Framing the Wind

Shooting kiteboarding is exhilarating. One day you’re in a turquoise lagoon; the next, you’re knee-deep in churning grey water with 60-knot gusts blasting your face. It’s a sport defined by unpredictability—a constant challenge and a gift for any photographer.

Each discipline—freestyle, big air, wave riding, park, and foil—has its own rhythm and aesthetic. Freestyle is raw and explosive; big air is monumental; wave riding is fluid and cinematic. As a photographer, you’re not just documenting a sport—you’re translating emotion, style, and environment into a single frame.

I grew up shooting skateboarding, and that background shaped how I approach kiteboarding. In skate culture, there’s a close creative bond between rider and photographer. You scout spots together, plan the trick, and chase that perfect moment. I bring that same collaboration to kiteboarding—but with wind as our extra variable. We can move the action a few meters for a better background or align perfectly with the sun. Unlike surfing, we’re not tied to a fixed break.

Skate photography also taught me the power of artificial light. With floating platforms and battery-powered strobes, I began lighting kiteboarding in ways most people hadn’t seen. Using flash in full daylight might seem counterintuitive, but when done right, it transforms the image—the spray turns to mist, the kite glows against the sky, and the rider becomes a sculpted silhouette suspended in motion.

Being from Brazil, I know how incredible the conditions are—especially in the northeast, where the wind is world-class. But the light is another story. Near the equator, the sun stays harsh and high for most of the day. That’s where strobes come in again: they let me control the light, turning flat midday glare into golden-hour warmth whenever I need it.

Kiteboarding photography, for me, is more than capturing action. It’s about shaping fleeting motion into something deliberate and timeless—transforming the chaos of wind and water into art.