News and Trips

Kicking off the PKRA Wave Chile.

-Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008.

Hey everyone,

Hope you are all having fun out there and enjoying every day! I have been back in The Gorge for the past couple of weeks for the most part with the exception of a quick two day trip to Florida.

I am getting psyched to head down to Chile next week for the PKRA Wave event in Matanzas. We had an awesome event there last year and got great surf and wind, so I can only hope we get conditions that good this time! 

I was just thinking how sad it is that we have so few wave events each year. Freestyle is amazing and we have carved out a great path for it. It's not that I'm some ultra-competitive guy, but let's just imagine for a second if we had a bunch of freestyle guys who were just "free-riders". Not very exciting is it? Even with all it's faults (and believe me there are lots!), the world tour has MADE freestyle. 

I think kite-"surfing" is at a level where it could easily sustain it's own tour. Last year I was feeling pretty optimistic that we would be one step closer to a wave tour this year but here we are again with only one PKRA Wave event. It is an invite only event (mostly based on last year's results) due to time constraints which is logical, but doesn't give any room for new blood to come in and have a fair shot. Just look at Dreu Beavis last year: Came in completely under the radar and got 2nd. That's the way it should be. The only reason he got invited though was because we pushed to get him entered in the event. (North)

I can definitely foresee a future where (wave) riders will be able to compete on a world-level and have an equal chance to compete in the same way that freestyle riders do. Just run trials in the same way we have always done with freestyle!

As long as I am here I will also mention this; Some of the world's "top" wave riders will most likely NOT show up for the only event of the year. I personally think it's lame to write articles in magazines proclaiming how amazing wave kiting is and how we should show it to the masses and then not even show up for the biggest and ONLY PKRA Wave event of the year!? That's right, Ben Wilson, who by the way has been listed as a competitor in every major event we've ever had (mauritius, Chile, Ocean Spirit Portugal,) has never shown up. I'm not saying that Ben's riding is not up to snuff, Ben rips, but his lack of support for wave events kind of bums me out. Same with Naish and Pete Cabrinha. Show some support! Just show up, make a positive impact, and let's take it to the next level! You don't even have to compete....just be there. 

Well I kind of went off on a tangent there but this is my website so I can write what I please. Thanks for listening. 

Anyways, I will try to keep you all up to date on the competition.  More later...

Have fun and enjoy!

-Sky

2nds at PKRA Germany

-Thursday, September 4th, 2008.

I just returned from the PKRA Worldcup in St. Peter Ording, Germany. We had good wind nearly every day for the 10 day event but lots of cold weather and rain. I competed in racing and boarder-cross. A lot of the racing was held in really light wind so I got off to a really bad start as I didn't bring anything bigger than a 12M back from Indo. Haha. Luckily I was able to borrow some big kites from the North Distributor and made up some ground as the wind got stronger later on. I ended up finishing 2nd overall in the racing and North took the podium with Deleau in 1st, me 2nd and Farley 3rd.

The Boarder Cross went pretty well except for the starts. We had to draw numbers from a box to determine where we would stand on the line. After we drew our positions, 5 of us would stand on the line, wait for the horn, run to the water, jump on our boards and take off on a downwind slalom course and jump over obstacles.  I got caught up on my start in the final and couldn't quite catch Kevin Langaree who ended up 1st.  

So, I ended up with two podium finishes and some Euros in my pocket which was not too bad for a week's work.    

-Sky

Racing: 

1st. Charles Deleau (NORTH)

2nd. Sky Solbach (NORTH)

3rd. Sean Farley (NORTH

Boarder Cross:

1st Kevin Langaree

2nd Sky Solbach

3rd Sebastian Gerat

Indonesia

-Thursday, August 21st, 2008.

I spent the last two weeks on a photo/video North team trip in Indonesia. Joining me were riders, Jeremie Eloy, Dreu Bevais, Jaime Herraiz, Marco Baiocchi, as well as our shaper Martin Littlewood, phtographer Russel Ord, film guy Carlos Guzman and the big boss himself Till Eberle.

We played alot of cards, had some sick surfing and hung out with a monkey but never really got good wind and waves together at the same time. The days we did get wind, the low tide just seemed to take all the swell out to sea with it. Forecasts were dodgy and never did what they said they were going to. Nevertheless, it was a really fun trip and we did get a few fun kite sessions trying to tuck into the world's smallest mini barrels.

As I sit here writing this text in a hot, smelly airport deep in Indo I can't stop thinking about a motorcycle accident that Jeremie and I just witnessed on our way to the airport. I'm pretty sure the lady must have died after slamming into the side of a horse carriage on a crowded street full of goats, busses, horses, cars and mopeds. So sad and totally avoidable if people could just drive sanely. Lets just say that I am more than looking forward to getting back to civilization and not worrying about bad drivers and which one of the million mosquitos is gonna give me malaria.

I'm on my way to the PKRA in Germany which starts this week on the North Sea. More on that soon...

Later

-Sky 

All photos: russellord.com

1st Place Ocean Spirit! Well, ok, sort of...

-Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

I spent the last ten days n Portugal at the Ocean Spirit Wave World Cup. The place was insane and the setup was great. We didn't have much wind so we spent most of the week surfing, skimming, kayaking and watching the weather forecast. Martin Vari and Gianni Aragno showed up too so it was great to see those guys again. The organizers ended up extending the event for two days in hopes of getting enough wind to finish a single elimination but we only got a few hours of wind...just enough to finish one round on Monday.  This would have been such an insane event had we gotten some wind but I guess that's the way goes sometimes. Still, I won my heat in chest high surf and side-onshore wind on my 12M Rebel and got a few little ones. In the end 8 of us were tied for 1st place.  Same with the women...Kristin ended up tied with Kirsty Jones for 1st. 

I just landed in Germany today and will be here for about a week...then off to Indo next for a photo trip with some good friends!!! Yeah!!  

-Sky

1st Place Gorge Games!

-Sunday, July 20th, 2008

After two full days of racing in the strong, gusty winds of The Gorge, I managed to win 6 of 7 course races to win the Gorge Games Course Racing. Damien Leroy and I were really close in a few races which made it really fun and competitive. I was also super stoked for North's Jon Van Malsen for taking 2nd in the freestyle right behind world #3 Alvaro Onieva. I quickly packed up a bunch of surfboards this morning and am now sitting in the airport waiting to catch my flight to Portugal to compete in the Ocean Spirit Wave World Cup in Santa Cruz which starts tomorrow. More on that soon...

-Sky

New Pro Model Surf Board For '09

-Sunday, July 13th, 2008

I'm honored to have been able to work with Australian shaper Martin Littlewood and Aussie North rider Dreu Beavis on a range of surfboards for '09 this past winter. The 6'1" is my 2009 pro model board and is my new magic stick. I've been riding it for a few months now and it is perfect for me in nearly all conditions. It's got heaps of speed, grip and drive off the bottom and never lets me down. It will be available (along with Dreu's, Jeremie's and Jaime's models) in shops late summer/early fall.  

-Sky 

Back in the NSM (nited states m-merica)

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

Well it's good to be back in the states. It's an election year and I can't wait to see what's gonna happen. Will the republicans steal the vote or will Obama prevail? Oh the excitement in the air!!

Anyways, I've been back for about 2 months now but have been too busy to make any new posts so I'll do it all right now.

Hawaii:

Kristin and I stopped in Hawaii for 10 days at the end of April and got a good swell and some wind. Saw some good friends and had a great trip besides the fact that Kristin broke her ankle on our 3rd day there. Ouch!  

USA Demo Tour:
Afterwards, I did  a little 20 day USA promo tour on the road in California, NJ, NC, SC and DE. Scored some epic surf on the outer banks.

Oregon Surf Competition:
Then, we drove out to the Oregon Coast for a wave comp and got no wind and no surf at all. Bummer.

Road Trip and USA Racing Nationals:
Then, we did a 10 day road trip down HWY 101 from Oregon to San Francisco. What a beautiful drive! Went hiking around in the Redwoods in Nor Cal and saw some beautiful coast line. Amazing.
The purpose of the trip was to compete in the US Kite Racing Nationals in San Fran. The event was awesome and we got lots of wind and beautiful sunny weather every day. They ran 3 races per day for a week and it turned into an endurance race in the end. Damien Leroy and I were tied for 1st for most of the competition with Sean Farley in a close 2nd. On the last two days I made some critical mistakes and ended up falling back to 3rd position with Damien in 1st and Sean 2nd. Racing has come such a long way in the last year. Wow. There are some really serious athletes out there now that are training like machines to win races. I went into this competition being, what I felt, really prepared having spent lots of time working on my leg strength and fine tuning boards and fins for months in Australia, Hawaii and the Gorge. I think that racing definitely has a future in kiteboarding. Racing, the way we did in San Francisco is a true test of athleticism, endurance and sailing tactics. The gear we are currently working on is just a starting point...it's gonna keep evolving. I'm stoked to be part of it.

BTW, Kristin ended up 2nd in the women's fleet. It was her third day back on the water after her injury!! 

-Sky

Race results men:
1st Damien leroy
2nd Sean Farley
3rd Sky Solbach

Race results women:

1st Clarissa Hempel

2nd Kristin Boese

3rd Melissa Gill

Summer In WA

 -Sunday, February 17th, 2008.

Enjoying summer in Western Australia.  We're knee deep at the moment developing the new North Rebel kite and we just wrapped up production on the '09 surfboards. (more on that later!) For now, just enjoying being with friends and my girlfriend and focusing on riding waves like never before! 

-Sky

North Dealer Meeting, Mauritius

-Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Just wrapping up the North dealer meeting here in Mauritius. This was my fifth trip to Mauritius and my second trip so far this year. We got two really fun wave days when we first got here and then good wind and flat water and stand up paddling every day since. It just amazes me every time how consistent this place is. One of my favorite places in the world for sure. On my way to Western Australia now for the summer to work on some new surf designs and relax a bit after a long season of traveling. Later!

-Sky

PKRA Wave, Chile

World Champion Boardercross! PKRA World Cup, Germany