Gabriele Steindl: Professional Kitesurfer & Freelance Writer - Action, Lifestyle & Travels

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FINALLY ! With my FLY WAVE in d’water

Y E A H, finally summer has arrived in Western Australia, where I am currently chillin’ out, gathering energy for an exciting new season to come 🙂 .

And Y E S, finally the day has come:  My brandnew FANATIC FLY WAVE 9’6 SUP and I enjoyed the first sessions together in the Indian Ocean!

This first joyride ride wasn’t just any ordinary session… nope I went on a boattrip to the most exposed reef off the coast of Western Australia: The Abrolhos Islands.

The Abrolhos islands  are an island group consisting of 122 islands, approximately 60kms off Geraldton. Wow, rockin’ crazy outer reef swells, way out the Indian Ocean… in the water:  lots of big fish, yep, white pointers apparently everywhere, one really doesn’t want to get in trouble out here, the Abrolhos are truly in the middle of nowhere….

The boattrip was meant to be a “wind- & kitesurfing-trip” and the boat was full with wind-hungry folks…
It had been scheduled for these dates for a long, long time…  therefore, although, the forecast for the weekend looked rather sad, there was no way I wouldn’t wanna be on that boat…  The “Island Leader” is an incredibly cool, old commercial fishing boat that looks a bit like a military ship. I knew the boat already as I had already been on an epic trip on it early in 2010, back then we scored absolutely epic kitesurfing conditions.

So yeah, for the ‘pure’ wind- and kitesurfers the trip might have been a bit boooring as the wind-gods were not really on our side.  For me, it was pure JOY JOY JOOOOOOOOOOOOOY, thanks to FANATIC and the amazing Fly Wave 🙂 !

I went on ‘exploration-cruizes’ to tiny little islands and on the last day, we also found some small, though, oh-so-beautifully sweet, little waves in the clearest, most amazing water,  s t o k e d.

The 9’6” drives off the tail and winds up speed with a racy tri-fin set-up. It’s super easy to handle too and although the boards specs were certainly a bit on the ‘short side’ for small waves like on that boat-trip, it was super easy for me to paddle myself into them 🙂 !  The fishtail shape certainly is very supportive in both acceleration and wave-catching lift. The CAD-engineered volume flow and flat deck, really help big time with regards to stability and balance.  Well and with regards to the truly amazing Wood Sandwich Light Construction and super stylish looks of it, there’s no other words than:  F U L L Y  S I C K 🙂  !

I’m more than stoked.  Still had to borrow a paddle of a friend of mine for this trip, though, my FANATIC paddle should be arriving this week…, can’t wait 4 more joy sessions on this absolutely ingenious masterpiece of a SUP.

Guys, if u haven’t done so already:  it’s high time that also YOU give SUP’ing a go, trust me, you won’t regret it, it’s sooooooooooo much fun (no matter whether on flat water, lakes, ocean, waves, racing, etc… with a SUP there’s soooo many options!) and get yourself a board, delevolped by the masterminds of the very best brand out there:  FANATIC!

Soon more,
…always there for your comments, questions, and feedback guys
Gxx