Kiteworld interview with Lou Wainman. For sure worth reading -->



Can you remember when you first became aware of kiting?

I remember seeing it on a section of a windsurfing movie back in 1996. Laird Hamilton and Corey Roesler were doing it using water skis. I thought it looked like a cool stunt, or one of those sports like wire walking or stilts that you had to train for years to do. The bars were really wide, around four or five feet, and had a reel system that looked like it had a circular saw blade in the centre. It wasn't until I arrived in Maui, and was sat at Ho'okipa one afternoon, that a French guy named Manu Bertin showed up with an inflatable Wipika kite. He went out on a strapped surfboard in wind that was too light for the windsurfers. I watched him drop into some mast-high waves over and over until it clicked in my head, 'Jesus Christ; this is the shit!' I nudged my room-mate, Elliot Leboe, and said, 'Hey man, let's get some!' He immediately got on his cell phone, calling around asking where to get those pump up kites. Apparently the man to find was named Joe Cool. We found out he had them all stored at a shop called Hawaiian Pro-line. One day about ten of us showed up, each picking a colour like a super hero picking out his costume. I remember clearly: Manu and I were white; Robby Naish, Robby Hilburn, Elliot Leboe and Sierra Emory were red; Mauricio Abreu had the Brazilian flag colours painted on a white kite; Fadi Issa was purple, like the Lakers; Rush Randall (my hero) was green; Flash Austin and Pete Cabrinha were yellow, and so on. You could tell from far away who was who. One night I got really high in my room painting my white kite black with magnum magic markers. That was an interesting time because you couldn't really order equipment after looking in a magazine; you had to make it yourself. Any time something new happened it was awesome because whoever did it was the talk of the town.


Where are you from originally?

Asteroid B612.


Was it windsurfing that drew you to Hawaii?

Yeah man, I came here to push my windsurfing in the surf. Coming from a place like Florida was an amazing upgrade. I'd grown up working and sailing when it was windy and wakeboarding when it was calm. One day my older brother, Aaron, strongly suggested to my dad that it would be wise to send me to Hawaii. Being involved in watersports was expensive and they knew I needed some help to get going, at least until things progressed, so luckily my parents funded most of my trip until the day I called to say 'I got it from here'. I think the fact that I didn't have work or school to go to gave me the time I needed to develop the tools and skills to do my thing. Having that opportunity was the key to my success. That's not to say that at one point I didn't drive the whole thing straight off a cliff, but that's another story.

http://www.kiteworldmag.com/interviews/lou-wainman/