Catching Up With Casati
Issue 102 / Thu 14th Dec, 2023
Lorenzo Casati's recent move to Harlem Kiteboarding has set the kiteboarding community abuzz. In this exclusive interview, 2022 Red Bull King of the Air and 2023 runner up Lorenzo Casati shares insights into his journey, the evolution of big air kites, and the innovative direction he envisions with Harlem. Get to know what happens behind the scenes of the Casati Family Team, from their strategies to future aspirations, all here in this interview!
Lorenzo, your move to Harlem Kiteboarding is one of the year's hottest topics! First of all, congratulations! How does it feel to have the news out in the open finally?!
Thanks! It was a very long journey. I had to give up the Megaloop, Full Power, and Cold Hawaii, and I went through moments of difficult times. But I finally made the choice I had in mind, and I am happy and convinced now.
How many kite brands did you try before you made your final decision? From what you experienced testing so many different brands and kites, is the kite industry going in a good direction?
I think I have tested 90% of the big air kites currently on the market, between the blank kite test done with Colin and the brands that contacted me directly. They are all excellent and suitable for 99% of riders. The average level of the big air kites, compared to a few years ago, is truly excellent in all the brands I have tested. However, it is also true that few people still do doubles, and almost no one does triples, and for this direction, a slightly different type of big air kite is needed. I expect some more innovation in the coming years. Harlem and I are already working hard to push towards this road.
Ultimately, what made you choose Harlem? What was it about the performance of the kites and the brand that drew you towards them?
Big air has changed completely in recent times... a true revolution. Since Giel did the double loop and I did the triple loop, there has been a crazy evolution. There were several months in which every day, I landed 2 or 3 different world firsts. This means that if you want to push the limits of tricks, you need kites that support the new direction in which we riders are pushing.
There are lots of big air kites that can do a single loop very well, but to do 2 or 3 loops while also going high and having the necessary hang time, you need kites with a different approach at a conceptual level from the start. We can push innovative new tricks if the kite supports the professional rider's needs. It's a fascinating process which will open the doors to even more new tricks in the future.
When I talked to them about all this, Harlem showed that they fully shared the same vision as me. It was, therefore, easy to find the agreement. And among other things, their Force was already oriented towards the type of kite I had in mind for a long time. Now, we will improve it even further, and together, we will also explore new directions with even more innovative approaches. The journey has just begun!
What about your board sponsors, Lieuwe and Appletree? With Lieuwe, you are riding the Falcon. Why this board? How did it compare to their wood core boards?
Harlem was a 100% Made in Europe choice, with Brainchild having the entire production chain in Europe and many eco-friendly approaches. So, I looked for these same concepts of quality and customisation and rapid evolution in Europe. Lieuwe and Appletree were the partners who also had these characteristics.
The Falcon is fantastically light but, at the same time, incredibly resistant to my 85 kg and full-power landings. With Lieuwe and Appletree, we are exploring together now and experimenting with some other new solutions on the boards, too.
For me, it was important to have partners eager to discover and explore new horizons with me - partnerships with an opportunity for mutual growth. And I found all this in Harlem, Lieuwe, and Appletree.
You've met up with all the teams behind all of your sponsor brands. Did you have a chance to tour their factories?
We all met in the Harlem headquarters. Times were tight as I was preparing for KOTA, and I didn't have time to see their factories. After KOTA, I will go to Portugal to visit the Appletree production and immediately after to Holland for the Lieuwe one. I am very excited and fascinated and can't wait to discover so many new things with them.
Your younger brother, Leonardo, has also signed with the same new sponsors! Did you always plan to ride on the same teams, or did you consider splitting up?
Leonardo has an incredible level in 3 different specialities (Big Air, Strapless, Wave) at just 14 years old. If I look at my videos at 14, I wasn't even half of his technical abilities. All this happened exclusively thanks to my father, his many innovative training methods, his skills in different areas, and his visions, which are the basis of where we are today and where we are going in terms of choices tomorrow.
It was, therefore, easy for both of us to arrive at what we currently believe is the best for our future, namely Harlem, Lieuwe, and Appletree. These brands have given us the best prospects for the growth and technical evolution we planned for our future.
How is it travelling and training together as a family?
We have always been a happy, connected family. Each trip is a fun, exciting new adventure in which we become stronger as a Family Team. Dad, in addition to being the best father in the world, has a university master's degree in Physical Education and Sports, so he takes care of our athletic preparation, nutrition, psychological and motivational parts and many other aspects that would require a lot of money and specialised people.
Furthermore, he is also the best kite technician in the world, in my opinion. He is incredibly competent, given that he was an athlete in the past and has judged some past competitions, and each trick we learned started together with him. We plan competition strategies together, decide at the right time on the right trick in competition and many other little secrets that I can't reveal but are the basis of our success. I didn't win the KOTA, being so young by chance, and Leo is not at this level by luck! Yes, we have been lucky to have him.
Our new sponsors now understood perfectly the basis of my successes and Leonardo's incredible technical evolution and decided to make this characteristic of our Family Team like a new path to ride together in strict synergies. This is why they have adopted the motto "Casati Family High-Performance Pioneer".
I believe that the path my father took with us, leaving a secure and well-paid job in Italy for the uncertainty of a new life in the Canary Islands just to allow us to cultivate our dream, is a beautiful story to tell. It's an example for many people who can take from our success the courage to change their lives. Among the many things my father has taught me, "always follow your dreams if you believe in them" is one of the most beautiful things he has gifted me.
My daddy is also behind the photos/videos you see on our YouTube channels. He started from zero in this field of media knowledge, and in a short time, I must say that he has already reached a level for which we would otherwise have to pay renowned videographers but which we obviously cannot on an economic level.
