YOU GOT ME FIRED UP!

First up to whet your whistle for issue #44 is news of some epic images and front line reports of all-time sessions, with unusual twists. A winter swell in the summer in Cape Town provided a few lucky riders with some huge walls to charge at Witsands. Two riders hit up a lake session amongst the alpine backdrop near the popular snowkiting area in Switzerland, the Bernina Pass and Grant Twiggy Baker kitesurfs the hallowed surfing territory, J-Bay.

All pretty unusual. What's not unusual is our regular quality of contributions from our favourite and new providers of kiting content. Kristin Boese explains the intricate details of tacking a directional board, Sebastian Garat breaks down the pop transition into manageable chunks in the Motor Drive Project, Jo Wilson starts a new series on the psychology of riding, Johann Civel breaks the kiting altitude record in South America, Gavin McGlurg nearly kills a team of pro riders in the middle of the night during a tricky passage onboard Discovery and we visit Ireland, Boa Vista and Lizard Island in Australia. Under interrogation is one of the sport's original pros - Simone Vannucci, the man behind Royal Kiteboarding and also Jozef Sr, Crazy Fly board designer explains why carbon fibre is so good for making twin-tips.

That's just for starters, plus there are reviews of the Ozone C4 and Naish Helix kites, twin-tips from Liquid Force, Maelstorm and Crazy Fly plus a couple of bonus surfboard reports on the Airush Converse and Naish Custom Fish.