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24.09.2021
Cold Hawaii Games 2021 - Event Report
The Cold Hawaii Games are back in 2021 – and they are back with a bang! As last year, the Cold Hawaii Games had a versatile schedule with Yoga sessions, Beach Clean Ups and a huge skate competition and much more. But of course, at Kitemana we have been early checking the forecast during the event window of the CHG Big Air competition from 10.09.-26.09. Just before the end of that window, a storm appeared on all forecasts and everyone got excited. With the yellow light call for the 23rd of September, riders across Europe started to make their way again to Nørre Vorupør, the fishing village in Northern Denmark to battle out the title as King of the North 2021.
Cold Hawaii Games 2021 Riders List
After last years podium was fully orange with Kevin Langeree at the top and Lasse Walker plus Stig Hoefnagel on 2nd and 3rd many expected again a strong Dutch fleet for 2021 and this is just what happened. Lasse Walker, Kevin Langeree, Jamie Overbeek, Evan Klijn, Giel Vlugt and Cohan van Dijk all from the Netherlands managed to qualify. With more highly skilled riders like Liam Whaley (ES), Aaron Hadlow (UK), Tom Bridge (UK), Nick Jacobsen (DK), Julian Huynh (FR), Joss de Pfyffer (ES), Clement Huot (FR), Valentin Garat (FR), Lucas Gramstrup (DK), Mikkel Hansen (DK), Lorenzo Casati (IT) and Simon Bruhn (DE) it was clear that this will be a super competitive contest and a big show!Before the event, everyone was shuffling cards and putting in their bet on who will taking home the win. Of course, Kevin Langeree is one to have on the list on any event, but also as he took the victory also last year. The same is true for Lasse Walker, especially looking at the forecast for the afternoon. Those forecasted nuclear wind speeds would be the perfect playground for Lasse. Another contester, who received a huge amount of attention over the past months was Giel Vlugt. Hardly anyone improved his riding as much as he did over the last year. Liam Whaley was one to look out for: always hungry to win and back in shape after his injury! Of course, the ultimate competition rider himself, Aaron Hadlow, was also part of the fleet and for many the number one favorite for the podium. Also, Tom Bridge was back again after he injured himself last year during the warm up for the CHG 2020. That was a bummer, but we therefore we were looking forward even more to see him compete this year again with his unique style. Of course, the local boys need to be on your list: the Danish riders Nick Jacobsen, Lucas Gramstrup and Mikkel Hansen are sure to have massive support in front of their home crowd. But of course, any of the other riders could be taking home the title as well. As Simon Bruhn kicked out Nick Jacobsen last year, we wanted to keep a close eye on him, but with sooo much potential, skill and talent among all riders, it was truly hard to figure out who will be taking home the title as winner of Cold Hawaii Games 2021.
Format, Judging and Scoring
The format of the Cold Hawaii Games is based on dingle eliminations in the first round. Three riders battle out first and second place during the heat. The winner advanced straight into round 3, the second place had to go into round 2 and win. Round 2 and 3 as well as the semi finals were based on single elimination. The judges were looking for 70% height and 30% extremity. The riders could perform as many tricks as they wanted, and the three best tricks were taking into consideration for the Extreme Big Air Score. The Overall Impression was added at the end as a result of technical difficulty, style, variety, execution, risk, show and innovation. The average of these 4 scores weigh in evenly for the final result of the heat.
The Competition Day
We arrived late at night and took a quick walk on the beach before going to bed. The atmosphere was calm - calm before the storm. Fishing boats laying on the beach, the moon was shining and it was warm and with almost no wind. Hard to imagine the action that was about to happen on the next day at the same spot. Only the North Kiteboarding and Cold Hawaii Games Event flags indicated that something big was about to happen. On the next day, early in the morning you could hear cars arriving, some with music blasting, shouts of excitement going across the parking lot and most importantly: the wind was already shaking up our van… time to get up and prepare for action!At the event site, riders were preparing their gear on the beach, some doing a quick warm up on the water while a few fishermen were observing the hectic scenario, some locals were walking their dogs and a handful of grannies in bikinis, who just got back from their routine morning swim ran through the riders towards the warm showers. Everyone was happy to be there, friendly and looking forward for the rest of the day. The atmosphere at Nørre Vorupør was already amazing before the event started.
Cold Hawaii Games 2021 Round 1
The first heat started shortly after 9am with around 25 knots with Aaron Hadlow, Giel Vlugt and Cohan van Dijk. Even though the crowd was not huge yet, Giel managed to fire everyone up, shouting and cheering on the water – you could see he was happy to be back and perform the best he could. Aaron and Giel fought for the win of the heat with super close results – a foretaste of what was about to come later.In Heat 3, the riders took the first taste of the conditions of the rest of the day. A weather front came in with serious gusts hitting the spot. Lasse could excel in those prime Dutch conditions and came out in front of Jamie Overbeek and Joss de Pfyffer. This made us curious on whats gonna happen later during the day as the wind was forecasted to increase further and further.
In Heat 4, after the front the wind dropped a bit and the heat was paused. During the first half Simon Bruhn managed to keep up with Liam Whaley by continuously pulling out trick after trick and even led at some point. When the wind came big, Liam set himself in front again and took this heat.
