Content and Original Website
The majority of the content for this site was ported from the original Ottawa Kiting website, previously hosted on KitesurfingSchool.org that was created by Hung Vu. The content was authored over the years by Hung and the Ottawa Kiting community to promote safe riding in our area.
The original Ottawa Kiting Website was created by Hung Vu, an Ottawa kitesurfing pioneer. Kiteboarding in Ottawa and its community would not be where it is now, if it wasn't for Hung. In 1998, Hung briefly heard of Kitesurfing and read a brief review about kitesurfing in the Windsurfing Magazine but did not give it much thought until he saw some strange looking inflatable kites in a windsurfing shop in Paris. So on the spot, he decided to buy 2 kites (5m and 8.5m Wipika Classic) and had them shipped to Ottawa, Canada while he continued on his trip in Europe. Hung came backed to Canada in September 1998 and started learning kiting, kitesurfing, kiteboarding, kiteskiing, flysurfing or whatever-you-call-it using the kites he bought in Paris and his modified sailboard. Back then nobody knew which name for the new sport would stick.
1998 was the first time Hung was introduced to power kiting and the Wipika Classic 5.0 really impressed him. As winter in Canada started making the day shorter, Hung needed to go some place where he can practiced kitesurfing during the winter months. So Hung decided to book a trip to Carabete (where he normally went windsurfing in the past) and got in touch with Jan Pina of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic via the legendary Kitesurf group. Jan had bought a Wipika 8.5m via mail order in July 1998 and had been learning it ever since using his modified sailboard. To read a complete story about Hung, please visit his kitesurfing biography page.
Website Developers
Konrad Kyc: Besides being passionate about kiteboarding, Konrad loves programming. He started with basic Web Development back in 1994 which made him pursue a career in Computer Science within a Software Engineering stream. By day he's a programmer/analyst specializing in Enterprise Development programming client/server applications, but he still greatly enjoys building websites when he has some free time after work. Co-developing this website was a perfect project connecting his two passions.
Nicolas Pham-Dinh: Before becoming a bus driver for STO (Gatineau transit), Nicolas was an inveterate ski bum, coaching downhill skiing in the winter and doing water-ski stunt shows at Montreal's La Ronde in the summer. After retiring from professional water sports, he came to realize how much he missed the water. And so, when Nicolas heard of traction kites in 2010 he was immediately obsessed with the idea, and his passion for kiteboarding was ignited. On windy days, whenever something keeps him from riding, like for example having to work, Nicolas has been known to break out in cold sweats and to become strangely distracted by trees and flags... He therefore decided to start his own web-development business so he could work only on windless days, a project that is well on its way. Volunteering to help with the revamping and on-going enhancement of the Ottawa Kiting website is for him a way to contribute back to the Ottawa kiting community, whose more experienced members have always been keen and generous with their time and knowledge in supporting less experienced riders and new-comers - especially where rider safety is concerned!
Photography
Most of the photographs used on this website are the creation of the talented Steve Slaby, who is also one of the earliest Ottawa kiteboarders. Steve was first introduced to photography in his early teens by his father. Starting with a manual film camera and black and white film, Steve learned from his father about the fundamentals. After getting the basics Steve took pictures for the school newspaper, the school yearbook and he also worked for the Kanata Standard (now known as "Kanata Kourier-Standard") as a volunteer photographer. Seeing his picture on the front page of the paper was an important milestone that he'd never forget.
By the time Steve started university, photography took a back seat to studies and then focussed on establishing a career. It wasn't until a trip to Arizona that the photography bug bit again. While this trip was taken on film, digital SLRs had hit the scene and with a background in technology Steve switched over and quickly adapted. Since getting back into photography, Steve keeps a camera handy for most adventures and trips. To see more photography work from Steve Slaby, please visit his portfolio.
Weather Data
The official source for the Ottawa Kiting Website weather data, including wind forecast map overlays (coming soon), is WeatherFlow, creators of the iKitesurf, WindAlert and SailFlow applications. For more weather applications, please go to the weather section on the Links page.
