Miami Kiteboarding is 20 year old; what a milestone! To celebrate, this past Saturday May 1st, MKB organized a giant Paella Party at their beach. It was a free event where the entire local kiteboarding community showed up for an epic gathering.
Christophe Ribot, a French native who still owns MKB, launched the school in 2001. This makes it one of the oldest schools in the USA, which is quite a rare occurrence in this industry. Christophe landed in the USA in 1999 after living and sailing across the Caribbean. Being a windsurfing coach and a racer himself, he quickly took on kiteboarding and immediately realized the need for proper teaching and lessons considering the high risk of accidents. Indeed, kiteboarding was extreme in all counts at that time. Since then they have witnessed the sport grow: from the first 2-lines Wipika Classic and long directional board, to the C-shape legacy then Bow kites and now to the latest wingfoil mania that just started!
MKB is also known for its unique and well-known paradisiaque spot in Crandon Park, a beautiful lagoon with shallow flat water, heavily regulated nonetheless, and most likely the strictest kite spot in the USA, with beach marshalls on duty all day.
That was the price to pay to maintain this utopique kite spot open. On the positive side, Christophe, with the help of fellow locals who are passionate about the sport, have managed to make this once banned kite spot, now a fully official location recognized by Miami Dade County. In 2008, it was the first time that a county designated a part of the public beach strictly to kitesurfing.
MKB’s signature event, the MKB Masters, is an annual kiteboarding contest which first started in 2004 and almost ran uninterrupted since then, other than in 2020 due to obvious COVID restrictions.
Last weekend, MKB took the opportunity of their 20th Anniversary to re-launch the 17th edition of the MKB Masters, strictly dedicated to foiling this time. This fantastic event showcased foilboard races, and for the first time in Florida, wingfoil races! There was a huge turnout which confirms that wingfoiling is not only a trend but here to stay.
Results:
Foil Races
Gold Division:
- Luis Pascual
- Jon Modica
- Lazzlo Karai
Silver Division:
- Christoph Ribot
- Lonny Rorris
- Willy Galvez
Wing Races
- Jon Modica
- Brendan Healy
- Gael Espeche
Overall, for MKB, these 20 years have gone so fast. They’re amazed that the same sport progresses, but always with a breeze of modernism, adaptation and technological progress thats now a soon-to-be Olympic class. Who would have thought kiteboarding would have come so far, back then, when only 3 of them were riding in Biscayne Bay, trying to figure out how to get their boards to better go upwind.
Many years have passed and with many more to come MKB is very excited to witness the community grow more and more every day and have the privilege to be one of the leading teaching schools in Florida initiating young future riders as early as 9 years old. Happy Anniversary MKB!