surfboard, but it was 6′ long! Several Delaware kiters have been at it longer; Warren and Mike Littlejohn were the first as far as I know. All the rest of us got into in within a year of each other. Back in Annapolis, Anton Ganev, Mick Grossman, and I scouted Terrapin park one windless day - we didn’t want to waste our time going there on a windy day if we couldn’t ride. There may have been other kiters doing that, but we didn’t know of any. The sign said, NO Windsurfing NO Swimming etc, but it didn’t name kiteboarding, of course, and we decided it would be good in a NW and came back when it was. The beach has gotten wider for some reason since then, and less dead rockfish drifting ashore, so we got that going for us, which is nice.

Do you have a backround in watersports?

My family moved from New York to Puerto Rico when I was nine years old and mom signed me up for a swim team. I was the slowest kid on the team - even the girls were faster than me. But I learned the ocean and how to surf in PR, and how to sail a Sunfish and a Hobie Cat. For Christmas when I was eleven my parents gave me a used surfboard that was straight out of Endless Summer. My friends had the latest design - fish boards around six feet long and weighing only a few pounds. I had a ten foot barge that weight 35 pounds. On the rare occasion I actually caught a wave, it rode down the face like a war canoe!

How did you get started kiting?

I’d flown two line stunts kites back in 1981 when I was still living in Puerto Rico. They were old fashioned Charlie Brown shaped diamonds, but they had a ton of pull. I stacked six together one time and got pulled uphill on grass wearing running shoes, but I hadn’t thought to use it on water. Then I learned to windsurf in the early 90s. I walked into Windsurfing Unlimited in Bethesda and was helped by a friendly guy who took a lot of time explaining stuff to me. He sold me the perfect rig for me at the time, something I could learn on, but wouldn’t be bored with quickly. That was Dave Loop.

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I stunk at windsurfing, surfing and wakeboarding, so switching sports was a blessing for me. In autumn of 1999 I drove into New Road with my windsurf gear and an ocean kayak. No one was sailing because it was very light out of the south. Before I saw what or who was at the controls of it, I noticed and was amazed by this massive shape in the sky hovering above the water. Beneath it was Loop with a bar attached to his windsurf harness. I saw lines going from his harness to this giant kite, and I knew I had to inspect it more closely. I knew I wanted to try it even, so I put on my harness, and paddled my kayak out to where he was. Dave was grinning from ear to ear as I asked “What is that thing?” “It’s a kite for kitesurfing”, Dave said. “I gotta try that”. No way said Dave. I explained that I knew how to fly steerable kites and I could handle it. I pressed him and he relented. He said, “Don’t steer it, just let it fly”. He handed me the bar and immediately I loved the pull. I brought the loop down to hook in and Dave in a panic said, “DON’T HOOK IN!” I did anyway, then quickly unhooked, and gave him the bar back. I flew that Naish kite for less than 30 seconds and knew I had to have one. I sold every piece of windsurfing gear I owned at the next swap meet to buy one kite and that Hana Crew 6 footer. I flew the kite on land (against Dave’s advice) many times before I ever got in the water. Eventually I roasted that kite on 70,000 volt power lines in Silver Spring, nearly killing myself and my dog!

That sounds scary! I’m not worried about you, but you almost killed your dog? How?

Rita, my border collie, was at my side constanty. The wind picked up and I was dragged, walking, towards rt 29 at the Seventh Day Adventist headquarters. It was a two line kite with no way to depower. I got walked across the highway, dog behind me. Thankfully traffic stopped when they saw this giant kite being walked across the road by a nut and his dog. I kept trying to bring it to the edge of the window and crash it, but I couldn’t bring it down. Finally, it hit the top of the power pole and burst into flames with a lot of zzttttzzing and popping, and then fell to the ground. It was actually pretty cool to watch. The kite had multiple dinner plate sized holes in it and appeared to have been burned with a giant cigar. About a month later, Dave announced a recall on certain Wipika kites because of a delamination problem. I had two of them. I went to Dave’s house and unrolled the 11. He looked at it and quickly said, “Yup, you’re due a replacement. Let’s see the other one”. I paused before unrolling the 8.9 and said, “I’m not sure about this kite, Dave. It just has never flown right”. And with a flourish I unrolled a wing, then the other. Dave hunched over to examine the burn holes, looking carefully from one spot to another,. It took him a full minute before he said, “What the fuck happened to this kite?” I doubled over laughing. No, that kite did not qualify for a free replacement.

