Redbull

First time to London this week for the bridglets & their first ever meeting & it was at the HQ RedBull in London. Pretty exciting day with the grand tour (did not actually see the magice medicince being made) followed by hiring some bikes doing  ’Ben, Bridges,Gherkin & the Shard.

 

 

THE NXT GEN

Over the last two days Steph and Olly have been filming for one best racing video ever  produced, shoot and cut by ding. cheek It out.

Bridglets dominate at European championships

The 3 day kitesurf event in Saint Piere La mer took place over 4^th-6^th May 2011 and was supported by dutch, French, british, Spanish  & south African riders. Categoriies were split 16-19 yrs, 14- 15yrs & 9-13yrs. In this under 13 category team Bridge not only showed the other competitiors to’Open their eyes’ but also the judges! They have decided to just do a ‘Bridge Ladder’ next year! Disappointment for Oliver who at age 13 wanted to compete in 14-15yr category but was not allowed. So he was to come up against his younger brother- Tom – age 10 in the final in underpowered  conditions which was not to his favour. Tom won with his  regular handle pass combinations while also managing to stay well in the box . Defeated by Tom & Oliver the real prize should go to middle Bridge- Guy who got robbed of a 3^rd place by French rider who did no do un-hooked moves.

A new discipline for Tom- the ‘Boarder Cross’ – was also superb success with a 3^rd overall against way bigger youngsters.  Next stop on the freestyle tour is KTE Germany in June while  Oliver heads to youth world championships in Brittany next weekend joined by Mum- Steph in the Race Worlds masters!

Hear is the video

Winter Training In South Africa

We arrived in South Africa on the 16 of December 2010, We flew with Virgin Atlantic, a flight from England to Cape Town – Africa taking 11.5 hours.  Straight away went we arrived at the airport we collected our ten bags, and got a taxi into town to find our car hire called ‘Aker car rental. As we soon discovered our car was a 30 year old Mercedes benz- this was to be our trusty transport for the next few weeks.

The first session we had on the water was at ‘big bay’ just  Ollie and Tom went on the water. It was 25knots Ollie was on the 5m,  Tom was on his 4m it was our first session so we were taking it easy not trying new tricks. We found our apartment that evening which you would say was not luxury but it would do. The next few days we based our self around capetown.We did dolphin beach and big bay but the best place was  Cape Point.- (the southern most tip of Africa) There was no wind at cape town so we made the decision to go to Cape point, it took an hour to get there. We had to pay a bit of money to get in to the national park but it was the best place to kite and see wild life around cape town area. When we were driving  through the national park to the kite spot called‘’ plat boom‘’, we saw: Baboons, Zebras And Ostridges-  it was amazing. The waves were 3m with flat water between the waves  & we all had such a good session.

The next week we went to a place called Witsands which we had seen on one of Aaron hadlows videos it looked amazing and it was.
It had waves on the outside and on the inside a sand bar that joined to the land which made it really flat water it was deep so we would not have any bad crashers. For whitsands to work the wind needed to blow between south and east., But there was one problem, the river was home to the biggest bull shark in the world so every one was a bit scared. We stayed in this holiday home which was right next to the beach so we could go kiting when we want. We set out to learn 1 to 5 tricks. That week Ollie nailed slim, kgb and hassle hof. Tom was working on the front mobe to blind he got one and guy was getting his rally and sbens to bling more powered. We all kited 5 hours a day for seven days we needed a rest so we headed of to cape town to relax our bodies before heading of to witsands again.

At cape town we kited at bid bay which was supper windy. Dolphin beech, but the best session was at Langa baarn- shark bay. This is a big lagoon with lots of kiters, normally there are 300 but today it was quiet so there was only 30- we had the best flat water session around cape town area.

The next day we had woken up early  so that we could head back to wit sand for our final week.  This week Olly and Tom said they we would try the blind judge to blind. Tom nailed it but the kite was very high. Olly nearly got to got it but did not have enough air time. That week guy was learning the blind judge but just missing out on the pass; if he had a extra day he would of nailed it. That week was the best day of the holiday windy ever day. We left Witsands on the 6th of January 2011 due to fly back in the evening we travelled back to cape town in the afternoon. We took off at 10pm in the evening.  We had had a great trip had hope to come back to South Africa soon.
Thanks to Mum, Dad & NKB for the best kites ever.

