Finally the competitors got to ride some kites instead of jet ski's this week, at the Triple-S competition in Cape Hatteras, USA. The last two days saw the wind crank in, with riders starting out on 12m kites, and swapping down to 9m kites as the evening drew on. 

Riders sessioned the kickers and sliders until 9pm on Saturday night, before a massive party leaving many of the competitors with a sore head for the final day of competition yesterday. For the morning Real kept everyone off the sliders while they were being positioned out on the slick - after lunch it was on for young and well... young. Riding 6-9m kites, the guys and girls went nuts with a strict order for hitting the obstacles. In order to avoid absolute carnage - the order was to ride upwind, then hit the: Best Rooftop, JWCF A-Frame, Liquid Force Wallride, REAL Kicker then the REAL Up Flat UP (Yep, that's the technical name for them all). Then they had to slog their way upwind on their wakeboards and do it all again.

As well as the flat water action, riders also jumped into the waves for some surfing - which was also being judged as a separate division. Despite the small swell, riders put on a great aerial show for the crowds. Wildcard entrants proved they were worthy of the invitational event - but in the end, the original invited competitors stole the show, with Mark Miedama from New Jersey winning the surf comp.

Aaron Hadlow took out the flat water prize (not on obstacles), for his incredible wakestyle moves with oodles of style and power. While Billy Parker drew on his wakeboarding experience to win the Slider competition. Bruna Kajiya strapped on a pair of boots for the occasion, and walked away with the over prize for the womens division, she more than stuck it to the boys with plenty of solid and stylish slider hits.

Brandon Schield snatched the biggest prize though - winning the best over rider of the competition across all three disciplines. Brandon's a local to Cape Hatteras, and has been riding in every Triple-S event since it started - he knows the format and knows how to ride well in the challenging conditions served up over the week.

It's a shame the wildcard entrants were nowhere to be seen in the top 3 for any disciplines - but there's always next year. Stay tuned to see a heap more pics of event, plus all the latest sneak peaks of the new equipment being used by riders. 

Check out this video of the final day of action, all in the slick or on sliders.