Pimp Yo Kite - The Kiteboarder Magazine

When Jon’s not shooting pro kiteboarders,
he is on the water learning new moves.
Lens: Jim Stringfellow
Jon’s other passion: Photography
Lens: Jim Stringfellow
Name: Jon Malmberg
Age: 39
Street Names: Surf: Bam Bam Snow: Mambo
Work: Mechanical Engineer, looking for a rep job
with minimal money and minimal responsibility.
Roots: Seattle native who grew up skiing in the
Cascades, and sailing in the Puget Sound.
Favorite Spots: Chamonix for winter thrills, and
Tahiti for sun.
Hood: The OR Hood!!!
Heroes: Doug Combs (RIP),
Dave Kalama, and Robby Naish
System: 06 Naish Torches… Flat kites suck, don’t
get sucked in by the marketing hype!
Ride: Naish 133cm TT Sol, Naish Kitewave 5’5”
Claims: The only guy in the Hood who has broken
as much windsurfing gear as he has kite gear.
Basically, lots and lots over the years, hence the
Bam Bam! Gary Swanson who now is shaping for
Hammersuf, gets credit for that nickname.
Shouts: The NW Kiteclub Crew, the Stevenson
Kite Crue, and most importantly, Peter Arpag, who
has kept me in gear and stoked on the sport for
many, many years!
16
LISTEN UP
If you are a kiter and have glanced
through a kite magazine then you have
already been bombarded with all the safety
tips. So, instead of putting up a long list of
already well published safety items, I only
have two general tips…
- Get to know your gear! Learn how it
rides, learn how it rigs, and learn the safety
systems. If you take the time to really understand
what your kite is capable of, how
it handles, why it handles differently when
correctly and incorrectly tuned, and go out
and practice getting into and recovering from
strange situations… Guess what! When that
situation presents itself you will have the skills
necessary to deal with it and hopefully avoid
hurting yourself and/or someone else, or at a
minimum… avoid a long swim/self rescue.
- In the Gorge, there aren’t many decent
launches. Being able to drift launch in some
very sketchy areas and deal with some pretty
challenging winds are a necessity to being
self sufficient, not get in the way of others,
and sometimes to just make it back to shore.
locations within 75 minutes of the city.
When we asked Andrew Ghezzi, the
owner of Powerline Sports, for his reason
on expanding the Powerline Sports
empire he replied, “we’ve made so much
money on our colored stopper balls and
ultra thin .005mil rash guards that we just
had to open another store to keep up with
the demand.”
The Kiteboarder’s
snowkite editor
James Brown was
recently picked up
by Ozone Kites
for their national
team. James, one
of the earliest and
top snowkiters in
the US, is stoked
to join Ozone because
of their leadership on the snowkite
scene. He will continue to help promote
the sport in Colorado and will also participate
in competitions and demos in North
America this winter season.
F.One products are now available again
in the US thanks to Bay Area Kitesurf.
F.One is a French kiteboarding brand
that is extremely popular in Europe with
a pro-team regularly at the top of the
charts in the PKRA. Led by designer and
waveslayer Raphael Salles, F.One’s new
Tribal Kite and board series have peaked
the interest of kiters worldwide. For more
info, check out www.bayareakitesurf.com
or contact info@bayareakitesurf.com
Kite Adventures and Ozone Travel have
recently partnered with Offshore Odysseys.
Kite Adventures will now own one
trip each year of the expedition to sell on
a per person, or per cabin basis for those
that cannot commit to the full five years
as a share owner. The first stop available
is a 10-day adventure in Aruba
in March. Ozone Travel was chosen by
Offshore as their in-house travel specialist.
Karen, the owner, will be personally
handling all of the flight, hotel and other
travel arrangements scheduled for the
Best Odyssey. See offshoreodysseys.
com for their scheduled itinerary.