​Riders Battle It Out In The 10th EDGE Race Cup
 
The weekend of the 25th-26st of May saw the 10th annual Edge Race Cup, sponsored by Grenadier Estates take place in Exmouth, Devon. Over 30 riders registered for the event with one international riders arriving from USA. The striking fact is that the standard of riding on their hydrofoils has risen appreciably across the board in both fleets, both in terms of speeds achieved and success rate of tacks and gybes, notoriously hard manoeuvres to master. This year in the Gold fleet there were 5 women ‘Kite for Gold’ riders who hadn’t foiled at all last September and the top riders in that fleet weren’t lapping the slower ones as had been the case last year. 
 
Whilst the racing took place some way off shore, the colourful flags and tents at the beach race site were situated where the new Watersports Centre will be constructed within the next 12 months. It is an enviable location, with both extensive sandy beach and waters upon which to kitesurf. Visiting competitors were very complimentary about Exmouth as a venue and the initiative to make it a Centre of Excellence is fully justified. Representatives from different Kite manufacturers attended with demonstrations of gear and coaching available. Many members of public enquired about the event and were keen to find out more about the sport. Competitors were very appreciative of the benefit of free parking generously provided by East Devon District Council who are in the midst of rerouting the road in preparation of full site development.
 
Saturday saw Champagne sailing conditions, sunny waters and winds of 8-12 knots, perfect for the hydrofoilers with 5 races for each fleet being successfully completed. These craft are so incredibly efficient, that the leading riders are able to sustain speeds in excess of 30 knots in such wind strength. The wind dropped on two occasions, necessitating some rescues by the attentive support boat crews. On Sunday, the forecast rain and drizzle held off, but so sadly did the stronger stable wind that was anticipated. The race team did well to set a course and worked hard to get the racing completed. Initially due to a drop in wind causing an abandoned start, the decision was made to initially race only with Gold Fleet because their ‘foil’ kites require less wind to be effective than the inflatable ‘tube’ kites being used by those in Silver fleet. This is the only distinction between the two fleets, although since the faster riders generally were in the Gold Fleet, they sailed an extra lap per race compared to their counterparts in Silver. After 2 Gold fleet Races, the Silver Fleet joined them to complete three races. With the wind finally stable and strong, the grins of racers were biggest when they returned from the final race.  
 
Racing was tight in Gold fleet with Connor Bainbridge and Guy Bridge having a battle royal and trading first and second places. They consistently opened a substantial gap from the others lead by Ellie Aldridge, Josh Carey, Lance Olner, Jemima Crathorne and Maddy Anderson with close racing within the whole fleet. A notable mention goes to Dane Wilson who scored five 3rd places on Saturday before having to return to his 49er Olympic campaign for his native USA.
 
There were battles throughout Silver Fleet, notably for top spot with 15 year old Angus Fellows vying neck and neck with Lee ‘Pasty’ Harvey a Master with a long heritage of Kite Racing. Fellow Junior Mattia Maini had a strong Sunday to finish Third, behind Angus in Second and Pasty winning the chocolates.
 
 
 
Chunk of Devon provided racers on both days with a choice of their delicious steak and vegetarian pasties between races.
 
Following the racing on Saturday, racers were able to enjoy free beer at the Exmouth Festival generously donated by  Crossed Anchors Brewing and discounted food from The Little Tavern whilst seeing the live Music on stage.
 
