Kiteboard Open - Holland

The Kiteboard Open this year in Holland was yet another huge event. The main event sponsor is Protest Boardwear so Ania Grzelinska and myself get to go each year and spend sometime at their stand and hopefully on the water.



We had a mix of weather mostly of the non windy variety which wasn't the best for the 2nd of the series in the Kitesurf Tour Europe but despite a sunny, but light wind forecast I entered anyway and did manage a sneaky 12m session for about half an hour.



(skippers meeting)

The weekend is about a whole load of different brands getting together, beach activities, food stalls plus a free supply of Ben and Jerrys ice cream and Redbull - not a combo that sees you through the weekend but throw some pizza in there and life is good - at least for a couple of days!



Of course what I haven't mentioned is the parties! The Sunday night hosts a huge party where this year Ruben Lenten was main staging it on the decks! Ania and I were dancing like crazy in the background... well after the amount that we knocked back it turns out you can sway and dance to anything!



(Ruben on the decks with Ania and I bopping along behind)

The only supposed slight downer on the party was the fact that the competition organisers decided to put on the skippers meeting at 5am the next day in the chance that the forecast for 12knots would pull through at more like 15knots.



(Ania's response to 5am skippers meeting)

The initial plan to compensate for ridiculously early start was to start drinking ridiculously early, but as it turns out that just warps your opinion of how important it is to go to bed early and instead we started drinking early and carried on until the end! In fact it kind of turned out to be its own competition as Jalou Langeree was in my heat due 3rd on the water the next day, so as long as we plyed each other with beer and ensured that niether or us skipped off early then it was a fair deal! Winner - result - mega party!



(2 hours before skippers meeting)



(1 hour after)

Mixed in amongst the parties, beach volleyball, hanging out at the Protest stand, eating ice cream, slying more Protest gear in to our bags etc. I did manage to be productive to and did a bunch of interviews for various mags, websites and tv channels, so hopefully depsite the lack of wind the event will still have thrown kitesurfing into the media eye moreso then it was before.



(Expix this year were media partners for photography and videography)

Im back home now and its blowing 20mph outside, so Im off for a session! Next up Im heading to Soma Bay in Egypt. I have a week out there for myself before running the next of my coaching holidays!!