Volume 6, Issue 1 Out Now!!!

The first issue of this season is out now in newsagencies and any good kiteboarding store. This issue features the recent ‘Its Extreme Kiteweek’ in Cairns and plenty of the best stuff from around the globe. Subscribers can also check out Mears Productions coverage of the ‘Its Extreme Kiteweek’ and vote for their favourite entrant in the KBVM Reader Video Contest. KBVM is in DVD format for the first time and will look better on the screen, subscribing is the only way to receive KBVM and best of all – IT’S FREE!!!!! Make sure you subscribe now if you haven’t already to get it with next issue. You can subscribe now and receive a Kiteboarder T-shirt for only $10- extra. Check out www.kbmag.com.au for details.

Look for the cover with Mauricio in the sunset.

want to see an insecure person?...... look at Phantom

tell us what you really feel pauly

I heard some 'mag rage' today at the beach
from a guy who bought the new issue............

got the mag and dvd today in the mail and was stoked. the winds been lame in wa of late so it was good to get the mag and get all fired up for summer. the dvd is pretty cool too. make up your own mind and check it out its the best issue yet. i thought it was worth every cent.

Its definately the best issue yet, great write up of Kite Week in Cairns, heaps of good picks and articles including one on that Kitewing thing. There is an article from Tobes on his huge quiver of boards for kiting in waves, mostly unstrapped. Heaps on info on all the new products that will be around in Oz this summer.
And the DVD is excellent!
Regardless of opinions about personalities involved in the mag or people who regularly appear in the mag, this is a great magazine, well priced, and getting better all the time, the world of Oz kitesurfing would be less without it.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve McCormack

Dear Bill, havn't recieved my copy yet???

hahaah us kids work our ass off to if ya want summin real bad . .... like a quiver of kites u work ur ass off for it and once ya get it ya sit back and be the lazy ass teenager u should be again ...... and kite a lot new issues good

quote:

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Originally posted by neoniphon

hmmm...

….chick posing doggie style on the cover...

….more proclamations that "the future of kiting is powered moves, kickers and sliders"...

…..a celebration of guys a couple of years (or months?) past their first shave getting wasted on alcohol…

After perusing the past few issues of KBM, it seems pretty clear that the target age group is the near teenage kiteboarders. More power to them and the magazine. Go hard. Have Fun. Chase chicks. Get pissed and spew up. Stylish.

My question: - is this representative of the average Aussie kiteboarder? Given that a serious quiver of kites and boards leaves little change out of 4 grand, how many kids in their teens and early 20’s can seriously afford to be in the sport? I would have thought that the typical kiter was 25-40yo, a hard worker with an ocean addiction and some disposable income. Jesus, when I was 16 it took me 2 years to save the cash to buy my first $900 wavejumper, and I rode the thing though hell and high water and Victorian winters on the single old 5m sail. I can’t see how the average teenager can afford to get into kiting unless mummy and daddy kick in the coin.

Has anyone looked into the demographics of kiting in Australia? Seems to me like KBM is a little off target, but hey, I’m sitting up here in NQ a long way from most of the action. I guess we will see a second Aussie kite magazine in time, if the market is out there for it. I’d buy it.

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You hit the nail on the head ! Demographics.

The people at Kiteboarder dont seem to have a clue about them !

Its an old common fallacy to think that the future of a sport depends on making it appeal to really young people.It was tried with windsurfing,and never worked.

They just dont understand that the older demograghics are more likely to take up a sport that requires expensive equipment.
The other problem is that you can only do it if there is wind.This requires a fair bit of commitment and flexibility.

That said,there is probably a small section of young kiters that it will really appeal to. Not all of them though ! A lot are decent young folk,not interested in getting pissed out of their brain.Destroying things. Or in mixing drinks called "bleeding ****s"

Anyway,they are on the wrong track,and will fade away !
Their followers will go back to the cable park,or the local skate ramp.

I'll also add--

The guys where I kite do not match this 'typical kiter stereotype', they are true gentleman, they have respect for other people, for their equipment, for me, and they enjoy the sport! Yes, they have have a good time with each other and we all have a good laugh, but, obviously there are younger kiters which obviously must represent this stereotype if that is what they are portraying in these magazines.