When was your first time riding on the water?

Summer of 2000. Everyone was on directionals then. Funny how what’s old is new again, huh? Bill Briedis saw me going out into the water with my giant twin tip and said, “You’ll never learn on that. You need a directional”. “We’ll see”, I smiled. Fortunately, my behind the boat wakeboarding experience proved useful. I was up and riding the first day trying. And of course, I didn’t have to jibe like all the other newbies. We all got blown downwind in those early days. And kitemares were standard and to be expected.

What’s your worst kitemare?

I think it was 2003 when a freak storm erupted on the Chesapeake. It was tragic, really. A water taxi was capsized in Baltimore harbor by high winds and many people died. That same day I was at Terrapin. It was still light when I put up a Fuel 17. I was the ‘wind dummy’, and I had one decent run out and back. On the second time out the wind picked up and I sheeted in, then again, then again. It got to the point where I was simply out of control, being tea bagged mercilessly and heading for shore. The board came off my feet and I was simply being hauled towards the beach fast. I didn’t want to throw the bar away because in those days a fully depowered kite meant an hour and a half spaghetti dinner. But when I saw no alternative I pulled my shackle release; everyone had a sailboat style shackle. I rigged my own bars then because I have short arms and couldn’t reach the trim loop properly on stock stuff. It wasn’t my worst kitemare, but it was my first scary one and that’s why it sticks with me. My basement is a kiteboarding museum. Maybe one day that old junk will be valuable. Anyone want a 4 line pulley bar?

When did you get your Jimmy Lewis woody?

Ahhh, that’s a beautiful board. I had the idea because woodies are just cool, so I asked Jimmy if he would make it if I supplied the wood. I wrote to him, I think it was fall of 2003. At first he said no and I didn’t press him. Three weeks later he emailed me saying he was thinking about it and thought it would be a fun project. Even then, he had assistants to build his custom boards, but he told me he wanted a creative project and was going to build this one himself. It was fun talking to and emailing Jimmy, and truly creating a custom wood product, which is what I do in my business; design, specify and fabricate one of a kind custom cabinets and furniture for TVs, offices, and kitchens. www.rckitchens.com The wood is cherry, but what makes it special is first cutting the log in half, then cutting that half in half, then slicing the wood so the grain is all vertical lines. I had that done, marked on the wood where I wanted the centerline, so it would look like a stringer, then sent it to Jimmy for him to lay it up. Jimmy showed it to all the Maui regulars at various stages of production. Lou Wainman asked for a woody, not because he cared how it looked, but because he thought it would be stronger than all glass, and Lou was breaking boards all the time. Years later Shannon Best was at New Road and he was standing over my board just staring at it, holding a coffee. I walked over and said, “Hand made by Jimmy himself”. Shannon surprised me by saying, “I know. Jimmy showed it to me when he was making it. I never thought I’d see it again”.

How do you like kiting compared to other sports?

Kiting has the highest fun factor of any sport, water or otherwise. If I were in my twenties I’d learn base jumping in a flight suit - that is the definition of extreme and adrenaline laced, but kiting is plenty of fun for me. The speed, the inverts, the flying. Every kid dreams of flying. Kiteboarding lets you do it, if only for a few seconds. In many ways it’s a very individual and private sport, like a meditation, and I love that. But there is also the camaraderie of riding with friends. When I owned a boat with a V8 and a tower, wakeboarding was fun. But there were a bunch of downsides; cost of gas, smell of gas fumes, need for glassy, deep water. But mostly you ride alone for 5 or 10 minutes while your buddies sit in the boat and watch. That has its ups, because if you hit a nice move you know everyone saw it, except maybe the driver. If you eat it, your friends tease you mercilessly. And eating it is another reason to kite. Wakeboard crashes are an instant ice cream headache and bloodshot eyes for the rest of the day. Kite crashes are buffered by the fact that you control your speed, and you’re being pulled upward. If you’ve ever crashed while looping your kite, that’s what a wakeboard crash feels like every time.

