After the KBO it was straight home and onto Beach Break Live.. This is a huge student festival, which also has extreme sports competition. Kiting, Snowboarding and Wakeboarding competitions are all held in the festival.
I got there on Thursday and it was just rain rain and more rain, which isnt ideal when you pitched in tents alongside 20000 students. But spirits were high as the acts started to play. Some big names such as Tiny Tempa, Magnetic Man, Katy B, London Elektricity, Nero, Subfocus were all playing, so each night we were in for some banging parties.

On the Saturday the weather cleared up and the wind was howling. It was the perfect day for the SKA (student kitesurfing association) comp. The event was run as a rider judged event on a jam session.. Everyone went out and rode for a few hours, then judged on who should get into the 8 person final, then the final would run for 20mins, and people would judge again. 
When i first rode it was perfect wind for my 10m RPM and Ian Edmonson from Expix photography was in the water putting his life on the line to get some awesome action shots.  By the time the final arrived, i was completely overpowered on the 10 and could barely hold an edge. I changed down to my 8m for the final. It was perfect condtions. Maxed on my 8m, blue sky, flat water inbetween the waves. I went out and just put on the best show i could for the crowds. I did some megaloops, and big board offs along with some big grabbed s-blind, and some nice mobes..
This was enough for me to win which i am stoked with.

Big thanks to Expix photography for the pics once again, and check out www.expix.co.uk for the full event write up and the wakeboarding and snowboarding pics .

Last week i had a call from Ian @ Expix Extreme Photography asking if myself and Hannah Whitely wanted to go to the KBO event in holland. It sounded like a good event so i was straight onboard.

We set off at 3am on Thursday morning to catch a 7am ferry in dover and then drive up to Holland straight away. We were straight away given a really warm welcome by the event organisers and we immediately felt at home. On Friday the event site was being set up. It was incredible how quickly a group of volunteers could set up the whole site, all within a few hours.

Unfortunately the wind on Friday was light so we didnt get to play, but just chilled out on the beach in the Expix tent.
Saturday and Sunday were the first 2 days of the event. The weather started of abit evil, but then quickly cleared up and the wind tried to pull through but not quite enough. They started to run the rookie event, but only managed to run up untill the final before the wind died. I managed to get a fun little sesh on my 12m Slingshot RPM. The kickers were nice so it was perfect for doing flat spins, and I was also trying to get my mobe 5s, which is proving difficults

Sunday night was the big party night with Ruben Lenten throwing down on the decks. It was an awesome night with plenty of dancing.
Monday was when the real wind pulled through.. The morning was very unpromising with light rain and offshore winds, but at about 2pm the wind swung, picked up and the sun came out. Again i was out on my 12m, but completely overpowered... It was great fun hitting the kickers. I had a couple of awesome 540s, and even threw in a few cheeky board offs to please the crowds.

All in all, the KBO was a really well organised event, and the hospitality we received was incredible. Thanks very much for all the guys who organised the KBO, and also Expix for making the long drive to the event. and getting the awesome pictures as usual :P

For the full event right up, check out www.expix.co.uk and check out http://kiteboardopen.com for more event info.

No I'm back in england, I'm driving straight up to south wales, for Beach Break Live, a student festival of 20000 people, where the SKA are holding a kitesurfing competition.. Bring on the wind, waves, beer and music....

piece out....

With some awesome South Westerly forcasts, exams finished, and a definate urge for kiting, it was time for session. Alex Parker and i cruised up to one of our local secret spots and it was firing. Perfect 8m weather, flat water, and nobody but ourselves there. Check out the picsss... Thanks to keeno for sitting and taking pics even though he had an exam the next morning... THATS KEEN

The day after was forecast more wind, but also more sun.. Another session was definatly on the cards. Unfortunatly Ian Expix was held up in traffic so couldn't make the session, but alex took a few shots. It was full on 8m weather, so boosting was the aim of the day.

The forecast wind for the BKSA event in Barrow was looking awesom with 25-30knts for the whole weekend. Unfortunatly due to a university exam i missed out on the Pro mens competition on the friday which was won by Ned Taylor.. None the less, i headed up to the event to get some riding in and to judge the rest of the fleet.
On Saturday morning the wind was pumping, and whilst the Ams were registering and getting ready for the day, i went out for a cheeky session on my 8m Slingy RPM. It was an awesom session as i was really powered so just going as big as possible.
At about 1130am the competition kicked off and we had an awesom day of judging the ams. They were all really going for it in the strong winds, and pushing themselves to the max even in the shallow water, which made for some great wipeout but thankfully no injuries.
After the comp was complete, i went out for another quick session with Ian @ Expix We had about 30mins of dropping wind before the sun went behind the clouds, but we got some pretty sweet shots.
On sunday morning, myself, Dave Williams, Hannah Whiteley and Gaz Powell drove to a beach 20mins down the road to hit up some speed sailing. It was an early 7am start to get the tides right but the conditions were awesome. I borrowed a speed board and a GPS and gave it ago. After an hour or so, i started to get the hang of it, and managed to clock a speed of 41.8knts over 100m. This was only 0.3knts slower than UK Speed record holder Dave Williams, so im pretty stoked with that for a first attempt.

Sunday afternoon a Big air expression session was held with all the classes getting involved. This was really fun and i was pretty powered on my 8m RPM again so could go pretty big. Check out the BKSA vid by bluejuicemultimedia to see some hangtime :P

Thanks very much to http://www.expix.co.uk for coming up and getting some great shots once again and i look foreward to competiting at the next event

event vid