We head to the Lighthouse to Leighton race in Perth, Australia for the tenth edition of this iconic southern hemisphere extravaganza. There aren't many events where you can register as a rank amateur and race against the likes of Airton Cozzolino and Olly Bridge! Find out how the whole thing got started and where it's headed in this feature.

When you think of the number 10, you think of success, and this year, the Red Bull Lighthouse to Leighton celebrated its tenth consecutive year in the kiteboarding mecca known as Western Australia. Famed as a Southern Hemisphere strong-wind destination for freestylers (Woodies and The Pond), foilers (Swan River and Jervois Bay) and big wave kiteboarders (Margaret River region, Lancelin and all of the North West of this huge state), WA has it all! 

Since 2010, Tim Turner has successfully staged the best open-to-all kiteboarding race in the southern hemisphere, and arguably the world. This epic adventure started out with just 60 racers. The first edition of the race, which Tim organised, competed in on a twintip, and finished 19th in 33:01 minutes, while Alex Caizerges, who came in 1st finished the race in 24:34 minutes. Interestingly though, in 2019, Lincoln Sullivan finished 3rd overall as the fastest non-foil board in 23:22 minutes; times are changing and that being said, it is the advent of foil boards and kites that have rocketed the crossing time.

The 2nd and 3rd edition (2011 and 2012) were both homegrown Western Australia affairs for Dale Stanton and Johnno Keys, respectively. Dale had never missed a crossing, and Johnno Keys was a stalwart of the WA kite racing community.

The 4th edition in 2013 of the Lighthouse to Leighton, was incorporated into the Kite Racing Oceanics festival; a course racing spectacular event off the coast of Leighton. Most days hit 35°C with just a 16-knot coastal breeze. Sometimes it just gets too hot for the famed Fremantle Doctor to blow in Perth; however, the light winds didn't stop the racers. This was the year that German-born-Australian-living, Marvin Baumeister, took line honours with Riccardo Leccese, and Australian sailing World Champion, Torvar Mirsky picking up the podium placings.

Torvar, being the first winner of the Marc Sprod Memorial Trophy (in memory of Marc Sprod who passed away in a tragic kiteboarding accident) This trophy was inaugurated to remember Marc, to honour his life, to recognise that the competition had increased notably, and that it was going to be harder for a 'local' to win outright the line honours.

In 2014, Olly Bridge claimed the title from Marvin Baumeister (the 2013 winner) and Steph Bridge, multiple World Champion, took line honours for the second year in a row.

Saturday 5th December 2015, race day, and also the coldest December day on record in Perth! It wasn't so much the cold, it was more the overall weather and the forecast. The City of Perth cancelled their Christmas Pageant; a community event and parade that attracts routinely 200,000 people.

To our surprise, what we got was a strong sea breeze, to begin with until about 2 km to go for leader Olly Bridge, a bank of cloud formed over Leighton Beach and shut down the wind for about 10 minutes.

"I remember it as if it was yesterday," said Tim Turner "one minute Olly was killing it on his foil board, and then it just stopped, it was like nothing I'd ever seen before! The winds in Perth are usually consistent, and once the sea breeze is in, it's like clockwork. However, this wind wasn't what you would call the 'normal' sea breeze associated with Perth."

What happened next was like a slow-moving kite horror show! Kites heading into an abyss of no wind, right on the finish line. So, with about 20 of the leading kites in the water, what was to happen next? Well, the wind returned, and the middle to back of the fleet started to arrive, with only the waterlogged foil kites facing difficulties to get going again. A delighted and surprised 'middle marker' kiteboarder, Peter Mcewen, took line honours in 2015!

2016 race was a return to the norm and in fact, the best ever assembled fleet, certainly in terms of who was on the podium. Nico Parlier blitzed the field, followed by Florian Gruber and Florian Trittel close behind in third. The question being asked that day though was "Where was Olly Bridge?" You'd think it was an America's Cup if we told you his winged keel had fallen off at the start (Yes, that's precisely what happened) The locals were quick to jump to his rescue in the next 48 hours and returned with a boat and dive tanks and retrieved his foil. No salvage rights to be contested!

The female fleet was enjoying an unbeaten run too with Russian Elena Kalinea pushing Steph Bridge harder than she had been used to in the L2L, yet still coming out on top – both Steph and Elena on foil setups.

That same year was also a year of kiteboarding royalty, with Aaron Hadlow joining the Lighthouse to Leighton action and taking line honours, wearing boots and in a very respectable time of 23:00 minutes. Is there no end to that man's talents?

