REAL put out two ads in this issue. The first ad was for the new REAL Flagship Store. Paul Sheetz and I worked on this Ad. We used the shot at the ribbon cutting of the Real Flagship store. The Second was an ad for the REAL BVI Trip, again a Sheetz production with a little direction from myself. The four shots are a couple of my favorite from last years trip to the BVIs.
Author: Bryan Elkus
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Claire 80s Prom Part1
Tonight, I shot with Claire. I shot here at same location I shot Lou just for ease of use and the fact there was a much different sky than the was when I shot Lou (and because i really liked the beams). Shot only a couple frames before the mosquitoes became too much and had to wrap things up. I am planning on doing a 80s prom dress shoot with Claire and Lulu. I wanted to have a page split between a fashion shot (with dress and a board or kite) and a kiteboarding shot with the dresses on.
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Cover Shot of Kite-boarding Magazine
It’s official! I have been granted my first cover shot on Kite-boarding Magazine. The photograph is of Andre Phillip, one of the best kiteboarders in the world. Dre is know for is unique and trend setting style on the water. The shot was taken in Cape Hatteras, NC. Kite-boarding Magazine is one of the larger non-US kiteboarding magazines in the world. All i can say is I’m very excited and cannot wait to get a cover in the US market.
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Portrait of Lou Wainman
I have had the honor to hang out with Lou Wainman over the last two weeks. Lou is a very shy individual to say the least so it was pretty difficult to get Lou to let me grab a shot of him. I finally was able to make it happen tonight. He was out riding (missed a session for this, but well worth it), while I had all my gear setup and ready to take the shot as soon as he came in. I had Lou for enough time to push the trigger about 6 times before he was over it. It was a great experience getting to learn from Lou, and it was even better to learn to work under a lot of pressure.
Strobist Info: I shot this with a 430EX to the left side of the subject (camera left) at 1/2 power at a 35-40 degree angle. I like how the strobe lights the kite bag, board and top half of the subject, but leaves the lower half in darkness. It easily allows the eye to travel from the lower left of the picture to the upper right. A little more light on the right of the subjects face would have been nice but with the couple minutes i had to work with i am happy with the results.
Lou also left me with one of his new Wainman Hawaii kites. I can’t wait to get out on the water with it : Update coming soon.
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Hanna Kite Session
Friday turned out to be one of the best kitesurfing sessions I have yet to have in Cape Hatteras. Hanna brought us some massive waves and good steady wind. The locals all headed to The Cove. The waves were breaking for 500 yard+. It was an incredible session. I was able to unhook and make turn after turn going down the line for pretty much as long as I wanted. I usually had to pull out of the wave early so I didn’t have to tack as far up wind. I was perfectly powered on my 8m havoc and the 6’5 jimmy lewis chamber. The Chamber is a new addition I have been riding the 6’3 and there is quite a lot of difference between the two sizes. The 6’3 is more of a hack session board where you can’t always feel the drive of the board on the waves, while on the 6’5 you feel like the board has power as well. Most of the crew showed up at 7am. I didn’t get there until around 1, and rode until 5pm. This was defiantly a session to remember.
UPDATE: Here is a VERY quick video i threw together today, from last weeks sessions for REAL.
For more in depth info about the storms and sessions check out REAL’s New’s Item.
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Ground Swell in Hatteras
Ground swell has come to Cape Hatteras. We scored some great surf yesterday and today. We rarely get such defined ground swell here, usually its just windswell. With all the storms in the Atlantic it should make for a interesting fall. Everyone also has their eyes on Hurricane Hanna. Below is the 5 day forecast as of typing this. If it doesn’t hit we should get some good wind and waves from this system.
Here are a couple pictures from the am session at Mac Oca. I scored an AM session, lunch session and PM session. The OPM was the best by far. The AM session was pretty tough to find a peak, while the lunch session was filled with fast barreling waves. The PM session was perfect for my 9’9 nose-rider and I was able to catch some big ones.
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Naish 2009 Kite Packaging
The new 2009 Naish Cults arrived at REAL the other day. Much to my surprise, they were packaged in a rather unique way. Most kites come in their own bags for transportation purposes, and are then packaged with the bar and a pump. Then all of that is stuffed into a corrugated box to be dismantled after shipment. Naish took a different approach this year.
All of the kites come in a simple well labeled box that is covered with tasteful graphics. The kite size and color of the kite are easily identifiable on a label. The labels are on numerous sizes of the box which help when they are stored, in order to quickly find the size/color of choice. The box has a good plastic handle for transportation by hand, that seems to hold its own. The boxes are roughly the size of a briefcase but about twice the width, noticeable small in size.
I have yet to open one of the boxes but they must be vacuum packed in order to be able to fit all the kites in the same size box. Some of the kites seemed to bulge out the box slightly. They should have made it a little wider if possible to ensure that when the kite boxes are stacked for retail that they align flawlessly.
The bars are each boxes with matching graphics and labeling. There is a nice cut out window at the top of the box to show off the end of the bar. This is a good choice since there in not a graphical representation of the bar on the box. There is also an eye hole punched out of the box to easily hang the boxes on the wall for retail.
By innovating the way in which the gear is packaged and displayed, Naish has stepped up their game immensely. But what has really changed? Really only the presentation it seems. Without a more in-depth analysis and material usage, it looks as though a relatively equal about of packaging material is being used, if not more. However, Naish’s new packaging
haswill increased their brands perceived value by them choosing to distribute their gear in this manner. I beleive they have set the bar for the other Kite manufactures to follow. -
Labor Day Weekend
My good buddy Tom came up for a visit this weekend. It was a weekend of surfing, kiting, beaching, eating and chilling out. Saturday we took 4 surf sessions and topped it off with a wakeboard session on the REAL kicker. Sunday we surfed in the morning had a mega downwinder. I did my first crossing of the Oregon Inlet. With 2-3 feet overhead waves and perfectly powered on a 12m havoc, made for a terrific session (well for some of us).
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Lost Board Productions
My buddy Nate Appel of Lost Board Productions has just launched a new website. Nate is the one who put my profile video together. Nate has been a coach at REAL for two seasons and recently moved back to the West coast. He is a master film maker and kiter. Check out some of his work on his site:
