Cabrinha Stacks the Top Ten...

[bayflite]

the fin set up on some racing boards are more $$$ than the average riders entire deck.
all kites rock.

[cabdriver]

I'm pretty sure none of the riders in the press release were riding a course race board that would heavily rely on expensive custom fins. There was a split between fast directional boards and twin tips. Kent and Damo both used stock mix and match Futures surfing fins. I have seen a good stock quad set goes as cheap as $30 and as much as $100. That's cheap when you consider the average cost of one twintip fin is $15-20. A current model year twintip deck costs at least $400 even for the cheapest models.

It's true that course racing fins are expensive, but those are mostly custom and range from 26cm to 40cm each (x 3 or 4 for each board). Figure $175/each plus you have to pot them yourself and cut them down to the correct length that works in the board.

Plenty of kites do not "rock"...

[FloridaBoarder]

That was a great race and felt good being on a starting line. I think Steve O and Chris also did a great job when it came to waiting for the wind and giving every one a fair start with horn signals and flags. I bet that no one would want to be in there shoes when it was 10 O clock and the breeze quit.

For the people hating on Cabrinha.... dont hate. You get what you pay for. I will ride Cabrinha over any kite hands down.

And Cab Driver I was on a twin tip, no directional for me ( I think its cheating). Just kiddin. Damo and Kent were flying on Sunday.

Pray for some Warm wind.

Mike

[Unimog Bob]

Wow, same old crap. Who gives a shit what kite people ride? Followed by the RickI "misquote" on kite prices. I know who cares about this stuff (and the only people who care) - the people that sell and distribute the kites to make money. Always looking for an "edge", a press release, anything, in efforts to sway one more rider so they can clear more money off that next possible sale. These types dream about this stuff at night (sad, I know).
Then they somehow manage to suck in so many others around them in to this ridiculous branding mindset. Heck, they even make vids following a race featuring only riders of their brand. If that is a supposed vid sharing the stoke of an event, then I am Muhammad Ali. This bias and fractured brand oriented view of kiting is not what good clean fun (which is what kiting was originally about) should be. But for those selling this stuff, stoke and fun are simply tag lines used in sales pitches to make bank. Nothing more. To believe otherwise is beyond naive.

Congrats Mike, you have always been about having fun. I am confident you indeed love your kites and it's great you are sponsored, you deserve it.
This pimping at the top is what makes some of us (especially me) disappointed as they jockey for pimp pole position (pun intended).

Scott

[Steve-O]

I sell cabs

I love riding cabs

Even if I didn't sell cabs I would still ride em

I love to ride

I ride with Mike often

I dont hate other kites

I hate folks that tell me my kites suck

I think the folks at cab land were just stoked to see other cab lovers supporting a great event and doing well

We all love to kite

Some of us just sell them and for that we are evil

I guess I'm an evil kite loving cab fool

I can take it

Ride on

Ride hard

Ride whatever the fuc* you want

Don't rain on someones parade

Pete is the man

Bayflight is not

Peace

[kent]

are u guys kidding? look at the video again! i was acutally trying to steer Enrique into talking about SW Florida Kiteboarding... his school. He was so stoked on being a Cabrinha guy he didn't get it and said he worked with Cabrinha. his son Lucas also was so stoked, he said he was "proud of himself", Richie is just super cool and had a great race. what a bunch of wankers to rain on their parade. get a life. frankly it would have been difficult to interview anyone else due to the fact that there were no other brands present, and those that were left the party early! the rest of us had a great time hanging out with some pretty cool people.

you guys sound so jaded. our guys love having fun and attend more tampa events than most of the locals do. we do it because it's a blast. i hope both of you guys get some support over there by brands that love you. maybe you will feel more apart of something rather than just left out. it sure is much more easy to have success if you enjoy doing what you do. i think my crew just enjoys it more than most. have some fun man and good things will happen.

Mike, great riding with you again. i think your old hair was way faster though! get yourself a race board and meet Damo and I in Baja near the middle of Jan. 2 great events that serve good causes. Good times.


oh... in case there was any doubt if we cared in Mexico last year... all of the proceeds go toward supporting the local school in LV.



