Category: News   Tags: event

The Red Bull Kite Punks proclaimed anarchy on surfboards in La Manga (Spain) – and invented a completely new sport at the five-day contest between the world’s best kiters. “The Sid Vicious of extreme kite surf“: that’s what his rivals have recently started calling the 18-year-old Briton Aaron Hadlow – half tongue-in-cheek, half awestruck. The three-times Kitesurfing World Champion owes his new title to his second victory at the Red Bull Kite Punks – an event that shattered the previous boundaries of what’s possible on a surfboard. At the Red Bull Kite Punks from 27 to 31 March he and nine other world-leading kitesurfers established a new discipline in water sports. One that demands courage, style, creativity and energy from its protagonists – and is utterly “punk”. 900s on the two-meter-kicker “Something new was born”, Hadlow raved about the unknown challenge on Deer Island Beach in Murcia: the sport’s elite spent five days at the totally new obstacle kite park, trying out ramps, wall rides and sliders, catapulted up to four meters into the air off the two-meter-high kicker, demonstrated 360s, 720s and 900s on the high-speed course. “This is about pushing kite surf to its own limits”, said runner-up Ruben Lenten, “setting up a competition unknown until the moment, trying to innovate and exploring new possibilities”. King of Kite Punk The first edition of the event, however, wasn’t bad either: the Red Bull Kite Punks premiered in the Netherlands last year – with slightly easier obstacles and a much less extreme course, but the same winner as 2007: Aaron Hadlow. Defending his title at the obstacle kite park in La Manga stretched him to his limits, as he admitted himself after the race on Saturday: “I hit the wall ride most, the A-Frame and both kickers, but the 900 over the wall ride was sick ... I never thought that I could perform the things we saw here this week, it really kicked ass!“