Maggie Cleve 2nd in Snowkite Worlds

Maggie Cleeve from Synergy Kitesports has been attending this years Snowkite World Tour.
She is sponsored by Ozone UK and has been supported by the BKSA. The 1st round was held at the Snowkite Masters and French Open in France at the famous Col du Lauteret from the 15th -22nd December 2007. Unfortunately due to other entrants withdrawing from the competition the organisers were unable to run the womens heats leaving Maggie without a competition result. However the conditions were fantastic giving Maggie plenty of opportunity to push her skills and learn new moves whilst riding with some of the worlds best snowkiters. The 8th -10th February 2008 saw Maggie attending the 2nd round of the Snowkite World Tour 
at the German Open in Reschensee, Italy. This event was held on a frozen lake and combined both freestyle and racing. If you haven’t seen snowkite racing before get yourself along to an event and check it out, it looks mental! Maggie competed in 5 out of the 6 races each over an 8km course. Each race was 20 minutes with riders travelling at warp speeds to complete as many laps as possible. Between ski’s and snowboards there were 50 competitors in each race and after all 6 races Maggie was ranked 14th out of 27 snowboarders. The freestyle heats saw some fierce competition with Maggie throwing F-16’s, Surface passes, 720’s to blind and some nice grabs off the kickers to move through the double elimination heats and secure 2nd place in the women’s freestyle comp. The combined race and freestyle results for the International Women’s Competition are: 1st Iris Tonak 2nd Maggie Cleeve 3rd Marieke Pluschke Next up was the Ozone Snowkite Masters at Bernina Pass in Switzerland from 1st – 5th March. This competition was made up of 4 events including Back Country Race, Best trick, Freestyle and Best Line. The best line competition was a world 1st for snowkiting with heats of 4 riders using kites to
pull them up the mountain. At the top each rider packed away their kite and then descended
the mountain by either ski or snowboard. Points were awarded for choice of route up and down, height gained and freestyle tricks. Maggie used a 7m Ozone Frenzy FX to climb the mountain as the winds were gusting near the top.  Her descent saw a neat line cutting through rocks and below cliffs in some nice powder to
finish in 2nd place. Race day provided a huge spectacle with dozens of kites in the air racing up the side of the mountain. Using an Ozone 12m Manta 2 in the light winds in race 1, Maggie completed the course to finish in 1st place in the womens snowboard category.  Unfortunately after a false start and lack of wind the second race was cancelled. The Best Trick event saw Maggie competing against the men in the snowboard category and pulling out a very smooth kite loop surface pass to secure 5th place. The Freestyle competition saw riders make use of the terrain, along with some kickers and
slide rails. Both new school and old school moves were busted out, with riders throwing some huge airs
to entertain the crowds. Maggie mixed up her usual bag of tricks with some fluid riding in heat 1, though heat 2 saw
her struggle a little due to the lighter winds though consistent riding meant she took 1st place
in the womens snowboard category. Final results for the overall womens competition were. 1st Kari Schibevaag (ski) 2nd Maggie Cleeve (board) 3rd Clarissa Hempel (board) The final round of the Snowkite world tour will be held at Salen in Sweden from 13th -16th March and promises to be an awesome event with a freestyle competition which will be rider judged, a ‘battle of the babes’ freestyle comp and best trick competiton. The rider with the most points from the three rounds of the world tour will be crowned
Snowkite World Champion 2008. We wish Maggie the best of luck at this event.