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Kitefilm.com's "The Complete Kiteboarding Guide"
| Language: |
English, French, Spanish, German, Italian |
| Sound: |
Stereo 2.0 |
| Region: |
Region 0 (region free) |
| System: |
NTSC |
| Running time: |
3 hours 33 minutes |
| Rating: |
G - General audiance |
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Featuring double world champion Mark Shinn, Robby Naish and
Adam Koch. Sponsored by Naish.
Kitefilm.com
have kindly donated two copies of this DVD to Kite-Fantastic.
We'll be running a competition to win them in the next couple
of months! So join the forums and meet the regulars and win
yourself a copy of this essential DVD. First though...
A review, by Jeff Snoxell:
This is a very professionally put together, well thought out
DVD which makes great viewing for anyone remotely interested
in starting kitesurfing, or in pushing the limits of their skills!
I'd say that it's THE DVD to own for all aspiring kitesurfers.
Invaluable to a beginner.
Mark Shinn starts from the absolute basics and takes the viewer
through a series of simple, easy to follow scenes which show
every aspect of the sport in clear detail, from many camera
angles. The attention to detail is impressive. The narration
is easy to understand.
After explaining about the wind window and showing you how to
rig up your kite, the film goes on through the basics of flying
and continues, step by step, until you end up being shown how
to do massive jumps, ride waves, execute handlepasses and perform
kiteloops! And it doesn't skip anything either. There's some
excellent chapters on body-dragging, board choice, water starts,
self-rescue, water relaunch, progressing upwind, turning, retrieving
your board, water navigation etiquette... they really haven't
missed anything out!
Fortunately (because of the sheer number of chapters!), the
DVD is split up into chapters so you can quite easily navigate
the menu system to find the exact chapter you want to watch.
Some of the footage is quite innovative. I particularly like
the action viewed from a camera rigged between the flying lines
and looking directly down the lines at the flyer. Ordinarily,
such shots would have an ever changing horizon angle as the
kite rotated - but not in this case! The makers of the film
have actually rotated the footage the opposite direction to
the kite whenever it moves! So you can really see what's going
on, without having to rotate your head while watching, nice
one. Must've taken ages to edit/rotate the frames from these
sequences!!! Great stuff. There's also some excellent and very
instructional shots taken over the rider's shoulder, showing
depowerable bar control - but that leads me to my only criticism
of the whole thing...
I think because the movie is sponsored by Naish, the makers
have had to include a rather long section dedicated to promoting
the wonders of the Naish UDS system. While I'm not unimpressed
by it, I can't help thinking that for most people, more information
about a normal depower setup might have been useful. While watching
this I definitely got the feeling that I was being given a bit
of a sales pitch. BUT that's IT, the rest of the chapters are
spot on, and it's easy to skip this one chapter when you re-watch
the DVD at some point in the future.
Throughout the movie there are some great shots of people executing
the moves you're currently being taught, so it keeps you entertained
while teaching you. The bonus material makes very entertaining
viewing too. And there's plenty of it! Including some excellent
crash sequences and loads of other stuff too - I won't spoil
it for you!
So, in summary. If you're thinking of starting out in kitesurfing,
or you're an experienced kitesurfer wanting to push your skills,
you need this DVD (but don't buy it for the music soundtrack!!!
;)).
Jeff Snoxell (aka Kitefan/jeffsnox), March 2005
Additional: Just re-watched the beginning of this DVD
and realised that at no point is there anyone shown wearing
either a helmet or an impact vest, and no mention is made of
either by the narrator I don't think. Also, there's no mention
of the dangers of lofting and of the basic dos and donts (eg
don't launch upwind of a power line) etc. While I realise that
to include full attention to these aspects of kiting would probably
have required another DVD in the box, I do think "The Complete
Kiteboarding Guide" should have given these subjects at
least a little mention perhaps.
For more information about this film, follow the link below:
http://www.kitefilm.com/eng/complete.asp
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