Pimp Yo Kite - The Kiteboarder Magazine

Our sole purpose was to find wind and waves
-Sky Solbach
Sometimes youth, nature and art come together freezing that perfect moment. Sky
running full. Lens: John Bilderback
Margaret River Dream Session
Margaret River is a kite/surfer’s dream. With
so many world class waves and variety of setups
all within a short drive from one another,
you can pretty much take your pick of whatever
fits your mood. Add to that a beautiful countryside
with a vast expanse of wineries and vineyards,
bountiful sea life and a layed back hippie
lifestyle, and you’ve found paradise. We were
up at dawn every morning to take advantage
of the light, offshore breezes and clean, hollow
surf. Like clockwork, the wind would kick in
just after our mid-morning nap. We kited gnarly
dumping beach breaks, chunky reef breaks and
messed around on strapless boards for hours in
mushy onshore surf. John, a regular footer like
the rest of us, had almost never ridden backside
on a kite. He quickly adapted a mutated form of
a backside turn where he would get completely
vertical and upside down under the breaking lip
and somehow emerge from the madness still
on his feet and right into the next bottom turn.
Jaime became one with his little 5’8” strapless
fish and was pulling the sickest front-side airs in
the onshore mush, all the while JB and Alexis
captured it all on stills and video. Simply put, it
was a dream trip.
Adding to this we had an amazing house
five minutes from the beach, more than enough
kites and surfboards and stellar conditions.
John Amundson floats the boat during another Indian Ocean evening session.
Lens: John Bilderback
Margaret River in itself is worthy of this entire
travel story. But somewhere out there a swell
was headed to a remote spot in the Northern
Territory called Gnarloo and little did we know
what awaited us. . .
Trek to Gnarloo
JB and Alexis came over frothing at the mouth
that morning. Frantic. With our photo shoot all
wrapped up, I was packed and ready to head
off to the airport but apparently JB had other
plans. He had just spoken to an old friend who
gave him the latest forecast for a spot called
Gnarloo. You can’t always just sit around and
wait for surf. Sometimes you have to place all
your hopes (and budget) on a forecast and go
find it. Another $400 ticket change later and
a quick stop at the camping store to stock up
on fly hats, tents, sleeping bags and cooking
gear, and we set out on our 18-hour trek into no
man’s land.
The drive took forever. Two full days of
straight, hot roads. Out here, if you miss a gas
station, chances are you will not make it to the
next one. We traded off the monotonous task of
holding the wheel straight for hours on end. We
finally made our last stop in civilization to stock
up on all the food and water we needed for the
5 day trip before hitting the last two hour stretch
of dirt roads.
JB first came here 15 years ago to help
with the filming of Jack McCoy’s Psychedelic
Desert Groove surfing contest video and has
been back almost every year since. It is one of
the longest waves in the world and is known for
offering up life-altering rides.
We pulled up in our dusty, overheated car
and camper van in the fading evening light just
in time to set up camp. We watched a few head
high sets roll through from our new beachfront
campsite. It looked really long and clean! With
the swell on the rise, we anticipated what treasures
the morning light would bring. . .
The morning brought even smaller surf. With
little else to do in this desert wasteland, we
explored the beaches had and a fun surf session
on a small break near shore. The second
day I will never forget. We awoke to glassy,
peeling four to six-foot surf. Although the waves
were just a couple feet overhead, they were by
far the longest any of us had ever seen. It was
unreal. We stood in awe of the sheer length of
these waves peeling across the reef in perfect
uninterrupted form. That morning we surfed the
longest wave of our lives with only the three
of us in the water. Then, when the wind came
up, kited the longest wave of our lives all by
ourselves!
Most of the water shots were taken about
three quarters through the main part of the
wave. 15, 20 turns. . .it’s hard to say; all I know
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