Diary of a Competition Virgin
Date Posted 9/05/2010
Dear diary:
The BKSA chronicles begin…
Watergate bay loomed ahead of us. Mum, Dad, and Me - shaking in my little wetsuit boots! Soon after pulling into the car park in our shiny (not) VW, we noticed a large crowd of people huddled around a muddy little hut marked with a "BKSA" flag. The recently growing Oh-So scary feeling I had of having to plunge headfirst into the "Official Kiteboarding competition" (after being convinced by my first sponsor; Steph Bridge) had suddenly disappeared. And on going to register, I unexpectedly came into contact with a hearty handshake and an unexpected goody bag from none other than Richard Gowers himself, the Head of the BKSA.
Blinded like a rabbit in headlights, I shied away from the talkative groups of young kitesurfers to get my kit out, desperate to be on the water. I ended up sat, half in my wetsuit, on the windless beach, in the expected rain, after failing to launch my kite, with a miserable look on my face. Enter characters such as Tom Butler, Dan Sweeney and Martin Tatchell. "This wind sucks eh?" commented these strange teenagers, complimenting my kit and bragging about recent mega-loop sessions. I stood up, returned compliments, and bragged back… Hold on, I thought, and at this moment in time, something clicked in my mind. These are my kind of people! Man I have been waiting for so long to tell someone who actually cares about this mental kiteloop I burned on the other day, and this sick video I found on vimeo with this guy called Ruben Lenten. And then to find out they all love Ruben Lenten! Then tell me about this world champion guy who came from Cornwall!
The BKSA lot really are the best bunch of kiters you could find, and anyone who misses the chance to hang out with any of them is seriously loosing out. Don't be scared if it's your first time competing or you're just coming to watch. Take every opportunity given to you.
Barrow-in-Furness - The journey begins!
The sun is shining, and the wind is blowing. Is this your perfect day? Well my first competition was held on this day!
After the long drive to Barrow, and the quick BKSA meeting in the morning, my 10m Torch was out of the bag and onto the water in seconds. The chance to kite with other people my age, too tempting to resist for the weak hearted such as myself. 3 hrs and a sunburn later, I surface on the beach to find my wide eyed parents shouting at me to say that my heat is on in 5 minutes! The adrenaline kicks in, the rashie is on, and the horn goes!... Unbelievably the heats go great! Minor crashes and a wide repertoire of tricks see me through to the Final! By which stage I am absolutely mashed! But stoked!!! 3 red bulls on the go, allow me to keep going, up against fellow Edge (Steph Bridge's shop) rider Jack Shoulder from Exmouth, and Jack Daykin. Finishing 2nd, and super knackered, I came away, knowing never to spend so much time on the water before competing. Each heat requires 110% if you're going to make it to the top, and free-riding does nothing to aid this! (Just before comps anyway)
Take heed, fellow kiters! Don't waste time and energy, be focused on your upcoming heats and know what tricks you're going to do! Concentrate on the wins, forget the losses.
Hunstanton - Sunny Hunny
The recent forecast for Hunstanton had me buzzing in the car like a… a buzzy buzzy bee! (plus I had my girl Lucca in the car). So when we turned up an got our thing goin on the water before the comp started, I had to calm myself down to get off the water and prepare before my heat. I made it through to the final to my surprise again! Hell yer!
By this time of the day the wind was really up and down, and in the 4 minutes before my last heat I realised I might need my 7m! Dad was on the job, and off down the beach like a "bat outta hell"?... Anyway, within a minute we had the kite set up, and after hooking in, I was like hmm, maybe the 10's ok? So we changed again, then again, then again! I was seriously confused as to which kite to use, but ended up on the 7 and as the horn went, well you can guess (the wind dropped). So I finished 3rd behind Dan Sweeney and Jack Shoulder.
I learnt two of the most important things about competition that day; ALWAYS have your kit ready. You can never tell what the wind will do, be prepared! Secondly, never concentrate on 1 or 2 tricks, I spent almost my whole final trying to land a Slim and a Blind judge, instead of doing the tricks I knew I could do. Have a Trick A and a Trick B for each run.
Aberdeen - keightsewerfing (the Scottish version)
Rolling over to Aberdeen we weren't shocked at the beauty of the beach when we arrived, having just had one of the funnest weeks of my life on the Follow the Wind tour around Scotland (consisting of lots a drinking, kiting, A Frenchman, a broken leg, and some properly amazing scenery.)
I had been training super hard to get a good result for the rest of the year, and felt prepared for the competition. Regulars, Jack Shoulder and I battled with the Scottish riders to get to the final and at the end of the day everyone was knackered. It was super cool at the final because a lagoon had formed in front of the judges and we were all going in powered on 7s, taking it in turns to pull off tricks. I went for my best tricks after nailing the basics, and felt I had pulled off a decent heat, till I saw Jack pulling off things like Kiteloop handlepasses and Danglepasses! I was like wah?!
Never underestimate the competition, never forget that everyone is constantly improving. Take a look at the competition and improve on it. It's all about pushing yourself; A week after Aberdeen I landed my first kiteloop pass.
Littlehampton, and finally the final in Brighton. The finale. Then finish.
In Finland…No I mean in Littlehampton, there was no wind but James Longmuir decided to put me up on the Naish team after I'd been getting good results, and set me up with some of the new kit soon after.
When Brighton arrived I was like "All or nothing!", but the wind died on the first day. So we waited for the next day to arrive by playing handlepass on a hanging bar… A whole day on this bar resulted in me having sore arms for the next 2 weeks. So when I started kiting just before my first heat, I launched my kite to find I had no strength! And then there was the problem of getting out through Brighton shore-dump! I borrowed a 12m Torch 09 to be more powered during my heats and went on to fight extremely hard with the extreme chop and also with my arms, to get to the final. Jack hadn't made it, so it was me, Dan Sweeney, and Craig smith. I struggled to land hard moves, and 2 times passed to grab the Chicken finger or 5th Line, but it was no match for Dan, who landed a sweet blind judge infront of me. I finished 2nd in the end though!
Basically, the morale of the story, is that to succeed in competition, it all needs to come together. Nobody ever won a heat with bad luck! Train, exercise, simulate, kit up, and prepare as much as you can if you want to be the best. I didn't do as well as possible because of these reasons, but the year that I had on the BKSA tour was one of the best experiences of my life and all the people on it have had a huge influence on me. Competing or not, it's amazing to be able to hang out with people who share the same love of the sport (If you haven't been to an event, get to one!). So thanks to all the guys who run it. It may not have the highest profile in the world, but if it wasn't for them, where would we be now?
Damn, I've got to go eat tea now… Night, night Diary!
Sam Moore x