 
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Edge Water Sports would like to thank all their sponsors who contributed to this year’s Edge Race Cup Grenadier Estates Chunk of Devon Crossed Anchors Brewing Salcombe Gin F-One kiteboarding UK Olly bars British kitesports Duotone kiteboarding UK FATFACE The Beach House Flysurfer Ozone kites Mystic Red Bull ION  Da Kine , Maxtrack and Levitaz
 
Final Results
 
Gold Fleet:
1st – Guy Bridge
2nd – Connor Bainbridge
3rd – Ellie Aldridge
 
Silver Fleet
1st – Lee ‘Pasty’ Harvey
2nd – Angus Fellows
3rd – Mattia Maini
 
Women
1st – Ellie Aldridge
2nd – Maddy Anderson
3rd – Jemima Crathorne
 
Masters
1st - Lee ‘Pasty’ Harvey
2nd – Ian Savage
3rd – Nick Ajderian
 
Youth (U19)
1st - Angus Fellows
2nd -Mattia Maini
3rd – Francesca Maini
 
Junior (U17)
1st - Angus Fellows
2nd -Mattia Maini
3rd – Sandy Bailey
 
 
 
To find out more about EDGE Water Sports please visit:
http://www.edgewatersports.com/
 

Having picked up a rib injury this week, meaning I am now off the water for a bit, I can look back on the past couple of months which have been going off!After a windless summer, the wind and waves turned up in Cornwall just as the new DUOTONE kites and boards were launched. Boy the new kit is so good, perfect for all kitesurfing disciplines. Check out the full range in our shop http://www.pastyadventures.co.uk/duotone-kitesurfing-shop.html  or at https://www.duotonesports.com/

The middle of September saw the British Kitesurfing Wave Championships held at Gwithian. With a great turn out and two days of wind and waves, I was super stoked to regain my title for the 6th year in a row, winning the Pro mens division riding the Duotone Neo 9m and Pro Wam 6’0. Read the full event report at https://www.britishkitesports.org/news/bksa-wavemasters-2018/
​
Next it was back on the Foil for the Edge Cup, British Kitefoiling Championships in Exmouth over the last weekend of September. The biggest turn out for the last few years had light wind on Saturday followed by 7 races run all on Sunday in tricky gusty nw wind. After limited time on the foil this year I was happy to take 2nd in the Masters, although my legs paid the price and I struggled to walk on the Tuesday after! Well done to Olly Bridge for making it 5 years in a row as British Champ.
Here come the storms-

October kicked in with storm after storm producing great Windsurfing and Kitesurfing all over the Country. With a crazy forecast we decided to head north for The Tiree Wave Classic windsurfing event. Big winds and waves challenged everyone over the week with a lot of cancelled ferries but in the end we managed a full day of competition at the Maze. In 40 mph cross on, logo high closeouts, i was super pleased to take 2nd place in the masters. See the event video here - https://windsurfing.tv/video/tiree-wave-classic-2018-full-story/
​
We then headed back home to great surf, before the 2nd event of the British Windsurfing Wave Tour at Gwithian over the last weekend in October. Northerly winds made it super cold but fun conditions, allowing a double elimination in all fleets. Sadly I missed out on the final as the wind died towards the end of the day but 6th place was enough to take 3rd Overall for the year. Well done to Mark Dowson winning the masters title, Adam Lewis the Pro mens and Sara Kellet the womens.

With the comps over for the year the storms kicked up a notch and from the first weekend in November it blew over 30mph with 10ft plus waves for 3 weeks.

The kitesurfing and Windsurfing was world class at Gwithian, with some of the biggest days for a few years. Amongst this we had some classic surf days and some super fun south coast conditions. At times it was a toss up wether to kitesurf or windsurf, so on the really good days I did both, switching to the kite as the wind dropped below 30 mph.

The last couple of weeks has seen the swell drop down a bit but the wind has still been blowing hard. On the lighter onshore days I have been loving the new Fanatic surf foil and sky surf board, getting to grips with super long rides at Marazion.
Unfortunately on Sunday I landed on the mast windsurfing in 40 mph at Maza and have picked up a rib injury. Fingers crossed it will heal soon as we have more big waves and wind on the way.
​
Thanks to Steve Clarke and John Carter for the pics and my sponsors for making the best gear out there- Duotone Kiteboarding, ION, Duotone Windsurfing, Fanatic.