Olly wins eorpean chaponiships

It was British Domination at the Junior European Kitesurf competition in France from 13-16th May 2010.The 4 day event involved a dingle elimination for the first couple of days followed by 2 further days of best trick, big air & board off Compettion. It was the best ever experience that team bridge could have wished for with plenty of heats & loads of wind. The standard was high in all the categories however most noticeably in the under 13’s. The first heat was with Tom against Oliver. This was a blinder of a heat for Tom, complete text book which got all the crowds going. Tom landed kite loop handle pass, slim, kgb & more. Tom went straight through to the Semi Final, even had time to change & chill on the beach while watching his elder brother do it all the hard way. With a few more years of heat expereince oliver won convincingly his next heats & earnt his place in the final.

The final for the under 13’s saw Oliver & liam Whalley, who lives in Tarifa, put in high kite loops & blind judge while Oliver had the more technical blind moves & variety that gave him the Edge. Tom got all a bit excited & went for a slim, did not land & spent the next 5 minutes body dragging to his board.The European Junior under 13’s went to Olly- age 12, Liam age 13 and Tom age 9.

The Bridge boys came home with a wedge of Euro’s, a decent trophy & a load of motivation to move forward to their next trick. Bring on the British tour which starts this weekend at Redcar.

Tarifa video

Hear is the tarifa video

bridglets in Tarifa 2010

With sporadic internet connection- supposedly its the wind -around 45-50knots for the last 2 days. Great training opportunities for the Bridglets,  We were posted to Tarifa really for a photoshoot!!! Young Tom Bridge is the star out here & he is getting the camara shot at him from all angles!! Today he made it out on the water with the new prototype 3mtr kite (made for him). All spanking green/white ion suits all bridglets showed the rest of the beach who ruled when it came to kiteloops. Eric was on a 6mtr kite to give you an idea of how windy it was & there is Ollie looping the hell out of the proto 5mtr vegas that Ralf has handed to him. Ralf is the designer of the evo, vegas, neo & buzz. He is a fully passionate professional guy & is on a great level with the kids. They all work with him & come back in saying stuff that is pretty cruical to his testing.

The level of riding is high & all the legends are out ripping in superb waves off Sotegrande- beach half way towards Malaga from tarifa. As I write in a bar next to our flat young Tom is in bed with a possible broken toe while Guy is sick after mum’s driving back from the beach with a stomach full of maaccie dee’s! Will see what tomorrow brings. The new race board looks wicked & am testing with Abel Lago & Jaime so this should be productive.

Recycled kite cushions

Hi here is my link to eBay is you want to buy and pimp your living room.http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_trkparms=65%253A12%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1%257C72%253A2471&_nkw=Recyled+kitesurf+kite+cushions&_dmpt=UK_SportingGoods_Kites_Kitesurfing_CA&_psize=3&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Oli’s latest creations

Well we had a few old warranty kites hanging around and i has decided to get creative with them and made some great items to liven up your living room.At the moment he is developing the range  but most of it seems to be selling before we can take a picture of it!  Here are some of the items that he has made and we will be keeping a selection of them at the shop.  Prices are starting at £12.50 for a small cushion and upwards from there. come in to edgewatersports and buy one of these items for living room.

North dealer meeting

We arrived in boa vista- Cape Verde islands direct flight from Gatwick.

I stepped out of the plane and felt that warm ne wind 15 knots perfect session on.

I had a session in the lagoon just warming up from being in the uk. I was here on the north dealer trip for the UK, there were lots of dealers including all the magazines.

The next day we went to ponta Antonio the perfect beach for everyone waves on the outside and flat on the inside. We were staying at the Riu hotel all inclusive as much food and drink as you like there are 4 different types of restaurant ate at the smash and

grab it’s the big restaurant were everyone dives to grab food.

Second day we went to a beach called Ervatao cross of shore with a point break windy is was on the six lunching big airs and kite loops and a bit a wave riding on a surf board, at the end of the day we did a down winder down the inland.

Third day we went to chaves it is a bit of a walk to the beach going down big sand dunes  there was no wind so we went back to the hotel beach were I was on a 3.5 in the lagoon.

Fourth day we went to Santa Monica a ship wreck is an the beach, the beech is like westward ho on sur wind with bid waves I did a 313 to toside.

Fifth day I kited in the lagoon Dom Moore from kite world was taking pitchers the sea water was coming over the top and into the lagoon the waver were supper powerful

They would take you out is you stood close to the beech.

Sixth day we went back to ervatao the swell was good an me mum and all the mags the riding the waves it was awesome.

Seventh day we packed the kit up in the morning and went to have food at the beech bar by the pool we were going back to the UK this afternoon.