The Ainsdale KiteBeach Extreme Sports Festival at Ainsdale kicked off on the Friday night for most people.

After arriving at 'The Prison Camp' (Pontins) most people headed straight to The Sands to catch up with and meet new people. A divided kite group was there when I arrived, the buggy racers had claimed the bar area, and the freestyle crowd had claimed the conservatory area with a few in between.

The beach was packed by 9am on Saturday morning, cars and kites all over the place and luckily the weather was favorable, unfortunately the wind was a bit hectic, 15mph gusting to 35'ish is a bit much, even so a lot of the buggy racers went out and tried out the beach, flying up and down the beach, powered one moment, underpowered the next.

Freestylers meanwhile were slowly dropping kite sizes. Those who started on 10m Frenzy's and 9m Sabre's eventually ended up flying 4m Ozone Accesses. Even Peter Lynn Arcs were struggling in the conditions, numerous Venoms, Phantoms and Guerillas being launched and shortly after landed.

As the day went on the race was postponed and eventually cancelled at a race briefing. A wise decision as about 15mins later when it could have started the wind gusted up yet again to what was about 45mph.

Over in the freestyle zone the competitions were held for those daring to give it a go in the atrocious conditions. The results are as follows:

Boarding
1st: Butch
2nd: Chris
3rd: Tom

Buggying:
1st: Wee Man Jack
2nd: Butch
3rd: Ben

Ladies Boarding:
1st: Natz
2nd Nicky
3rd Louise

Best Junior Boarder
James

Best Ladies Buggier
Candice

Best Wipeout (and Best Actor Award!!!)
Dan

Biggest Air
Appo

The Party that night was certainly a memorable one, Flyers, both Powerkiters and Single liners filled the bar and the DJ played some music while everyone drank. The Supercup prize giving was held and then a raffle and auction of various prizes, good (a kite or two) and the bad (who wants a clock with an England flag on it?!). After that the entertainment began. Poi, Diabolo's and Devil Sticks started going all over the place as the experienced put on a show and others had a go and tried some new tricks.

The clocks went back at some point while some were still out messing about, and when others were in bed relaxing, however the Sunday dawned and the rain came down, the beach was soaked and the wind was moderate and gusty, but no-where near as bad as the day before. After a number of people had left however the sky cleared and there was a lot of blue sky. The beach slowly dried up and the freestyle area had a number of boarders and buggiers going all over the place. About 3pm the wind began to kick in and swing round a bit more and kitesizes were dropped once again but everyone had a good time and enjoyed the event.

Not quite on the scale of Middle Wallop and the X-Zone events, but definately a good alternative for those who can't make it down to the South of England. Hopefully the event will continue and grow.

A Massive thanks to everyone who was involved in the organisation and running of the event:
John + Debbie Lewis
The Ainsdale Club
Graham and the Supercup Organisers
The Single Liners
The Sponsors

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 20th, 2006 at 8:34 pm and is filed under Event Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.