​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.