This is Evelien Bolle. She’s from Belgium and her new thing at the moment is trying to ride the biggest wave possible with a kite.

So Evelien, why big waves?

The fun of riding big waves is if you’re really in the moment. You can just focus on one thing and it’s the feeling of adrenaline that you get of it. It also seems like if you’re on a big wave that the time is stopping, it’s like time is really slowing down.

Let’s talk a little bit about the boards.

I got quite quickly into riding strapless. Like six months after I learned kiting because I knew I wanted to go kitesurfing waves. I ordered a strapless kiteboard which had inserts for straps. The first time I tried it I did put two straps on it which didn’t work at all. Then I tried it for a while with one foot strap up in the front.

Which is a good one actually for a lot of people, because just a side track, a lot of times when they design a board they will put the straps actually really far back. Which is good for doing hard turns but it’s not good for just riding because you’re way too far to the back of the board and your board starts to bounce.

That was what I did and then I took off the strap and it never came back until this one.

Why straps on a big wave kitesurf board?

You bounce a lot so you have a lot more control and you’re more sure not to get swept off your board and get a big crash.

Also when you ride out you have to go over a big wave. Sometimes it’s quite nice that you can just jump. You can even jump over really big white water.

My first strapless board was for medium waves and then I went to the GKA in Mauritius for the first time. I contacted Wieger to ask, I will go to Mauritius in three weeks for the GKA, do you have a board in stock or can you make a board really fast. I was lucky that you made one really fast, it was an Appleflap 5’8”.

The board worked really well, so afterwards I came back to Appletree and then I got an Applino 5’5” and I also have a Klokhouse 5’6”.

Which boards do you like the best for the big stuff?

Usually the narrower smaller boards. The main difference between those boards is definitely there’s a lot more rocker. An Applino for instance makes it really quick and loose which is nice for freestyle but when it gets bigger you lose quite a lot of control with the extra rocker due to that shape. The Klokhouse is more an in between kind of board, you have the right balance between control and looseness. And then if you go to the Appleflap or Appleflap noseless you get way more control but you lose that snappy feeling.Let’s talk about this board that you’ve got here now.

It behaves really well. It was a bit different in the beginning because you have these food straps and I was not used to it anymore. So the first time you go, you are like oh food straps again. It’s actually super small, it resembles really a lot of a towing board for doing tow surfing. I did a towing surf course last year, so for me the behaviour was quite similar to a towing board which I liked.

The board is also a lot heavier than a normal kiteboard which is really good because you have less impact from the bumps. I feel when I get into a wave the board really starts to work and accelerates a lot because there are a lot of channels.

Is the weight of the board important?

In this board we have added quite a lot of lamination so a lot of glass fiber. Making the board about 50-60% heavier than it normally is and at the same time you get the benefit of also making the board stronger. The downside is maybe that it’s a little less flexible but on a small board like this it’s less important that the board is less flexible. You just want to cut through the chop anyway.

Tell us a bit more about the design process, how did it go?

As you can see maybe this board has a very similar channel situation as the Malus Domestica has but the outline is completely different. We have just launched the Applepeeler model which looks a lot like this board. Where the Applepeeler is thicker and wider so it’s more of an all-rounder kind of shape. This is really made for big stuff and we decided to experiment with these Malus Domestica channels. What they do is, they create a really effective planning area in the middle of the board. Which really helps with the acceleration of the board and to channel the water through the middle gives a really good flat section.

At the same time your rocker line here in the rail is much more curvy than through the middle, through the channels. This makes that you can really accelerate the board. If you want to turn, you can still use that rocker line to turn and to get out of the way. Or to actually do a turn so it gives you like two boards in one situation. Which we think that helps a lot with big wave riding. Also you don’t necessarily want too much rocker. Normally a lot of rocker is nice for a really steep hollow wave.

Thanks Evelien