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Aussie Kiss 5 - what a weekend! |
For those of you that made it down to Cornwall this weekend, you know you were part of a good thing. If you werent one of the lucky attendees, then this is what you missed
At the event we had no fewer than 314 windsurfers (141 beginners, 91 intermediates and 82 advanced), plus 70 xswa members coming back to join in. Bringing some instructional pearls of wisdom into play were 50 student instructors, and making it all run smoothly were 17 SWA committee members. At the SKA side to the event there were 198 kitesurfers. This brings the grand total of students/ex-students who were there at the weekend and partying hard on Saturday night to a massive 684 people!
On the Saturday we had pretty good weather and enough of a breeze to play around with, so the beginners were taken under the wings of lovely student instructors, intermediates were looked after by Jim Collis and a team of instructors, and the advanced division learnt from the masters that are Jem Hall, Hugh Sims Williams and Olly Woodcock.
Prizes for brilliance went to: Wesley from the beginner division, Adam Marsh (Cardiff) and Jane (Exeter) from the intermediates, and Alex (Imperial) from the advanced division.
Instructors that deserve a special mention for being stars are Jess (Imperial), Alice (Southampton) who taught the beginners, and Jo, Neil and Nick who were looking after the intermediates.
Saturday night saw a hugely successful party with plenty of pirates, and an awesome set from our favourite band I.D.Ology. Although there were no prizes for fancy dress, a special mention has to go to Warren Innis for his Crocodile-out-of-Peter-Pan outfit it was inspirational.
So Sunday may have been a bit on the soggy side but plenty of people still went out on the water, and for those on land there was an epic mudsliding competition, with Rich the UWE president securing the title of furthest-distance-slid-in-style in a closely fought battle.
Of course a massive thank you goes out to Boardwise, Naish, Starboard, Tushingham, Bic Sport, Jem Hall, Jim Collis, Olly Woodcock, Hugh Sims Williams, Surfers Against Sewage, and Windsurf magazine for attending the weekend.
Also thank you to Boardwise, Boardseeker, and Naish as Silver series sponsors, Tushingham, Starboard and Bic Sport as Bronze series sponsors and Windsurf and Boards magazines as media affiliates.
The great news is that we managed to raise £44 for SAS, and the money given to Climate Care to offset the 40 tonnes of CO2 produced by people attending AK5 by driving there was £300.
Now all that's left to say is a massive thank you to YOU for being there at the weekend, and roll on Cardiff and Nottingham!
