I arrived at Ramsgate on Friday after a 7 hour drive down from the north east and met up with the race crew and few who were down there early, before calling it a night.
Saturday was non-eventful from a wind perspective and the day was spent catching up with the competitors, inspecting their kit and watching the light wind activities which were put on by the organisers - a pump foiling competition to see who could travel the furthest unassisted. There were some very impressive attempts, but was ultimately won by a very impressive 3 laps of the course!
A curry and social was organised in the evening, and some partied on until the wee hours, as can be customary!
The Sunday forecast was for cross offshore moderate winds, which would be made all the more erratic after traveling over the town and harbour.
The first event was decided to be a wingathon - starting on the beach, running to pick up our wingfoil kit to enter the water; navigate around 2 buoys and the winner was first back to the start.
The mixed fleet of competitors lined up and the horn was blown to start the event. I got to my kit pretty quickly, but took longer than the others to get my leashes on. I'd opted to use the AK 6'0 Phazer and Shinn Superhydro 1650 , with an Airush 8m freewing which was a bit larger than the others who had opted for 5,6 and 7m wings.
This resulted in me being almost last onto the water, and everyone ahead was paddling their board to the first mark; I opted for a different tactic - trying to sail my board almost directly downwind with the wing. This method was less tiring but no faster than the others, and I made it to the first buoy in about 3rd place as a few of the others had gone a bit wide. A couple of the fone boys were at the second mark already before I got up foiling, but was able to catch up with them a little in a gust.
The race back to the 3rd mark was a matter of trying to find a gust to get up foiling, whilst doing your best to try to keep making ground when not. I was still in a solid 3rd place, but didn't feel like I'd made much ground up by the time I'd reached it.
The last part of the race was quite puzzling to me, as I didn't see much of it due to the fleet being situated behind my back as I was furthest downwind. I opted to sail the board in on the surface of the water into the shore, but was convinced one of the other two would do so well before me; but I couldn't see what was happening with them.
Before long I'd reached the shore, secured my board and wing, and proceeded to sprint the 200m to the finish. As I got half way to the finish line, I ran past the cafe, and people were cheering me on, with Lewis on commentary saying I was in first place. I didn't understand how I'd managed to get there sooner than them; perhaps they elected to foil in, but were taken away from shore by the wind direction - I'm not at all sure!
Lewis Crathern interviewed me over the PA, but I was in no fit state to do so after a 200m sprint through the sand; I could only muster a few words before needing to recatch my breath - sorry Lewis!
After a bit of a break, it was announced another wingfoil race was about to commence, this time with a reduced fleet of 4, which pretty much worked out as a straight battle between myself and Jimmy, Matt and Giacomo all on fone kit with wings of 6 & 7m. I opted again for the 8m freewing v2.
Saturday was non-eventful from a wind perspective and the day was spent catching up with the competitors, inspecting their kit and watching the light wind activities which were put on by the organisers - a pump foiling competition to see who could travel the furthest unassisted. There were some very impressive attempts, but was ultimately won by a very impressive 3 laps of the course!
A curry and social was organised in the evening, and some partied on until the wee hours, as can be customary!
The Sunday forecast was for cross offshore moderate winds, which would be made all the more erratic after traveling over the town and harbour.
The first event was decided to be a wingathon - starting on the beach, running to pick up our wingfoil kit to enter the water; navigate around 2 buoys and the winner was first back to the start.
The mixed fleet of competitors lined up and the horn was blown to start the event. I got to my kit pretty quickly, but took longer than the others to get my leashes on. I'd opted to use the AK 6'0 Phazer and Shinn Superhydro 1650 , with an Airush 8m freewing which was a bit larger than the others who had opted for 5,6 and 7m wings.
This resulted in me being almost last onto the water, and everyone ahead was paddling their board to the first mark; I opted for a different tactic - trying to sail my board almost directly downwind with the wing. This method was less tiring but no faster than the others, and I made it to the first buoy in about 3rd place as a few of the others had gone a bit wide. A couple of the fone boys were at the second mark already before I got up foiling, but was able to catch up with them a little in a gust.
The race back to the 3rd mark was a matter of trying to find a gust to get up foiling, whilst doing your best to try to keep making ground when not. I was still in a solid 3rd place, but didn't feel like I'd made much ground up by the time I'd reached it.
