Lake Silvaplana at St. Moritz was the venue for the ‘best of 3’. An invitational event over 2 days where 3 x kitesurfers, 3 x windsurfers & 3 x sail boats would race against each other in 3 disciplines- speed, slalom & course Race.

Following a slow journey for a swiss air flight to Zurich, I get to boarder control & realise I have no shoes- something that is the norm in Exmouth. So- a dash round the shop to try to find anything that is size 8- well talk about extremes- Pink sandals with this huge wedge!!! Least its slowed my walk down a bit!

Sat on the plane is like no other experience at all- sandwiches, red wine, chocolate, decent staff, huge amounts of room. This is it – Swiss Air – & its only £30 for a kite surf kit (even if my board looks like a windsurfer)

The delayed flight meant I missed my transer to the mountains so I check into a posh hotel, make the most of all its facilities & enjoy the luxury of lying in a huge bed watching a movie!!! ( King Kong till 3am)

At 9am I await the arrival of  World class windsufers – holding around 40 world tittles each of them –  Karin Jaggi  & Bjorn Dunkerbeck on a flight from Turkey & it all gets rather late- competition gets put on hold while they await our 3 hr dive through the mountains. Incredible drive over pass’s, cow towns, & amazing green grass. Then as we go over the Juniper pass (1800mtrs) it’s the most incredible spectacle of colour as we track down to lake Silvaplanna. Kites criss crossing across the sky, green turqoise water, blue blue sky & the snow capped mountains in the background. We were in such a rush there was no chance for pics but this view & spectacle will stick in my head for ever.

I get someone to pump my kite & fashion the new 2012 north freerace in preperation for the speed run. Windsurfers had clocked 61km/hr so unless I had a dedicated speed board then this may be tricky. It was a port tack approach as fast as possible towards the tower which was clocking the speed & the worst bit was that you had to go hell for leather towards the tower on the shore with huge tree’s, spectators, campers all linning the embankment. So- in order to stop was really tricky & often involved just crashing hard before you crashed into the side!!! My best speed was 54km/hr then Dirk clocked 63km/hr on the speed board which took the 1^st overall in this disipline.

We then head upwind for the slalom races & we all line up on the start line ready for a dash downwind with windsurfers laying down their sails as we gybe, the moth sailors capsizing & the crazy hydrofoil hobie cat making more noise than ever. In amongst this there is a bunch of us kiters trying to make room to dive our kites to round the bouys. For me it was just a matter of barging & perhaps I was too polite in these races- getting 2^nd overall to the World champion slalom racer- karin. Also ripping was olympic gold medalist snow boarder – great kiter also- Tanja Frieden.

The final races were on the course board & these were done in a now fickel wind which was disappointing since the kiters could have done great in these. I was 2^nd kiter but we again got beaten by the windsurfers. A more upwind/downwind course would have helped our results.

Other than being freezing cold & suffering from some sort of altitude sickness it had all been a superb experience & very lucky to be involved in such a unique event. Prize giving was followed by a huge fondue, party & more party. Loads of thanks to Christian Mueller who put the whole team together & made the event happen.

We were staying at Hotel Julier Palace which made us feel so so welcome & gave us the best rooms which just made me want to stay way way longer. Danny set up & runs the Hotel & is also a passionate windsufer on the lake.  http://www.julierpalace.com/

That was it- my 48hr trip to Switzerland ended with a dash back to Zurich & flight back to Birmingham in preparation for getting the bridglets out to their 1^st PKRA World Cup in St. Peter Ording- Germany.

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