Big Air Kite League

In October 2021, I started chatting with Michael Macdonald owner of Big Air Kite League (BAKL) about the event he wanted to organise in Cape Town for the beginning of December.

I had been following BAKL the whole of 2021 with interest. The concept of a contest concentrating on the big air discipline and the creation of a new platform for new up and coming riders to take part in was something, in my opinion, that had been missing in the fractured world of Kiteboarding. With not much time to spare, I decided to jump in there and give Michael a hand to get this contest ready for the 6th of December.

The virus strikes

Once again the little virus, or rather the uninformed media panic that seems to follow it, struck and the contest had to be delayed. We had no choice. Flights were banned, and much uncertainty lay ahead with half of the permit requests process already done and the possibility of South Africa to be shutting down over the festive season.

Resilience

But we kept our hopes up. Where there is hope there is life! After a few weeks, we decided to continue the permit application process with a window period running from the 17th of December to the 30th of January.

Until now the forecast has not played along and as plagued us with much uncertainty, but we remain confident that the event will run before the end of the month.

The venue is Dolphin beach and the contest will be run by some of the best people in the business with the best up and coming riders in the world.

Cedric Vandenschrik: Contest organiser
Olaf van Tol: Race director
Su Kay: Beach marshall
Dave Kay: Flags

So watch the BAKL website and social media network carefully over the next few days as the green light is coming soon!!

I will admit, it wasn’t by choice that I ended up in Cape Town for 3 months slap bang in the middle of winter! June, July, August.
But sometimes, work has to take the driving seat.

I remember spending a winter trying to kite in Cape Town about 10 years ago. It was wet, and coldâ€¦ And I also remembered being disgusted with the kiting conditions. Then again i thought, How bad could it really have been?

There are some radical differences with kiting Cape Town in winter as opposed to summer: The wind mostly comes from the opposite direction, it brings rain, squalls, frontal systems passing through, cold and there are also lots of no wind days

Yeah well it seems that I remembered right.

Cape Town Winter kiting ain’t for the faint hearted. When there is wind, it is gusty, often cross off, the temperatures are cold and the swell is generally big.

With the equipment having evolved a fair amount in 10 years, conditions where more manageable. I mostly rode waves with my Peter Lynn Swell handling all the conditions it encountered. My Underground Mazu prototype got ridden as a thruster fin set up. I will go back to a quad and make some notes.

There were a few positive thingsâ€¦

Every so often you get a good session, and with wind from the right, for wave riding it favors my strong side.
The kiting crowds of the summer days were non existent. I actually had a few solo sessions. At most you had 10 kiters in the water.

The waves can be really nice.
And on the odd occasion you score a really good day, with sunshine and all

KiteSurfing @ Tableview 2014 (413)E — photo by Denwin Lewis

KiteSurfing @ Tableview 2014 (329)E — Photo by Denwin Lewis

As August hit, the Whales showed up lying in really shallow. I don’t think I’ve ever had so many encounters in one session!

I got to spend some time with some friends including Anthony Berzack (featured in some of the pics). He’s been flying the demo Swells and really enjoying them.

I wouldn’t do another winter here out of choiceâ€¦ but there’s still some good sessions to be had. Enjoy the pics, next stopâ€¦ Cannon Rocks!! Thanks to Denwin Lewis for sharing his photos.