"For the past few years at the La Ventana Classic and Kite Expo, windsurfers have legitimately claimed the crossing but also the top prize money for an event largely sponsored by the kiteboarding industry. This year, organizers could not find a sponsor for the windsurf crossing winners so Tim Hatler, owner of Palapas Ventana and the main sponsor of the event, put a final call out at the Skipper’s meeting for help.

Kent Marinkovic of Adventure Sports Miami/NeilPryde/JP Australia/Cabrinha, stepped up and threw down $1000 USD to award and recognize the top windsurf winners of the crossing. bringing the total prize to $4600. Thanks to Kent and Adventure Sports for their support and participation in the La Ventana Classic!" - The Kiteboarder Magazine

And darn it... my guy didn't win the windsurfing!!!

But... Cabrinha did win the racing!!! Good job once again Damo (i'll get you this year!)

Why don't we agree to disagree (although i'm not sure about what), but I disagree anyway! I'd suggest that we could have a "beer summit" with you guys, but it doesn't sound like much fun.

PS. Bayflight, the hating of Rob's / Cabrinha's World Record Run is getting cold on Kiteforum, you better hurry over there!


You below... right? Don't worry you don't have to be a sailor...

KiteboardingTampaBay Post subject: Re: The World's Fastest Kite. PeriodPosted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 3:38 pm

Frequent Poster

Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 5:09 pm
Posts: 330

"In my opinion that Cabrinha ad is a major slap to the face of kiters. It comes across as "We know what's best for the sport, we told you so!"
You're going to hijack our friggin' sport and give all the credit to sailors? WTF?
Who enables your rock star lifestyles by buying your overpriced kites- sailors?

It's not a "sailing device", its called a kite, you ungrateful ****s.....
I can see wanting to pimp your gear and riding Rob's talent for all its worth, but the fact remains that kiteboarders do not want to be sailors.

In closing, Congratulations to Rob for his accomplishment. Good stuff, that's crazy fast!" TBK

[bayflite]

no hate here mike.
i just can't resist.
it's 2 EZ mayne

[greg meintjes]

Firstly, I do not ride Cabrinha and am not associated with ASM in any way. Wether anyone likes it or not, kiteboarding is an industry and if it wasn't we probably would not be able to enjoy our sport and for a company to survive and grow they definately have to be good at marketing themselves among other things. I do not know Kent, but if I owned a big company, him and the team that he has put together are what I would want to run it, It is their job and they do it very well , it is not an easy job even if it is in the leisure and sport industry, from what I have seen it seems like they are always working , wether it is doing demo's ,putting on clinics or attending a charity event. I am also sure that they enjoy the work , because if they did not why would they put so much effort into it.

As far as the race went and who they interviewed etc, well they work for Cabrinha, so that is who they want on the video, you do not see a Ford video showing Chevys, or some other car in their video,s. If the other brands want their kites to be seen ,then make a video and put it up for everyone to see, and if an individual wants his kite to be seen then take the vid yourself and post it. It is that simple.

Promoting the charity event was also not their job , at least they supported it , they had no obligation to promote it in their posts, that is the organisers responsibility, and from What I have seen it seems to have been a great event that was well promoted.

I wish EVERYONE a happy evening and good winds for kiting.

Greg

[al-kite-ah]

Thank you to the organizers of the race for trying to get some local racing going on in the area and donating money to a great cause. I did not participate in the race due to not having someone lined up to watch my son.


Also a BIG Thank you to all those people who traveled across the state to participate in our local race and kite with US!!! I would also like to apoligize for some of my local brothers attitude toward ASM and CAB kites

I do have a sailing background. North sails would dominate the ONE DESIGNS fleets in sailing. They spent more money on R and D and they built a fabulous product. The truth is Cabrinha has done excatly the same thing..... They build a faster kite than everyone else. They have put the time in and the money toward R and D.... good for them. I applaud them for their results!!

Kenty and Damo are some of the nicest people i have ever met kiteboarding
i do not fly CAB kites and they have befriended me anyway... and i am thankful for their friendship.
I would hope we can all just enjoy kiteboarding from the racing to the waveriding to the traveling to exotic destinations....lets all enjoy ourselves as brothers of the wind.

[troubleshooter]

For the record...again and before Im dragged into a category. I was only stepping in to advise of what I feel is an error on the Best Taboo pricing. As others here have said they love riding their kites, I love riding mine. I am very brand loyal due to the customer service and support I receive so I felt obligated to step in when I felt there was an error for the Best kite.