Xboard Slide´N´Ride 2010
One week ago we threw the first ever obstacle event in Denmark. It was supported by Liquid Force, Boardpunx.com, Edgeboardshop.dk and our local cablepark in town CopenhagenCablepark.dk, without this strong support it would not have been possible go get the massive UNIT kickers up here and get the winch rolling when there was no wind. The cablepark invited for a nice session sunday when everyone was hung over from the party saturday. A big thank you goes to all those passionate dudes that helped us out!
Friday at the skippers meeting at 11am, the weather was super lame. Cold, raining and no wind. The forecast looked good for later though, so we convinced the 20 riders from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Belgium and France that we should move the obstacles out so they would be ready when ever the wind would pick up. It was a lot of work to get all our stuff in the water, but the riders all helped out with a smile and had a great attitude. The huge full-nylon floating kicker with the dimensions 6.5x2x5m took 16 people to lift of the trailer and still it was almost to heavy to carry the 150m to the “brown lagoon”. The 16m butterbox was easier to get in the water with its 4 modules screwed together at the shore, from where it was rolled into the muddy waters.
After putting the big obstacles out in the water, we added our homebuild ones and now we just needed the wind. Ronni from edgeboardshop fired up on the winch and the riders could try some first hits. Around 4pm the wind slowly picked up and it was possible to stay upwind around 1 hour later.
With this event being a free-session event, everyone hurried into the small lagoon when the wind finally kicked in and actually the brown lagoon has never been so crowded before as that friday evening where 15 riders or more rode at the same time in the 250x50metres of smelly, muddy but flat water. Henning Sandström (SE) showed off some nice grabs when hitting the kicker and did some stylish presses, Jan Schiegnitz (DE) was totally on fire on all obstacles, throwing fat FS 5s and going for 7s off the kicker, Oliver Panny (AUT) did some nice airtricks in the flat water and hit all obstacles with style and ease, Troels Engholm (DK) hit the kicker doing crow mobes and BS 3s and Tobias Hölter (DE) did some of the most agressive and fast presses on the box yet seen in kiteboarding. There was a lot of good action from all the riders and from the smiles you could tell that everyone was having a good time. The wind continued to pick up until sunset where it was around 25knots and when the last kites were down it was totally dark.
Saturday we met at the brown lagoon around noon, we decided to split up all riding into 8minutes heats with only two riders to avoid the riders being in each others way. The wind was light ranging from 10-15 knots, but still it was enough to get a good show going on with a lot of massive riding. At 4pm we packed the obstacles onto the trailer well aware that sunday would be without any wind, again all riders helped out so much that it was a thrill. We were really happy that no-one got injured or hurt during the 2 intense days….
At 7pm we met for the party´n ´dinner at the beach park and got some sweet burgers and well deserved cold beers. The party was a great succes with 150 kiteboards gathered at this nice place right at the beachpark lagoon.
Sunday we met at Copenhagencablepark at noon, unfortunately the party had cost a lof of heavy injuries and lost teeth etc, so not everyone came – but CCP offered all the riders a special session in their nice cablepark in the Copenhagen Harbour and the riders made another great show despite being well hung over.
After the Cable session, all riders voted for their favorite in different categories with the results being:
KICKER
1. Jan Schiegnitz (Liquid Force)
2. Troels Engholm (RRD)
PRESSES
1. Henning Sandström (Liquid Force)
2. Oliver Panny (Liquid Force)
WAKESKATE
1. Torben Kaeding (Liquid Force)
AIR TRICK
1. Oliver Panny (Liquid Force)
2. Jan Schiegnitz (Liquid Force)
CRASH
1. Peter Sands (Liquid Force)
2. Christian Skipper (North Kiteboarding)
OVERALL
1. Jan Schiegnitz (Liquid Force
2. Peter Sands (Liquid Force)
The 3 days of Slide´N´Ride were over and we got through them with succes despite the ghetto-setup and how unorganized everything was. As long as you are with good people you will have a good time! Peter and I (who put this event together) can´t wait till next year where Slide´N´Ride will be better, bigger and even more fun!
