The Winner of the Red Bull Prize of an all expenses paid trip to the Red Bull King of the Air challenge in Cape Town was won by Bruce Hough.
Bruce kindly shared his experience with us and sent in this report. thanks Bruce!
I would like to thank you, Cedric (Cannon Rocks Contest organizer) and P. (RED BULL) for the fantastic competition that you ran in January which has grown over the last three years and will hopefully continue to grow, and with the help of RED BULL I know this is possible. One of the great prizes that was up for grabs was an all expenses paid trip to go and watch the RED BULL KING OF THE AIR in Cape Town. I was so taken back when I heard that I was the winner of this great prize.
When the 1st of February came and I received my plane tickets. I was so amped I could hardly sleep. With my kites and a change of underwear packed I was ready to go.
Knowing I’m in PE I thought I would have a quick and painless airport experience. So u can imagine the surprise I had when I got to the airport and it was jam packed at 7:00 am with soccer supporters.
After meeting up with P. things looked up again as he had already checked us in online, baggage check in was a breeze, and luckily no problems with the 20Kg of kiting equipment I had (can’t leave any kites behind).
Arriving in Cape Town RED BULL had arranged a hire car for us, so a minute to set the GPS for Big Bay and we where on our way. Cape Town isn’t as big I thought, it only took 25 minutes to get there, but it took another 25 minutes to find a parking.
With the wind starting to blow and the crowd starting to gather the scene was set for a great competition.
Receiving some awesome RED BULL gear and getting treated as one of the top riders in world, was one of the highlights of the trip.
Seeing the great conditions that was in front off me , I grabbed my gear and made my way down the beach ( just on the edge of the competition area) and had a great session.
While i was kiting I could here the commentators talking and saying that Robby Naish was gonna go out and give a show to the crowd during the break. Next thing I new Robby had made his was down the beach and was giving me a show (feels great to be able to say that I kited with Robby Naish)
As the heats went on the wind got stronger and the jumps and mega loops got more insane
I couldn’t believe it when I saw Kevin langeree put up a 10m kite in 35- 40 knots. The guys were really starting to go big with the finals and jumps were getting as high as 25m and up to 250m long.
‘ I have to take my hat off ‘for the RED BULL guys for putting together an awesome event that couldn’t have gone any better. Iv seen that there is hell of a lot of stuff that needs to happen and be organized for a small comp like the Cannon Rocks Classic to run, so I can only imagine how much work goes into getting the biggest kite surfing comp in the world to run as perfectly as it did. BIG UP to RED BULL.
With the comp done and the after party starting with a few beers and enough pizzas and boerewors to feed an army. I managed to chat with a few of the guys that have inspired the way that I ride and try go big, and got a few helpfull tips I’m gonna try out in the water.
As the night went on, the early morning i had started to catch up with me and not even the huge amount of RED BULL I had drunk during the day could keep us going. So we jumped in the car and made our way to the Hotel that were staying in.
The next day we had a nice sleep in and slowly made our way to the RED BULL head-office, where I was treated with the best bacon cheese and avo croissant for breakfast.
With that done we made our way back to the airport and back to reality of work.
Thanks again to RED BULL for such a awesome experience…
