POP ALL YOU GOT? BROKITE.....2012

[West]

That's some scalloped texture there in the Laguna......my kind of party!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep hammering those downwinders buddy.........springtime in TEJAS, hooocheeeemamaaaaaa............did you say huevos rancheros?????????

[Dutchkiteboarder]

[West]

Got the 2012 skins in to BROKITE's world headquarters in sunny, windy Corpus Christi. Jerry had to wait a bit for the Carbon to show up; but production is currently under way.....one board at a time. Jerry sent me a photo and they are looking stellar. He will be posting pics soon!!!!!!!

I am heading down there early next week to help him lay-up some more boards and to test ride some of them. We are also going to be designing a few more additions to our board line. I will be in Texas until the middle of May. Get in touch if you are interested in having me bring a board back for you, otherwise there will be demos available around the lake for the rest of our season...........and quite a long one it will be this year.

We will be having some of the BROS coming down to the Laguna to ride with us, and to give us feedback on the boards. Should be fun and windy in South Texas.....will post updates of the adventures!!!!!!!!!

[BRO]

This is the 2012 look of brokite, hope you like, but the thing we are really stoked about you can’t see in these pics. They are the cool changes with the construction and materials that has helped us produce a lighter, livelier, stronger board. A few years back West Hansen and I made a video that showed how we were making our boards. Things have changed since then, so we are dusting off the cam and are going to show you what we have learned in the last 3 years. By building boards one at a time we have learned from each one. With help from the owner of Applied Composites in Santa Ann California, Vince Bailey we have improved our strength to weight ratio and tuned our flex characteristics for 2012. These boards carve like a hot knife in butter and will explode out of the water when you pull back the reins, is pop all you got? Give us about a month on the video. Depends on the wind, the boards on the fence are being held up there by a 30+ mph wind. It’s looking good for the Bro tribal meeting.

Jerry

[Northerner]

Nice Keith and Jerry, the new boards are looking exciting to the eye. Here are some shots of the Bro kite 134 wake riding and popping on a South in Sheboygan

[West]

pullin' out early Thurs with the lil silver Toyota truck headin' South to TEJAS.........lookin like a classssssic NNW push Sat for a downwinder with Jerry Mags and Keith from Shamrock, bout 16 miles of crazy Laguna butttttter........takin' my new traveling companion KUAU with me to get him initiated into the kite scene. Should be a rocking BROKITE building sesh to follow the next week before the rest of the crew shows up to test the new boards. Stoked to be spreading some rosin with Captain Toeside again..... Gonna be some mighty fine boards coming out of the world headquarters in sunny, windy CC!!!!!! Back in a month to spread the stoke round the BIG LAKE............

Gotta love that Boygan scene Sherriff. Think I will bring you back a 10 gallon, and a badge....... someone told me it is even ridable in front of the Blue Harbor

[kris]

Is that mustache legal?

[rjajr]

Is that mustache legal?

Like the stash, and the serious look.

The most interesting Kiter in the world

He may not always boost high, but when he does, he chooses BroKite
Stay Windy my friend

[Pier]

Love it!

[West]

Sitting in the shop writing this while Jerry makes up a new mold for the 136 WAKE that has been requested by some of our wakestyle riders........a bit bigger than the 134 and a hair smaller than the 138; give the kiters what they WANT!!!!!!!!! First one out is for Bob Albright up Boygan way.........laying it up this afternoon before the SE winds begin their onlslaught on the LAGUNA MADRE.......

When I arrived on Saturday, we did a downwinder on 9m's in NNW winds.......a group of Jerry, Maggie, Keith, myself, and two Canadian riders......skimming the flats in sunny conditions.....a nice run to knock off the winter rust for me!!!!!!!!,

Wind is forecast between 20 and 30 for the next 4 to 5 days....can you say downwinders, in the Laguna and the Gulf........Jerry, Maggie, Keith and I will be laying down some turns and skying out the airs, hooting and hollering.....must be Spring in South Texas.....80 degrees, sunny and WINDY!!!!!!!

The boards are stunning. I expected as much, but even I was amazed at the steps Jerry has taken to improve our boards.....the bar has been raised once again!!!!!!!
Simply put: they are works of ART.......

