Big Air Open – Kitesurf Competition
June 12, 2012
The Big Air Open has been confirmed to take place on Saturday 14th July 2012 in Worthing, West Sussex. Part of the Olympic Torch Relay Weekend, Worthing is proud to welcome a new sporting event into the town which is set to become a classic Kitesurfing event well beyond the Olympic year and Luke from Kitesurfkings is stoked to have been invited to judge the competition.
The event is based on a ‘how high can you jump format’ with points being awarded for the maximum height reached. If wind conditions on the day do not allow for a big air format to be run alternative arrangements will be made.
Entry to the event is limited to a total of 36 places, 12 of which are local wildcards. Local wildcards will be selected by The Big Air Open Committee and announced at a later date. The event is open to male and female competitors, and the format is based on a total of 28 heats, each of them lasting 8 minutes. There will be 3 riders on the water in each heat, with the 1st and 2nd place finishers advancing to the next round. The overall Champion and winner of The Big Air Open 2012 will be determined by a final heat of 3 riders.
The entry fee for competitors is £30, with only 36 places available to compete. Registration will be open from 14 March 2012 and the minimum age for competitors is 18.
Lewis Crathern, Worthing resident known internationally for his big air skills & Pier Jumping, is actively involved in the event and commented: “I am extremely excited about The Big Air Open, especially as it takes place in my home town of Worthing. This will be an amazing format for Kitesurfers of all levels to take on the wind and waves, show off their skills and compete for The Big Air Open Title. We have all worked hard on making this one of the best Kitesurfing competitions of the year!”
Read on to see how you can get ready for July’s competition…
The Wind looks great towards the end of this week and Lewis Crathern is offering ‘big air’ coaching to keep in theme with “The Big Air Open” event by running 2 clinics on Big Air. In each clinic Lew will focus on various techniques to gain bigger jumps.
If you have just started working out how to get airborne and are looking to improve he’d like to see you there, if you’re getting air and looking to add some style to it (maybe a back roll or front roll?) he’ll look at that too.
Friday 14th June 2:30 pm – Big Air
Saturday 15th June 3:30 pm – Big Air
Edging Technique, Kite Control, Hand Position, Kite Choice, Posture, Kite Setup…. you name it Lew covers it….
Clinics will run for 2.5 hours, tea and coffee will be available before the clinic during briefing and debriefing in Lew’s van. The price is just £55 per person and 10% goes to the RNLI. Good on you Lew!
Contact: lewis@windmachine.biz to reserve your place. *Max 4 per person per session so don’t hang around!
Whilst we’re sharing Lew’s news you need to know about the next Lewis Crathern Kite Clinics happening in October 2012. Luke Denny (of Kitesurfkings) taught alongside Lew last year for his Ras Sudr Kite Clinic, they enjoyed it, the students loved it! This year there are fewer spaces on offer for the Lewis Crathern Kite Clinic so that Lew can coach his group of upwinders and jumpers and Kitesurfkings are freed up to coach beginner and intermediate kiters… hopefully ion preparation for future Lewis Crathern Kite Clinics. There are two Lewis Crathern Kite Clinic options: 6th-13th and 14th – 21st October 2012…
Lewis Crathern Kitesurfing Clinics – Egypt
‘’This October I’ve teamed up With African Space to put on two clinics in Egypt. I’ve been to Ras Sudr 5 times and I really believe its the best place to go for people to progress. In all my trips to Ras I’ve never had less then 5 out of 7 days of wind and I considered those weeks as bad weeks! Paradise Beach Resort provides the perfect place to take a week out and focus on kitesurfing. Its very uncrowded, waist deep for ages, warm (I don’t wear a suit much), sunny and I suppose I could go on and on but to view the full info on the trip download the PDF here http://www.windmachine.biz/lewisegyptclinics.pdf’’
Kitesurfing +++ in South Africa
April 28, 2011
Location: South Africa, based in Table View, Cape Town
Date: Mid/End November 2011
Duration: 14 Days
Do you have a passion for life? Love kite surfing? Want to get away this winter?
100%!
Prepare to get excited then as this could be for you…
We love kite surfing around Cape Town and have always been in ore of how windy the area can be. On one of our recent trips we spent two weeks living an intrepid kite surfers’ dream and have been working hard to make it a reality for our customers.
Staying together in a super cool surf house facing the famous Table Top Mountain we’ll have kite surfing on our door step, kiting on tap, nice! When kiting from home we’ll be able to downwind to and from our own front door or kite in front of our digs to stay closer to ‘refreshments’. One of our South Africa based guides will be living with us for the duration of our stay and hooking us up with luxury breakfasts each day to best fuel us for what’s in store…
Driven around in a couple of seriously stylish VW T2 camper vans our guides will take us to South Africa’s best kite surfing locations, some well know but many top secret. We’ll be hitting numerous beaches to kite surf flat water and wave spots that will have you rubbing your eyes with disbelief or clearing tears of joy!
As well as kite surfing there’s unlimited us of SUP boards in front of our surf house and we’ll also be taking them on the road with us when we go exploring, there are places that need to be seen but just sitting and admiring… not as much fun as exploring with SUP’s.
