KBM is now out in the shops and it has had an overhaul with a new layout and a new designer.
Thanks to all the crew who submitted articles and travel stories.
If you have an article or photos that you want to submit for our December edition now is the time to get it to us
Simply email us at editor@kbmag.com.au





Check it out now plus OZONE has donated a $400 prize pack to the reader who supplies the best photo. All details are on page 38.

Pity the new look still required the bangle bird.. the wave is sexier.

INTHELOOP said...

Good content

Must have a different mag to mine, mine is just full of advertising (especially the kite guide in the middle). Nice pics though.

Sorry, just being honest.

Who buys a kite mag to look at chicks? I mean you're all reading this sitting at your computers, hooked up to the internet. To the red thumb KBM fanboys can't you find better than that bulgarian bulger for free?

The order of value contained within a kite mag from best to worst goes like this:

Awesome kite/wave pics (equal first with)
Genuine kite gear news/new product announcements, unbiased reviews, etc
Trip & spot reports, other
page filler 'interviews'
ads
biased reviews/advertorials
'brown wings/bloody ****s' jokes pages
the index page
any other page
sunny coast skanks in bikinis

surfingboye said...

INTHELOOP said...

Good content

Must have a different mag to mine, mine is just full of advertising (especially the kite guide in the middle). Nice pics though.

Sorry, just being honest.

i'm surprised you got green thumbed for that with all the kbm fanbois on here . Layout was alot better than the old . Article on keahi was good but the rest was average .

In the kite review why was there no RRD ? Was that because of RRD not supplying demo gear or what ?

Lets face it, kite reviews in any magazine are a big f#*king waste of space... Obviously the mag isn't going to tell you the kite is a POS are they... so what is the point???

More magazines full of sick pictures is what I want to see, similar to what Core was or like the aussie "skate journal" just full of amazing shots.

All this being said I don't think you can really blame KBM for any of this, these guys put in a solid effort and to be honest with what they have to work with I think they do a pretty good job.
After all you have to remember in the end a magazine is a business and you have to cater to those that support and fund it by printing their lame ass cr@p... and that's half the reason anything good like Core disappears.

Hey Guys just a quick bit of background on the topic of reviews.

We choose to do a BUYERS guide NOT a review with the idea that the reader can compare the different kites according to a set of criteria. The aim of this is so that people can get an overview of what they might be interested in looking into further.

We have done kite reviews in the past BUT what we found was that the riders only gave good reviews to the kites they were used to and anything else got low ratings.
Plus riding 20 plus kites in one session is hard as they all start to feel the same.
Its a bit of a NO WIN situation as it is not easy to keep your advertisers happy when they get a bad review.

I just wanted to point our philosophy was not to do a review but provide information in an easy to understand format.

We are doing a Board Buyers guide this next issue.

We are always keen for more good content so if you have quality pics or articles we would love to publish them. There is a severe lack of good content being provided so let us know if you have stuff.

Thanks
Beav

sir ROWDY said...

Lets face it, kite reviews in any magazine are a big f#*king waste of space... Obviously the mag isn't going to tell you the kite is a POS are they... so what is the point???

More magazines full of sick pictures is what I want to see, similar to what Core was or like the aussie "skate journal" just full of amazing shots.

All this being said I don't think you can really blame KBM for any of this, these guys put in a solid effort and to be honest with what they have to work with I think they do a pretty good job.
After all you have to remember in the end a magazine is a business and you have to cater to those that support and fund it by printing their lame ass cr@p... and that's half the reason anything good like Core disappears.

I agree with you on the “magazines full of sick pictures is what I want to see” point; great action shots are awesome and inspiring to see and there should be much more of them.

However I'm calling bull**** on the waste of space as far as the kite and board reviews go.
Magazines that do the good reviews never out and out bag the gear, but that's due to all the gear being pretty good these days.
They do however point out what they thought were the good and bad points of the gear and list the criteria they were judging the gear to.
So in the end you do get a good, mainly balanced overview of the capabilities and suitabilities of the gear on test.

In the end, we are not all going to have the same tastes, likes & dislikes of the performance of the gear, but reading an honest review based on the gear actually having been used by the reviewer/s gives a real point of view.
Heck, the good reviews actually paste the manufacturer spiel at the start of the review article as a 'This is what they said, this is what we found' type of format.

This is much better than copy-pasting the marketing spiel put out by the manufacturers, as the Aussie mags do.

I don't begrudge them trying to make a good buck out of the mag, but the revenue also comes from us the buyers.
The only solid work I see KBM do is figuring out how to shoehorn in an article here & there in between all the ads.

I still buy it, but I have been questioning why lately.

If they think putting a malnourished girl with plastic bits on the cover is gonna sell more mags, they really need to question their content and why they have to resort to putting the girl on the cover.
If anything, they should be putting girls who kite on the cover, not just some bikini clothes hanger who wouldn't know a kite from a table cover.

But it's not all bad, the local rider interviews/articles are a good feature, I think most people like getting a personal view of the sport and the people who do it.

sir ROWDY said...

If you think a paid for magazine is ever going to have a REAL kite review, you are tripping.
The best kite review is the one you do yourself by testing it... Most decent brands you should be able to try out somehow, chances are if you can't your not missing much anyway.

