Name: Peter
Schiebel
Nickname: crusty old man
Age: 37
Height: 6’2"
Weight: 185
Years Kiting: 3
Current Residence: Santa Cruz
Favorite Kite Spot: Waddell Creek, Santa Cruz
Other Sports: Tap Dancing
Sponsors: Caution Kites, Stretch Boards and Rainbow
Fins
Website: www.cautionkites.com
Background
Caution Kites are popular on the west coast USA and
are designed by the Poul and Peter Schiebel in Santa
Cruz, California. The Schiebel's have been in the sail
and kite design and repair business for 15 years. This
has given them a unique insight into the design and
construction weaknesses of the kites built by the major
manufacturers. Using this information, they have produced
a line of kites, which offers tremendous performance
and value compared to the others. One of the most important
features of the Caution Kites is that they are built
in the Ezzy Sails loft in Sri Lanka and are constructed
to the exacting standards of Dave Ezzy. Ezzy has long
been known for excellence in workmanship and in quality
of materials. Like Ezzy Sails, Caution Kites are "bullet
proof".
Interview
KITER.COM:
I have never been to Waddell Creek and NOT seen you
there on a windy day. How many days per week do
you kite? Peter Schiebel: As long as
I’m not out of town or out of commission, I try to get
every windy day at Waddell.
Where do you kite when you are not kiting
Waddell? In the winter I
usually make a trip to Baja.
When did you fist try
kiteboarding and how long did it take you to get through
the learning curve to get
upwind? I learned three
years ago. It must have taken me as long as every
one else back then and 10 times as long as it takes
people to stay up wind today. My estimate would be
four months or so.
Was it learning at Waddell
that slowed your progress? No, unfortunately I can’t use that as an
excuse. I’ve seen people learn to stay upwind in
4-5 days on a modern four-line kite at Waddell.
For me it was mainly lacking skill and having two small
of a board.
What about other
sports? Does an athlete with a background in
snowboarding or wakeboarding for example, have a head
start in learning to kiteboard? I think that wakeboarding and windsurfing seem to
be the most similar sports to kitesurfing, so if you had
done one or both you would be ahead of the game.
That said, I still think the most important advantage
you can have would be a good lesson and good
equipment.
When was the last time you
windsurfed? It has
been over two years since I have windsurfed. After
kiting I couldn’t believe how much more work it
was.
I just looked at your board
and it has 7 fins on it and none of them are the same.
Are you just weird or is that what it takes to rip in
the waves? I have tried
dozens of fin configurations. I am just in the process
of trying to figure out what works best in the
waves.
On a given day at Waddell you
can see riders on directionals, bi-directionals,
wakeboards, mutated bi- directionals some with bindings,
some with straps. Is there any consensus on the
right tool for the waves? Where do you think we
will end up? I
think that the best boards for the waves are the same
that work best for flat water. They are twin tip
wake style boards used with straps or bindings.
The one difference I see is that wave boards might have
more fin (either number of fins or size of
fin).
What new moves are you
working on right now? I’m mainly trying to figure out how to ride
waves.
What are your best contest
results so far?
I got 4th place in the Waddell
contest in 2002
Who is the better
Kiteboarder, you or your brother
Poul? I don’t like to
brag so I’ll have to skip this question.
I just started wearing
oversized board shorts on top of my wetsuit and saw an
immediate improvement in my riding; why haven't you
taken advantage of such an obvious performance
enhancer? When I get to
the beach time is of the essence and I already have an
extra wetsuit and knee brace to put on. Also, you
see what the shorts did to my brothers riding.
What do you do when you are
not kiting? Foosball
would be my number one choice.
When did you start Caution
Kites? Some time in 2000
but we were around for years as Schiebel sails and prior
to that designing windsurf sails for Waddell
Sails.
How big is Caution Kites
relative to the big brands like Naish, Wipika and
Cabrinha? It’s kind of
like a snowball on Mount Everest.
What makes a Caution Kite
better than one from the Big
Guys? It has more
style.
Caution kites are dominating
in Northern California. What kind of market penetration
are you seeing in other parts of the US and
internationally? Santa
Cruz is our stronghold but we are slowly spreading
throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Do you have any
relationships to the other kite
manufacturers? We work
with liquid force on their kite designs.
What does Caution have
planned for 2003? Keep
making kites that people like.
I have been wearing my Peter
Schiebel goatee that I ordered from your site:
(http://www.cautionkites.com/accessories.html) but my hair is brown so I am not really
getting the results I had hoped for by wearing it. Are
you planning to come out with a brown one for 2003 and
what is the warranty policy? We will soon be having a Dave Broome model that
should take care of that problem. The goatee is
manufactured in the same facility as the kites and
carries the same warranty.
Does Caution have any riders
in the Red Bull King of the Air in Maui later this
month? Dana Pinto our
best rider is going to represent the caution crew.
We also have our Hawaiian ringer Top Hat in the
mix.
Any predictions for next
year's Waddell Kite Clash? Good wind and big waves.
Thanks for the interview
Peter. Any parting words to your kiteboarding
colleagues? Use Caution
when kiteboarding.
INNOVATORS