Kiteboarding and Photograpphy
… to the private website of Andreas Kirmaier
On this site I write about travelling, kitesurfing and photography
Your comments, suggestions and ideas are well appreciated
Have fun surfing this webpage, check my galleries and leave me a comment if you like to…Cheers
I live in Munich.
For 25 years of my professonal carreer I had worked in various positions in telecommunications, from an apprentice telecommunication fitter all the way to a team manager for value added services.
In 2008, I changed into the “old economy” and for the past 12 years I have worked in the IT deppartment of a public utility company. As an ITIL® Expert I was responsible SAP® release management and the operation of IT services we provide to various technical organisations in the company. Currently, I am the IT Demand Manager for the public transport department.
I support the the surf school association VDWS and the DLRG, worlds biggest volunteers water live saving organisation.
All the pictures in these pages were collected during travels in Australia in 1991/92, 1995 and 2001. You may notice in some of the pictures I published here that I had always a great time travelling in Australia. All pictures were taken on KODAK slide film.
Most of the time I spent traveling Down Under was in the south western part of the continent. Western Australia is a huge state. Besides many spectacular landscapes and very friendly locals, WA offers some of the world‘s best locations to go sailing, windsurfing and surfing. Today it has also become a mecca for kite-boarders. You may watch this video of a kitesurfing trip to West OZ from a team of FLYSURFER, a kite manufacturer from Bavaria.
A big THANK YOU to Tracy, Kim, Bernie and Lindsay for their friendship and hospitality. A speecial thank you to Bernie and Lindsay for teaching me how to surf.
The Australian Outback is a must see for any traveler. The so called outback is part of any of the Australian states, except the ACT Canberra. The most fascinating part of a remote outback landscape can be found in the Northern Territory and in a significant part of Western Australia.
…to me is Adelaide, Canberra, the Great Ocean Road, Sydney and Philip Island (THE PLACE TO BE for any surfer on this planet!!!). I spent a wonderful time at those places traveling on my own in 1991, 1995 and together with my wife Tanja in 2001. The south-east of Australia offers one of the most beautiful coastlines I‘ve seen. The Southern Ocean is home to cute little penguins and (not so cute) great white sharks.
A big THANK YOU to our friend Karl Brown, his brother Rowan and their parents for their hospitality and friendship.
On this page I present some of my photography work and some information on the equipment I use.
I have been using Nikon Equipment for more than 30 years now. So why did I select Nikon camera and lens equipment and – even more important – why have I stayed with Nikon equipment from 1986 until today?
I received a Nikon F-301 und ein Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens as a christmas present in 1986. Since then Nikon technology proved to be a reliable and robust companion in photography. Of course, there are quite a view comments I have on Nikon’s product management. However, since I have spent some money on Nikkor lenses, I am reluctant to change my photography system. Why? We all know: “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” and this seems also to be true for photo gear!
I still use my old Nikkor 50mm f71.8, a heavy Nikkor AF-S 80-200mm f/2.8 and a Tamron AF XR Di 28-75mm f/2.8 Macro. If I ever need a tripod I will use my Berlebach Reporter 8023.
You will find a selection of my work here. Most of the pictures were shot on b&w or slide film. I had them professionally scanned at scan-studio.de
Click on the pictures to view the galleries
For me it all started back in 1986…
…with windsurfing lessons at the local Chiemsee, a lake in the south-eastern part of Bavaria. Until 1991, I spent a majority of my spare time at Lake Garda in Italy and then travelled many fantastic places in Europe and around the world to go windsurfing: Hyeres (Mediterranean, France), Cascais (Atlantic Ocean, Portugal), Paros (Mediterranean, Greek Islands), Perth (Indian Ocean, Western Australia), Dahab (Red Sea, Egypt), Cape Hatteras (Atlantic Ocean, USA) and Hawaii (Pacific Ocean, USA).
And even more important to mention: I met some of my best friends via this great sport!
I’ve been a dedicated
windsurfer for ever since I started to practice at the local Chiemsee.
My home spot, however, has always been Lake Garda (Italy). Over the past
years, the wind pattern at Lake Garda has changed slightly and the
famous Ora has not been as reliable and strong as it used to be (at
least as I experienced it). In recent years I did not have one good day
of windsurfing at Lake Garda.
Finally, in 2007 I decided to retire from windsurfing
In
spring 2008 I started my kitesurfing career at Lake Garda and at
Reschensee (1400m altitude), both located in northern Italy. I soon
realised that kitesurfing is superior to windsurfing. Why? It is good
fun from 11 knots upward (windsurfing 20 knots). You can easily jump
higher and fly longer compared to windsurfing, even on a lake. Even
more important is that kite boarding offers much more chances for
individual developments and almost the full spectrum of kite boarding
maneuvers and styles can be trained and performed on lakes.
So for me, kitesurfing will never get any boring as long as there are at least 11 knots wind 😉
