While there's tens of thousands, (maybe even millions) of kiteboarders in the world who are happy with simply cruising around using their kites for jumps and trickery. There's a small group of nutbags who choose to hurtle across the water at seriously insane speeds. 

These guys (and a girl!) are absolutely mad about speed kiting. If there's not hurricane warnings and broken branches; they're not interested. Some say... They take hacksaws to twin tips and carve out the unnecessary bits until they're left with nothing but a skeleton of paulownia wood and carbon left to ride on. 60 knots is the goal - that's 111.12 kmph for the average layperson and no matter how much experience you have in the sport of kiteboarding, that is seriously fast. 

Every year, when the wind is right at one of the few suitable locations. This small group of kiteboarders get together, have a nice dinner together and proceed to tear down a narrow channel until one of them gets crowned the winner. It takes serious guts, a lot of money and absolute confidence in their equipment. No wonder there's such a fierce rivalry between the USA and French crew. All in good fun of course, but when it really comes down to it, state of origin looks tame in comparison. Leading the media charge from the USA team is Damien Leroy of Cabrinha. Keep an eye on his Youtube channel for the latest videos on the event, which is invitation only, and any time there's wind. 

It's happening sometime this year, so check out the promo video and follow the guys on their Facebook to make sure you don't miss it. 

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