Home»News

BKSA Land Kite - Round 2

13/06/2013

Team Rider Ash Garwood tells us about his experiences of the second round of the British Freestyle land Competitions.

It wasn’t long after the first round but the weekend of the 7^th – 9^th of June saw once again the cream of European land kiting talent coming together to thrash it out against one another to see who is the best. 

For me this was a standard weekend like many competitions before it, but this competition was at a new location. This lovely new location was in Suffolk at the Suffolk kite flyers Spot in Rougham, Having only been here once before many moons ago it was going to be a new experience for me. 

Arriving late Friday after a long day working in the City, I settled in for a cheeky night time session perfecting the new tricks I learned the previous weeks with good friend and photographer Adam Toms. In this session the winds were light but I still managed a few Railey  to Blinds, Back Mobes and a nice Dangle pass to leave me confident for the competition tomorrow. 

I woke to a cold northerly breeze, I quickly put on a coat and got some breaky on the go, I met briefly with BKSA chairman Richard Gowers to discuss the day ahead and to register, it was decided the comp will be going ahead for 11.30 with my heat starting around 2pm when the winds at its best. 

While I was waiting I watched some impressive land boarding from fellow amateur competitions with the Juniors, Am mens buggy and Am mens board they put on an impressive show. It was a tough act to follow. 

In my first heat I was against up and coming pro land boarder Chris Walker, having just come back from injury he was raring to go and ready to prove him self on the English kite land boarding scene. The heat for me got off to a rocky start with poor wind conditions. But as the heat progressed the wind turned good and I was able to smash out an impressive tally of tricks, including a: railey to blind, board off variations, multiple rotations and a massive dangle pass. With a huge list of tricks under my belt that was enough to power me strait through to the final. 

In the final I was up against Pro rider Emmanuelle Norman, in my opinion one of the best land-boarders in the world at the moment. This guy is nuts and ready to prove him self, I knew I was in for a hard final. Also competing against us was nipper and up coming land boarder Adam Toms, I’ve been riding with him for many years and I know how good he can be in the right winds.

With both competitors on much larger kites than me I knew I needed to work hard to get a good place on the podium. With the green flag up the final was started, I immediately began adding moves on the tally with grabs, manuels, multiple rotations and board off’s. The wind in this heat was very difficult to handle, it had switched to an unfavorable direction through large trees creating a lot of turbulence, but my C4 being the great kite it is handles the wind very well and allowed me to finish the heat with a good tally of hooked in tricks. 

After a tense wait, the results were announced… And I got a 2^nd in round two of the BKSA freestyle land competitions. I am super stoked with the result and the quality of riding from all participants was incredible, Massive props to every one who came it was a brilliant competition and a great weekend.

Massive thanks to the guys at SKF for putting on a great show and with a great atmosphere. 

Big ups to all my sponsors, Trampa boards, Ozone kites and Essex kite park. With out you guys I wouldn’t t be here. 

Cheers 

Ash Garwood.