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Jack Shoulder at Snow Kite Masters

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Leaving England on my journey to the Col du Lautaret in the French alpes, I was a bit nervous. Having never snowkited before, and planning to compete in the 2009 snowkite masters I was thinking “Is this really a good idea?”

Luckily I had two days to practice before the main event started, so it wasn’t long before I had got the hang and felt ready to compete. So on Monday morning after a quick trip to the doctors to get my medical, I was signed up and registered to compete in freestyle, best-line and best trick. The snowboard was my weapon of choice so this meant I would be competing against people the likes of Reme Meum, Sigve Botnen and French champion Guillaume Chastagnol.

The heat order was put up with me in heat 8 of mens freestyle snowboard, against Reme Meum and Crazy French Fred, due to the wind being so light my heat wasn’t run that day, so we rescheduled for fist possible start at 10am Tuesday. The rest of the day wasn’t wasted though as we made a kicker and got some good pics.

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As we arrived the next day the wind still looked light, however as we walked up to the event site the wind felt like there might be enough, I rigged the 10m hopping that that would be ok, it was I had a great heat considering the hard conditions, busting out a few kiteloops and a railey to surface pass, I had done enough for 2nd and moved up to heat 15, this was a couple hours away. As the day moved on the wind increased and became very gusty, as my heat approached I decided to rig my 7m, hopping that the wind would hold during my heat, sadly the moment the buzzer went the wind lulled, I was struggling to keep the kite in the sky. The heat seemed to last for ages and finally when the hooter went to signal the end I new I hadn’t done enough to move up. So with it looking like I was out I decided to go and ride in the Serre Chevalier ski resort just down the road.

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The next day the wind swung 180ْ meaning the Col wasn’t working that day, so we loaded up the vans and headed down to a flat water spot called Le Cassette it was super windy and super gusty so Matthias Charton, race director said no comp today due to the danger, no one seemed to mind however and stuck around for the rest of the day and just rode together, we built another kicker and hit that with the kite. Again getting some great pics.

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The next couple of days were no wind so the best-line and best trick events were cancelled, although one afternoon the wind did pick up enough for a short mountain race around the Col.

The week came to an end a bit quicker than I had hoped but overall it had been a great trip. I want to thank my sponsors Edge watersports and Airush Kiteboarding for helping me make this possible and I want to say a big thanks to the event organizers and everyone who helped me at the event.

Hope to see you all next year.