BKC Freestyle Tour reaches an exciting Conclusion at Hayling Island

After a long and sometimes (weather related) frustrating wait for a return to competition and contestable conditions, the BKC Tour wrapped up in fine style at the Armada Festival on Hayling Island sea front last weekend.

Nearly 3000 spectators were on site to see the Junior Amateur and Pro fleets do battle to decide who was going to take the title in each division.

This years tour as we all know was disrupted by COVID initially with the unfortunate cancellation of the Skegness event. Before we give a detailed report on the Hayling event a liitle about the ramsgate event in August…

RAMSGATE

21st -22nd August

The riders arrived at Ramsgate with a hope of contestable conditions and unfortunately the wind gods decided that they were not going to play ball.

Teasing us yet again on a competition weekend, but as a group of kiters the optimism and enthusiasm to be able to meet up on the beach shone through. To keep everyone entertained there was a foil pumping competition, a wing foil race with everyone finding ways to keep entertained and a good time was had by all. Without contestable conditions the registered riders shared the points equally among their divisions making the next and final tour stop of the BKC 2021 a winner takes all event….

Ramsgate Event Video


HAYLING ISLAND

11th – 12th September

With the entire tour hanging on Hayling Island everyone was waiting and hoping for enough wind to get a contest….
The long range forecast was not looking great into the run up to the event but as the weekend approached it started to improve and anticipation was high.

Skippers Briefing BKC HaylingThe contest area was part of the Armada festival site with great views for spectators and close access for the riders to enable those inevitable last minute quiver changes. Those arriving on Friday had good conditions to get in a bit of practice before the main event on Saturday.

With the wind building we kicked off with the junior fleets, kit selection became critical as larger kites were the order of the day the enthusiasm with wich the junior fleets threw themselves in to their tricks was inspiring and parents took on the role of support crew and upwind Taxis for their kids when they dropped downwind out of the competition zone.The Judges in the BKSA truck perched on the top of the shingle bank had a perfect view of the proceedings but had some tough calls separating the riders in close fought heats, all the way through to the finals.

The wind decided to ease off a little at times so the odd black flag was required, the forecast was for the breeze to peak at about 3pm. and drop off after that. With light wind forecast for Saturday Evening and all of Sunday the BKSA event team were keen to keep the momentum going so that all the fleets could get a result.

So we moved swiftly on to the knockout rounds with the amateur fleet still on big kites the amateur men and women progressed through their rounds with some smooth and some not so smooth but highly entertaining aerial attempts, the crowd on the beach was building nicely as was the wind and the atmosphere, with audible cheers and oohs from the beach to spur the riders on.

With the wind at it’s best and the high tide, the Open categories took to the water with all contestants pushing each other with increasing apmlitude and technicality. Again the judges were being kept on their toes with some close fought heats but eventually we were all set for the finals in each category.

With the wind still blowing and the crowd at it’s highest the finals provided a great spectacle with loud applause and cheers for each trick landed succesfully…

Hayling Armada Results

Junior Boys

Position Rider
First Archie Luxton
Second Alfie Luxton
Third Charlie Mariner

Junior Girls

Position Rider
First Anya Ward
Second Holly King
Third Thea Roches

Amateur Women

Position Rider
First Rosi Muensterer
Second Louise Edge
Third Anna Harries

Amateur Men

Position Rider
First Fraser Eldred
Second Adam Kosinski
Third Ben Nolan

Open Women

Position Rider
First Sukie Robertson
Second Holly Keenan
Third Katie Evans

Open Men

Position Rider
First Craig Smith
Second Mark Spencer
Third Tom Seager

The Crowning of the 2021 Tour Champions

With the points awarded to the faithful for attending the event at Ramsgate the overall champions podiums looked slightly different…

Junior Girls

Position Rider
First Anya Ward
Second Holly King
Third Thea Roches

BKC 2021 Junior Girls Podium

Junior Boys

Position Rider
First Archie Luxton
Second Alfie Luxton
Third Charlie Mariner

BKC 2021 Junior Boys Podium

Amateur Women

Position Rider
First Rosi Muensterer
Second Louise Edge
Third Anna Harries

BKC 2021 Amateur Womens Podium

Amateur Men

Position Rider
First Fraser Eldred
Second Toby Long
Third Adam Kosinski

BKC 2021 Amateur Mens Podium

Open Women

Position Rider
First Katie Evans
Second Sukie Robertson
Third Holly Keenan

BKC 2021 Open Womens Podium

Open Men

Position Rider
First Craig Smith
Second Mark Spencer
Third Tom Seager

BKC 2021 Open Mens Podium

Special mentions…

BKC 2021 Chris Prior AwardThis year on tour we have the Chris Prior spirit of the competition award.

For those who have been around the UK kitesurfing scene it was deservedly and emotionally awarded to Eunice Bergin who has stood on many cold and windy beaches over the years making sure that all of the action gets professionally photographed with a smile and irrepressible spirit, we think Chris would have been proud to see the event award to go in Eunice’s direction.

Thank you to all who attended and let’s hope we can run a full season of events in 2022, so all competitors new and old get training over the winter!

BKC 2021 Champioships Prizegiving