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Rider profile a insight into the industry Carl the bullet

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chris

dont you have a job top rider - admin

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Hi my mane is Carl KIrton and I am a Peter Lynn sponsored team rider
I’m 41 and have been kiting for about 4 1/2 , 5 years
My first kite was a 3.5 flexifoil bullet and from the first launch, followed by being dragged head first across a muddy field, I was hooked. I shortly after bought a cheap exit landboard from Argos and started trying to get moving, but for the life of me, I couldn’t do anything apart from go downwind, pick up speed then fall flat on my face!! I then decided to get a Peter Lynn comp buggy, as taking “balance” out of the equation, seemed like a good idea. It worked and I was soon getting some some good speed runs. I could now control a fixed bridal kite and a buggy so I asked myself, what next? I came back with the answer, “FREESTYLE” as buggy jumping was banned at my local beach, all the moves had to be ground based tricks. I learnt 180’s to reverse riding to flipping back round. I then took it to 360’s, 720’s etc etc...... 2 wheels forward and reverse, kite side and off-side and combining the lot.
All the time I was buggying I had a feeling that something was missing..................... I needed to fly!!!!!!!!
The landboard came back out and I managed to get going across wind within a couple of sessions. As the kites I was flying were fixed bridals and didn’t have much life, I decided to get some new ones and also to go depower.
So began my love of the ARC!!!
I bought a MK1 Peter Lynn 18m guerrilla and soon after a 15m bomba and 10m mk1 venom. These kites were excellent for me as they covered a huge wind range and finally allowed me to get my first little jumps on the landboard. About this stage I started to make kiting videos of myself to help me see what I was doing wrong or right (YouTube user carltb) and this is something I’ve continued to do to date.
Ok I can move on the board, I can jump on the board, but the same question cropped up again, what next? And the answer again was freestyle!!! Again I went out and bought another kite. This one was a Peter Lynn 15m Phantom. The kite had excellent lift, float, and stability, which gave me the confidence to try anything under it.......... and so I did!!
I was very quickly spinning, grabbing, flipping and generally showing off to anybody that was at the beach!!!
I’m going to skip forward abit now to early 2008. This is when I got my first shop rider deal with KITE IT RIGHT. The owner, Tom, is a great guy and is a kiter through and through. He saw my potential and helped me on my way. I rode for him for a while but I thought , as I ride Peter Lynn, why not contact them to see if they needed any riders and after a few emails and conversations with the worldwide rep and European rep I finally got a contract in the mail!!!
I’m now ranked 8^th by the BKSA after last years kiteival competition and I hope to increase that ranking this year.
I’ve just taken delivery of the new Peter Lynn Charger and I’ve got to say it’s the best Arc to date!! I didn’t know how they were going to beat the Synergy but they have by a long way.