Kite sports will be huge, says former snowboarder

JONATHAN CAMERON

LET THE WIND TAKE YOU: Hugh Pinfold gets in some kite surfing at Foxton Beach at the weekend.

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Former Winter Olympic snowboarding coach Olly Brunton says kite sports are going to be a major player on the New Zealand sporting landscape in years to come.

The 38-year-old was at Foxton Beach at the weekend for a demonstration show hosted by Manawatu's Glen Butcher.

Brunton, who coached New Zealand's snowboarders at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Japan, is based in Raglan and runs an acupuncture clinic and tests kite sports products.

"It's going to be huge, like snowboarding was ...," he enthused.

"Like all the sports it starts off expensive ... It becomes more accessible to people as time goes on.

"It's people like Glen [Butcher] who are making it big and more accessible."

The lifestyle in Raglan suits the relaxed Brunton, who spent 10 years on the professional snowboarding circuit from when he was a teenager until his retirement at the end of 1998.

He went out on top, too – he was ranked in the top five in New Zealand, had just won a competition in the United States and was only 29.

Part of a sporting family, Brunton won the New Zealand half-pipe title three times in the 1990s, while his sisters represented New Zealand in softball and basketball.

Last year he had 274 days of kite surfing and enjoys the best of both worlds working at his clinic in the morning then kiting in the afternoon.

Aside from testing products and enjoying the freedom that kite surfing brings, he said he wasn't eyeing a move into teaching novices.

"You miss out on some great conditions while you're teaching," he laughed.Ozone kite sports product designer Hugh Pinfold was also at Foxton at the weekend and predicted snow kiting could take off in New Zealand, too.

In snow kiting riders race uphill, and conditions, particularly in the South Island mountains, would be ideal for competition.

"There was a lot of interest last season," he said. "A lot of people were taught."

There are competitions in Europe, and Pinfold, who has judged internationally, said with more exposure it [snow kiting] would be big.

"A lot of people still haven't seen it and a lot of people still think it's an extreme sport," he said. "A lot of the best riders are kids or girls."

- © Fairfax NZ News