The 2007 Strapless Kiteboarding Collective (SKC) commenced July 11th in the Columbia River Gorge with strapless riders coming from Canada, Germany, Mexico, Australia, Hawaii, and across the United States to ride in the first grass-roots freeride event of its kind. Based on the premise of self-expression, The Collective’s intent was to explore and further the level of strapless riding in surf, park, and freestyle while sharing the fun that can be had on all different type of strapless boards.

Amongst the riders present were strapless kiteboarding pioneers Joey Pasquale, Brian Lake and Kevin “Top Hat” Senn whose influence on the North Shore of Oahu has blurred the lines of surfing, skim boarding, and kitesurfing. Also present were this year’s Triple SSS stand-out Dylan Thompson, two-time world champion Kristin Boese, North Kiteboarding’s Sky Solbach, SKC organizer Dave Tyburski, Dakine’s Chris Gilbert, Australia’s Cam Barker, Mexico’s Sean Farley, Canada’s Kyle Touhey and the Slingshot crew of Amery Bernard and Shy Mack

Day 1 July 11, 2007

With no wind forecast for the Oregon coast, The Collective stayed in the Gorge and rode light but steady East winds in the majestic western corridor between Oregon and Washington. With the lush Cascade Mountains looming in the background, the riders, all on skimboards and surfboards, had their first opportunity to show their tricks and individual styles for each other and for the cameras. Shove it tricks, ollies, and grabbed airs were standard fare and the riders made the most of the light wind conditions while escaping the oppressive dry heat of the day. As the east winds faded, the 2007 SKC had begun and the event was officially underway.

Back in Hood River later in the day, the wind was non-existent and the evening proved to be perfect conditions for wake surfing. It was arranged to have a custom rigged 1970’s Navy boat that would throw a glassy, shoulder high wave for the crew to session on their strapless boards. Blown away by the size of the wave that 16 people and thousands of pounds of ballast could throw, everyone was eager to get their turn. Less than 2 meters from the back of the boat, riders were spinning and hacking the wave to pieces. With tunes pumping over the loud diesel engine, The Collective crew partied and surfed well beyond sunset.



Day 2 July 12, 2007

The forecast for the Oregon coast looked even worse and it became apparent that the riders were not going to be able to showcase their strapless skills in the surf. With strong west wind forecast for the Gorge, the riders rode the Hood River Sandbar and its variety of water conditions. Taking multiple sessions that lasted for hours, the crew kited the sandbar pushing their limits hitting the sliders in the park, doing speed runs in the butter pond, big spins in the skinny water and swell riding and big airs out in the channel. Stand out maneuvers of the day were Joey’s back-side ollie indy grabs over the Liquid Force party island on a skim, Dylan’s wakeskate 180-shove-it over the gap-to-180 shove-it off of the up-gap-flat rail, Tybo’s BS 360 on the rail and Brian’s super smooth backside ollies to blind on his skim. With so many riders killing it, it was hard to know who to watch.

As the day progressed The Collective crew rallied as many strapless riders upwind to shoot from the Washington side. With more than 20 riders on surfboards and skims, the vibe was all about having fun. As the shutters clicked and the swell and video rolled, the critical mass of strapless riders found a taste of what Mother Nature would deny them of at the coast.



Day 3 July 13, 2007

Known for its swift current and opposing strong west wind, the Columbia River creates breaking river swell that normally exceeds 2 meters. As the wind blew all through the night, the riders woke up early for a dawn patrol session at the notorious big swell spot known as “The Hatchery”. With over head high swell and 30+knots of wind, throwing chunks and big backside ollies were the theme of the morning. Out on the water first, Sky Solbach’s and Kristin Boese’s wave experience shined as the pair comfortably showed the windsurfers how to rip up the river swell while Dave Tyburski’s skate inspired backside ollies made the onlookers wonder if he had Velcro on his feet. With a very sketchy launch off the rocks and extreme wind conditions, some of the riders decided to ride upwind to the spot from a launch on the other side of the river. Using anywhere from 4 to 7m kites, the session was one of the most memorable of the event and it blew the doors off the concept that you need foot straps when it gets really windy.





Day 4 July 14, 2007

While the days prior were primarily focused on free-riding and media, Saturday was organized as a community day to involve the public and to showcase strapless riding and its varied styles. With product demos by many of the major manufacturers, the water was littered with people riding skimboards, surfboards, and wakeskates. Kristin Boese led the Dakine Women’s Clinic and invited more than a dozen other women to go out and ride with her; David Tyburski, Joey Pasqualie, and Brian Lake led the Cabal Kite Skim Clinic getting riders their first transitions and shove-its; and Kyle Touhey and Chris Gilbert led the Naish Strapless Surfboard Clinic letting the never-evers try riding a strapless surfboard for the first time. Later in the afternoon, the Liquid Force Expression Session featured a variety of rail and park features that allowed the riders to show their variety of wakeskate, skim and skateboard inspired tricks to hundreds of onlookers before the wind began to back off.







As the wind became light and variable, it filled in just enough to get the strapless race underway. After a strong start, the racers spread out towards the upwind mark as Sean Farley, Sky Solbach, Kristin Boese, and board designer John Doyle quickly advanced ahead of the pack. As the other racers did their best to catch up, the light-wind conditions made it challenging and in a dramatic horizontal leap across the finish line, Sky Solbach claimed 1st place by a long run, followed by a close finish between Kristin Boese in 2nd and John Doyle in 3rd. As the day on the water ended, the North BBQ and Beer party back on the beach was in full swing. The fading daylight signaled the beginning of the schwag raffle and SKC organizer Dave Tyburski and kitesurf icon “Top Hat” handed out ton’s of shirts, bags, jackets and other schwag to the eagerly awaiting crowd. With onset of darkness close at hand, the 100 or so supporters and participants made their way to the beach for the closing ceremony and after enjoying an elaborate fire dance performance by Shannon and Veronica accompanied by the live drumming of Samba Hood River, the 2007 Strapless Kiteboarding Collective officially drew to a close.



With the first ever Strapless Kiteboarding Collective wrapped up, its intention of innovating and exploring new possibilities of what can be done with a strapless board and a kite has come to fruition. Riders demonstrated and shared tricks they know and those that they aspire to learn. They assembled ideas for shapes of new boards and features to ride on, and created a scene for others to take notice and to try something different. While showing that they are part of a movement they simultaneously showed that what they are doing is not so far off from the other board sports from which they pull their influences.
The 2007 SKC would like to thank all of the sponsors that made the event possible including CABAL SKIMBOARDS, NORTH KITEBOARDING, DAKINE, SLINGSHOT KITEBOARDING, LIQUID FORCE KITEBOARDING, ION IMAGERY, WWW.TEKKOPHOTO, CABRINHA KITEBOARDING, KITETHEGORGE.COM, KITEBOARDING MAGAZINE, SBC KITBOARD, and WWW.KITEFORUM.COM
The 2007 SKC could not have been made possible without the help of a lot of people. Helping with production and coordination efforts was Kirsten Andrews who works on live sport event production with ESPN, and NBC, Lance Koudele of Ion Imagery-Event Photographer, Gregg Gnecco of tekkophoto.com and nwliquid.com-Event Videographer, Aaron Sales of Kiteboarding Magazine-Race Director, and Joby Cook- Park and Features

Race Results:

1st Sky Solbach

2nd Kristin Boese

3rd John Doyle

All photos courtesy SKC and Lance Koudele