After completing enough hits on the features on Wednesday, the question was put to the riders if they wanted to run heats on the skinny rail that was available. The riders decided they were happy with the way the competition had been run so far and to call an end to the event in terms of heats. The judges know who the winners are, but the riders will have to wait until the Saturday night prize giving to find out who’s going home with the bacon!

Riot Curv Harness from ION

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Riot Curv Harness from ION

Despite the riders and crew calling the comp over we were blessed with something we hadn’t seen in a few days. SUN! Instead of running heats all the riders got ready to hit the water for a media session allowing all the camera crew to get some much-needed money shots in the sunshine. With perfect 9m weather winds and blue skies, it looked to be a memorable session at the Kite Park in Rhosneigr once again.

Having shot from the beach the last few days I decided to get the camera housing out to scope some different angles in the water. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any suitable shoes, so tramping all over the kite park barefoot on the rocks may have been a mistake. Despite the sunshine, it was also pretty darn cold, props to the slider crew who have spent every day so far in the water moving the features and getting soaking wet in the relatively grim conditions.

Sam Light was first on the water, riding a full 20 minutes in the blue sky with the park all to himself before the other riders joined him. There were some standout moments as the crew sessioned the park for a full two hours in the sunshine. Best crashes had to go to Aymeric Martin who thought he saw a euro in the landing area of the kicker and made two epic attempts to grab it off the ocean floor.

James Boulding spent most of the morning behind the lens but then jumped on the water towards the end and gave the North Kiteboarding slider some lessons in finesse. Eric Rienstra was going all out technical on the slider while Craig Cunningham was going for massively powered airs onto it. Sam Light was as polished as ever; he’s ridiculously talented, and you can see all his hours on the cable paying off.

Manuela Jungo was also standing out from the crowd, looking more and more confident as the session wore on. Karolina and Sensi were stepping up for the girls two, and at one point there must have been a hit being thrown down every ten seconds by the eager crew! UK rider Jack Daykin was impressive again, considering he hadn’t ridden features with a kite before he looked not only comfortable but downright impressive!

After a couple of hours sessioning the park, the tide dropped back calling an end to the day’s activities. Memory cards were full of bangers, and it was now down to the media crew to make some sense of all the action locked away on their cameras. The forecast for the remaining days looks light, but that’s perfect for the weekend at the new Cable Park and the two huge party nights planned for Friday and Saturday.

If you are in the UK and you want to get involved in one of the biggest kite events this country has seen come and get your tickets from Funsport in Rhosneigr today! Full details about the event this weekend can be found HERE.

Fri 30th Sep, 2016 @ 12:00 pm

By Rou Chater
Rou has been kiting since the sports inception and has been working as an editor and tester for magazines since 2004. He started IKSURFMAG with his brother in 2006 and has tested hundreds of different kites and travelled all over the world to kitesurf. He's a walking encyclopedia of all things kite and is just as passionate about the sport today as he was when he first started!
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