BUKS

Beach Break Live 16th-20th June 2011

Oh. My God. An epic weekend with at least 4 hours solid riding on every day for the Bristol crew! Decent wind every day! Camping with 50+ members of the SKA from the different uni's and unleashing carnage upon south wales. Oh and there may have been some live music...? We all competed in the SKA Fight or Flight Freestyle Jam with Harry and Jack making the finals. A few near death experiences in super powered 7m kite weather later, both didn't quite make the top three. Where about £1500 worth of kite, board and stash was handed out courtesty of SKA Sponsor Flexifoil. Top weekend, get involved next year!

Here is a video showing some of the kiting going on at the beach, however a bit too much buggying and land-kiting on show here if you ask us!!   You'll find us shredding on the water in the background!

Aberavon, South Wales 8th June 2011

We managed a few cheeky ones during exams but this was the first big group outing after exams. SIIICKK conditions, sun and wind. First of several trips over the next week or so!

Wakeboarding Wednesday 11th May 2011

Once again a big group of us headed up to WMSKI in Cirencester with a group from the wakeboarding society and we spent an afternoon of GLORIOUS SUNSHINE on the water. Loads of people getting up for the first time and completing their first laps of the lake! Jack, Harry and Ali continued their quest to break bones on the obstacles with some sick progression! Harry getting close to 360s of the kicker, Jack getting his raileys down. Barry and Isi most improved of the day getting in endless laps on their first day on a wakeboard! Last official trip before exams, see you on the other side!!

Alvor, Portugal 2nd-12th April 2011

Unimaginably epic. Watch the video of the 24 of us having the time of our lives.

South Wales Weekend: 18th-20th Feb 2011

This was hands-down the best trip we've run this year! Absoultely Epic. Up until the night before we left the plan was to repeat last terms trip and hit Poole and Portland harbours again for more flat water shallow sweetness! However the wind didn't play ball and the forecast bombed hard! Your ever resourceful committee spent a busy few hours reorganising the entire trip to hit south wales where the winds were due to be blowing by the new forecast. A bit of a gamble, but it sure paid off!

We loaded up all 24 atendees on Friday night, with our biggest group of decent riders to go with all our regular beginners to date. We then got ourselves down the M4 and over the bridge into Wales! We found and moved into our accomodation near Port Talbot. Three epic woodland lodges with proper beds, sofas and kitchens: proper little party pads! We subsequently hit the locals bar en masse and got to know all the new faces on the trip. 

Saturday morning the decison was made to head over to Llangenith, the home of the SKA's beginners event and always a favourite in light winds. We had a day of flying foil kites, surfing and beach games in the lighter wind conditions before hitting the pub for dinner, stocking up on alcohol and heading back to the lodges for a messy night of drinking games.

Sore heads were helped out of bed by harry on Sunday morning with a saucepan/spoon gong and it was an early start at 6.30am. Everyone managed to wolf down their cooked breakfast and we stumbled into the minibuses before charging off the end of the M4 and deeper into wales. We were chasing stronger winds out towards Pembroke. We found SICK condtions at Pendine Beach, and got everyone (except a slightly hungover James Grant) into the water for a full days riding and teaching for our learners. It was  a shallow beach, tiny waves and pefect steady wind. Everyone improved massively with several of our new riders now proud to call themselves "independant".  A few including Dom Brown got airbourne for the first time also (whether intentional or not is  a different matter for some..) Harry & Jack found time for a decent session between all the teaching and enjoyed boosting big air using the waves as ramps. 

After an epic 8 hours on the water (not bad for February!) with the sun shining we packed up and headed back to Bristol with some massive smiles all around! All stoked for Pub Golf on Tuesday!!

SKA Wave Jam: 4th - 6th Feb 2011

We knew this one would be big, 40mph winds and 2m swells predicted. This was another brilliant SKA event hosted by Cardiff Univeristy. Jack, Harry, Andrey, James & Barry hit Rest Bay in South Wales with 70 other students from clubs all over the country. Most of the riding was done on 5 to 7m kites as the winds were so strong and there was some sick riding to be had! We also tried riding using conventional surfboards rather than our standard bi-directional twin tips which was great fun. There was a party organised in the Cardiff SU on the Saturday night, a typical SKA messy night with Penguins as the theme becuase of the animated movie Surf's Up!  Sunday brought the finals with Harry & Andrey squeezing there way in, no prizes were brought home this time. Except best dressed on saturday night for Harry for shameless plugging of SKA sponsors Mystic!

Full event report, photos and videos can be found at EXPIX

South Coast Weekend: 27th-28th Nov 2010

Our second weekend trip of the 2010 academic year proved to be a massive success despite it being the coldest weekend of the entire winter! We headed down to Poole Harbour in icy conditions in search of flat shallow water to help our newbies in their quest to get up and riding on the board. Unfortunately Saturday didn't bring much wind, but we certainly made up for it with massive burgers at our Hostel in Bournemouth and hitting the town on saturday night.

Sunday brought an early start and with easterly winds forecasted we drove across to Portland Harbour at Weymouth. We found perfect strength winds with beautifully flat water, just what we'd been looking for! The high tide meant the water was a little deep for teaching at first so our instructors and non-beginners got a decent session in before the tide came down enough to allow our newbies to stand up whilst flying the kite. This trip saw several of our new members standing on the board for the first time, it's always such a great feeling to see this as well as do it! The wide eyed massive smile face, new riders often come running back looking like they're on drugs! Adrenaline, the best way to fight off the cold! We'll be back here no doubt!

Tuition with Blast: 14^th Nov 2010

It has to happen once every year... This was the trip where the wind didn't blow at all! =( That said, it was still a brilliant day at the beach. With everyone getting into the water for a bit of surfing and even trying their hands at Stand-Up-Paddleboarding before the standard highly over competive rounders championship before hitting the chippy and heading home as it got dark.

SKA Slider Jam: 4th - 6th  Nov 2010

Jack and Harry travelled down to Par Sands, Cornwall to compete in the first stop of the national tour. Josh came along in his capacity in head of logistics and alcohol also. It was brilliant to get to grips with riding on sliders, something than none of us had ever tried, and of course Saturday night was a rather drunken affair! Please do NOT watch the video on the below link...

Full event report, photos and videos can be found at EXPIX

Tuition Trip with Blast: 30th Oct 2010

Saturday finally arrived, the forecast was looking good, transport was organised and Marc and Alun from Blast Kiteboarding were ready to get our new members out in the water. We set off in record time, departing Hiatt Baker at 7.40am despite Anthony hitting the snooze button perhaps a few too many times... We were at Aberavon beach in South Wales by 9am before the instructors were out of bed and Harry, Laurent and Tom were able to talk everyone through kite set up again. Then it was back to the carpark to whack on the wetsuits before splitting into groups of 4 to an instructor and getting kites in the air.

It didn’t turn out to be perfect conditions, but we had enough to keep kites comfortably in the air all day, and really get everyone progressing with their kite skills. Launching and landing 5m² to 13m² kites and piloting them aggressively to create power to drag us through the water at high speeds! We use body dragging as a way of practicing the use of power with kite so its natural before we worry about having a board on our feet.

After a convenient break in the wind for lunch, we had about an hour of stronger wind, where everybody really got a taste of the power in the kites and the real epic feeling of Kitesurfing. A lot of our new members got to the stage where they would be ready to start with the board during their next day of tuition with good wind. We all retreated to the cafe for comfort food in the evening for the debrief chat, and everyone was in high spirits with their improvement and keen to take things to the next level!