Dave Tyburski's "Strapless Kiteboarding Collective"

Posted Thursday July 19th 2007

By Kristin Boese

Wowowiua ... have been traveling the world as crazy again. Had 4 days of photo shooting on Ibiza (for what I can not tell yet, but you will find out soon) which was very exciting and super professional. Even though Ibiza is the party paradise of Europe, I did not get to party at all, but at least got to enjoy the beauty of the island a bit as we were driving around to different locations. Big old Olive trees everywhere, hills and mountains form the island with its bays and beautiful beaches. I might want to go back there one day to explore it a little more as it really is only a short trip from Germany.

After a 10 hour stop home in Germany, I was on my way again, as I was invited to Dave Tyburski's "Strapless Kiteboarding Collective" event in the Gorge and really did not want to miss that. And I am so glad I did not! Such a fun event and the first one of it's kind too!

Me and Dave

Not only did I come a long way, but so also did Top Hat, Brian Lake and ex Pro Skimboarder Joe Pasquala from Oahu, Shawn Farley from Mexico, Cam Barker from Australia and Kyle Touhey from Canada plus a whole bunch of local riders like Dave himself, Sky Solbach, Ian and Dylan, John Doyle, Chris Gilbert and so on.

No wind

The first day we did not get any wind and hung out a little bit at first, but Dave, not wasting any time, had organized one of the best waves in the Gorge for us. So we went to ride strapless in the wake of an old Navy boat which really was a pretty impressive one and I can only say we all had great fun!

Gorge-Style Surfing

The next 2 days we had very strong wind (typical for the Gorge I guess) and kited the Hatchery, the White Salmon bridge and the Sandbar for fun and photo as well as video shootings. I rode my surfboard strapless the whole time and enjoyed learning some little jumps, some different kind of tacks and some river swell-riding, but I was just sooo impressed by what the guys did. They were throwing their boards around, turning, twisting and jumping huge!!! So cool!

Saturday was the "Clinic" day. Dave and Joe gave a Skimboard clinic, Kyle and Sky gave a strapless surfboard clinic and I had 15 girls sign up for a girls clinic! That really was an amazing day as everyone had so much fun and seemed to be so motivated, just kiting together, hanging out at the beach and getting some Pro tips too. I was having so much fun myself with a bunch of really cool and super active girls around me and was so stoked to see that there are so many girls in just this one spot that are ripping! After talking a little about strapless riding, I answered questions for an hour or two and then we all went out riding together!

Signup for the Girl's Clinic

The Girl's Clinic

And as if this was not good enough yet the event went on and on. The strapless race was not only a really fun thing to do, but was also amazing for me as I came in second (after Sky)!!! I was stoked and still don't know how I did that but I think my surfboard really goes upwind well! So we celebrated in the evening with a huge raffle and a nice prize-giving and also enjoyed a great fire show and a band playing at the beach! What can I say, a great success Dave and a perfect way to showcase this aspect of our sport as Kiteboarding has so much variety which only is very seldom shown.

Winning the race

Prize-giving Ceremony

The Closing Party

- Kristin

For all previous news on Kristin Boese, click here.