Did you still wakeboard after you started kiting?

Hell no. I sold that boat as soon as I knew I wouldn’t need it. I drew the line when the price of gas went over $1.25 a gallon, which sounds cheap now. But then I said, “Enough!”. And kiting is so very similar, only with more forgiving crashes. Loop and I have talked about how kiting is like wakeboarding in slow motion. Some tricks are identical in both sports, and that’s why I use the trampoline for training. I nicknamed my backyard Callaghan Kiteboard Camp as a joke. Kiters owe a lot to wakeboarders for inventing cool moves that transfer easily to kiting.

Many kiters would be tagged as ‘not legit’ by wakeboarders (but then wakeboarders are considered lame by skateboarders because water is so much softer than concrete). A perfect example is the S-bend. Most kiters who claim to S-bend are throwing an off axis front roll. By definition an S-bend means both legs are fully extended, and usually kiters cheat by bending their front leg and pivoting around the knee. Still fun and technical, but not the actual trick. The only kiter I’ve seen do a genuine S-bend is Shannon, and, duh… there’s a reason for that.

Wake tricks have names for good reasons; either to credit the inventor, as in Shannon’s case, but usually to quickly explain multiple technical aspects of the move. Some get too techy and silly, but it’s a good idea anyway. For example, listen to this trick description; load up, unhook, go to throw a backroll, but instead of throwing your head over your lead shoulder, look at the kite and throw your head at your trailing shoulder like you would in a front roll, grab your board at your trailing back edge, and spin to blind to land it.

Callaghan Kiteboard Camp

Better known as a Stalefish Orbital Blind 5, and everyone would know what you’re talking about. Now I can’t personally throw that, well almost, but not to blind unhooked, so my trick is just a Stalefish Orbital. I could teach young aggressive riders how to do it. Maybe one day Callaghan Kiteboard Camp will be a reality. I’ll be like the Joe Gibbs of kiting - never really great at the sport I coach, but a damn good coach.

How would you describe your riding style?

Definitely a mix of surf and wake, even in flat water. That sounds like a contradiction, but you can surf in small rollers, especially toeside. I love to be inverted, and wake tricks just give me a charge. It’s satisfying to keep the kite at 45o and pop high. I love coming in from the outside on the ocean, throw a hooked in tantrum, sometimes sloppily I admit, and land it downlooping the kite, carve toeside, then smack the lip and surf it out. Then I’ll go down the line looping the kite continuously. Gary Menck taught me that looping down the line move. Sometimes when I see a windsurfer screaming I’ll get into a race with him, but speed gets boring. And I’m not really a booster, although I do once in a while. The move I really want to learn is one I saw Damien Leroy do. He rides toeside, and somehow manages to pick his board off the water and he just flies right over the surface, one hand dragging, a long, long way, before finishing it with a front roll. That is super cool.

Damien is a pro. Who are local riders you admire?

DC or at the beach? DC; I admire Toma. He has come a long way, and he is so humble most people don’t even notice him. He throws a really nice F-15 and generally has smooth style. I miss watching Bruno ride. He’s a beast on the water; fearless and fun to watch. I think Mehdy is amazing for a man of larger carriage. I don’t know some of the guys that are getting really good. Eliott has always been great, but I think he lives in Boston now. Weston is very good, and I like his style. Steve Sabia is a versatile rider, and has his head on right. Jacques is old school, but really good at it. Of course, Tucker Sherman, but he’s no longer local. I could see he was talented when he was twelve, back when he admired me. As for up and coming, Jeff and Tyler are daring riders - both throwing speedy F-15s in big wind at Brownies last week. I admit, I’m the techno geek of trick names. F-15 is hooked in. You gotta be unhooked to claim an F-16.

