35th Parallel - adventure travel & sports community

Ben's got the life - more than a month after finishing our kitesurfing camp in Bali, he's still cruising around Indo surfing and kitesurfing his brains out!

"I just had a few fun days kiting in Indonesia with my new Octane kites, they're working really well and I'm stoked on them so I thought I'd make a quick flick! Enjoy..." Ben.

Chasta has been hangin in New Zealand's South Island for the last couple months tearing up the Southern Alps!  He's been snowkiting on our NZ Snowkite Camps and also testing the latest kites for Ozone.

Check out Chasta's short video:

Kitesurfers Ben Morrison-Jack and James Weight left Cape Grim near Stanley on Tasmania's North West tip just after 7am yesterday morning and arrived on dry land in South West Victoria just short of 12 hours later!

Ben & James have been friends since high school and whilst Ben has considerable ocean sailing experience (including America's Cup challenges and Sydney to Hobart races), James is a total newcomer to ocean crossings.

We have just returned from running our second wave camp in Bali. We had a great crew including Brian Wheeler from Kiteboarder Usa mag. Also there is a travel feature on Bali in the latest edition of KBmag which is out next week. So with all that press next years trip are going to fill up fast. If you have any questions about the camps just post them here. Cheers
Bruce BWS coaching co ordinator

John Omohundro (founder/owner Aviso boards) flew to Bali to join me for this year's Bali Kitesurf Wave camp and hand deliver the first 5'8 Celaritas out of the tool to me. This is the first day of surfing it and kiting it, the waves aren't epic, but fun enough to get me hooked on the board as it's super light, alive and if his theory of "it will last forever" is correct then potentially one the best constructed and feeling boards I have ridden.

Check out the video...

Here's a short video put together by Chasta on our second New Zealand Snowkite Camp.  This trip has some experienced snowkiters on it, along with some novices.  I'm sure you'll enjoy the footage!  If these trips interest you, get into our community and join the NZ Snowkite groups and you can be kept in the loop on future trips!

The June 2009 edition of Australian Kiteboarder magazine has a great 4 page article on our snowkiting trips in New Zealand.  The article has plenty of information on the locations we snowkite in New Zealand, as well as equipment tips, travel to New Zealand and more.  Here's a copy of the article for you to read.

On Wednesday this week, 35th Parallel's trips were featured on the Western Australian radio show, "Not The Footy Show" in a live interview.  We discussed the recent Ben Wilson Bali Kitesurfing Camp as well as our snowkiting trips in New Zealand and the new 35th Parallel website and concept.

Anyone who plays in the ocean has a "dolphin story"... that time they shared the water with dolphins, perhaps surfing, snorkelling, diving or swimming.  For anyone this has happened to, it leaves an impression which lasts a lifetime.  Dolphins truly are amazing creatures and bring joy to people the world over.

I saw "The Cove" movie last night and am still in shock.  It exposes one of the most shocking things I've seen in many years.  In a small town in South Eastern Japan called Taiji an estimated 23,000 dolphins are sold and killed from September to March each year.  Here's the trailer so you can see what it's all about. 

Slingshot officially announced their partnership with Aviso Surf this week.  Aviso are the leaders in carbon fibre surfboards in the US.  After spending a week in Bali recently with John from Aviso and seeing Ben Wilson stoked on his boards, I'm confident carbon fibre boards are going to be popular with kiters... not to mention the fact they look sick!