How can riding gear and describing how you found it's performance not be a real review?

Maybe it's hard for Aussies to be eloquent and give a good description & say something other than "I like it" or "It's ***"?

Granted that the kites are donated or lent by the manufacturers for the real reviews, but the reviewers are gonna lose credibility pretty quick if they start saying that the kite trucks upwind when in reality it couldn't go upwind if it was towed by a boat.

And as far as KBM saying that they can't find riders who give unbiased reviews, well that's just silly.
If a kiter can't give an honest opinion of the performance after riding the gear, they shouldn't be testing it to begin with.

Sure, they don't have to like it, but if not, they should state in the review why and what they were comparing it against.
I've seen this put forward in the real reviews.

'Buying guides' are ads plain & simple.

sir ROWDY said...

And you think a "kite review" in a magazine that is supported and paid mostly by the brands that are being tested wont just be some "buying guide" in disguise???... It can't be anything but that, or at least some sort of biased review... if it wasn't the brands wouldn't want to advertise in the mag... think about it.

Well I've mentioned one magazine which I feel gives a real review of gear.

Instead of speaking in hypotheticals, give me an example of what you are saying.

sir ROWDY said...

What are you talking about?... How can I give you an "example", it's called simple logic, use your brain.

I am using my brain, I want you to use yours and back up your claims; or can you not back them up?

You are quoting that all reviews in kite mags are no better than the 'buyer guides' in KBM.
Tell me which kite mags you are basing that claim on and what about the review is making you hold that stance.

Or tell me how your claim stands agains the gear reviews in Kitesurf Magazine- the source I quoted.

Ryland said...

miss kiteboarder!

No matter how hot some chicks may be, remember there's a guy out there sick of tapping it

oceanfire said...

It is ignorance to think a kite mag can't be professional and give an honest review of the gear they test.

I think you mean it is "ignorant"... and given the facts I would say actually no it's not. But hey if you really need that kind of thing in a mag, as you pointed out I'm sure there's some other mags out there catering to your demographic.

p.s.
I provided a fair analysis with good logic to support my claim, I fail to see anything logical that would support yours.

KBM said...



We are always keen for more good content so if you have quality pics or articles we would love to publish them. There is a severe lack of good content being provided so let us know if you have stuff.

???

So does this magazine rely solely on people (public/pro riders) sending in trip reports, pics, stories, etc. Out of interest, does the magazine staff write any of the articles found in the mag?

Also, for a magazine with such little written content, IMHO the editing leaves a little to be desired. Last issue I noticed a few spelling and grammar errors, stuff you wouldn't expect from a professional magazine (which costs $10 per issue).

oceanfire said...

sir ROWDY said...

Do I have to spell it out for you? (ok rhetorical question).

1. Kite mags are funded from advertising they sell in the magazine.
2. Majority of advertising comes from industry sponsors (people who make kites).
3. Kite mags usually do a review of kites that the mag is funded by (rarely do they include other brands that don't support the mag in some way).
4. Kite mag now has a conflict of interest as they don't want to annoy or anger the people that fund their publication, thus;
5. A useless biased "kite review" is born.

Perhaps some mags are better than others at pointing out obvious positive attributes in kite design, but I doubt they would be any more beneficial to you than some words from a mate at the beach.
To think that kitesurf-magazine or any other industry funded publication is somehow different to KBM in this regard is sheer ignorance.

Gee, thanks for sharing your worldly wisdom with me about how magazines are funded.
Here I was thinking they were produced by Santas Elves in the Christmas off season.

The kite gear reviews I've mentioned, while I admitted earlier are a result of the kite companies giving the kites to the mags for review, the reviews are better than the 'buyers guide' style of 'review' because;

1- they do infact review a large range of brands, but that's probably due to most brands advertising with them- if the kite company is not advertising with them and not giving the kites for review- how do you expect they review these kites?
2- they do give overall positive reviews of the gear, but that's due to the fact that it is rare for gear to be crappy these days
3- they do point out the short comings that they find in the gear and if think so point out a different style by the same company or a different brand they'd recommend based on particular performance criteria

Obviously if you know someone who rides a different brand from you, asking them is a really good way to get a review, but they may also have the same biases as mentioned by KBM and only speak highly of their kite, which may be cause it's suited to them, not necessarily to you.

The real kite reviewers ride heaps of kites, so they are well suited to take into consideration the differences in performance; your mate down the beach may not have such extensive experience.

It is ignorance to think a kite mag can't be professional and give an honest review of the gear they test.

mate I completely disagree. unless the mag is very strong and survives purely on readers, then I dont think you will ever get honest reviews. also most test riders are affiliated to a brand in some way. If you did get a mag saying kites were bad or indifferent they would also have to probably buy their kites for the test as the manufacturers wouldn't be supplying them to get canned. The only thing I can think of where anything reviewed gets shxtcanned is choice magazine (which you have to pay top dollar for and they buy all their stuff) and top gear tv show which is powerfull enough that they can.

not going to happen in a small mag.

Work it out for yourself. If that's how you feel good on you, stick to what you feel don't worry about the clowns on here.
I'm not going out to go buy kitemags and read stupid reviews in order to give you some sort of further in-depth education.