WINTER SESSIONS 2012 - Maurício Pedreira // Strapless Kitesurfing - Strapless Kitesurfing

Maurício Pedreira having a lot of fun at his home spots , surfing strapless with a kite. All images from last month in the south of Brazil during the winter season ; which means less crowd, good swells , cold water and chily winds! Enjoy it !!!

Here’s an Interview of the Brazilian ripper coming from Corenation.net

Maurício is one of 24 male contestants on the KSP – the world competition series for wavekiting – and finished 4th overall last year. If he’s not busy travelling he’s slaying it on the beaches of his hometown Florianópolis, where one finds excellent waves. It’s high time for a chat with him.

Hi Maurício, you’re from Florianópolis in Brazil’s vibrant south. Contrary to North-eastern Brazil it’s not world-famous for it’s wind. What the season/the wind/the waves like down there? Your favorite spot?

Florianópolis in the Santa Catarina State is a special part of Brazil. It‘s a small state, but has great landscapes and beaches.It’s geographic location makes it a real magnet of winds and swells, result of low pressures systems. It‘s where the cold fronts coming from the south meet with hot humid winds coming from the north to generate swell and winds from different directions.So we have wind from both sides (ranging from 10 to 50 knots) and swells of different directions and sizes that make for great surfing and kiting once it hits the beaches.

Different from the northeastern part of Brazil there are no trade winds here, so that we have wind almost all year round ,depending on the fronts.Another difference is the weather. Over here it gets cold in winter and spring when it can be rainy as well and a 3/2 full suit is needed. A shorty is fine for summer.

My favorite spot is called „Campeche“, which is classic with southern winds (coming from the right) and south swells. It is a sand point break that can form a wave of more than a mile with barreling sections. But there are several other spots around here that get good conditions as well. Home sweet home!

For whom do you recommend going there?

The wind is best from end of winter until summer (August throughout February), where you get to ride an average 4 to 5 days a week, which drops down to about 1 to 3 days a week during low season. The wind speed varies a bit, so make sure to bring a big, a medium and a small kite. The region offers great spots for kiteboarders of all skill levels, from amazing wave spots to flat water spots like, which is a huge lagoon. The culture differs as well, because Florianópolis was colonized later and local culture is more heavily influenced by europeans.I recommend it to all those prefering a less crowded destination while not minding wearing a wetsuit. If that‘s true for you, the region will reward you with it‘s great food, beautiful landscapes and vivid nightlife.

What made you focus on wave kiting? What’s special about it?

I‘m a surfer since 10 years old and from the moment I stood on the board waves became my passion. At that time I used to live in Salvador (Bahia State) and started competing at age thirteen. I even had some great results as a grom. But then I had to move with my family to Brasilia (no sea anywhere near), which made me sad. But was there that I picked up windsurfing and started my relation with the Wind.Then my family moved back to Salvador and I could focus on waves again; this time surfing and windsurfing. I almost became a professional windsurfer, but a serious ankle injury on Hawaii stopped me.Back in Brazil I moved to Florianopolis (because of the waves and wind) and started to longboard to help with physiotherapy. I got professional longboarder winning a state championship and got some good results in the nationals.

Then I started to kite in 2007 (first suspicious as a windsurfer) and after 3 times on a twin tip I grabbed my surfboard and started to kite on it. I picked it up quite fast (I think because of the basis from all the other boardsports) and been kiting in the waves ever since, it became my addiction!

What makes wave riding so special is the changes in the conditions of waves and wind direction, making every session unique. You never get two identical waves or do 2 identical maneuvers surfing, that’s why I love it!

Not everyone can do powered unhooked freestyle tricks, but everyone is able to ride some fun waves without getting injured

You compete on the KSP tour. What‘s the tour like?

The tour started off small last year, but it‘s a great showcase of real wave kiting. Before that, all wave competitions were small parts of much bigger competitions with freestyle in the foreground. On top, those competitions took place in small waves and onshore conditions, none of which made the riding look particularly well.

I wanted to compete in real wave conditions in great spots, that is what made me compete on the PKRA last year and get the spot on the KSP tour. And it paid off, because we had great conditions in Mauritius and Peru and I managed to kite well enough during competition to finish fourth in the overall ranking.

This year the tour is getting bigger with more sponsors, more stops, more media coverage and prize money. I really hope that it will grow to a point where all the riders can get prize Money (as in surfing) with other companies outside the kiteboarding industry investing in the sport and the media coverage reaching out further to really show how exciting , radical and vivid wave riding can be.

See, not everyone can do powered unhooked freestyle tricks, but everyone is able to ride some fun waves and do their turns without getting injured. Waveriding is fun!

What are wave competitions like? Many know freestyle competitions, but haven’t seen wave competitions yet.

The KSP format is made for 24 male and 12 female riders. In it‘s first round 3 people compete in one heat with the first one advancing straight to the main event. The losers get a second chance of advancing through the losers round. Next the winners meet the losers round winners in 1 on 1 heats and from there on the winners keep moving to the finals.

The heats vary from 12 to 20 minutes depending on the conditions. You have 5 judges giving scores for each wave. Of these, the highest and lowest are discarded and the score is averaged over the middle three. Up to 12 or 15 waves are judged per heat and your final score is made up of your two best scores. As usual, the one with more points advances.

The judging criteria are subjective, but quite a few aspects are taken into consideration such as flow, risk, style, innovation, the power of your maneuvers, if you‘re surfing the critical part of the wave, if it‘s less kite using and more surfing and even more.

As it‘s a new tour, judges and riders are still learning and in a joint effort trying to make the judging criteria as clear and as easy to understand as possible to prevent errors. At the moment it seems like strapless riding is what everybody on the tour is trying to push on the wave side of the sport.

What are your favorite conditions like?

Side offshore winds for the 9m with wind from both sides being fine with me. Although I‘m a goofy footer I love to kite with my backhand front, too.

Waves should be 4 to 12 feet with barreling sections in reef breaks. Add sun, hot and clear water, no crowd and friends to that and you get the perfect set up! Getting barreled with friends in great waves, what can be better?!

Thanks for the interview. Something else you want to tell the world?

First, I want to thank CORE Kiteboarding and Hau Pai (CORE Kites Brazil) for the great gear and the support!

I‘ve been training hard (some good days at home!) and hope to get good waves during the next KSP tour stops (Mauritius, Ireland and Hawaii) to build on last years results. And have fun of course! Hope you all having fun!

GO KITE! Be HardCORE!