Here is the poster of my first kitecamp of the upcoming summer! I will start with a first one at my homespot Tarifa in the beginning of June (4th till 10th), in association with the Spanish kite agency Kite Around and I am pleased to work with them in Spain. We’ll probably do a few more and it won’t be closed only to Spanish kiters so if you ever want to come from Europe or even further don’t hesitate. It will be cool and we’ll learn plenty of new tricks.

Being at home will allow me to take the guys to each of the best spot Tarifa offers. I will spend most of the day with them and the purpose is to help improve their riding and learn some cool new tricks. Shooting, giving advices, stretching, dinners in town, cool and relaxed atmosphere… It will be a week full of exciting new stuff!!

If there was any place I’d live in the Caribbean it would certainly be Union Island. The wind is very consistent during the winter and the weather is much better than in northern islands of the Caribbean where it rains quite more often, the water colors and reefs are a joke, locals are super friendly, there is a great group of frenchies and a lot of people living on their boats and sailing around the amazing islands of the Grenadines, and the vibes are just perfect!!

I kited everyday but 2 in 2 weeks, one because of no wind and the other because of too much pain in my muscles from riding. There is one perfect flat water spot ideal for training freestyle and the spot of Jeremie’s JT Pro Center is also great for riding with stunning reefs to watch under your board while riding. We’ve been shooting together for about 10 days and he took me to kite to each of his favorite locations… kickers, waves, flat water… Paradise and bluest water ever. Jerem kiteschool is in a perfect location and I’m glad people from everywhere is coming to learn and ride with him and Lynn.

I also did a little boat trip with Kite-Surfari and we again went to Tobago Cays to swim with turtles, I had a few good freestyle sessions and cruised around the different Grenadine islands. If you ever want to do an amazing boat trip around the Caribbean with a skipper, Richard is a friendly kiter and surfer and he will certainly take you around the best kitespots and you’ll experience the Caribbean in a different and very pleasant way for kiting. I do think it is one thing a kiteboarder must do once in a lifetime!

And if you want to get from another Caribbean island to Union, I highly recommend to fly with Jeremie’s JT Pro Airline as I did. His very friendly partner Nico flew me from Union to Martinique for catching my next flight and I had the chance to pilot the plane around the islands… it was pretty epic experience and you can really check the waves and spots from a low altitude!! Here some screenshots of the shots we captured with Jerem’ and a cool video should come out this winter with some riding on dream spots!!

  I’ve been traveling a bit around the Caribbean lately. After a first a week to my island Guadeloupe for a little boat trip I came down to the Grenadines to visit my friend Jeremie Tronet who just opened his JT Pro Center here in Union island. I came to ride and shoot a bit with him around the Grenadines and hopefully do a fun video such as the ones we’ve done. I flew to Martinique where he came to pick me up with his friend’s tiny airplane and we headed to Union Island. It was quite insane since Jeremie took off the plane, I could pilot it a bit in the air and my surfboard could almost not fit in the plane… just 4 seats… So we flew above Martinique, Saint Lucia, each island of the Grenadines with some private ones, we could check every single spot and wave for then go and test them… pretty epic.

Union Island is very, very relaxed and super cool to visit for a little kite holiday. It’s a tiny village with just a few bars and restaurants, some tourists around, plenty of sailing boats, some cool rasta locals and amazing kite spots… We went to that insane flat water kitespot and I could finally train a bit and test my lovely new Takoon material, then we swam with turtles in Tobago Cays and did a downwind back to Union Island. I did not like this one at all since the wind dropped to about 8 knots, my kite nearly fell down and I was in the middle of deep blue/black ocean… didn’t want to see any huge friendly fish.

Still have 2 weeks in the Caribbean, next week I’ll do another boat trip with Florian Daubos and Seb Garat and we’ll also be cruising around the islands to do some shootings for French Kitesurf mag.

Starting the New Year in a good way so I’ll enjoy it as much as I can!!

Here a little poster Takoon made for Christmas holidays!!

Rio is a place to enjoy on the long term as a kiteboarder. You might go there on a 10 days trip like me and not have the luck to find much wind. In fact, it is not the same wind fabric as you might find up North of Brazil, where all the most famous spots are (Cumbuco, Paracuru …), but it offers plenty of different activities to do and there is so much to see that you won’t have time in such a short time.
I indeed had only one day of proper wind while they had a full week of wind before I came, and it kicked back as soon as I left… What a luck. However the waves were coming in nicely every single day and we had some nice surf sessions with Reno and could also do a bit of tow in surfing to hit the kickers and try some airs. All you need is a nice friend with a jetski. But Reno has plenty of these friends!
So Rio is more for someone who wants to discover the other Brazil, a Brazil of  islands, tropical forest and mountains just next to the huge city, favelas all around and definitely a cool night life.
We did a bit of tourism which we didn’t like so much. Being in the middle of smelly tourists all over the place was not fun. But being in Rio, I had at least to go and see the amazing view up at the Christ statue… It is actually worth once you are up there. It was also the first time we both went to a football game, it was quite crazy to see the crowd cheering loudly when there was some action from Ronaldinho who actually played very badly.

The main spot for kiting and even great surfing is Barra. You got kilometers of white stunning beaches with the finest sand, waves all along to surf or use as kickers, good water and air temperature… definitely a city I could be living in for water sports.

Thanks a lot to Andre Magarao and Gago for the pics!