Right now, the worlds best kiteboarders are sitting around in Cape Town, waiting. Just waiting. for the first signs of sand lapping at their knees and salt stinging their eyes. The one week window of the Red Bull King of the air is on, and this year is going to be epic.

Footage of last years Red Bull King of the Air event is still doing the rounds of the internet a full 12 months later. It was a spectacular event, and one that really shone the spotlight on kiteboarding as an extreme sport. This year is set to be no different, except for a little blue box on the riders boards, which has already proven to be extremely entertaining.

The Woo devices still aren’t available in Australia, but no doubt you’ve heard about them. These GPS trackers like no other feature a worldwide leaderboard, where each day the best kiteboarders in the world upload their tracks to see who jumped the highest, floated for the longest, or pulled the most G’s in a kiteloop. It’s these leaderboards that the Red Bull King of the Air riders have been upping the ante, practicing all year round and competing on these online leaderboards.

This week , only one day after the event window opened, riders got on the water for a practice session using these little Woo’s. Aaron Hadlow was the days winner, with a jump height of 18.7m recorded, over one meter higher than Lewis Crathern, and almost 3m higher than Ruben Lenten. He was down on airtime though, at only 7.7 seconds. With only 4 minutes spent in the air over the session. Compare that to another rider in the same spot, Patrick Thornycroft who spent more than 18 minutes as a pilot, accumulating a whopping 1.5km in height (That’s more than 5000ft!).

Hows that for technical? There will be no arguments at this years Red Bull King of the Air event, it’s all going to be down to the numbers. Stay tuned, because the event is going to be opened any time now! We’ll bring you a full report once the kites have been deflated and rolled up in Cape Town, South Africa.

#News #Kitesurfing #Epic #Kiteboarding