Birds were not the only creatures taking flight around the Squamish Spit during the Canada Day weekend.
“It’s time for a mega-loop challenge,” the announcer exclaimed through the booming speakers set up by waters.
Then, several kiteboarders who had competed earlier made a beeline for the crowd, taking turns to position their kites in a manner that would grab maximum amounts of wind.
With each of them making a few minute adjustments on their kites and pushing off with a big jump from their boards, they took flight, spiralling over the crowd in semi-circles.
It was just one example of the remarkable displays of skill put on by the dozens of world-renowned kiteboarders who gathered for Kite Clash.
Riders from all over the globe competed against each other for the right to call themselves the best freestyler or the kiter who could get the most air.
One highlight of the event was the comeback of Sam Medysky, a well-regarded local boarder who was sidelined in last year’s competition after he was knocked unconscious in a jump attempt.
Medysky, who has previously won six national titles, was rushed to hospital on that occasion.
But this time around, Medysky was rewarded not with an ambulance ride, but with the bragging rights that accompanies winning gold in the Canadian freestyle category.
“It is incredible,” he said in a news release. “Coming back from a huge accident last year and losing my title, switching brands and coming back…it’s just incredible.”
In the ladies’ side, first-time competitor Lauren Holman of Brights Grove, Ontario, put on a strong performance, which allowed her to claim victory in the women’s Canadian freestyle division.
“I am looking forward to learning more tricks, so that I can have a more solid heat next time,” she said in a news release.
Perhaps one of the most impressive of Holman’s tricks was an S-bend to blind, a move that requires performers to spiral through the air horizontally like lopsided helicopters and land with their backs turned.
Vancouver’s Jack Rieder took home the Junior Canadian National freestyle crown.
Unfortunately, there weren’t enough female participants to hold a competition for a girls’ title.
In the big air category, which allows international contestants to compete, the winners were Philipp Schonger and Colleen Carroll for the respective men’s and women’s titles.
Taking the women’s gold in the international freestyle competitions was Dutch boarder Annelous Lammerts, while Lucas Arsenault snagged first in the men’s division.
The up-close-and personal performances were made possible in part because of the unique nature of the Spit, which allow athletes to sometimes literally soar just above the audience.
“The venue is number one, and how close you are to the kiters,” said organizer Steven Tulk. “Every kiter who comes to the event from all over the world — they’re constantly just amazed at how close they are to the crowd.”
Typically, kiteboarding spectators are forced to watch from beaches, which are often a great distance from the kiters out in deeper waters.
“The first time I came down to the Spit, even though I’d lived in Squamish for 10 years, I’d never seen it from this perspective,” added co-organizer Sheila Sovereign.
Also making its mark on the event was a kiteboarding how-to, where one demonstrator put on a microphone headset while out on the waves and explained to the audience the intricacies of the sport.
Everything from the height of the kite to the rules of the boarders’ right of way – the system surfers use that enables groups of people to go in the water without tangling their kites – was explained.
“Ever wonder how we can get air like this?” he asked the audience, before lifting himself up on the wind.
