America’s favorite morning coffee program featured the sport of kiteboarding and REAL kiteboarding this morning, Friday July 5th, 2002. Airing to over 5 million viewers nationwide, this program hits nearly every household in America. The show described kiteboarding as equal parts wakeboarding, windsurfing and hangliding. Matt Nuzzo, REAL’s co-founder, was the featured narrator of the segment. He summed up the success of the sport based on the compact size of the equipment and the large variety and number of good ride-able locations in the continental US. “The growth of kiteboarding is really taking off…because you can go in such light wind. All you need is 10 knots of breeze and a beach or boat to launch off of.”
What got Nuzzo into the sport? “There’s no other sport that I’ve done where you can jump off of flat water. In kiteboarding you can can jump 30-35 feet into the air and you have 5-6 seconds of hang time.” REAL’s Christi Moller backed up Matt’s comments with some of her own, “I absolutely love it! I’ve been hooked since day one.” The Good Morning America segment featured kiteboarding video footage provided by REAL kiteboarding. This footage highlighted the segment and featured REAL riders Trip Forman, Llew Simmonds, Christi Moller, Zack Young, Gregg Gnecco, Justin Soutter, Jason Slezak, and Matt Nuzzo. The video was shot at an undisclosed location off the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
For more info on kiteboarding or learning to kiteboard, contact REAL Watersports at 866-REAL-548 or 252-987-6000.