Are you not yet sold on kite boarding?  Well you should be because it is quickly taking the world by storm.  I give it just a few more years and you will see kite boarding in the Olympics, in the movies, and you will probably even see kite boarders “kiting” to school.  Yep that’s right.  Who says that kite boarding is restricted to water.  It will be the hottest craze around.  As they say, “Kite boarding is the new black”.  While Timmy struggles to skateboard up hill with his kiteless setup, little Joey Joe Joe will be kiting everywhere he goes. 

Just when I had a feeling that kite boarding was in the dawn of being the biggest and gnarliest “extreme sport” to date, a town in Australia decides to place a ban on the most totally broiffic up and coming surf activity.  Anyone caught partaking in the gnarly of gnarliest of extreme sports will be given a $200 fine for “Harnessing the wind” without council permission. 

That sounds like some new world order type of talk if you ask me.  Just like most abundant of natural resources, shouldn’t the wind be enjoyed by everyone?  Well yet again, the up and down world of kite boarding is catching the attention of international community and is taking on the world’s stage as I have said before, the “gnarly of gnarliest” of extreme sports.

Check out the article over at www.news.com.au

Everyone is pretty psyched for next year’s ASP World Tour. There’s a certain level of excitement in the air unlike any year prior.  Is it because of the tour locations set of next year?  Or perhaps it’s because surfing has taken a backseat to KITE SURFING and surfers are ready to take back their spot.  Nope, it’s because the ASP’s new tournament format should lead to more suspense and excitement.  And it’s for damn sure, well hopefully, dominant surfers like Kelly Slater would monopolize the competition, as he did this year. 

Here’s a rundown of the major changes that are the framework for the new format:

- 48-man format consisting of two opening elimination man-on-man rounds. This gets rid of the free three-man round-one heats, which all surfers advanced out of.

- Round one will consist of 32 surfers, those rated 17 to 27 on the ASP World Tour, three tour/injury wildcards, the top 15-rated surfers on the ASP WQS, and three event wildcards.

- The top 16 on the ASP World Tour are seeded directly in round two where they’ll meet the sixteen victors from round one in the re-seeded draw.

- The top ten from the previous year’s Dream Tour will be guaranteed a round two seed all year long, while the next six seeds have to maintain their seeded position and can be replaced by better performing back 32 surfers after the third ASP World Tour event of the year.

These modifications all serve the purposes of maximizing swell windows for events, creating a one world ranking system, making it crucial for surfers to surf every event, and of course, increasing the excitement throughout the entirety of each contest.

Tentative ASP World Tour 2009 Schedule

Feb 28-Mar 11 Quiksilver Pro (Gold Coast, Qld-Australia)

Apr 7-19 Rip Curl Pro (Bells Beach, Victoria-Australia)

May 9-20 Billabong Pro Teahupoo (Teahupoo, Taiarapu-Tahiti)

Jun 27-Jly 5 Hang Loose Santa Catarina Pro (Santa Catarina-Brazil)

Jly 9-19 Billabong Pro (Jeffreys Bay-South Africa)

Sep 11-20 Boost Mobile Pro pres. by Hurley (Trestles, California-USA)

Sep 23-Oct 4 Quiksilver Pro France (South West Coast-France)

Oct 5-17 Billabong Pro (Mundaka, Euskadi-Spain)

Oct 19-28 Rip Curl Search (Somewhere…in Europe?)

Dec 8-20 Billabong Pipeline Masters (Banzai Pipeline, Oahu-Hawaii)

Well this woman from France just might be.  Anne Quemere, 42, is planning to take a solo trip across the Pacific Ocean on; you guessed it, a Kite Board.  Now the only difference with Anne and 26-year-old Jason Lewis, is that Anne actually know what she’s doing.  She had already complete the amazing feat of crossing the Atlantic.  What more in the nice warm, sunny, shark and possibly pirate infested waters of the Pacific.  I just hope that her arms are conditioned to take on such a challenge or she might end up like this guy.  Read more about her amazing stunt below and maybe you will be inspired to do something so meaningful with your life.  Like do the Running Man all the way to Alaska. 

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — A French adventurer will set sail from San Francisco on Thursday in a bid to become the first person to kite surf across the Pacific Ocean.
Anne Quemere, 42, the only woman to have rowed solo across the Atlantic Ocean in both directions without assistance, will use Pacific winds to propel her in a 5.5-meter (18 feet) craft some 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles) to French Polynesia. The voyage is expected to take around three months.

Quemere, who successfully completed a similar kite surf voyage cross the Atlantic in 2006, told AFP she had originally planned to leave on Friday but weather conditions forced her to bring forward her departure date by 24 hours.

“I’m leaving Thursday, departing from the wharf at around 11am (1800 GMT),” she told AFP.

“We had planned for Friday but the weather is going to be more favorable on Thursday so we wanted to take advantage of that window,” she said.

In 2002, Quemere set a new record after traversing the South Atlantic in 56 days in a rowing boat. Two years later she took 87 days to row across the North Atlantic.

That time Mother Nature was the one who was laughing, along with millions of viewers across the country. Anyway part of the country is experiencing the wrath of a hurricane as Tropical Storm Fay is tearing up Florida. Well a couple of days ago, a 28-year-old kite boarder decided it would be wise to take the board out for a surf.

Before you watch the CNN report with live video, let me just say this. Have you ever seen small debris flying through the air during a hurricane? How small insignificant debris like a plastic bag. Well this 28-year-old looks like he got tossed like a rag doll. He’s now in critical condition. I hope this teaches a lesson to you youngin’s or older guys like this guy.

Okay, now watch it.