Keahi De Aboitiz is riding high at Kite-Surf World Cup

ONE of the top contenders in the men’s draw of the Kite-Surf World Cup is Keahi de Aboitiz, presently ranked #3 on the tour.
Today (Saturday, May 15) is a good day for the Australian, who splits his time between Noosa and Hawaii – not only is he through to the final of the event at Point Danger, it’s also his birthday.
We caught up with him for a chat earlier this week.

Q: How’d you get into kitesurfing?
KDA: I started pretty young, I started surfing at a pretty young age – Noosa’s got some pretty good waves, obviously – and started kiting through my dad, he was one of the first kiters who started up in Noosa, and he got me into it pretty young at about 11. And from then on, I’ve been kind of into all water sports, whether it’s kiting, or surfing, or standup, or foiling now, so it grew from there.

Q: How long have you been on the world tour?
KDA: I’ve been competing nationally for a long time. In the beginning, we used to have a lot more national events, so pretty much since I was 14 I was been doing events with kiting, I started doing a few international events in 2011, they were my first events, and from pretty much 2011 until now I’ve been doing the tour.

Q: Is it pretty competitvie out there, in terms of the calibre of competitors?
KDA: Yes, especially these days, where we’re getting a lot of the type of guys that make it a little tricky. There’s a couple of different disciplines – strapless freestyle, and waves – so this is a combined event with both of those and it kind of depends on the conditions whether it’s going to be more focused on waveriding or more focused on strapless freestyle.

Q: That must mean you need to be pretty flexible in terms of your skills.
KDA: Exactly, and some people are going to be better at one thing than the other. For me, I’m probably better at waveriding, I can still do a bit of strapless freestyle, but I’d say my best chance is if it’s more based around waves. But yes, I’m pretty stoked to be here and have an event at home, even though I technically don’t spend as much time here as I used to.

Q: So what does it take to be good at this sport?
KDA: Definitely a lot of time on the water, it’s good to be comfortable going to the beach on all those windy, blown-out days; those cold days. I grew up into watersports and all those things, and it’s kept me away, I’m not a city person, I’d rather go and spend the day on a beach and kite and surf, and I think you need to have that dedication and that kind of love for the ocean. It’s definitely what I’ve always wanted to do – to be able to travel around and kite and surf is pretty amazing.

Q: How do you see the tour alongside the World Surf League, is that something it could aspire to?
KDA: I think it’s always going to be hard for it to be quite to that level, even now. It is continuing to grow, I think we share similar values – we all want to do well, obviously – but we want to have fun as well, so I think this tour’s a little bit more relaxed than something like surfing where it’s a lot more professional and there’s a lot more money in it. Most of the guys here, they want to just come and have a good time. It is pretty relaxed off the water but it does get really competitive on the water sometimes.

Q: How’s the tour been this year?
KDA: Pretty good. There’s been a lot more strapless board than wave events, so for me it’s been a little tricker. I’ve had four world titles already in previous years, and now with it becoming a little more based around strapless freestyle, it’s been a little bit harder for me to get the same kind of results. Hopefully, if I have a good result here, I can get up to second, which would be a pretty good finish for the year. It’s been fun, but there’s been a lot of travelling, unfortunately, for myself and James (Carew) who do the tour from Australia. Even from Australia and Hawaii, it’s pretty tricky because most of them are in Europe or Africa or generally pretty far places that take a lot of time to get to.

Q: So it must be great to have a local event. This is not Noosa, but this is a lot closer.
KDA: I actually flew from Hawaii to get here, but that was 11 hours compared to 24 to 48 hours on a plane!

Q: Are you familiar with the conditions in Torquay?
KDA: I’ve spent a little bit of time here, but not too much. I’ve done a couple of trips to Melbourne – the distributor for the brand I’m sponsored by, Cabrinha, is based out of Melbourne – so I’ve done a couple of trips to visit him, and I think I’ve kited this place once before I came here, but it’s a cool area. The weather patterns can be a little tricky, but it’s nice to see guys have a lot of different options, you’ve got a really nice playing field here. You can handle wind from the right or the left, and I’m hoping we get the wind, because it’s going to be a pretty fun event, and it’ll be entertaining. It’s great to have an event over here, and let everyone else experience travelling halfway around the world, which is nice too!