#1
|
|||
|
|||
Manu Bertin and the Early Days of Kiteboarding
From: http://www.flysurf.com/ Manu rides big! Originally Posted: 24 Aug 2002 04:12 at: http://www.kiteforum.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1945 Martin Kirk of the HKA just sent along this interesting article printed in the "ALOHA PRESS" six years ago. It provides a slightly different slant on the genesis of kitesurfing than is popularly held. It is worth a read, makes me feel like I am in Maui breaking new ground with Manu and Laird back in the early days ... FLY SURFING Exploring the ultimate freedom of defying gravity - the desire to fly like a bird is an age-old dream of human kind. Add our obsessive fascination with the ocean and imagine the feeling of flying a kite in the vast blue space of sea and skies. Something so rad and yet so simple that people didn't even start to dream about - until now. Just another sunny afternoon in Hawaii. The trade winds whip up the blue ocean, luring zillions of windsurfers in the waves off Maui's North shore. Suddenly a red dot appears flying in the picture-perfect azure sky, grabbing everybody's attention along the shore. Even the traffic on Hana Highway slows down, as drivers pop their heads out of their car windows, trying to identify the flying object on the horizon. Beachgoers gather at the shore line, squint their eyes in the bright sunshine, wondering aloud if this couid be a flying saucer or maybe a giant bird. Approaching with fast speed, the flying phenomena turns out to be a kite, soaring 15 meters up in the skies. Like a gigantic eagle, it pulls a surfer, footstrapped to a small board over the white-capped surface of the sea. Mingling with the surprised windsurfers (who can't decide whether to yell at him or cheer him on) the kite propelled surfer gracefully rides some 3-foot waves before carving a powerful jibe in front of the speechiess beach crowd. Heading out in the open ocean again, he jumps over the incoming set and is - as suddenly as he came - gone with the wind, leaving the spectators in awe and amazement. Taking wind-surfing literally to new heights, Fly-Surfer Emmanuel "Manu" Bertin just gave another performance of fly-surfing. The 33-year old Frenchman along with legendary Waterman Laird Hamilton developed this new wind sport - uniting their love for the ocean with the fascination of flying an aircraft. "It's a totally new sensation", describes ex-windsurf pro Bertin, "the sky as the third dimension becomes involved and the absence of weight gives you a whole different feeling of freedom out there." Worldwide, kites were already used to pull beach carts, water skis and even snow boards. But in 1995, when Laird and Manu got serious to pursue their idea of kite-surfing - as they called it in the beginning - there were no kites in sight that wouid work in the ocean. "We first experimented with six original power kites that I brought back from the French manufacturer ITV - a paraglider company that holds the speed sailing record. We flew them in Lairds backyard and even strapped ourselves to an old truck, so the kites wouldn't take off with us," recalls Bertin, whose nickname Manu means 'bird' in the Hawaiian language. After two months of learning how to handle the power kites on land, the guys hit the water and -unintentionally- stirred up some commotion. "The first time we went out with a couple of guys on jetskis, a boat and Laird's tow-in surfboard", Manu remembers, chuckling,"lt was a Kona wind day and we flew the kite about 50 meters up in the sky. Suddenly all hell broke loose at the beach -firefighters, lifeguards and police officers gathered on shore, jumping up and down the beach. Turned out that we were in the approaching corridor of Kahului Airport and the incoming planes were kind of irritated by our kite. They almost arrested us !" The legend of Icarus already taught that flying too high can be treacherous. However, the power kites did not work in the ocean. Sinking in the water, not being able to water start and needing a couple of people to start flying the kites were set-backs that put Manu & Co. back to square one. Bertin describes: "My main concern was to have a safe and fairly indestructible kite that couid be water started without help. I was always striving for simple solutions, which are of course the hardest to come by." Manu was looking for a wing rather than a kite. He explains: "The idea of Fly Surfing is this: one flies a kite, but a wing flies you! That's a big difference. While a wing can make you fly, a normal kite doesn't." After an odyssey around the globe looking for the magical wing, the visionary Frenchman found the answer to his prayers. Two inventors, Bruno and Dominique Legaignoux, from Brittany/France held a patent for a marine wing named WIPIKA (wind powered inflatable kite aircraft). With inflatable air chambers to make the aircraft float on the water, it seemed to be the perfect solution. The brothers originally designed their marine wing to propel catamarans - Fly Surfing didn't even cross their minds. When Manu showed up at their doorsteps, they shook their heads in