​Cheers and see you on the water soon
 
Lee ‘Pasty’ Harvey

​The 2017 Edge Cup & British Kitesurfing Foil Championships took place over the weekend of 20 – 21st May in Exmouth hosted by 5 x World Champion Steph Bridge and the Edge Watersports team.
Over 30 entrants from all round the country including 1 German, 3 Frenchmen and 1 Irish lady gathered on the beach to battle out across 2 fleets, Pros and Ams.
With grey skies and light winds I hit the water using the Aero Ultralight 17m and Ketos Foil Race2, ready for 3 races back 2 back. Unfortunately as the 5 minute signal sounded it started raining and everyone ended up getting rescued as the wind completely vanished.
It wasn’t long before the sun came out and the wind was back at 12- 15 knts perfect for the Aero UL 14m on 18m lines. I hit the first start perfectly and was instantly please with my pointing and speed rounding the windward mark in 5th not too far behind the front 4 who are all ranked inside the top 15 in the World. All was going good until the last leg of the 3 lap windward leeward course when a small mistake allowed the 3 French guys past before the finish.
Race 2 and I made it around the first mark in front of Olly Bridge riding the new Flysurfer Sonic Race 15m. One of the best moments for me was managing to hold Olly off downwind until just before the mark where he overtook and went onto win while I comfortably kept hold of 5th with no mistakes. This gave me great confidence going in for lunch knowing my kites and foil is as fast as the best in the World.
The sun continued to shine for the afternoon and the sw breeze picked up although also became very gusty going from 18 – 22 knts. I went for the Aero UL 11m for the 3 races back 2 back.
My speed was still very good at the front of the chasing pack for most of the races but fatigue was starting to set in on my legs and too often I made a mistake on the last leg to lose my 5th spot.

​Sunday and the weather was much nicer with glorious sunshine and a southerly 12-15knt breeze perfect for the Aero 14. Three races in the morning followed by 3 races in the afternoon, we had some great racing and I enjoyed some great battles with the 3 Frenchmen. Holding 5th place after 2 laps in nearly all races I again made too many mistakes on the last downwind legs or into the finish to end up 8th Overall in the Edge Cup.
 
Happy with achieving my goal of 4th in the British Championship and with the speed of the kites and foil, it’s now time to train more to improve my leg stamina so I don’t make any mistakes at the next event.
 
Thanks to Steph and the Edge Watersports crew for running a great event and my sponsors for the great kit – Ketos Foils, Peter Lynn, ION & Pasty Adventures
 
Results:
Edge cup
1st Olly Bridge, 2nd Guy Bridge, 3rd Benni Boeli.
Ams – 1st Lance Olner
 
British Champs
1st Olly Bridge, 2nd Guy Bridge, 3rd Connor Bainbridge, 4th Lee Harvey
 
For kitesurf foiling lessons, coaching and sales – www.pastyadventures.co.uk

The weekend of 11th and 12th June, Lee competed in the 2016 British Kitefoil Championships take place at the Edge Cup in Exmouth.
Run by 5 times World Champion, Steph Bridge the event attracted top international riders as well as the best racers in Britain, making a fleet of 42 kitesurfers, competing for the £5000 prize pot and  various titles.

With light winds of 6-8 mph on Saturday the racing was tense at the front of the pro fleet with World No. 2 Olly Bridge taking out 4 wins out of 4. With a few rescues in the Am fleet as the wind dropped off towards evening, racing was called off for the day with promise of more wind and sunshine on Sunday.

