​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/
 

We are now taking booking for Kite Wave Coaching in Cape Town during February 2018.

Lee is able to offer private 1:1, 2:1 or group coaching sessions using BBTalkin headsets to give you the best coaching experience.

All levels catered for from your 1st turns to starpless airs and guiding.

For more info click here 

The British Kitesurfing Wave Championships were held at Gwithian on Saturday 23rd September.
28 competitors from across the country were greeted to blazing Cornish sunshine, cross offshore wind and 2-3 feet of surf.
In the Pro Men category Lee showed a dominant performance to retain the British Champion title he has held since 2013.

Riding the 2018 North Neo 9m paired with the new Clickbar and Pro Wam, Pasty blitzed the field scoring 19 out of a possible 20 in the final with one judge awarding a 10 point ride!

For a full event report chceck out www.britishkitesports.org

If you want to learn to wave ride with a kite or improve your kitesurfing skills, Pasty is running Wave clinics in Cornwall this autumn with the Intro to Wave on the 7th October and Wave Improver on 4th November.

Limited space so sign up quick.
All the info here - http://www.pastyadventures.co.uk/kitesurf-clinics.html 

​pics by Joe Cockle photography

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

This weekend saw the Legend of the Bay event being run for the 2nd time at Watergate Bay near Newquay. In this unique event athletes compete in Kitesurfing and Stand Up Paddle boarding to find the best overall waterman who claims the titleof Legend of the Bay.
As in 2013 Lee dominated the kitesurfing side of the event with the qualifiers held on saturday 18th april in tricky offshore conditions. Despite the small waves Pasty perfomed some powerful and stylish turns to advance to the final without losing a heat.
The final of the kite was held on sunday 19th april in much different conditions, a light sideshore wind with double overhead waves, Lee again dominated with some high scoring rides to take the win infront of Josh Coombes in 2nd and Neal Gent 3rd.

In the SUP side of the event, held on Sunday, things were a little different with the conditions showing everyone who was boss with 8ft closeout sets making the paddle out somehwhat tricky at times.
Lee managed to make it to the quarter finals and 9th place to give him 3rd Overall while Newquay locals Dom Moore and Josh Coombes made it all the way to the final. With Dave Ewer nailing so awesome rides he took the win while Dom battled into 2nd place with Josh unable to get a 2nd scoring ride and ending up 4th. This left Dom and Josh tied for the overall title and making it a 1,2,3 for Cornwall.
Well done to all the winners and everyone for surviving in some very challenging surf on Sunday!
pics by Keira Ridel

For me Kitesurfing has always been an extension of my surfing and a means to ride waves when it's windy using the same board but just adding a kite. The amount of waves you ride and the speed you can get from the kite really helps improve your surfing due to increased time riding waves. In a single two hour kite session at Gwithian, I will probably ride 50+ waves where as when I surf I normally ride around 20. Do the maths it makes sense and the amount of extra days you get especially in Cornwall is just crazy. As well as waves kitesurfing is so much more. You can do massive jumps, throw down tricks, race or even fly above the waves on a Hydrofoil.
At Pasty Adventures we offer lessons for all levels from beginner to advanced in all disciplines. Don't delay book your Kitesurfing Lesson in Cornwall with us and open up a whole new world of pleasure.
The school is open from Easter. Detail on all our lesson are here- http://www.pastyadventures.co.uk/beginner-kitesurfing-lessons.html
If you still need convincing check out this awesome video from Patagonia-

Dates are now out for this autumns Kitesurf Wave Clinics at Gwithian or Marazion. 
Starting off we have the Intro to Wave on Saturday 11th October. This clinic is for kiters who are new to surfboard riding and want to learn the techniques to get out there and start riding waves.

The Wave Clinic on the 18th October is for kiters who are already comfortable riding a surfboard and are looking to perfect their technique in the waves. 
Price is only £60 per clinic, max 6 people with coaching from British Champion, Lee 'Pasty' Harvey. Click here for all the details.

What a great Easter and start to the kitesurfing season here in Cornwall. Sunshine and wind made for great conditions for three days over the holiday period, all be it a little chilly at times.
We ran two full beginner kitesurf courses with all four people doing amazing well and getting up riding on the board. 
On Easter Sunday BKSA Wave Coach, Lee 'Pasty' Harvey ran a Intro to Wave Clinic which saw novice surfboard riders learning lots to be getting on and practicing over the coming months in preperation for the autumn wave season. A big well done to everyone involved in fairly cold challenging conditons.

Overall a great weekend and we are really happy with all our new kit for the 2014 season especially the new North Evo which we are using for beginner lessons and winter wetsuits from O'Neill which kept all our students nice and warm.

With good winds forecast all week and the water much warmer than last year it looks like we are going to have a great summer for Kitesurfing in Cornwall and with Pasty Adventures being the only British Kitesports recognised school in West Cornwall there's no better place to learn.
Get in touch to book your kitesurfing lessons now. 
Stay tuned to our website and Facebook page for all of our upcoming Kitesurf Clinics and news.

Happy kiting and we wish you a great summer :)