My second trip to Egypt this year took me to the ‘Founders Kite Club’ which has been set up by BEST to bring entrepreneurs, innovators and athletes together through there passion for kiteboarding. It’s a great vision of using the power of the sport to push each other in life and work.
The days consisted of kiting through out the day and some really informative Keynotes in the evenings. It was amazing and very inspiring to listen to all sorts of people with different backgrounds. Throughout the week I took clinics on Boosting, the conditions were perfect 20 knots and on some days 30!
Last week I travelled to Hurghada to coach for a week. We had some great days on the water working on topics like:- The art of boosting- Back Rolls - Front Rolls - Transitions and more….. I have been to Egypt 5 times now and find its a great place to help riders progress. The wind is steady, usually around 20knots and it’s very warm. During the evenings we looked back at the footage where I could provide further tips for the next session. You can find dates of my next coaching trip later in the year below…..
Packing my bags for Egypt again as tomorrow I’m going to El Gouna to the Kite Founders Club with BEST. It looks like a great event and the forecast is epic!
Next Coaching Trip: 15th August 2013 - with Fly Kitesurfing more info here
The last three and half weeks I spent on the road travelling around Europe. There is nothing more I like to do then spend time in my van which has gone with me everywhere over the years. The goal was to finish up at Leucate for the 2nd PKRA stop- The Mondial Du Vent! To start with I took the ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe, this is a 4 hour crossing but as Newhaven is just over 30 minutes away it gets things started quickly….2 days on the French North Coast, then inland – a stop off at Paris and on to Serre De Chevalier to meet good friend Gavin who invited me out for some Snowboarding & Snowkiting. The snow was insane and nobody was around, for 4 days I snowboarded and snow-kited it was epic! Next stop was off to Leucate to kite before the competition where on the offdays of wind I got some Wakeboarding in @Kum Wake Park. When the event came the wind was amazing, strong, gusty, offshore. Leucate is Hell for kitesurfing but you grow to like the madness the more you go there…..
I finished 17th from 50, not to bad for my first PKRA in 4 years but with the new format I really think I can be finishing top ten, Other Brits Sam L finished well in 9th and Aaron on his first comeback for ages got on the podium. Last stop of the trip was a visit to shop CHINOOK KITE SCHOOL to add my message to the roof!
I can’t thank Huets enough for converting my van into such an epic place to be and also my other sponsors BEST Kiteboarding, ICENI Water, Kustom Footwear and Xcel for supporting this trip
I am achieving some of my major goals in life! I just confirmed my role as Commentator on the Kitesurf Tour Europe. This will stop in France, Spain and Holland as well as maybe one more stop to be confirmed. As taken from the Kitesurf Tour Europe website: http://www.kitesurftour.eu/
“We are happy to announce that Lewis Crathern will be our Tour Commentator during the KTE 2013.
Every Event needs a good commentator to lead the Riders and the Visitors through each Event-Day. With his knowledge about Kiteboarding and his good connection to the participants, we have a great new team member on board.
Lewis says: “I am over the moon to be providing the commentary for the KTE this year. One of my major passions is to deliver kiteboarding to the general public as well as the kitesurfing community. The KTE is really shaping up to be a major tour on the Kitesurfing Calendar and I am really looking forwards to being at the events. My vision for these events is to provide accurate commentary in a way that everybody can understand.”
The BEST-Teamrider is 4 x British Champion, he did the Brighton Pier Jump in 2010, became first at the RedBull Len10 Megaloop Challenge 2012 and 5 th at the Red Bull King of the Air 2013.
The past six years he commentated for example the RedBull Megaloop Challenge, the RedBull King of the Aur, the Big Air Open, the British Championships and the Atlantic Watersports Games.
Lewis – welcome to our Team – we will have a fantastic year at the KTE 2013″
I have been coaching kitesurfing and motivating people to go harder for quite some time but this year was the first time I brought it to Cape Town. Cape Town clinics 2013 came to an end but will still run next year. Here is a nice video from the last one which took place on the 3rd of March, Adrian was a really nice guy and so passionate about kitesurfing. We had a great time up at Dolphin beach in quite rare conditions on a 9m comfortably powered. It was a great way to start a Sunday we hit the water at 10a.m and kited three hours till 1pm.
Big thanks to High Five Kite School, Endless Summer Beach House, Mystic & The Board House for making this possible.