Sunday came with sunshine and variable breeze of 10 - 12 mph that allowed 2 races before the wind switched offshore and due to the tide made it impossible to race anymore.
Lee finished in 7th place overall and 4th in the British Nationals.
Overall results
1st Olly Bridge
2nd Guy Bridge
3rd Florian Gruber (GER)

The 2015 British Kitesurfing Racing Championships took place at the Edge Cup on 6th and 7th June in Exmouth hosted by Edge Watersports.
Split into three classes of Formula race board, Foil board and Open fleet there was a great turn out of over 50 riders from 8 countries including the Top 10 in the World for the Formula class.
On Saturday the wind was blowing Westerly 15-20 mph which meant for some great action packed racing with the Formula and Foil classes completing 8 races each and the Open class 4 races.
This year I competed in the Foil for the first time after working with Fastafoil over the last year, I was super keen to see how fast I was going and line up against 2014 British Champ Guy Bridge along with 4 visiting French guys. For the first race I used the 10m North Dyno and was super happy to take 3rd place with half the fleet using faster Foil kites. As I wanted more power I quickly headed in to change up to the 13m Dyno and took 2nd place in Race 2 behind Guy Bridge riding on a Spotz 2 hydrofoil and Ozone Chrono 9m Foil kite who was blisteringly fast and overtaking all of the Formula guys after 2 laps despite them starting 1 minute ahead.
For the remainder of the races I placed 3rd behind both Guy and Theo de Ramecourt (France) which I was super pleased with after having some great battles with Mateo from France in 4th who overtook me on most of the upwind legs with his ultra fast Elf kite but I managed to overtake him again on all the downwinds with good speed and fast foiling gybes which made the difference.

In the Formula class 2013 World Champion Florian Grubber from Germany held a narrow lead from Florian Trittel (Spain) and Olly Bridge (Exmouth).

While we took a break for lunch the Open fleet hit the water for 4 races. With a mix of riders using different boards it was Matt Taylor from Praa Sands that was leading the fleet riding a Sector board and North Dyno 13m. A great result from Matt after lots of hard work and awesome to see my coaching paying off with a win in his first event.

After a great days racing it was off to Pebblebed vineyard for some top nosh and fine wine, courtesy of Jeff. Thanks again for the amazing food.

Sunday dawned and as the forecast predicted it was light although at 9am there was just about enough wind blowing down the estuary at about 6 knts. The course was set and we headed out with me as the only tube kite able to get off the beach on my 18m Dyno. As quite often happens in Exmouth as the sun came up the sea breeze started to work and cancelled out the Northerly wind meaning everyone got rescued before we could start. We then waited to see if the sea breeze would fill in enough and around 12pm the course was reset in 6knts of southerly wind. 
Yet again I was the only inflatable able to make it to the start line but felt powered and was making my tacks and gybes. At the start I was bang on the money, but was simply blown away by the speed and pointing ability of these big foil kites in such light wind. Half way up the beat the wind dropped a bit and my kite simply fell backwards into the water after a tack. I was then sat there watching all the formula guys get slower and slower as the made there way to the windward mark and by the time they started coming downwind, the wind had dropped so that even the foil kites would not stay in the air and everyone was rescued again.
That marked the end of racing apart from a paddleboard race which is always a good workout against the 8knts of tide in the channel.

Thanks to Steph and all the Edge Watersports team for another great event, the rescue cover and beach marshalls were the best I've ever seen! Big thanks to all the sponsors for making it happen and everyone for turning up. It was great to see so many foils and have such a buzz around this new discipline. I can't wait for next year, lets make it over 30 Foil boards!

Thanks to my sponsors-
North Kiteboarding, FastaFoil, O'Neill, Ketos, Supersaturated
Cheers
Lee 'Pasty' Harvey

Results-
Formula- 1st Florian Grubber (Germany), 2nd Florian Trittel (Spain), 3rd Olly Bridge (Exmouth)
Foil- 1st Guy Bridge (Exmouth), 2nd Theo de Ramecourt (France), 3rd Lee Harvey (Hayle)
Open- 1st Directional Matt Taylor (Praa Sands), 1st Twin Tip Lance Oliver, 1st Women Bel Stanley

Rou Chater - Iksurfmag
To learn to Kitefoil or for kitesurf foil coaching click here

