Kitestock '08 - Dongara/Western Australia

By Kristin Boese
Posted 20 February 2008

As I am spending my winter in Australia, I did not want to miss out on the probably biggest kite event in the country. So from the 14th to the 17th of February, I went to Kitestock with Joe and Mel Millen (Best Kiteboarding Australia) for the biggest kite test event I have ever seen!

I was amazed not only by how many people showed up for the event (260 registered kiters) but also by how professional and well the event was organized. There were unbelievable breakfasts, lunches and dinners for all 300 or so people (even with lobster for everyone!) and parties with very good bands in the evenings!

And then of course there were all the big shops from the Westcoast and also most of the distributers there to demo their kites.

People were having so much fun, testing kites from all different companies, finally getting the chance to make up their own mind instead of just reading test results in magazines, and they were obviously enjoying it. At times the endless long beach strech was so packed and there were so many kiters on the water that I did not even dare to go out.

But everything went super well, people were helping each other and nobody got seriously tangled. There were also lots of girls around and we had a little girls clinic on Sunday. I answered lots of questions before we all went out to ride together and as always it was awesome to kite together with the girls and to see how much fun they have just riding together and having some female company out there!!! Yeah!

All in all an amazingly great event that I very much enjoyed!

But I really don't want to write too much, as Joe and Mel from Best Kiteboarding Australia are putting a big report together and I don't want to tell you too much yet!

All the best from Australia,
~ Kristin