Other activities we have planned include kloofing Suicide Gorge, hiking Table Mountain and abseiling down, hike up Lions Head Mountain and paraglide down, Lions Head full moon, SUP on Franschoek Dam, rock climbing, wakeboarding at the cable park, trips with rubber duck to tow in, wakeboard, fish and catch lobsters. There are additional activities like shark cage or scuba diving that you might want to try which can also be arranged. Some activities might not be for you and they’ll always be kite surfing alternatives. There’s too much to list but have to mention the famous South African braai and sun downers.
Kite surfing is our number one aim and although this is not specifically a coaching trip you will learn masses and we’ll help you to nail tricks you’re struggling with as well as getting the most out of the waves. Our friends that will be guiding us along our adventure are some of the nicest guys and gals we’ve had the pleasure of meeting, they have helped us realise an intrepid kite surfer’s dream trip and are exceptionally good kiters themselves.
Aaron Hadlow, Ruben Lenten and Lewis Crathern choose to frequent Cape Town and the surrounding areas during the winter months because of the solid wind, awesome weather and epic kite surfing; we’re after the same but offering so much more.
We’re excited and hope you are too; we guarantee this will be an amazing trip that will stay with you forever. If you are interested in joining us then please get in contact with our head kite surf guide/instructor, Luke (yeah me, the one from Kitesurfkings), he’ll be one of your guides in South Africa and has recently returned from such a trip. You can also get in touch with African Space who are the guys making this trip happen through their extensive contacts and years of experience in South Africa. You can email the kite surfing team at kitesurfing@africanspace.co.uk or call the office on 0121 382 9000.
Although we do run beginner trips this is not one of them, everyone must have the minimum competency of being able to stay up wind and perform a deep water pack down. If you’re not quite there yet then contact us about making a plan so you can be or have a think about joining one of our beginner or intermediate trips.
Kitesurf Open Day
March 29, 2011
Thank you to all the nice dudes that came to say hi on Saturday down at Coalition, to the guys at Coalition for a quality afternoon, to XYZ for helping to set the day up and to the Kitesurfkings Crew for making it a fun place to be…
The weather report hadn’t been great for the south coast of England over the weekend but the weather forecasts hadn’t taken into account the ‘Brighton effect’ and true to form it was another super sweet day. The sun beamed into Coalition where we had kit set up and freebies for people to take away. Lewis Crathern was down for the day to chat about his Kite Clinics which are being run with Kitesurfkings but he was also happy chatting kiting, meeting the crowds and having his picture taken by the famous Brighton Pier. Lewis brought his 7m Slingshot that he jumped Brighton Pier with and we had some of Lewis’ videos playing inside but the weather was so sweet that most of the time was spent outside, using beer to cool ourselves from the heat of the day!
Lots of people came and found out about kitesurfing for their first time and others came to chat about what they would like to change or improve about their kiting. It was an eye opener that so many people had such little insight into the sport, whether already kiting or not and that there’s a need for such events to help and educate people that are either looking at or already kitesurfing or powerkiting. We had fun too and so will certainly hook up another open day again and have plans of other kite session that’ll soon be released, watch this space.
Two potential kiters at 9 o’clock…
For those of you that didn’t come on Saturday but are already kiting, or think you can get good enough by the 16th October, need to get the 16th to 23rd October into you diaries for Lewis Crathern’s Intermediate/Advanced Kitesurf Kite Clinic. We’re kicking this cheeky trip off at just £699 so get your names down for it now!
Other pics from the day…
Nice Day at the Seaside
March 25, 2011
Pop into Coalition tomorrow afternoon from 13.00 and say hi…
There’s a Kitesurfkings Open Day… this entails meeting up at a great venue on Brighton sea front, chatting kitesurfing and maybe a cheeky pint. We’ll have kit to check out and be happy to answer any questions; Lewis Crathern will be chatting about his October Kite Clinic and will talk us through jumping Brighton Pier.
It’ll be a nice afternoon, the footie doesn’t start until 15.00 and we’ve even hooked up a £7.50 beer and burger promotion with our friends at Coalition… we thank you.
Some one day only deals to be had… ooh!
Jake & Lewis Jump Worthing Pier!
November 16, 2009
Here’s the report from the BBC:
Two kite surfers from West Sussex took advantage of strong winds on the south coast to realise an ambition to jump over Worthing pier.
Jake Scrace, 25, and Lewis Crathern, 24, had been planning Monday morning’s jump for three years but had to wait for perfect weather conditions.
Carpenter Mr Scrace, who makes kite boards, and professional kite surfer Mr Crathern are both from Worthing.
Between them they have 16 years’ experience in the sport.
They took off from Goring to the west side of Worthing in gusts of wind that were more than 40mph, and had two helpers on the beach.
The pair said the jump was quite hazardous and should not be attempted by amateurs.
“It was probably the most terrifying thing I’ve ever built up to,” said Scrace.
“We were practising down the road and we were pretty confident we were going to do it but as soon as we got nearer the pier it was quite hard.”
Mr Crathern said the jump was “epic”.
“It was everything I’ve lived for – amazing,” he said.
Here’s the link to check out the video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/8362671.stm?ls
Kitesurfkings say: A massive big up, well done boys, that’s what we call balls of steel!