Last weekend saw the Edge cup hosted by 4 times World Champ- Steph Bridge. After mostly finishing 3rd, I ended up 4th being beaten by Callum by 0.3 points after he bagged an equal 2nd and got took out in the last race which gave him average points meaning he beat be even though i beat him in 7 out of 11 races. Jammy git!
the report from Edge is below-

On the friday, Steph and me ran a Race Coaching clinic which was attended by the RYA and 9 of their development squad along with 3 other kitesurfers who are keen to get into kite racing. With around 25knts of breeze we covered the basics of getting into kite racing, including gust management, rules, footwork, upwind/downwind sailing and mark rounding. All learnt lots and I think the RYA were suitably impressed. 
Lots more to come so stayed tuned for Race Coaching dates at www.pastyadventures.co.uk and www.edgewatersports.com
Cheers
Lee

Edge Race Cup - Report

 June 23rd and 24th saw the 3rd running of the Edge Race Cup, now established as the premier kitesurf racing event in the UK.  The record entry of over 40 kiteracers came expecting great kitesurfing conditions and were not disappointed!  Amongst the entries were organiser Steph Bridge 4 times Kiterace World Champion and previous UK National Champions Denzil Williams from Cornwall and Callum Edge from Weymouth.  The weekend also saw many 1st time racers get down to Exmouth seafront and join the action.



The action began on the Friday with a race clinic run by Lee Harvey and Steph  Bridge- 12 kiters joined and learnt up and down wind techniques, directional board footwork, stance, kite position and race strategy.  The day also saw the Royal Yachting Association in attendance to learn more about kitesurfing prior to its inclusion at the Olympics in Rio for 2016.

Saturday dawned with a good force 5 south westerly wind blowing and an out going tide resulting in challenging sea conditions ensuring the race board fleet were sent out on the water first.  3 races were run in quick succession with fantastic fast racing with the Exmouth Duo of Steph Bridge and her eldest son Oliver Bridge setting the tone for the weekend and dominating the fleet.  Oliver Showed amazing speed and control in the rough conditions and came away with 3 first places in the morning session.

 

Then it was time for the amateurs and ladies fleets to get into the action.  Stand out performances were seen from Murray Smith from Dartmouth and Mathew Causen from Bristol as well as local teenager Alice shoulder in the ladies fleet.  After a brief lunch break the course was moved further out to sea and both pros and amateurs were sent out at the same time.  The sea conditions were now a little kinder and it was time to set both fleets off at the same time.  It was impressive to see forty racers all starting at the same time and some great racing continued.  In the ladies local rider Bel Bailey really came to the party winning a number of races and beating all the amateur men in 2 races but with Alice shoulder right on her tail the overall result was looking very tight.  In the men's amateur fleet local doctor Tom Debenham was on fire getting some great results followed closely by another local James Bainbridge.  In the pros there was no stopping Olly Bridge with 2 more race wins abruptly ended with a disqualification in the last race for starting too soon.  Other pros with good results that afternoon were Callum Edge, Lee Pasty,  Denzil Williams and Steve Stubbs,  All they had to do was work out how to beat Olly!

The Saturday night party was hosted by the River Exe Cafe and despite the rain everyone had a great time with excellent food and wine provided by our  sponsor pebblebed wines.

The Sunday dawned with light winds and the pro's were sent out to do battle, in these very difficult conditions only 1 race was run won by Steph Bridge proving that experience counts when the going gets tricky.  The afternoon gave much better wind and slacker tides so everyone was back on it for the final deciding races.  In the ladies fleet it was a battle down to the wire between Alice Shoulder and Bel Bailey, both were super powered and gunning for the win just coming out on top by 2 points was Alice in her first ever race event!  In the amateur fleet it was down to a 3 horse race with Murray Smith just edging out Debenham with Bainbridge third.

The Race board class continued to be dominated by fourteen year old Olly Bridge winning nine races out of eleven, an amazing performance, second was Steph and third  Callum Edge.

It was a great weekend of racing and enjoyed by all participants, roll on 2013.