“
Mike and Mika were pro
Canadian kiters at the time.
These guys were the bomb.
And, being a young grom
barely in the double digits,
they became instant idols of
mine.
error, we thought we had found the best
way to set the kite up. We’d put a stake
on the beach and wrap the harness line
around the stake with the kite sitting
open directly downwind. If we needed
to take a break from kiting, we’d pull
the kayak and our sunfish sailboat
over the lines to keep it from flipping
and relaunching. It didn’t always work,
though. One especially windy day that
kite happened to launch itself, picking
up our sunfish sailboat five feet in the
air before it smashed back down into
the sand, cracking open the fibreglass
hull. Still, all of this seemed to be a fair
trade off for being able to relaunch the
kite from the water.
This was around the same time
that we met Dan Tricco, one of the
top windsurfers in Ontario and gnar
shredder with a kite. At the time he
was one of very few kiters in Ontario.
He had started shaping kiteboards and
hooked us up with out first pickle fork
and we bought a pair of open toe liquid
force wakeboard bindings for it. He
also showed us how to properly place a
kite down on the beach without it flying
away. Our eyes were opening to what
kiteboarding could be.
We began kiting with Dan Tricco a bit
after this and even more so with Mike
Lenoe and Mika. Mike and Mika were
pro Canadian kiters at the time. These
guys were the bomb. And, being a young
grom barely in the double digits, they
became instant idols of mine. I used to
get so stoked to go kiting knowing that
I was going to be riding with Mike and
Mika. At that time, there were no other
kiters my age, and these guys quickly
became my go to kite buddies. They’d
enjoy after session beers and talk
about girls. These guys were the cool
Photography: Josh Pietras