The boys and girls at
Snow-Camp have asked us to be part of something very exciting in September! Raising money for charity, breaking a world record and spending a day shredding the South Coast...? Sounds like our kind of day out.
The Big Charity Downwinder: a 40 mile downwinder from Hayling Island to Lancing on the first south west windy weekend day in September 2013. It has been organised by UK charity Snow-Camp, who give disadvantaged youngsters the opportunity to get rad on the pistes of Europe. Sponsor the UK's student kitesurfers in this challenge
HERE!
Donations will be split between
Snow-Camp and the lovely people at the
RNLI (handy as they'll probably spend all the money fishing us out of the channel!). We're all fund-raising collectively on one page and, jokes aside
, this will be a gruelling 3-4 hour thigh burning ride, so dig deep! PROMOTIONAL VIDEO: Check out BNIK (Big Name in Kitesurfing) Lewis Crathern giving you the low down:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/JHqekCI6H4s WHERE WE COME IN When there's something cool, in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call? Student kitesurfaaaas! We're the coolest body of kitesurfers in the world, with more passion than the fruit of the same name, which is why the SKA was invited to sponsor the event by offering promotional and organisational support, as well as being the link to all you lovely people! Ideally we'd love to enter a team of 10 from each of our big universities, but failing on numbers we can have a few hybrid teams! E.g. Bristol/Bath, Southampton/Swansea, Plymouth/Exeter etc. We have half the SKA committee already stoked and registered, so get involved! All riders will be issued with bibs and wristbands. The ride will be organised into staggered start teams of 10, each with a team captain responsible for keeping everyone together. There are a number of stopping points en route should you have kit, fitness or wind issues.
However as one stopping may mean the whole group having to stop, we want everyone committing to the full ride to be sure they can make it given the right conditions. THE RIDE Stage 1 is a 1 mile ride starting at Hayling Island. This is an official Guinness world record breaking attempt for which they need 250 riders minimum. Stage 2 is an onwards 40 mile downwinder all the way to Lancing. Rescue boat support is provided and this is for as many who are keen to take part from the original larger group as possible (hopefully, we all are!). There is a prize giving party and coach back to the start for those that need it! Everyone will ride with a waterproof pouch with some money in it, in case we have a problem and end up on a random beach needing a ticket home! Here's a GPS track of the route from when they tested it a couple of weeks ago,
click here. Essentially a long thigh burning crosswind run to start, then it's straight downwind following the coastline from there.... Plenty of time to get that blind judge nailed without having to stay upwind...?
INTERESTED IN TAKING PART? Sweet! Read on...
PRE-REQUISITES: - To ride in one of the SKA's teams you need to be a registered UK student and preferably a member of your university's kitesurfing club (if there is one)
- BKSA Membership (or proof of similar insurance)
- The ability to ride downwind (shouldn’t be an issue!)
- All seriousness, you need to ask yourself if you’re experienced enough. Have you done a short down winder before? Can you do or have you done a deep water packdown? (Ask your clubs to put on a session if you need a refresh)
- As a guide, to be taking on the full challenge, you would have to be a very independent rider who is probably confidently landing large jumps, rotations and getting into unhooked tricks as a minimum. There will be exceptions amongst you free-riders and wave-riders out there so take some advice from a more experienced friend or instructor on if you are up to the challenge!
REGISTRATION PROCESS: 1) Fill out the form and register (paying your £20 registration fee)
HERE.
In the team members box put "SKA" with your uni in brackets (E.g. "SKA (Bristol)"). so that we can organise your teams correctly 2) E-mail president@studentkitesurfing.co.uk to say you've registered (will speed up the process rather than us waiting for approval from them)
3) We'll then invite you to our fundraising page
HERE. We will add your club logos, club sponsors and team member names as you sign up! We will do our best to track donations to clubs (with your help) and there will be a prize for the club who raises the most! 4) You will need to deactivate the individual fundraising page that will automatically be created as part of the registration process (Awkward we know! Sorry)
5) 'Like' their
Facebook event page so that you can be kept informed of any developments (You'll hear these from us too!) Finer details such a coach pick ups, bib and wristband collection, meeting points on the beach, exact timings for group departure, rules for the world record, the party venue, prizes and so on are not yet confirmed. As we get closer to the event all this will become clear and will be circulated – but we are not at that stage yet!
EVENT OVERVIEW DOCUMENT: Have questions? We did. Most of them will be answered in
this document! If you have more get in touch on
president@studentkitesurfing.co.uk 
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