King of the Pond presented by North Kiteboarding

Competition: 2022 King of the Pond Presented by North Kiteboarding

Location – The Pond, Safety Bay, Rockingham

Date – Saturday, 15th of January 2022

Kiteboarding Western Australia hosted the inaugural King of the Pond [KOTP] freestyle competition Presented by North Kiteboarding on Saturday the 15th of January. The competition provided a unique opportunity for both local Western Australian and international freestyle riders to come together and show what they can do. The Pond in Safety Bay provides flat water and consistent sea breeze, where the conditions are ideal and safe for riders. 

KOTP ran an online video competition from November with the aim of giving up-and-coming riders an opportunity to compete. Riders from the full spectrum of the kite community entered including pro international riders, up-and-coming kiters, and young talents and the videos were judged by a panel of judges. 

The names of the selected 18 riders who went head to head against each other were announced by KWA earlier last week. The prize purse for the competition was $2,500, which is distributed between 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in each category and, the most extreme move and the overall winner. Furthermore, all competitors went into the draw to win a kite and bar package and courtesy of Core Kiteboarding.

 

An extra couple of knots of the day would have been preferred but the riders certainly did their best to put on an amazing show. The competition had world-class Judging; Mark Slater from WA Surf who was appointed as head judge. The scoring was based on the BAKL rule book, based on the following criteria:

• 60% Height. Go as hard and high as possible. The height in combination with move difficulty is priority, but we will also take the horizontal distance traveled into account.
• 40% Technicality. Controlled, extreme, difficult, high moves. Think about extremely powered and/or extremely technical, or ultimately a combination of this as long as it is performed at a proper height.

The event was live streamed with commentary worldwide on YouTube. Watch the full competition HERE.

The Results

Open

Most Extreme move – Damien Gough

Women

Juniors

Sponsors

KOTP is proud to be supported by the following sponsors: Noth/Mystic, Core Kites, WASurf, Seabreeze Kite School, Shaped By The Sea, Ocean Rodeo, Aluula, Geo Oceans and Kite Addiction, Kiteboarding Australia and The Surfr App.