Bio

D.O.B. 19/09/84                                    Years Kiting: 6 years (since 2002)

Height: 175cm                                       Hometown: Sligo, Ireland

Weight: 70kg

I started kiting as a teenager of 15 years of age. I got into flying stunt kites with my brother Paul and cousin Peter when we were kids. We came upon a Flexifoil catalogue at one stage while looking for new stunt kite. After flicking through it a few pages, we can across powerkites and saw that these kites had the potential to drag you, and pull you around the place in a 3 wheeled buggy or even on the water on a surfboard. After seeing this we built a make shift go-kart style buggy that weighed a ton and headed out on the stormiest days we got. We then got a proper buggy and  2m power kite the following christmas. From there we buggied for about 3 years as well as doing jumping on our 4.9m Blade 2 which we had invested in after becoming power hungary. I soon found buggying to be limited in what we could do, and strapping ourselves into it just seemed plain stupid. I also tore ligaments in my ankle from a small jump and botched landing. As well as powerkiting I was also into agressive rolleblading. I found skating streets to be hard work and a lot of risk was needed to be good at it, risk that I wasnt prepared to take. Soon kiting took over and i hung up my wheelie boots. I had still learned a lot from rolling which has stayed with me through kiteboarding such as style. A trick is meant to look and feel good so it must be smooth and stylish. And most of all ‘if it dont feel goooood, dont do it’!

An uncle came over from the states and showed us some ‘Kiteboarding’ magazines. This is where I first saw LEI’s and what looked like a legit sport, not just a guy standing on a surfboard with a powerkite. The jumps, the tricks, the style, the freedom; I wanted in. I began saving for my first LEI and board. Previous to this I had sailed all my life but had an avid dislike for being in the cold cold water. As soon as i hit the water with the kite I had found it was no longer cold or rank. After many many atempts on the board (it took a long time!) I eventually managed to get 100 meters or so down the beach and I was hooked.