Keahi De aboitiz
Pro Kite-boarder
Age: 17

“From a young age, I've always liked anything to do with the water. I guess I was introduced to surfing when I was about 5 years old and spent a few years just surfing and doing some local comps around my hometown. I was about 11 when I first started kiting. My dad ran a beach hire where he did kiting lessons and I started playing around with the kites from there. It took a while before I got fully into the sport, but after a year I was hooked. I pretty much stopped surfing and stopped comps completely because surfing was always so crowded and I liked that I could escape the crowds in kiting. After a couple years in kiting I started competing in a few comps with the first being the 2006 Australian Freestyle Nationals held in Melbourne. I took 3rd place in the Juniors which was a great result for my first comp, considering I was competing against people much older. I started to really enjoy competing and continued to compete in a couple more comps throughout the year. I finally got my first win in 2007 taking out the U18s at the Freestyle National Titles at Caloundra and backed it up in 2008 when I took out the same division at Elliot Heads. One of the things I love most about kite boarding is the variety. Not only do I enjoy the freestyle side of it, but I also really enjoy the wave scene. I took out my first Kitesurfing Wave Nationals Junior Title in 2008 after taking 4th in the Nationals the year before. During this time I also started to get back into surfing and started Stand up Paddle Boarding, which was growing extremely fast. It gave me something to do when there was no wind and allowed me to surf much smaller and powerless waves due to the size of the boards. The boards continued to get smaller and before long I was down to an 8ft board. The small boards really opened up the sport for me and I began to develop a style more like shortboarding with a paddle. My first comp on a Stand Up was in March 2009 when I competed in the Noosa Festival of Surf. I took third place which was pretty good considering it was a pro event with only an open division. It was good to see what the standard was and that I could hold my own against the older guys. After competing in the comp I got more into Stand Up Paddling. Previously I would only do Stand Up when there was no wind for kiting, but I often found it hard to decide between the two when conditions were good and I was definitely surfing heaps more than usual. Although I was spending a lot more time doing Stand Up I was still into my kiting. The Nationals came along again in 2009 and I decided to compete in the juniors as well opens. This was definitely a whole new standard for me, but I ended up taking out the title after a couple of very long days kiting. I shifted my focus once again to compete in a couple of stand up comps. One of which was the State Titles where I took first place and got an invitation to compete at the Australian titles in late 2009. I hope to continue on the same path throughout the future and hopefully be able to make a career in my chosen sports. Cheers, Keahi”