RWE Westward Ho! Freestyle

 RWE Kite week at Westward Ho!

Sponsors – RWE , Sport England, Torridge District Council

Co- Sponsors Kitemare  and Flexifoil

Tour Sponsors , Ion , Palmera Local , Best , Ocean Rodeo

Media Sponsors –  Kitesurf  , I Kitesurf , Kiteworld and Kitegirl 

Thursday was the last day of the Wavemaster and the day broke to a nice swell – however the wind that was forecast had disappeared .

The Pro Men and Ladies signed in to also compete on the Thursday – competitions was put on hold .

There was plenty to do for the race crew as Wednesday night had seen the biggest swell for 2 years hit North Devon and as a result the whole event site got flooded and quite a few rocks and wood had to be removed from the site.

The wind started to pick up around lunchtime and the Race Crew and competitors got ready to go .

The first round kicked off with most competitors competing on 12 m kites with a dropping tide and some small kickers the competition was fast and furious

It was a clear standout for Pro Men Dan Sweeney who won both of his rounds ahead of Richard Flindall and Jon Bleiker to take the overall title for the year . Dan has been competing for 5 years to get this top spot – no easy route !

In the ladies it was a 1 = as both the ladies won one event each Holly Kennedy and Polly Crathorne – however on points for the year Polly got the top spot with Danielle Durrant taking 3^rd.

On the Friday all the other competitors turned up for all the other disciplines unfortunately there was not a lot of wind so a lot chilled out in the Autumn sun or caught a few waves as the swell was still quite nice.

That evening people went to the Waterfront and there was a Pool competition organised which was great fun.

Saturday and the tide took a while to drop down – the wind was very light however there was just enough to start rounds of Freestyle kitelandboard and Kitebuggy . There was quite a turnout with riders coming from Germany and France to compete . Most were using foils and it was amazing the moves that were being made – Emmanuel Norman from Germany doing some great riding including 7 forward rotations – how dizzy was he ?

Unfortunately the wind dies before all the finals so all were awarded 1^st = in all fleets

There was then a quick dash to the Westward Arms for prize giving where 130 people packed the place to see the medals and end of year trophies awarded to all

John Craig from RWE presented the trophies to the happy riders

Special thanks to race crew , Nigel , Pete , Robin , Ali , Lewis, Richard , Phil , Josh  and all the other helpers

Dan and Matt from RNLI and Ti from Hardcore Kitesurf Massage

Results from Westward Ho rounds –

Land

Am Men’s Landboard 1^st =

Pascal Schmidt
Chris Walker
Will Rose

Buggy

1 = Adam Toms  Josh Hough  Richard Dent

Men Landboard

1=  Emmanuel Norman , Ash Garwood , Laurent Guyot

Two rounds of Pro Men’s and Ladies

Ladies

1= Polly Crathorne and Holly Kennedy

3 Danielle Durrant

Men’s

1 Dan Sweeney
2 Richard Flindall
3 John Blieker

Wavemasters

Men’s

1^st George Noble
2^nd Paul Stebbings
3^rd Sean Facey

Ladies

1^st Keira Alwood
2^nd Sarah Rowley
3^rd Sammy Wiseman

Seniors

1^st Marc Rowley
2^nd Trevor Hale
3^rd Richard Wiseman