King of the Air

[nicole]

Ohhhhh, another glorious weekend spent in Northern MI at the Red Bull King of the Air. It went something like this:

Scott and I rolled into town Friday night, just in time to join the BBQ/ Campfire booze circle and watch some video footage of the event so far. I really wish I could have gotten there earlier, all the heats were run on Thursday, and on Friday was handle passes, kiteloops, and the slider. You can hear all the juice about it on the Broneah website.

On Saturday, woke up and had this view from the cabin



Walked across the street to see people riding Crystal Lake









and The Andy Hurdman Show




We had just hammered out a plan to do a downwinder across the lake when the wind crapped out and never came back up. :(

So then we all piled into a big blue school bus and headed to TC


There was a spitball fight at dinner


Followed by the awards ceremony. Joel won a harness for "Gnarliest Crash"


Cameron won a pink beater for "Worst First Day Performance"


Andy Hurdman took first place, Madison Van Heurk got 2nd, and Sam Medysky came in 3rd


Awards was followed by more drinks




Boob scotch


Dancing


More Dancing


Then a looooooong strange walk back to the bus involving some street-nastics


a cheerleading pyramid?


Hopped on the bus and saw that some people weren't holding their liquor very well






and capped off the night with some leg wrestling back at the cabins



No wind the next day, so grabbed some grub and headed home. Thanks everybody for a great weekend!

For the whole gallery, check out http://photos.yahoo.com/corbs80

[STF]

arrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggg!


Nice wish i was there


how was the locations for riding?


nuking tommorw hope ur riding


stf

[nicole]

well. . .on sat. is was blowing SE, which was side-off at the two main spots there, Point Betsie and Point Platte. Thats why everyone was riding at Crystal Lake. I was scared to ride there cuz the beach was tiny and if I couldnt stay upwind I was gonna end up on somebody's backyard pier. Which was also why we hatched up the down-winder/ cross lake idea.

I dont think that Point Betsie would be worth the drive back, there's some funky metal walls all over the place (I like LSP better). But Point Platte might be worth a second try. look at it, its incredible!



although, you have to walk through a river to get to it!

and damn! whats up w/ these gales!?! time to get out the trainer kites!

[STF]

Point Platte looks sick!@


i want to pitch a tent on that little sand island and never leave!


looks like you could ride every wind direction there?

[V]

hey icrider!!! Are you doin the cabbage patch?

Sick spot that looks like its awesome.

So nicole what;s the hangover sitchy? Was Joe there? Did he do 6 shots in a row and kite like a bastard the next day?

[nicole]

here, this map will show its orientation better



so. . .yeah, it kind of looks like it would be rideable from almost any direction. Scott, are you reading this? why didnt we ride there? was it cuz it was off shore or was there just no wind there on sat.? i dont know, my brain was mushy that morning.

and shockingly, no, joe bidawid wasnt there. the only people there that i had met before was roberto, kyle, noah, jimbo, and. . .hmmm, i guess thats it. i feel like im forgetting someone. oh and cameron.

and im hearing things about some magical spot called Tawas that we'll have to check out.

[V]

If the water wasn't frigid, I'd want to move there to take part in the year round riding. But if it wasn't cold, that place would probably be a resort overrun with snotty childred and .... Jon you ready for it? .... dogs!

[Guest]

nicole

the pictures looked great...it was a good reminder of the weekend cause the way saturday night went I kinda forget a bit. and that was definitely one of the most fun walks home from a bar, although we almost never made it home (long story)

anyways, i checked out platte point sat. afternoon. the pictures do justice but I've gotta say I did not feel like i was in michigan, the place is surreal. plus the gorgeous sand dunes to the east make it even more dramatic. the wind was weak that afternoon, and offshore, hence riding at crystal lake instead of platte

we need some of these michigan beaches in chicago!

[jarch]

V, I'm sure that water in Crystal Lake freezes over in the winter. From that one photo it looks like riding in any direction between Point Betsy, Platte, and Crystal Lake. Just wish is wasn't all the way up there. I'm sure the people up there control their dogs better than the yahoos here in the city.

[nicole]

yeah, it freezes. i think roberto said he has snowkited there before.

and this area is very remote. i couldnt handle living there.

and come to think of it, i didnt see a single dog all weekend. there was an extreme amount of public urination by other animals though.

[nicole]

one more thing. . .this is the last year Red Bull is having this event.

[Misfit]

I want to clear up the "last year for koa". Yes, it is the last year for the koa but redbull is going to reinvent it for next year. Should be more with the times.
Cory

[nicole]

oh, really? i spoke w/ one of the redbull guys that was there and he said that redbull just doesnt want to do it anymore. i guess i misunderstood, or he forgot to mention the reinvention plan.