Atmosphere 08 was the best possible start to the UK event
scene! It has set event standards higher than before! This event has taken over
the ideas of the X-Zone games, which was one of my first events, bringing
together riders from all over Europe just for a big free riding event at one of
the UK finest beaches.
I arrived in Westward Ho around 8pm Friday and it was
pretty obviously the party had already started! Everyone had had a really good
day on the beach and now the event party was completely packed! Shame I had to
work Friday daytime because it sounds like I had missed out on a good day! We
stayed at the party till 11pm and then headed back to Will Mckean’s house catch
up on some sleep.
On Saturday, we headed to the beach early even though the
forecast was poor! It had been changing about so much that we pretty much
ignored it and just hoped for the best! The conditions turned out to be ok! The
beach was a tad soft but there was wind to get going. I headed out in the
middle of the event riding with some of my old friends who I hadn’t seen in a
good few years. It was nice to just go out and free ride for a change and
because the wind was light I pretty much rode unhooked all day on my 12.5 Ion
3- doing slim chances and other handlepasses. At the end of the day I went out
on Robin Snugg’s Hadlow Pro, which was cool! This kite really does pull like a
train and I was tricking well in no time! We got some cool pictures too which
will appear in PowerKite Mag in a few weeks!
Saturday night was brilliant, last time I came down we
headed into Bideford town centre for a rather remember able night! This time we
brought along loads of other riders from the event and had such a good time!
Sunday was slightly better than Saturday! Harder winds and
it was onshore. Most people had already left due to a shocking forecast which
mean the beach wasn’t as crowded as before. I went out again and had another
cool free ride session. Me, Aston and Danny were trying a new trick called the
Suicide Gybe, which I managed to land in Leucate the week before. This involves
downlooping the kite and travelling downwind making your kite do a full 360
around the wind window. We headed home around 6pm because the day turned out to
be so much fun! Shame it takes 6/7 hours to get home which means we got home
rather late.
Massive thanks to Will Mckean for the accomodation. Bring on next year!
