idea….. As soon as I took off from the beach
on the 9m I realized that there wasn’t that
much power in the 9m. Unfortunately for me
this led to the end of the event. It’s always a
learning experience and the King of the Air is
a unique event. It’s never easy to figure out
what the judges are looking for, and after this
year I’m thinking more loops for the future.
Although it’s a bummer to get bumped out
so early on it is nice to have the pressure
removed, sit back, relax and watch your
mates on the water. With the wind conditions
not begin ideal, several riders were switching
kites during the heat. I helped out my English
mates Lewis and Aaron with their kite swaps.
They used bigger kites for the jumps and a
size smaller for the loops. The highlight of
that Saturday had to have been Aaron
with a Mega loop KGB. He’s the only one
who has the balls to pull that trick out and
he did it flawlessly. There’s a reason he’s
the x5 world champion! The event began to
push into the evening that Saturday, getting
all the way to the quarter finals. The sun
was setting and the wind was getting light.
They tried to run the first quarter final but
the wind had dropped. Most jumps were no
more than six metres. Jesse Richman was
by far the most impressive on the water with
some big kite loop slims and kite loop 5’s.
They managed to run the first of the quarter
final with light winds but during the second
quarter heat kites were in the water and
riders couldn’t stay upwind. I recall standing
next to Lewis who was on the mic at this
point. Kevin Langeree came storming
into the officials tent complaining about
the last heat how there wasn’t enough
wind to run it and that it was BS. I have
to say I agreed with him and so did the race
director. So the blue and white chequered
flag went up and the event was called for the
day. The quarter finals would be re-run. This
was the Saturday night which was supposed
to be the last day of the event. Unfortunately
Epic Photography
Capturing those epic moments...