Back in 2004, a young 11-year-old Jake Kelsick followed his father’s transition into kiteboarding on the island of Antigua in the lesser Antilles on the eastern edge of the Caribbean. Having climbed the ranks of the small Antiguan kiteboarding scene and launched a successful career as a professional park rider and content creator, 16 years later, Jake is now setting off on a new kiteboarding adventure with his fiancé, Megan Grant, to build a destination kite school that capitalizes on Antigua’s unfettered beauty and ideal kiteboarding conditions.
With tons of yacht-life traffic moving through the Antiguan bays, there’s always a fresh pool of clients looking for a piece of the kiteboarding experience. Jabberwock is the main spot and best beach for teaching with side-on wind, but because it is considered a national park, any school setup must be mobile. Cargo trailers are almost non-existent in Antigua, so Jake and Megan purchased a boat trailer and built their own mobile headquarters””an equipment/office they like to call the ”˜Shredshed.’ Partnering with North and Mystic, the couple have all the high-quality equipment they need to create, as Jake puts it, “that kid in the candy store experience.”… To read the rest of Kelsick’s Next Chapter subscribe to Tkb Magazine.
Tkb’s Vol. 17, No. 3 winter 2020 digital issue is available now. The print issue will be landing in mailboxes soon!
