When I arrived at Ayr just before dusk on Thursday, there was a good amount of wind and one kite was out on the water. The wind blew all night long, and we were all looking forward to a good competition the next day.
When Friday came, the wind was still blowing strong and I was eager to get out on the water, so pumped up the 2011 Chrono2 which I had on demo, and was first out on the water. An excellent kite which builds on the success of its predecessor - I'll leave a full review for another time though.
By mid morning the pro's had hit the water and were a real spectacle to watch in the 20-25 knot conditions. The competitions were all wrapped up by early afternoon, leaving plenty of time for free-riding for the rest of the day.
The winds were somewhat lighter on Saturday, so opted to compete with my trusty 15m Chrono, which gave me a real power advantage over the others. I won my heat with a clear margin with a railey to blind, big grabbed frontloop, tantrum, big s-bend and a switch pop to blind which put me straight through to the final against two of the locals.
The final started well, pulled a big railey, a tantrum and a backroll transition, but crashed out on a railey to blind and my kite was unrecoverable. This gave me a 3rd position podium placing, ahead of the current championship leader (Marcus Hawkins) who came 4th, putting me in 3rd place overall. This leaves it all open for the final event in Blackpool in a months time.
Saturday night was party time, and we all hit Cactus Jak's which soon turned into a crazy evening with most of us showing our competitive side on the Bucking Bronco. Nicky Rudd Schooled us all with a 120 second ride and scored a bottle of bubbly for her efforts!
Sunday was more sedate, we were all feeling the effects of the night before, and the wind was pretty light also. The landboarders put on a good show, but there wasn't enough wind for a best trick competition on the water. After the prizegiving ceremony we all packed up and made our way home after a truely epic weekend.
Video is available now here : http://www.vimeo.com/15167854
When Friday came, the wind was still blowing strong and I was eager to get out on the water, so pumped up the 2011 Chrono2 which I had on demo, and was first out on the water. An excellent kite which builds on the success of its predecessor - I'll leave a full review for another time though.
By mid morning the pro's had hit the water and were a real spectacle to watch in the 20-25 knot conditions. The competitions were all wrapped up by early afternoon, leaving plenty of time for free-riding for the rest of the day.
The winds were somewhat lighter on Saturday, so opted to compete with my trusty 15m Chrono, which gave me a real power advantage over the others. I won my heat with a clear margin with a railey to blind, big grabbed frontloop, tantrum, big s-bend and a switch pop to blind which put me straight through to the final against two of the locals.
The final started well, pulled a big railey, a tantrum and a backroll transition, but crashed out on a railey to blind and my kite was unrecoverable. This gave me a 3rd position podium placing, ahead of the current championship leader (Marcus Hawkins) who came 4th, putting me in 3rd place overall. This leaves it all open for the final event in Blackpool in a months time.
Saturday night was party time, and we all hit Cactus Jak's which soon turned into a crazy evening with most of us showing our competitive side on the Bucking Bronco. Nicky Rudd Schooled us all with a 120 second ride and scored a bottle of bubbly for her efforts!
Sunday was more sedate, we were all feeling the effects of the night before, and the wind was pretty light also. The landboarders put on a good show, but there wasn't enough wind for a best trick competition on the water. After the prizegiving ceremony we all packed up and made our way home after a truely epic weekend.
Video is available now here : http://www.vimeo.com/15167854
Well-done Pete, and thanks for putting some life into this blog. I'm amazed that a kite as big as the Chrono 15 is useful in free-style, is this a first ?
ReplyDeleteRichard.
Heh, possibly a first :) Every event I go to I hope its going to be light enough for the 15 - I'm a light wind specialist, and my biggest kite is always my favourite and most used!
ReplyDeleteGot my 2011 15m Chrono today.... can't wait to get out on it (crossing my fingers for some wind tonight :))