disbelief as they heard about the idea of wind-surfing with a kite, but nonetheless supported their passionate fellow countryman. What they thought impossible, was that Manu rode the board snowboard-style, without stance switch after turns. With the blessings of the Legaignoux brothers and a prototype WIPIKA in his luggage, Bertin continued his journey to Italy, where windsurf board shaper Roberto Ricci developed a suitable board. Ricci emerged from his shaping room with a 7 foot (205 cm) long, 15 inches (37 cm) wide, dome decked hybrid-board called "Kite-Surfer" - a cross between a surfboard (outline), a wake board (extreme nose kick) and a snow board (sharp rails). Back on Maui, Bertin spent countless hours testing and optimizing the equipment. Crashing and burning in the process. Spending all his savings on the vision to create the ultimate Fly Surf gear. Fighting skepticism along the way, but also finding partners like Keith Baxter from Hawailan Proline and shaping maestro Sean Ordonez. Baxter custom-produces the 80 cm long carbon fiber, EVA gripped boom bar with which the Kite-Surfer directs the kite. The air-craft is connected to the boom's ends with two tear-resistant Spectra lines, which were designed for NASA. Also, a harness line dangles from the boom, in which the Fly-Surfer hooks in like a reqular windsurfer. Baxter shares Manu's fascination: "It's such a thrilling sport. Incredibly fast and free. Just look at the crowds that Manu is drawing wherever he shows up. He's harnessing the power of the wind and water in a fascinating way. For sure, there is a future in kite-surting !" Sean Ordonez employed his expertise in shaping a new board for Bertin. After one week of intense thinking, his mastermind came up with a tow-in surfboard resembling, 6'11" long "FIy-Surfer with a special bottom designed for waveriding, going upwind and staying in control. Manu comments: "This board really changed my life." The Frenchman's marine wing quiver consists of three custom-made marine kites (4.5 square meter, 5.5 sm, 8.5 sm), which allow him to fly over the ocean in various conditions from virtually no wind up to blasting trades of 30 mph. With air in the six air chambers, the kites weigh only one kilogram. But doesn't the power of the wind virtually pull the surfer out of the water? "No," explains Bertin, "see, the 'window of flight' is 180 degrees. In the 90 degree position, which is when the kite flies directly above you, you have the maximum lift and minimum pull. So, let's say, you fall in the water, the kite goes vertically up and it'll wait for you up there - without any pull." This part of going up into the vertical position rather than crashing in the ocean makes the WIPIKA marine wing such an unique design. It's the only kite in the worid behaving this way. Congenial in the simplicity of the concept and extremely refined in design- after all, the two French brothers spent twelve years in R&D- there is still a lot of work to be done. In order to control the power in the wing, the flying lines need refinements. The real bad news, though, is that you cannot walk in a store and buy your own wings - not yet. Although visions can be contagious, finding a manufacturer to produce the WIPIKA turned out to be a major obstacle. "It's a challenge to produce an aircraft', admits Bertin. Occasionally, Bertin is willing to teach some friends. Famous names such as windsurf legend Robby Naish and the German wave sailor Robby Seeger signed up for a beginner lesson with the pioneer. Australian windsurf pro Luke Hargreaves already had the chance to be under Manu's wings for a day and says excitedly : "It took me ten minutes to get going. It was an incredible feeling of freedom. No mast, no sail, just a light kite up in the sky - I really want to do it again !" For sure, you need to understand the rules of flying a kite before venturing out in the ocean. "You have to keep in mind, a kite is an aircraft - not a sail", emphasizes the bird man. "It's governed by the rule that the wing is heavier than air, so you've got to know first how to fly a kite, which is easy. Left, right. That's it. Once you know how to do that on land, you're ready to try it at sea. Just bodydragging first without a board, then you can get strapped in. You don't need to know much about aircrafts to Fly Surf. I don't. You just need a good wing." While the rest of us might need some time to truly understand and catch up with the outrageous idea of Fly Surfing, the ploneers keep painfully laboring over refinements in reliability and improvements to simplify the gear. Yet, it's safe to say that a new sport is born and a handful of dreamers bear the financial burdens of growing pains. At times, Bertin was so broke that he didn't own a car. But when the bird man walked miles back home in the fading daylight, after hours in harmony with the elements- his board under one arm and the kite stuffed in a small backpack - the gleam in his eyes showed that he was the richest man on earth. After all, he has a dream that just came true. Diana Haecker, septembre 1996 Last edited by ricki; 06-29-2010 at 09:17 PM. |
|
|