The MBS Pro Kite team did well at the weekend at the BKSA’s second major land event of the year. Lewis Wilby claimed first place and is now on track to win the series. Mark Berry entered his first competition in a while and proved he still had what it takes by claiming the second spot on the podium as well as winning the best trick prize. The winning trick was a unhooked 720 kiteloop transition.

Read the full write up for the BKSA Kiteival Blackpool.

Read Lewis Wilby’s write up and see a short video from the event.

The event took place on Walney Island, Barrow in Furness, Cumbria. As with last year, the wind was blowing letting the competition get under way. MBS Pro Team rider won the mens landboarding competition whilst wearing a wetsuit seeing as he also entered the amateur mens kitesurf competition, which he also won! You can read a full report on the event at the new BKSA Kiteival website > Barrow goes off

This weekend was the CLA Game Fair 2009 at Belvoir Castle. The MBS Pro team were there with the MBS Pro Ramp which was sponsored by ATB Shop for the weekend – Thank you guys! We did 4 shows a day.

On top of that the Hire and Ride team, supported by the ATBA-UK taught over 250 children (and the odd adult) how to mountainboard. Belvoir was pretty flat but thanks to a bit of scaffolding and some wood a temporary hill was built allowing us to spread the joys of mountainboarding to the masses. Top riders such as Tom Kirkman and Joe Dickson also helped teach.

Like last years Game Fair which was held at Blenheim Palace, it was a great event for us. We look forward to next years event at Ragley Hall.

Images by ATB Shop
Read more about the Mountainboarding Big Air Show and the Mountainboarding Hire and Ride team.

Unfortunately the first round of the 2009 mountainboard series had to be canceled on Friday due to extreme weather conditions. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come.

Mark Berry and Tom Beaton road tripped it up for a weekend in France at the Slingshot Party 2009. The event was held in the Le Touquet which according to wikipedia has a reputation as the most elegant holiday resort of northern France, the playground of rich Parisians, with many luxury hotels.

The Saturday unfortunately was neither windy nor all that sunny.  We did get to see some friendly faces however. We met up with Florent and co from Avenue De La Glisse which was nice. French kite team riders Claudine Podvin and Olivier Garret were there – with a 10 day old baby! We spent our time longboarding along the amazingly smooth promenade and checking out the town.

Sunday was hot. Really hot. The wind however was still absent. Again we spent our time chatting, skating and checking out the local cafes before heading back to the UK. Le Touquet is a great venue for a kite event. The beach looked flat and smooth when the tide was out, and the vibe at the event was great. Hopefully they will get some wind next year!

See more photos from the Slingshot Party 2009.

The first of 3 events this year put on by the BFC team went down at Knockhill near Hailsham. The event was a total success.

Rhys’ summary of the competition:
“The standard of riding was epic and boundaries were certainly pushed throughout the day. The 1st zone consisted of a drop off or rail into a wallride and barrel jib feature, highlights included Gary Crowhursts switch backside 720 off of the drop as well as his wallride to backflip attempt. The 2nd zone was literally littered with rails and riders once again pushed the standard of rail riding at knockhill with Simon Andrews and Dave Compton sliding, grinding and jibbing everything in sight. The 3rd zone included quarter pipes and a crazy, original wallride feature with coping along the top and a kicker onto it which was shut down by the mad skills and skate style tricks of riders like Ryan Roberts. The final zone was a more traditional type of competition feature; a dirt tabletop jump. Riders put on a spectacular freestyle show which included backflips, frontflips, rodeos, switch flips, 540s and 720s from the likes of Matt Brind.”

The BFC have written up a report and posted full results listings on their website.

Tom Kirkman was approached by the Eden Project to put on a mountainboard display at the popular tourist attraction down in Cornwall. Together with fellow MBS Team riders Jamie Johnstone, Mick Kirkman, Matt Brind and a couple of other friends the event was organised. Mountainboard photographer extraordinaire Paul Taylor was on hand to capture some of the action.

This event was a total success and great publicity for the sport of mountainboarding. Rumour has it there may well be more mountainboard demos at the Eden Project in the near future.

Photo: Tom Kirkman – by Paul Taylor

This is a show we had been excited about for a while. The event had received a lot of hype and had some big names signed up. We had been promised big crowds and to top it all off, the forecasts looked great. When we got there however the weather looked distinctly wet. Set up went well though, the ramp was looking good and testing went smoothly.

Shows started on the Friday. It was pretty quiet to begin with. This made sense as most people should still have been at work or school! Friday night entertainment was provided by hip DJ of the moment, Calvin Harris (which we missed most of unfortunately due to bbqing taking longer than expected) then some mad German techno DJ. We danced like only the MBS Pro Team can.
Saturday morning we were up bright and early to get set up and start the demos. The heat was intense. The crowds were much better and by Saturday afternoon they were huge and making a lot of noise. By this point Rhys had finished his Saturday morning exam and made it down to take over the mic. This of course reflected in the riding and the tricks got bigger and better.

The Mini event attracted all kinds of minis from all over Europe. I saw number plates from as far away at Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic and Russia. They had all kind of things going on from toy minis for kids to classic mini racing, to new mini racing and of course loads of space for people to show off their own minis.

Saturday night entertainment was provided by Paul Weller, followed by another DJ who provided the soundtrack for more MBS Pro dance moves.

The heat was really intense on Sunday. We ate huge quantities of the free iced lollies and drank as much water as we could. The shows went well and we got some more amazing shots (with nice blue skies for a change). The crowds were loving the MBS Team. Various photographers stopped by and TV crews also noticed us and did some interviews. After the last show Tom Kirkman went to cool down with a sponge bath from the Mini Car Wash girls.

This was a really good show and we got to showcase mountainboarding to thousands of people. See all the photos from the Mini United event.

Again the MBS Pro Ramp was booked in for the Outdoor Show at the NEC. The whole event is sponsored by Ordenance Survey and caters for all kinds of outdoor activities. This was our first ramp event of the year and it was great to see all the team back together and riding again. A film crew headed by Jack Johnson of BFC fame were present too – to film a documentary (scroll down to see the video).

As always the ramp pulled in a strong crowd and everyone was impressed with the tricks the team pulled off. Fat Face were present again to support us and also one of our retailers Extreme Kiteshop. A few familiar faces were also seen over the weekend.

The documentary put together by Jack Johnson was really well and done and to a very high standard. AJ Watkins – MBS Team Manager was interviewed and gives a quick overview of the sport, it’s history and how we are trying to help promote mountainboarding.

Watch the video below:

More Other >>

See more photos of the MBS Pro Ramp at the Outdoor Show 2009.

The end of the competition season was held at Bugsboarding Mountainboard Centre on October 11th and 12th. The prizes were given out for this seasons competitions and it was another chance for everybody to get together. The ATBA-UK took advantage of having everyone together and held their AGM as well.

The MBS team did very well again this year.

• Renny Myles won the World Championships at the Fat Face Night Air 2008
• Joe Dickson won the Elite Freestyle Overall UK Championships
• Ben Rye is the U18 World Champion at the Fat Face Night Air 2008
• Tuai Lovejoy is the U18 Freestyle Overall UK Champion
• Mick Kirkman is U14 overall UK and World Champion 2008
• Jos Kirkman is the Ladies World Freestyle Champion 2008

We hope next year will be just as successful.

See more photos of the ATBA Prize giving weekend.