We understand that you mutually parted ways with Cabrinha before you began talking to any other brands. Was that a difficult decision to make?
It's been a very cordial and friendly decision in the way they understood our requests and needs perfectly, and I just have to thank them for what they gave me during our collaboration and for the fact that we decided to mutually separate from our contract before the deadline. I think this says a lot, also on a human level, about the fantastic people I dealt with for 8 months and to whom I am still tied as friends today. But obviously, if our visions were diverging on a technical and time level, it was right for everyone to pursue our different paths and visions.
Looking back at the Cabrinha family, what were some of the highlights of your time with them?
It's been a magical trip from the first days. I felt considered, and everyone was really nice to all of us, like in a family. I got 3rd place overall in the GKA Big Air circuit, and I landed the world's first triple loop with Cabrinha kites.
In the months between Cabrinha and signing with Harlem, we can only imagine that the pressure of the decision on which direction to take your career was a lot to handle. How did you manage this?
My father is behind all my choices, so in reality, I was very focused on the technical part on the water, and he took care of the contact with the various brands that reached out to me. After all, we are a Family Team, if you haven't understood… This took a lot of pressure off me and allowed me to continue training in the best way and without too many mental worries.
Additionally, I believe that trying so many different kites has only enriched my technical knowledge. Differences are at the basis of each innovation!
With KOTA coming up (and having concluded before this issue goes live), what are your goals for the event?
I obviously hope to repeat my success at KOTA. Certainly, if I had worked all year with the same kites, I would have more certainty. However, these new kites are already close to what I had in mind, so it won't be easy to beat me in South Africa, even if every competition is always inevitably affected by some perfect combinations happening in order to win.
In the winter months, we will continue the evolution with Harlem, further improving the Force and raising the bar on new Big Air tricks. At the same time, I will participate in the GKA, where I will also start competing in waves and strapless after my 3rd place at the 2022 GKA World Championship.
Do you think you'll face any challenges, considering the limited training time you've had on the kite?
Any challenge I will have tomorrow, I feel I will be able to face by giving it my 200%. I work hard every day to be prepared and arrive at where I know I will. I have so many things in mind and so many projects; I just hope to live long enough to realise them all. We Casati Family are a volcano in constant evolution, perpetually in motion. Unfortunately, often, we only lack the economic part to finance the dozens of initiatives and projects that we would like to carry forward. If we manage to win in the future, little by little, the sponsors will also arrive to allow us to do so.
The Harlem Force is rumoured to be a massively high-performing kite. Tell us a bit about how it flies! What do you like about it?
I don't wish to say all the secrets I see in the Force, nor the evolution we'll have in mind soon. Just watch some videos already out online, and you'll see what is making this kite different! Then try it and make your own considerations!
Does the unique construction and materials affect the performance of the kite?
Yes, absolutely, and the nice part is that this is just the first one produced, and it is already at an incredibly high level! Imagine in the future where we'll bring this kite…
How do you think kiters that are more of a beginner/intermediate level will feel flying the kite? Is it too high-performance for beginner riders? If so, what other kite in the Harlem range would you suggest?
It is certainly not the perfect kite for beginners. You have to be a medium-level kiter who is already starting to make the first low jumps to really appreciate it and see its numerous advantages.
A 3-strut model will be released shortly by Harlem, which will also be perfect for those who are starting out. From the first prototypes, I can see that the new technology will also make it very interesting for wave and probably strapless big air; we will see! The next few months will certainly be very interesting from this point of view.
At the moment, you're flying the standard graphic Harlem Force, which totally pops, especially in stormy weather! When will you be getting a custom canopy? What are your plans for it?
The truth is that I couldn't see a more beautiful design at the moment than this one. This kite reminds me of the fantastic rainbows we experienced in Holland during the test days, that you can see on my last YouTube video, WOL #14.
Together with future developments, we are evaluating a Lorenzo Casati Pro Model to go even higher and float even longer and, in this case, there will certainly be customised graphics. But one of the great things about Harlem is that anyone can make their own kite graphics however they can imagine.
What are your plans for 2024? Will you be following the event circuit only, or do you have any other exciting trips in the works?
My medium-term goal is to get on the podium in Big Air, Strapless and Wave and become the most complete rider out there. I don't know if I will succeed this year; it is not easy for sure, and it also requires experience and money, which we have few right now.
But we are following a path that has been well outlined for a long time, for technical evolution in the direction of top performance and versatility. And, my father has already demonstrated, with the results obtained right now from me and Leo (2x Junior World Champion), in the short time we are kiting, that he is the best person and the only one who can take us up there, to where me and Leo wish to arrive. One day, we dream that we'll be 1st and 2nd place at KOTA. 1st place for me, obviously!
What are your plans for 2024? Will you be following the event circuit only, or do you have any other exciting trips in the works?
We wish to travel every day of our lives, but it is never easy, as budget is always a problem. But, if we should find some other brands outside the kite industry that are interested in supporting our Family Story and our Family Team approach, we'll have the most exciting journey of our lives! One of the nice things about being with Harlem is that we can print the kite with any name, logo, brand, etc. and offer the advertisements that sponsors deserve for supporting our projects!
See you soon in the water, everyone! Life is short; take out from every single day the sun and the rainbows!
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By Crystal Veness
Editor at IKSURFMAG, Crystal Veness hails from Canada but is based in South Africa. When she isn't busy kitesurfing or reporting on the latest industry news for the mag, she is kicking back somewhere at a windy kite beach or working on creative media projects.