2017 was the year of the family double! Steph Bridge and Olly Bridge both came in 1st. Olly wanted the trophy back, having had two disappointing years in 2015 and 2016 through no real fault of his own, just a bit of bad luck. 

Aaron was also back in 2017 to defend his L2L title, and being a Red Bull athlete, it would have been a great back to back double. However, the lighter breezes on the day and a smaller kite allowed a powered-up Jordan Girdis (who had borrowed the Race Directors promotional Red Bull, long waterline, carbon fibre Nomad Wave twintip board; rumoured to be super-fast), to nudge the multiple World Champion to second place, only by 30 seconds! Not often do you see Aaron being beaten and the pay off for Jordan, who made a strategic change to race twintip rather than foil board was rewarded.

2018 was time for a different Bridge to pick up the silverware, or in the case of the Red Bull Lighthouse to Leighton, unique, custom trophy! Guy Bridge who was enjoying a great year, as European Champion, Vice World Champion and overall winner of the HydroFoil Pro Tour. Locals Alty Frisby and Mani Biscopps rounded out the male podium and WA stalwart of the kiting community, Claire May even surprised herself to win the Foil/Race category in the female division.

And so, 2019 arrived! Year 10. Where did the last decade go? To be consistent with the consecutive staging of the race, organisers selected to use the first reserve day and stage the race on Sunday, with the wind gods selecting that Saturday was not to be, with rain and wind from a pure Westerly direction not conducive to staging the race successfully.

"Over the years of staging the race, I certainly have become more risk-averse. That's not to say we weren't serious in the early days, we were, totally. However, with increasing numbers of riders racing across Gage Roads, more things could go wrong beyond my control. All I can do is make a good decision with the available weather data" said Tim. "This year, in fact, we had the good fortune to be invited into the Bureau of Meteorology as one of the racers is a meteorologist. Access to that service was awesome and made a tough decision to shift to the following day so much more pain-free," he added.

Olly Bridge and Jean De Falbaire led the 145 strong fleet home in style, both on foils and Lincoln Sullivan, a fast local WA local rounding out the podium on a Team Venta course board with weed slicing fins. Lincoln only trailed Jean by 11 seconds which goes to show that the Red Bull L2L can be anyone's race on any board just depending on conditions.

To secure his win, #3 Olly needed to jump clear and remove weed from his foil on multiple occasions – this was a challenge resulted in him not setting a new record time, despite the strong South West wind of 23 to 25 knots, on reflection these were strongest wind conditions the race has been staged in.

Additional sponsorship from GoPro, Mrs Macs and Action Sports WA supported the race in 2019 and funded an entry-level tracking where competitors used their mobile phones to be followed at https://www.georacing.com/events/?Red+Bull+Lighthouse+to+Leighton/id/101869.

In 2020, the plan will be to provide every competitor with their own GPS enabled chip to take the tracking to offer up one notch further, and allow people on the beach to see the race unfold before it gets into view!

To the next decade! Chapeau to everyone who has been involved in the race as either competitor, volunteer or official. I know that Tim is very proud of what he has achieved since the first edition. There are many, many moving parts to the race, from getting 150 competitors to a somewhat remote island, 19 kilometres off of the mainland of Australia - not to mention all their kit, and then getting them safely back again. I know he sleeps soundly once everyone is accounted for and is back at the host yacht club; Fremantle Sailing Club and enjoying a cold Red Bull, likely with a double vodka!

As media partners for the last few years, I encourage and extend the warm invitation to experienced kiteboarders from around the world to head over to Perth to enjoy what is a truly unique, well-run event in the global kiteboarding calendar. I regrettably missed the 2019 race but will be back in full force for 2020. It’s easily one of the best events on the calendar and anyone can enter!

Mens Overall & Mens Foil 

  1. Olly Bridge (Devon, UK) 21:08
  2. Jean De Falbaire (Mauritius) 23:11
  3. Lincoln Sullivan (Bicton, WA) 23:22

Mens Twintip

  1. Daniel Anderson (Coolbellup, WA) 25:33   
  2. Charlie Wise (Cottesloe, WA) 26:43
  3. Jason Lewis (Safety Bay) 27:25

Womens Foil

  1. Breiana Whitehead (Townsville Qld) 28:07
  2. Natalie Broughton (Palmyra, WA) 40:25
  3. Claire May (Trigg, WA) 40:28   

Womens Twintip

  1. Rachael Hughes (Shoalwater, WA) 32:09   
  2. Rebecca Bury (North Fremantle WA) 35:04
  3. Megan Barnett (Devon, UK) 35:22
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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