This year at the annual Snowkite Masters gathering in Col du Lautaret, Serre Chevalier, the Norwegian Flexifoil crew braved the European traveling conditions for fun and games in the Col.
We hear from Team Rider Andreas Toverud on the week’s events…
SKM Day 1-3
Starting out this Friday is the World Championship Snowkite Masters, so some friends of mine from the Norwegian Flexifoil team and I went down to France to check it out. The only flights down in time for the competition went on Thursday to Milan, so we arrived in good time. After getting our rental cars, we headed the course for the location of the competition; Serre Chevallier in France.
After about an hour, we took of the main road after instructions from my new much trusted GPS app for my android phone. Strangely the others kept driving on the main road, so we figured they would take an other route to the destination.
After a good 3 hour drive we finally made our way across the border to France, but soon we figured something was wrong as palm trees and fancy summer hotels was starting to show up by the side of the road:P We were going to the Snowkite World Championship?
We soon figured what we actually had entered into my GPS was Le Serre Chevallier instead of just Serre Chevallier. A FATAL mistake! This made our trip 7.5 instead of 2.5 hours:P
After a night in our apartment with way to little sleep we headed up to the spot to figure out it was raining and no wind at all. So we went riding in the slopes instead and had an awesome day! Despite the bad weather:)
Today we woke up to wind and blue skies! The whole day was reserved for a photo shoot for the media and I teamed up with a really awesome photographer named Mark.
Competition stats with race to morrow and freestyle on Monday, so I’m going to update as soon as there is more to tell:) No were heading down to the local bar, Le Frog, for some beers and to meet up with the other riders.
Cheers!
SKM Day 4
On day 4 we woke up to total whiteout.. The snow was falling heavy and the visibility was zero, so things didn’t look good for the race. At the riders meeting at 10, the race director Mathias announced that we had to wait and see if the weather cleared up. If not the competition for the day could not be done.
After a really good lunch up in the riders tent at the spot, Mathias announced that the competition was canceled for the day. To compensate, all the riders got free beer at Le Frog later in the evening:D
Now with nothing else to do we went home to our apartment, but that got boring after a while so we came up with a new project:
Kitestacking!!
We went back up to the spot and started out with the 7 and 9 Hadlow kites. That worked like a dream, so we added my 13 as well. Definitely one of the coolest things I have ever flied! And it was even stable enough to jump and do kiteloops with! Helge was filming so chances are big that a short movie will come soon:)
Tomorrow, Monday, the real competition starts with freestyle. The people arranging the competition has made a huge effort building kickers, so I think it’s going to be a lot of fun:D
SKM Day 5
Blue skies and the sun was shining but still no wind:(
So instead of going kiting we went to watch the french Nitro snowboard team do some pretty cool jumps on a huge kicker they had built:)
he plan was that the SKM riders could do some jumps after the Nitro pro riders were finished, but unfortunately for us the fog came rolling down from the mountains and put a stop to the whole thing. The photographers and the rest of the people went home, so by the time it cleared up half an hour later, we had started our next project! Hiking to the top of a mountain and freeriding down:D
The mountain we had in mind was roaming 600 meters above the snowkite spot, and with all the powder from the night before it was quite the job to get up there!
The ride down was by far the best so far in my life, and it feels sooo much better when you feel like you have really deserved it. By the time we got down the sun had set, so we went back to our apartment and made dinner. Forecast is saying there’s going to be wind tomorrow, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
SKM Day 6
No wind today either, so to pass the time we built a snowman from a Red Bull table and some other stuff.. YEY:D
After some hours hanging around, the race director Mathias announced that there would be no competition. We then went straight to the the slopes with the goal of going all the way to the top of the highest mountain in the area. Almost 3000 meters high! Pretty soon we were lifted out of the clouds and into the sun by the ski lift.. We decided to do the effort of walking the last remaining distance to make it all the way to the top of the mountain. Only a few hundred meters, but I could really feel the thin air taking its tall! First time in my life I have got the taste of blood in my mouth from exhastion! Up until now I thought it was just an expression:P
It was definitely worth the hard work though, because we got totally untouched powder all the way down a 30 minute ride as a reward:D
SKM Day 7
Today the wind finally came, and we could start the freestyle competition. My first heat was against a Russian guy named Kushnin. I managed to make my way to the next round where I were going to ride against Etiene Lothe, which is a pretty well known name in kitesurfing. I didn’t know what level he was on but gave it my best and were able to fight my way into the quarter finals.
They managed to complete the woman’s competition in both ski and snowboard, and my friend Caroline ended up on 3. place in snowboard! Congratulations!
The finals for men ski, and the quarter, semi and finals for men snowboard will be run tomorrow if there is wind. Tonight there is going to be a huge party, and we are going to show our snowkite DVD Whiteout on the big screen. I’m meeting a really good guy named Marek Zach tomorrow in my quarter finals heat so I really have to bring my A game! Better take it easy tonight:P
SKM Day 8
Today we managed to finish the competition, but I got eliminated in the quarter finals against Marek Zach. Everything was going pretty well but never mind!
We were also promised a best trick competition which is really my thing by the race director Mathias, but that never happened for one reason or the other. Maybe next year:P
Anyways! There’s no point of letting that ruin the mood, so now we’ll just enjoy for the rest of our stay:)
THANKS ANDREAS, congratulations on the quarter finals. We look forward to hearing more from the Norwegian crew soon.
