I set off early Friday morning in hope of
scoring a pre-competition session down at
Lancing, and drove through almost 7 solid
hours of driving rain before finally arriving
on the south coast.
It was raining in Lancing when I arrived
too but the sun soon came out with a
moderate cross-shore breeze. I opted for
my trusty old 18m as I knew it would keep
me going through the lulls, and had a short
but refreshing session after such a long
drive.
The evening was spent eating fish and
chips, sinking a few beers and chatting
to people as they arrived. There was a
lot of excitement about the forecast and
the prospect of some solid kitesurfing
conditions.
Saturday started in a fairly relaxed way,
with a mid-morning briefing with Lewis
Crathern, Rou Chater and Jim Gaunt
opening proceedings. As became the
standard for the event, these were done in
a playful manner and with good humour.
The schedule for the day’s events was
explained - the increasing wind meant
that juniors and ladies would start, before
moving onto the bigger lads later. It was
great to see that multiple world champion
Kevin Langeree had come along too!
By this time all the brands had covered
the beach and nearby grass with tents,
feather flags and gear galore, which was
an awesome sight to behold and hopefully
a vision which will be repeated with events
to come.
After everyone had gotten changed
and sorted their equipment, competition
started with the juniors on kites ranging
BY PETE JONES