Don't get me wrong, the kiting content and other parts are great, just look past the other parts then if you disagree.

Cheers

Elizabeth - Wello Kiter

np - Theory - Just because I don't like a section of the 'Courier Mail' for example, do I not by the papaer ever? Just an after thought ....

How about a simple vote... choose one smiley to show how KBM makes you feel.

I'll start:

out of bout 30 kiters at our beach 20 would be under 25 and 6 new groms all under 15 just started and because they seen other groms in the mag and they said the wake style and sliders and kickers looks sick

Didn't mean to suggest there aren't hardworking teenagers out there. I'm stoked to hear there are younger crew working hard and devoting their time and money and passion to following a ocean based sport that they love, and also happy to hear about groms getting into it.

I've got 2 boys myself, 8 and 6, they can surf already, can blaze on the trainer kite, and I'll be hooking them up to a small power kite just as soon as I judge their reflexes are quick enough to pull the safety when things go wrong.

My post was really just musing about the difference in the actual demographic out on the water, versus the demographic portrayed in KBM. I have a feeling they could sell even more copies with a slightly broader focus. There is a lot of good stuff in the mag as well, and I buy it because I do like to support the local scene, but I do hear mumblings, on this forum and elsewhere, that the mag is losing potential readership because of its extreme-party youth focus. With time, I think the paper side of the sport will follow the trend in surfing, with magazines for different elements (groms, big wave freaks, mal riders, etc). That will be a good thing.

The only thing that mildly irritates me is the righteousness with which KBM occasionally trumpets it's position as promoting the cutting edge of the sport. The cutting edge is a pretty broad thing, and is determined by all those in the sport, not just the editors, or the youth hitting the kickers and sliders. The other thing is that kiting already has a bit of a public relations problem, with the odd fatality, kites and lines crowding up the beaches, and tangling up the poor old granny just trying to walk her dog. Ask yourself - do we want to promote ourselves as responsible water users, so that our sport in fact will enjoy a future for the up and coming groms - or do we want the public image to be one of drunken irresponsible teenagers that don't give a f*** ?

Kiters banned from beaches are not kiters that are getting much time on the water.

Neoniphon you should stop generalising & confusing yourself,

on one hand you want affordable kites so the youth can easily get into the sport, but yet your worried about all the dangers of over crowded beaches and irresponsable kiters. The sport doesn't need every hotshot teenager to be able to afford a kite. Imagine the kaos then. The ones that truely want to kite will find a way.

on the other hand you want a mag that caters for everyone but still shows the elite (who are mostly young, fit and party hard whenever they can) and the latest news (comp results, reveiws, and after parties) - what would a comp be without an after party and a few drinks? oh everyone behave for Neoniphon.

Most kiters who are interested in the 'cutting edge' want a magazine with the latest news & tricks done with style, KBM is all this. It is their market. I wont buy a mag with average tricks I can already do or see at my local. (why would i waste my $$$)

If there is someone at your local that you think is riding at the 'cutting edge' and deserves to be in the mag then put your energy into taking some shots and getting them known.

Or just make your own average magazine if you think there is such a huge market.

KBM - Great Magazine

Read the mag,didnt impress me.

I did like the pics of Richard Branson just tucked in there like he was just one of the boys ! He will love that !

Overall ,there did not seem to be much about actual kiting !

The usual crap about destroying your health by staying up all night drinking ! Nothing wrong with that,I did it,but as an adult.

Then there is page after page of Q and A with young riders,who will probably move on to something else by the time they have a decent income.

Whats with this fascination with young peoples sex life ?

One of them is listed as 14 years of age!! Fer Christs sake !

Isn't that illegal ! Isnt there something strange about someone with an interest in this ??

Except for the adverts,you will find it hard to find actual kites.
Mostly looks like the riders are in a cable park with boots on.

Still,the people puting the mag out are actually wakeboarders.
Nothing wrong with liking that,but their self righteous bleating about how THEY are the cutting edge,and everyone should be like that or the sport will never be mainstream is just crap !!
The last article about the wakeboard guy is the biggest suckup I have seen in a long time! Still,if it bleeds cash,then squeeze it !