At the beach… Littlejohn of course, because he IS the man in all five kiting disciplines; Speed, Boosting, Wake, Wakeskate and Surf. John O’leary is an absolute magician and a joy to watch on a strapless surfboard. Safety gets a bad rep for being unsafe, hence the nickname, but he is actually a talented rider. He taught me to do a front spin downloop air jibe. Last weekend I watched him run into the waves, throw his surfboard down and hop on it in one move, loop his kite and off he went - smooth! Warren for sheer determination and endurance, mixed with smooth style. And for his bottomless patience helping me or anyone else. He organizes downwinders with the same intensity he planned missions in a hot zone back in ‘67. Bruce for going HUGE; huger than anyone else I’ve seen personally. Loop because he just always has been and continues to be consistent. He threw some gorgeous stand up airs off the waves at Tower last Saturday. Sam Postlewait is under the radar for DC and EKB, but he rocks in the surf. Dean was, as I like to say, my hero, because he has a great attitude and is a very good rider. But he was replaced by Meghan Shipman just because I gotta respect a woman who rides the ocean in cold water. And Walt McCann because he took up kiting in his late 60s. That takes serious balls! Newcomer with the most potential - Matt Ramsay. Unless he breaks a bone, he will be the best rider in Dewey by the end of summer ‘09. He is sick, sick, sick in the head, and I love that.

What do you think the future will bring to kiting?

Better and younger riders, that’s for sure. Dewey looks like a friggin’ rest home with guys like me, Warren, Bill Briedis and the gang. Even Safety is starting to look a little long in the tooth. Kites will have a bigger range, be on the fly reef-able and turn faster, on shorter lines, yet be totally safe. The one kite quiver is almost here. Boards… well … boards don’t get as much attention as they deserve. The right shape, stiffness, rocker, edge, composition; it’s all important and very personal. Hopefully they’ll get cheaper as the sport grows. I’d like to try a foil board in deep water chop; never rode one. I still have a quiver of wakeboards I never use in my basement, so I am toying with the idea of strapping several together, and mounting a beach chair to them. A total joke of course, but maybe fun in light air, complete with a drink holder armrest. I have two C kites stacked together that I’ve never flown. A 7 and a 9. My thinking was that a stacked 7 & 9 would turn faster than a 16, thus creating more apparent wind. I once was pumping them up at New Road and Bill said, “No good can come of that”. He is a wise man, so I took his advice and bagged it.

Any final words?

Yeah, because you didn’t ask a lead in question on the subject. Newbies (and surprisingly some experienced riders) need to remember to launch, get off the beach, and stay off. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen riders at Terrapin going back and forth in the launch zone. They either want to show off or don’t know better. And some of them aren’t good enough to be showing off. There recently was one guy who rode in close, threw a move, looped his kite and got dragged into the spectator zone on a crowded day. If that keeps happening, Terrapin will be closed to kiters. It’s everyone’s responsibility to say something to irresponsible and inconsiderate kiters, even though it is confrontational and awkward. And if you’re the one being asked nicely to ride further out, don’t have an attitude. Ride for fun, but please be respectful of everyone on the beach, and other kiters and sailors.

Windsurfing has not quite been cancelled. Younger riders would benefit from knowing how to sail before taking up kiting, especially in light air. When it’s light I often see riders trying to edge their boards like they do when it’s windy, and of course, they go nowhere, so they walk back to the beach. Watch the riders who are having fun in light air, and you’ll notice they are often former windsurfers. Knowing how to sail, pump a board onto a plane and keep it there are valuable skills that will increase your wind range for having a good time. Plus in light air you can try cool stuff that is intimidating in big wind, like raley kiteloops, F-15s, and handle passes.

As the sport grows, so do prejudices about surfing vs. kiting vs. standup. I have friends in Puerto Rico who take a pretty hard line about the superiority of surfing, and it’s kind of depressing to hear. Some surfers react to kiters like there is never another wave coming, and how dare they ride here?! Whether you’re surfing or kiting or wakeboarding or SUP’ing, we’re all still lovers of the sea, aren’t we? It’s a big ocean, and waves are the ultimate renewable resource.

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