Some of the BRO clan begins to arrive towards the end of the week, and by midweek next week, we will have riders from Conn., Fla., Oregon, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Texas hanging at the kite compound. Gonna be quite a tribal gathering.

We are beginning to make some demo boards to scatter around the BIG LAKE for the rest of the season. There will be a demo in Sheboygan, South Haven, Madison, Montrose and Traverse City. With a couple travelling around with the road warriors!!!!!!! We find that our best advertising is to get kiters on our boards, then they can feel the difference themselves!!!!!!!!

Updates to follow, and hopefully a few pics, here and there.........LET'S GO KITE

[IVO]

Hows the gathering coming alone?Slashing and burning on the new digs?Throw us a bone captain



Someone must have camera around,right?

[West]

Well, Corpus is the same ol' place Trooper............sunny and windy!!! Kited 7 of the 9 days I have been here, and all I have are a 7 and a 9......downwinders in the Laguna and the Gulf........glass and waves.........

Been to BRAZIL three times, and I must say there is not a more insane place that I have ever kited or seen footage of......... a slew of channels, small ponds, ditches and puddles; from 2 inches to 2 feet deep, with a lil seaweed here and there to smooth it out even more....nothing to block or obstruct the wind coming off the Laguna, and a HOT interior to draw in the strong consistent SE flow...the shoreline and land separating the water is only about 12 inches high with just a foot or so of water plants lining it, no rocks or oysters, just a good foot of "laguna muck" on the bottom!!

We find the shorelines that offer the best direction for "running" it, and make passes just a foot or so off, and it is sheer glasssssssssssssssss......you can ride toeside for a half mile just skimming your fingers in the silkiness of a mirror of water, or you can head at the shore and boost one once you set an edge.....the funnny thing about is that the entire place is so damn smooth, that it IS smoother than you will find anywhere else......to cap it off it is in the middle of NOWHERE, and requires kiting up to several miles just to get to it: there is nothing there but fish, birds and endless glassssssss.

We kited it with Jerry, Maggie and myself on lit 7's and got some crazy video footage that we are editing and will post soon. Got it with Keith, and took Sean up there for the first time; he was blown away!!!!!!!!! And yesterday I kited it by myself for a while, and then Maggie came over and ran it with me with her new 130 POP.

In addition to the insanity of BRAZIL, we did a 17 mile downwinder in the Gulf with Keith, Jerry, Oli, and myself on 9's and 12's. Dunes lining the shore the whole way, head to head and a half!!! A bit under in the beginning but smooooth waves, and the wind picking up as we continued....cold beers and a jeep awaiting our arrival!!

We have also been ripping it up in front of Jerry's house daily, and been just having a ball kiting around one another......Yesterday it was Jerry, Maggie, Keith, Sean, and myself with Jarch showing up for the evening sesh. We were hooting and hollering and egging each other on.....there were big airs, screaming carves, and spectacular crashes!!!!!! We ended it up sitting on the deck sipping Shiners, and Fireman 4's; and finished the evening with some of Maggie's ceviche and a couple of killer pizzas............

Ray is showing up today, and later in the week we will see the rest of the group coming in to join in on the fun. Jerry took the boards up to Austin to get them photographed for the website, and they are back and ready to be tested by the bros.......if the wind backs off anytime we will see if we can pull ourselves away from the shop and the water long enough to post some photos and vids............Keep on keeping on....

[FSP]

[IVO]

Damn,same old place to you.. sounds quite amazing to me.Glad you guys ripping it up,but urging to put down a beer for a sec and get that movie rolling online.



Looking forward to hear rest of the stories,Im sure there is a ton coming back

[Bob]

West...sounds like a great time. Love the stories. Something to think about though. How about Bro making surf boards? Seems a logical next step or am I divulging future plans already?

Andrew...that pic should be in the german GQ. LOL.

[West]

Still blowin' in the Laguna.....hit Brazil with Jarch, Sean, Ray, and myself.....unreal FUNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!! shreddn' the glasssssss. Sesh at Jerry's yesterday......ripppin' it up with the BROS..........more folks comin' in thru the week, wind looks like it will continue to hold the SE pattern!!!!!!! 9 out of 11 and counting.........Springtime in Tejas...

