Well, it happened. After a few lay days waiting for the ideal conditions, Big Bay in South Africa finally delivered the wind, waves and blue skis that the competitors wanted. They were ready, and they put on one of the best shows you'll ever see in the sport of kiteboarding. 

Standing on the podium when it all finished was Jesse Richman, Nick Jacobsen and Sam Light in first, second and third respectively. These three were standouts of the whole competition, taking the spotlight off event favourite Ruben Lenten, who almost stole the show with a huge announcement early in the week - switching sponsors from Slingshot to Best. Also not on the podium was Lewis Crathern, who many expected to take the event out with his extensive list of high profile jumps, like the one over Brighton Pier in the UK. Even Robby Naish showed up and had a ride! The old timer who helped kick start the sport of kiteboarding did some respectable boosts, but nothing the size of the winners. Those guys went nuts!

It was Robby's first visit to South Africa, but he seemed pretty impressed. Telling us:
"We’ve been talking about resurrecting Red Bull King of the Air for a while and today we had some of the best conditions - this was best exhibition of high performance kitesurfing I’ve ever seen. Big Bay was the perfect venue for this event. If this place wasn’t on the map before today, it’s definitely going to be after. I don’t think ever seen this many people at a kiteboarding event.”

Already there's talk of running the same kind of event in Australia. Perth has been picked as the ideal location due to the strong, reliable winds in summer, and the perfectly aligned surf to allow for big jumps (albeit for regular footers). Would you come to such an event? Stay tuned to see if it actually happens, and if there's an east coast version as well! 

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