Red Bull King of the Air 2014 - Big Bay, Cape Town

 Big Bay Cape Town Sunday the 2nd February. This was the day the organisers had called for the conditions to fit those required to host the King of the Air 2014. 24 of the worlds best kiteboard airtime specialists were lined up. The wind started off a bit light and by the projected start had reached about 18 knots. By 13:00 it was 20 knots and due to increase progressively as he afternoon went on and this is what happened. Within a  couple of hours it was between 25 and 30 knots with gusts of 35. The day was sunny and there were about 10 000 people lining the arena. The riders gave it their all from the start. This was kiteboarding at it's highest level. The crowd was bedazzled by amazing jumps and spectacular tricks and a couple of hard landings. The waves were about 3 foot with 6 foot faces forming pretty acceptable ramps from which to launch. The highest jump exceeded 25 metres and longest air time over 10 seconds. Here's a few pics from the action.

 (To scroll the images click on one of them and then click on the row of small icons at the bottom of the screen.  If not scrolling then go to this link :    http://www.flickr.com/photos/61295995@N05/sets/72157640669341085/  )

The setting with table mountain in the background

Part of the crowd

Nic Jacobsen of Denmark does his signature one foot board off 

Jandre Fraser wildcard from South Africa going up skywards

Johnno Scholte of Holland doing a realistic deadman

Johnno Scholte

Johnno Scholte comfortably inverted

Jerrie van der Kop of Holland looping his kite

Jerrie van der Kop

Lewis Crathern of England comfortably airborne

Shawn Richman of Hawaii was pumping hard and pulling move after move

Shawn Richman contorts his body into a roll while pulling hard on his bar to send his kite into a mega loop 

Shawn Richman

Shawn Richman zooming to the shore to wait for a kicker from which to launch

Shawn performing a roll

Kevin Langeree of Holland with one of the most impressive board offs I have ever seen

Kevin came out firing and aggressive from the start. He also threw in some teasers for the crowds and paparazzi close to the beach. He was the eventual victor and is the King for 2014.

Luke Mcgillewie of South Africa flying high. Note the measuring pole in the background

Reno Romeu of Brazil powering his kite down low

Andries Fourie from South Africa looking really colour coordinated. He came in fourth position.

Reno Romeu of Brazil doing his version of a deadman

Reno Romeu inverted

Ruben Lenten of Holland fully powered. He came in in second position

Not sure who this is but with Aaron Hadlow kite - mega looping

Sam Medysky showing his feet

Jesse Richman put on a great show trying to retain his 2013 crown.

Jesse Richman

Jesse up high and rolling and looping

Jesse Richman

Luke doing a grab

Luke low and powered

Luke grabbing and half board off

Lewis Crathern megalooping

Aaron Hadlow unravels his lines

Ruben inverted and looping

Stephen Akkersdijk of Holland jumping high

Ruben doing his sponsors proud

Sam Medysky of Canada

Kevin de Smidt of Holland

Sam Light

Linus Erdmann of Germany - climbing over every mountain

Sam on his magic carpet

Sam flying happily

Some of the papparazi

Big Bay - Thursday 30.1.14

Heard that the Red Bull competitors were going to practice in the afternoon around 4 p.m. so I went down to the beach to see what was going down. The wind was south east around 20 knots but gusting to 30 knots and a beautiful sunny afternoon. There were many kiters out and also a number of windsurfers - so lot's of action. The red bull guys only  started rigging about 4:30 or so, so I took pics of some of the other kiters and windsurfers enjoying themselves. 

Limbering up with a stretch

Merry go round

Windsurfer doing a backward roll - told you these guys have stoke

Relaxed and straightening the lines after a loop

Red Bull jet ski clears the area where the guys will practice

Robbie Naish announces himself  and the practice session

Practice jump

Kite and the tell tale sign of wind in the backgound - cloud streaming over table mountain

Red Bull kiters out at practice

Big Bay Saturday 25.1.14

Cape Town is cooking. The top riders on the planet are here for the Red Bull King of the Air competition. The waiting period started today. The wind was light in the morning but around 17:00 hrs it picked up enough to entice the world's no 3 kiter, Cristophe Tack to do a bit of a warm up. Here are some of the pics of the session. Cristophe is in the dark wetsuit. Sadfly for Christophe he is not in the line up for the Red Bull event. There was an unidentified kiter in a blue wetsuit that was also pulling some really good moves. The wind was between 16 and 18 knots so huge airs were not on the cards.

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Christophe Tack of Belgium

Sedgefield - Myoli Beach

Have been holidaying in Sedgefield, a town about 500km east of Cape Town. It is located on what is known as the Garden Route, a beautiful stretch of land consisting of forests, mountains, lakes, lagoons, long beaches and coves. There are some very good surf spots such as Victoria Bay, Buffels Bay, Lookout Beach and Mossel Bay. There are however few good kitesurfing spots, partly because of the lack of really powerful prevailing winds and partly due to the topography relative to these winds.
Myoli Beach is the best. It is located in Sedgefield. The south east wind blows cross shore here and there are some cliffs on the east side of the beach which tends to focus the wind so it generally exceeds the forecasts. The sea here is open to the ocean with no peninsulas etc to block or tame the swells. There are sand banks that shift with storms and the tides. The result is a fairly random series of beach breaks, with generally a larger outer break and an inner break. However from a kiting point of view this adds to the fun and challenge of the session.


Was here last year and we had kiteable wind on average every second day. This time the wind was less forthcoming. Here are some pics from one of the few sessions.

A rider amongst the fairly random swells and breaks. 

On the one of the beach breaks.

A more overall view