The last part of the race was quite puzzling to me, as I didn't see much of it due to the fleet being situated behind my back as I was furthest downwind. I opted to sail the board in on the surface of the water into the shore, but was convinced one of the other two would do so well before me; but I couldn't see what was happening with them.
Before long I'd reached the shore, secured my board and wing, and proceeded to sprint the 200m to the finish. As I got half way to the finish line, I ran past the cafe, and people were cheering me on, with Lewis on commentary saying I was in first place. I didn't understand how I'd managed to get there sooner than them; perhaps they elected to foil in, but were taken away from shore by the wind direction - I'm not at all sure!
Lewis Crathern interviewed me over the PA, but I was in no fit state to do so after a 200m sprint through the sand; I could only muster a few words before needing to recatch my breath - sorry Lewis!
After a bit of a break, it was announced another wingfoil race was about to commence, this time with a reduced fleet of 4, which pretty much worked out as a straight battle between myself and Jimmy, Matt and Giacomo all on fone kit with wings of 6 & 7m. I opted again for the 8m freewing v2.
The format of the second race was somewhat different. This time it was a start from the water, then a race of 5 laps around 2 buoys placed out to sea. At the 1 minute to start we all made our way out a little and tried to position ourselves for a good start. As the horn was blown a gust came through and I managed to get up foiling almost immediately; however it soon became clear that the buoy was positioned too far downwind, and I had to keep the board at the edge of what was possible to navigate downwind in such light conditions.
I reached the first turn in first place and had built up a sizeable lead, gybed cleanly and worked my way back inshore. The PA announced that they were going to alter the course whilst the race was running as I now struggled to get to the upwind mark as it's angle was too extreme to reach to. After a few gybes I completed the first lap and proceeded to work my way around the altered course which had been made somewhat easier to navigate, yet still required at least 1 tack at each end to make the gybe around each mark possible.
It was soon pretty clear that I'd opened up a big lead, my large wing and efficient board, and great bottom end of the superhydro meant I could make good progress around the course whether foiling or not. Often a single small gust would be enough to complete one straight and get around the turn and was able to extend my lead until I'd completed the requisite 5 laps in first place. It was a very different race to the first which was on a knife edge where small fortunes had big repercussions - that one must have been a very exciting one to spectate on.
The wind ebbed and flowed a for the remainder of the afternoon, yet wasn't enough to run any more competitions. All that was left was the award ceremonies, where awards were given for the divisions of the entrants to the pump-foiling and wing racing competitions, and an very well deserved best sportmanship award given to Adrian Cooke for all his hard work and 800 mile trip to attend the event.
Despite the disappointing wind the organisers did hold a cracking event and deserve a lot of credit for doing so. The conditions weren't there for the wingfoil freestyle which I'd originally entered, hopefully things will be different for the Kitesurfing armada in a few weeks, looking forward to seeing everyone again :)
Pics by Eunice Bergin / BKSA
I reached the first turn in first place and had built up a sizeable lead, gybed cleanly and worked my way back inshore. The PA announced that they were going to alter the course whilst the race was running as I now struggled to get to the upwind mark as it's angle was too extreme to reach to. After a few gybes I completed the first lap and proceeded to work my way around the altered course which had been made somewhat easier to navigate, yet still required at least 1 tack at each end to make the gybe around each mark possible.
It was soon pretty clear that I'd opened up a big lead, my large wing and efficient board, and great bottom end of the superhydro meant I could make good progress around the course whether foiling or not. Often a single small gust would be enough to complete one straight and get around the turn and was able to extend my lead until I'd completed the requisite 5 laps in first place. It was a very different race to the first which was on a knife edge where small fortunes had big repercussions - that one must have been a very exciting one to spectate on.
The wind ebbed and flowed a for the remainder of the afternoon, yet wasn't enough to run any more competitions. All that was left was the award ceremonies, where awards were given for the divisions of the entrants to the pump-foiling and wing racing competitions, and an very well deserved best sportmanship award given to Adrian Cooke for all his hard work and 800 mile trip to attend the event.
Despite the disappointing wind the organisers did hold a cracking event and deserve a lot of credit for doing so. The conditions weren't there for the wingfoil freestyle which I'd originally entered, hopefully things will be different for the Kitesurfing armada in a few weeks, looking forward to seeing everyone again :)
Pics by Eunice Bergin / BKSA
RSS Feed
