By Michelle England  

Simon Witchermann is a familiar name on the Australian kiteboarding competition circuit. Having started out as a junior, and
 now twenty two, his competition career has spanned more than five years. With State and National Titles already notched up, Simon has also dabbled in international PKRA events achieving 5th in the board across at the 2010 Qld PKRA, 9th in the long distance race and 17th in freestyle at the 2010 New Caledonia PKRA.
 This year Simon improved finishing 13th, Queenslander Rachel Baglin finished third and Victorian Ewan Jaspan finished ninth in the same ompetition in New Caledonia against the world’s best in the final stop on the 2011 PKRA tour.
 Simon enjoys the competition experience and approaches it sensibly. Training at the gym, running, healthy eating and regular trager massage sessions help keep his body in shape. Competing encourages him to push himself to continue to learn new tricks and assess his performance under pressure. The opportunity to travel to new places and meet new people is an added advantage. Indeed the sport and participating in competitions has taken him around the country as well as to New Zealand, Bali and New Caledonia.
 Read more in the current edition of Kite Mag, out now!

Ant Hadleigh is not only a busy bushman; he’s now a famous one. The founder and chief of Australian Kite Surfari recently spent five days and nights with Charlie Smith from Richard Branson’s Necker Island.
 Video of Charlie kiting at Ant’s camp off the coast of Cape Flattery in far north Queensland are now live on the Cabrinha international website.
 Ant is rounding up cattle on the tip of Cape York for a mate, doing wildlife rainforest tours and making his camp ready for the 25-35 knot trade winds which are due to return in April.
 I was a guest of Ant last year on the Australian Kite Surfari and teamed up with the crew from Briskites to explore the waters. For five days and five nights the winds blew from 25-35 knots, the biggest kite I put up was a 7m.

What: Australian Kiteboarding Nationals (Freestyle, Racing)
When: 7th-11th of June
Where: Townsville, Pallarenda Beach
Cost: TBA
Enter: 1st January 2012 

Bloody Awful!
Just being old puts you in a world of hearing aids, dentures, memory loss and constant medication. Oldies hide their senile personality with a big smile, but underneath
there’s a grumpy old man. I’m grumpy when I forget to take out my hearing aid before hitting the water. On a down winder I forget where to finish and carry on because the shore all looks the same to me.
If you see me parked in neutral for a seemingly long time, please understand and stay clear as it’s a private moment of urination.
Young kiters don’t make it any easier and never accept that old kiters need a hand.
They just stand around talking about handle passes (whatever they are) while an old “invisible one’s” kite is thrashing around only noticed by an observant attacking dog.
When it’s time for me to land my kite, I appear on the shore like a demented monkey pounding the top of my red helmet trying to get attention. If I was a hot chicki babe there would be a rush of young kiters
wanting to grab my leading edge and goodness knows what else.
If I lie down on the beach and rest me bones for a while, then some young person reports me as dead and people start prodding me
with a stick. Ah the joys of getting old.
Uncle “Grumpy” Ray, QLD

You can now read this premium magazine anywhere. Sup Mag is the only and first magazine in the world to go on sale in Apple's App store.
 A single issue will cost you $4.49 or you can subscribe for 12 issues for $34.99.
Click here to get yours now. http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/sup-mag/id469367469?mt=8 

One of the best things about being a photographer is seeing the everyday
dude ripping it up just for the love of kiting.
No sponsors, no stress and no one to impress. They live for that special moment, that one priceless instance where gravity does not exist.
That unique place where time stops and those few prolonged seconds are forever embedded into their brain’s sensory database only to be erased over time by a new special trick or scary moment that leaves a cheeky smile on their face.
I’m sure you all know the dude I’m talking about. Or is it a crew of dudes?
At my local beach here on the Sunshine Coast it just happens to be a diverse crew of wind addicts. They are a friendly bunch from all facets of life and gel together both in and out of the water, which seems to create a pleasant atmosphere to the new comers of the sport.
This crew doesn’t seem to be in it for the money or the glam. To cut a long story short, “they just dig it”.
On any day of the week, you can rock up and watch the crew helping each other to launch or recover their kite and grin ear to ear. That’s what it’s all about, helping the new guy, while still showing respect for each other, the ocean, the wind, the surroundings and yourself.
That’s just something that I’ve noticed at my local beach with the local crew. I hope it is the same at yours.
Mark Bialek, photographer

Kite Mag is a quarterly magazine with a deep-reaching appeal to all ages and disciplines of kite sports. It is recognized as the most authoritative publication in Australia in its field - a position which it has held since it began.
Kite Mag is one of Australia's most popular water sports magazine in its sector, attracting 100,000 readers per annum. 25,000 magazines are printed each year.
It is one of Australia’s bestselling water sports magazines on isubscribe and themagshop.com.au.

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No.1 Stand Up Paddle boarding magazine. Sup Mag rocks!

The Lithium is one of Airush’s most successful kites. The new 2012 Lithium model is a true masterpiece. It is fast and powerful, yet user friendly and fun to ride. It offers a fast speed and extra hang time for the advanced rider and a smooth power delivery and plenty comfort for the beginner looking to experience a recreational cruise.
The 2012 Airush Lithium is a new generation, multipurpose kite. It is
designed on a similar pattern as the previous models, but it is tuned
to be faster, easier to use and more reliable.
Kite Mag: We hand balled this review to Airush team rider Matt
Chambers. This is what he had to say. “The Airush Lithium has done
away with one of its struts for 2012, it still maintains its ridiculous
stability and easy relaunch from the previous years but with a more
consistent power delivery throughout the window. There is still
truckloads of static power and a quick pivotal turn with no loss of
forward momentum, it has an uncanny ability to stay in the air no matter what you have done wrong.

Click here to contact the publisher George Ierodiaconou.