Flexifoil hears from Robin Snuggs on The Kite Project
Over the last year I have spent some time traveling. Over the 2009/2010 winter season I visited Philippines where I won the Boracay leg of the KTA. I later traveled to Turkey with Adrenaline Sports, and spent the season working on my kiting and promoting kiting in Turkey. I’ve now returned home to catch up with my family and finally 2 years later have my ACL reconstruction surgery which is scheduled for April.
While i’m at home taking my time on the water easy, I thought it would be a great time to go back to my roots and try to do some junior training. With this in mind i heard about a project my good friend Dominic McBride Wilson was setting up. Based at Exeter University, Dom put in a bid for a £1000 grant from the Floella Benjamin award. This award was set up to give five participants the funding to set up a business/scheme etc of their choice. Doms application was successful. This has given us the financial backing to start The Kite Project. Being the only UK kite brand Flexifoil were super keen to get behind this youth training programme, joining the list of sponsors behind the project including Edge watersports and get Spiked.
From March through to May we will be taking 12 students from Exeter’s ISCA College of Media Arts and giving them the chance to take place in Kitesurfing lessons for free. Kitesurfing is not always that accessible to teens due to high prices and licensing. As a child i wasn’t able to take lessons due to my age, so trial and error with my Dad was the only way, which isn’t always the best path forward! Giving the teens at ISCA free and quality tuition we should be able to push kitesurfing as a sport to a wider range of teens. Students will learn in groups and receive lessons for 4 days, enabling them to get full training so they can get on the water alone. Students will be filmed and the top kiteboarder of the group (voted online) will be chosen to receive continued training with myself throughout the summer. We are planning on getting our top boarder to attend a BKSA, British Kitesurfing Association competition at the end of the summer with the aim of putting down a few scoring biggies in their heats!
We’d like to put a big thanks out to Floella Benjamin, Flexifoil, Edge Watersports and Spiked for making this possible.
You can follow us on www.thekiteproject.co.uk
