The wind blew strongly for the 2007 Hot Air! - Bali’s premier
kitesurfing event at Semawang beach, Sanur, over the weekend of 20th
& 22nd July. Even without last year’s favourite, Putu Eka, to amuse
the crowds, a steady 15 knots of wind, plenty of kites and smiles
were lifted both in and out on the water.
The 2.5km marathon started out upwind in the water in front of main
sponsor, Stiff Chilli, and while a few of the competitors struggled
to make it around the buoy in 15 knot winds, Coman passed first at
the buoy, in front of the host, Blue Oasis beach club. Second was
his brother Kade, while Yoni Giri was third.
The wind was strong enough for the more complicated tricks in the
freestyle event. The four person judging team enjoyed the efforts
made by the competitors over eight minutes for difficulty of tricks
and landing correctly. Jeroem van der Kooij took first place, having
narrowly missed last year’s first prize, Robert came second and
Kade, third.
In the hang time event, in which competitors attempt to stay up in
the air for as long as possible, winning by accumulative time of
jumps, it was visiting Austrians who took both first and second on
the podium, Bernie coming in first with an accumulated total time in
the air of an impressive 86.79 sec. Christian was second with 50.35
sec, and Kiwi, Mark Gaudin, came third with 35.41 sec. While in the
longest single jump in the air, it was Bernie again with 4.72 sec.
The main event on the card - and unique worldwide – was jumping for
the stiff chilli and a cash prize of five million rupiah. After many
attempts it was Bernie, who leapt the highest to win.
On the last day, the prizes sponsored by Ripcurl , AJ Hackett bungy
jumping and Stiff Chilli, were given out at The Beach Party held by
the Blue Oasis Beach Club, after a single-handed jukung race led by
two time Asian Games windsurfing champion, Oka Sulaksana.