Bob, No offense, but that would be the last thing coming out of the BRO shop......one of the first things we wanted to do was to eliminate the sanding, the dust, the multiple stages of lamination, hot coat, gel coat, fumes, dust, fumes, dust and fumes.... 3 inches thick, 8 lbs, 6 feet?....our GOAL remains the same to make the very best twin-tip in the world.........I still maintain that the way to ride the conditions we have on the BIG LAKE is to kill it on a twintip: deeper carves, snappier cutbacks, more turns, transitions, jumps, and every thing under the sun.....downwinders out the wazooooo, easy to hitchike.....different strokes for different folks, but give me a twin-tip for the flats or the waves when I have a kite.....I will save the surfboards for paddling out .....One of these days, I imagine I might hop on a floater and take a spin or two but when I do I will look up Gary Swanson at Cascade to shape that puppy for me.

Had the honor of watching Rocky in action the other day, and WOWEEEEEEEEE.......that's some sort of show....the only other rider that I have ever seen that was so EXPLOSIVE and SMOOOOOOTH was Sean Richmond......mindblowing; and to see him doing it on a BROKITE, magnificent!!!!!! A 134 WAKE that was designed with the input of the Sheriff, Jens, and Rocky.........boards for kiters made by kiters, one at a time when the wind ain't blowin'......gotta go, I see the whitecaps building!!

[Bob]

Oh yea.

I can see what you mean regarding the process of making a surf board in comparison to twins. Makes sense. Tons of surfboards out there, but I was actually thinking more along the lines of the Underground Freewave and now Litewave Dave has a DV8. As far as I know, these are the only 2 like it. Recessed deck and full length pads. Not for everyone, but this construction is stronger than most others and and it has some other benefits. I'm no expert at all, but you guys came to mind as someone who could make something very similar and even improve with the use of carbon. It was just a thought and didn't mean to add to the surf/twin tip debate. That's a debate that should happen over spotted cows.

For me, all I can say is I really enjoy riding strapless whenever I can. It's hard to explain and even if I wasn't so banged up all the time, I think i would still ride and practice strapless.

You should see the bottom of my freewave. It looks like a golf ball with dimples all over created from hitting ice this spring when our lakes first opened.

[West]

Not familiar with those boards Bob, but I will have to check 'em out............and that's the beauty of kiting, it is sooooo diverse there is something for everyone to be passionate about.....it just happens to be the twin-tip for the BRO clan....
Gonna try to start posting some stuff right now, and should be posting pics and vids the rest of the week.

Been such an outstanding gathering down here, with just spectacular conditions....Downwinders in the Laguna and the Gulf today......the best of both worlds, flats and surf SUNNY AND 80!!!!!!!

Ray has taken some great photos, here's a sneak peak...

[Rainmann]

Wow...what a trip!!! 5 for 5 on this way too short of a vacation! Started the week out with a downwinder with West from the JFK Causeway down to Brazil. I can't say enough about my first experience at Brazil...what an incredible rush to ride the smooth as glass channels and ponds. Sean and John met us there and it was all slash, rip, and boost in one channel then rip, slash, boost in the neighboring pond (watch out for the sea grass or it will reach up and catch your fins and send you for an unexpected seaweed wrap and mud spa treatment).
The next day we were treated to a first hand glimpse of how the BroKite boards are manufactured in the shop. I was surprised to find out how work intensive and complex the production process was and the skill involved to produce such a fine product.
Day 2-5 was more of the same...ripping on the Laguna Madre, followed by ice cold beers and Texas sized shrimp and fish from the grill as well as some great conversation with new friends regarding the finer points of life and kiteboarding. It was great to hear everyones story on how they got hooked on kiteboarding and about the diverse lifestyles we all choose to make our way.
Thanks to all for the great tips and advice that will take my riding to a new level. Also, a huge thanks to Jerry, Maggie, and Keith for making us all feel at home!
-Ray

[jensmadwind]

sounds like an action packed blast! For every solid week of kiting down there we get one day up here. Lucky for us and my sanity the few day have been quality.

Is rocky riding the 138 in those pictures with boots?

tt vs strapless surfboard
both arre fun and like west said different strokes... The best sense of accomplishment and rush I get these days kiting is going down the line on my surfboard, facing the wave, and engaging the most critical part I can get to with the mind set that one of us has to go. Sometimes I slash and continue coming out the end physically strained and emotionally exuberant, other times the wave pastes me like a bug on a windshield, either result is priceless to me.