Certainly one of the best ever well organised events we have ever been. Based on Hainan Island, just south of Hong Kong, Olly & I flew in from the UK to a pretty big culture shock. Fish & chicken heads, chicken stomach,intestines and the consumption of all species was an education. Our 1st night was spent eating street  food with the North Production manager, Dirk Hanel, who in the last 10 years of NKB has spent many weeks sourcing the best productions around China. Very familiar with Chinese lifestyle, Dirk had us cleaning our street bowls with Chinese tea, using a tradition to wash a round the edges with chopsticks before starting our food. This pathed the way for most nights spent in the sitting room of the Chinese in the local town of Boao which was a 15 yen Tuk-Tuk drive from our base at King Bay.

The kiteracing was in Kingbay-mostly flat water & windy 7-10mtr weather with a short reef break to encounter at the windward mark along with far too much debris of plastic bags, rocks and floating cans. Grey/overcast with a fair bit of rain but the waters were warm. Over 160 riders
competed from over 40 different countries and the fleets were split 4 ways ensuring that each fleet had 4 races each day. Olly had a great consistent week going into the medal race day in 3rd position, just 2 points behind current world champion,Johnny Heineken. I did not really get to form, ending many races in 2nd place and even sometimes dominating many races, often struggled to keep the lead. The time has come to go back and race with the men in order to improve my performance and, like my ,main competition, Erika Heineken then regular competitive racing is the best way to stay ahead of the game.
Disappointment came on the medal race day when a very light 6knot breeze enticed the race officer to start the action. Olly, who needed to stay ahead of his opponent & fellow team mate from France, Maxime Nocher lost to him and this cost him his 3rd place overall. However, Olly still becomes world champion under 18’s, 3rd under 21’s and 4th men’s overall. At age 16, Olly has turned many heads and is a real talent on the water. Olly is now in WA testing the 2014 kites & boards with North designer, Ken Winner. Next week he prepares for the Race Oceanics in Perth-Western Australia and also the famous L2L race which is a distance race from Rottnest Island to Leighton Beach.