Lewis Crathern Kitesurfer – January 2017 Update

“I’ve spent the last month in Cape Town, my second home. The wind was awesome when I arrived and as usual I’ve been on the water as much as possible riding, coaching, testing and filming. The event window is now upon us…” Lewis Crathern

Red Bull King of the Air is on!

Red Bull King of The Air will start at the first sign of good wind between the 21st of January and the 5th of February. We are now 10 days into that window and today (31st January) is set to be the first day of the event.

I’m excited about it – this is my 5th year in a row competing in the event and I won’t be happy with anything outside the top 5. The format has slightly changed this year, with only 18 riders taking part rather then 24. This is to give us more space on the water and to allow for better safety coverage.

My training has gone well. Cape Town is a very extreme place to ride yet you sometimes forget. The sun, blue skies and green ocean can hide how intense the conditions are, but I feel more experienced now that this is my 10th season. You can watch all the action via Red Bull TV which is broadcasting the event live or online via the livestream here. I am up in heat number 1 and they are set to go from 2pm (12:00 GMT).

Lewis Crathern Clinics in Cape Town

Over January I ran two clinics, starting with the lovely couple Drew & Rhi, below, in Langebaan. It was the first time I’ve been up that way in 2 years as it lies one hour north of Cape Town. Conditions are much more relaxed and we had such a brilliant day. Of course I was using my BB Talkin headsets so we could communicate but this time I took it to the next level. After two separate sessions I decided to connect all three of us which provided a truly amazing experience! You can check out the video here!

Later on in January I worked with Jeff. We also had a great time out the front of Table View and he left me this nice testimonial:

“Had such a fun time getting coached by Lewis! Even though the wind was light, Lewis managed to quickly analyse my riding style and found some fun new elements to add to my riding. After a couple of hours, I was sending some sweet front roll transitions off the waves in Capetown :-)”

Windguru Station GSM

Windguru have launched their new station, Windguru Station GSM. It’s absolutely incredible! It comes equipped with a rechargeable battery powered by solar panel and the data is sent over a GSM network. This makes it fully autonomous, great for remote places where electricity and wired internet is not available. I took it upon myself to set up the station right out to sea on the rocks at Big Bay for the King of the Air. Very easy to do and so rewarding to have live data from your very own spot. Watch the video of my install on the Windguru Facebook Page and check the live wind stream coming in for the event here.

Other News

Above – An amazing video, ‘The Fine Line‘,  created by Motion City Films. It delves into 3 of us North riders’ minds about how we feel about the King of The Air event.

Go behind the scenes at King of The Air with this video explaining the changes for the 2017 event.

Read here North Kiteboarding’s interview with me and my plans for the 2017 event.

I’m off to the event – I’ll let you know how it goes!

Lewis

Lewis Crathern Kitesurfer
www.lewiscrathern.com / Facebook