Heat 6 was the first heat of Kevin. Kevin performed on his sky level, banging out rotations and grabs in heights that were not seen up to his point and the crowd was with him. One guy next to us commented after the only butt check Kevin did: ‘Wow, Kevin just did something I never saw from him and did not expect – a mistake’. This tiny mistake did not influence his results though and he took the heat. During the the heat Lorenzo Casati kept up with Kevin. The 16 year old Italian old ended up just behind Kevin for the total score. Julian Huynh struggled to find a good take off and then also crashed and inverted his kite – bad luck!
Cold Hawaii Games 2021 Round 2
Simon Bruhn was up against the local boy Lucas Gramstrup in Heat 7. The crowd was cheering for both, but Simon took the win with his super controlled Kiteloops frontrolls and late backs.In Heat 9, Tom Bridge showed what loops and boots are all about. Tom was able to hold the edge so well, that he managed to boost as high coming in as other going out over a kicker. Clearing almost the competition zone we set himself way in advance of Julian.
In Heat 10, Luca went up against Valentin Garat. Just as in heat 6 against Kevin, Lorenzo was on fire. Banging out trick after trick he took the win by far with total score and overall impression score. If not earlier already, now Lorenzo was one took look out for, for the rest of the day.
Cold Hawaii Games 2021 Round 3
Heat 13, was one for the books and the crowd was stoked – Aaron up against Tom. The two English men with completely different styles also thought out the battle straps against boots. Aaron did perform several technical board off maneuvers, but did show some nerves and crashed a few times. He still put out three well rated jumps for the scoreboard. Tom however was doing his thing, jumping high and far in his boots, playing in waves and steezing around. At the end, Aaron took the heat, but both put on an insanely good show for the crowd.Lorenzo Casati was up against Nick Jacobsen in Heat 14 - the underdog vs. the legend. Lorenzo confidence against experienced riders like Nick was super impressive and paid off. Lorenzo scored and scored and scored with super high late backs and clean landings. Nick gave him a tough heat, but at the end, Lorenzo came out first over Nick and qualified himself for the semifinals – wow!
In Heat 15, Simon was up against Lasse. Both went out in their nines – Evo SLS and Dice SLS. Just after the heat took off, wind conditions changed drastically, and it picked up to 45-50 knots. Simon went back to the beach straight away and changed to his 7m Evo SLS, while Lasse had a few goes on his 9m. This allowed Simon to perform more technical maneuvers in the beginning of the heat than Lasse, so he was in front. After a change of kites to the 7m Dice, Lasse was back and started to chase Simon. In those prime Megaloop Challenge conditions, Lasse was thriving and took the heat by banging out insanely low kite angles and clearing the entire competition area – what a show!
For heat 16 it was Liam up against Jamie. It was a neck to neck fight for the win. As both riders are used to those raging wind speeds, the jump height was peaking during this heat. Liam claiming his jumps and waving to the crowd 20m above the water while Jamie is pulling three heli loops next to him to descend back was just insane. Liam was able to advance and qualify himself for the semifinals.
The last heat of round 3, heat 18 had Giel coming up vs. Kevin: one rider who has been pushing the most vs. one of the most experienced riders out there and both are super hungry to win – what a heat. While Giel had some high jumps, Kevin went higher. Giel was showing more technical maneuvers with super high Doubie Loops and Board Offs. For the total score, both ended up on the same level, but with more variations, Giel took the win over Kevin and went to the semifinals.
Cold Hawaii Games 2021 Semi-Finals
Just as the level in heats, the wind was just picking up further and further.Heat 19 with Lorenzo and Cohan was the first heat of the semi-finals. Wind was averaging well above 40 with gusts above 50 knots. Cohan and Lorenzo battled it out really hard and going head to head throughout the whole heat. Both showed their best heat of the competition so that the lowest rated trick was an 8.3 – insane! Both ended up almost with the same total score, but the variety score set Lorenzo in front of Cohan with almost 2 points. With that, the Italian Young Gun Lorenzo was the first rider being qualified for the final.
Heat 20 had Lasse vs. Aaron – a battle of giants! The conditions were perfect: raging wind and high kickers! Lasse went straight to action and showed the highest late backs with the lowest kite angles of the whole competition clearing the competition area with one jump only. Again it was a close heat, but Lasse took the win over Aaron by total and variety score!
Last semi-final, Heat 21, Liam vs. Giel – oh wow… the crowd got even more nervous and started to shout even before the heat has started! Two super hungry guys absolutely going for it! Liam managed to add a whole new level to his riding during this heat: higher jumps, cleaner landings, lower kite angles. By that one can definitely see the competition experience of Liam setting the bar higher each heat! Giel also absolutely went for it, but had some troubles to land his moves cleanly during this heat. Giel only landed three jumps out of which only two were accounted to his total score. Maybe it was his nerves or the cranking wind that was more in favor for Liam, but the scoring gave a clear result: Liam advanced through to the finals with a much higher total score and variety score!
Cold Hawaii Games 2021 Finals
There we go – the final of the Cold Hawaii Games 2021 had 16 year old Italian Young Gun Lorenzo up against Liam, one of the most experienced competition riders hungry to win after his injury and Lasse, the fearless Dutchmen that has proven just bang out the most extreme moves in those gnarly conditions – what a final! Just with the finals, the wind just picked up further to definitely above 50 knots!All three riders started off by putting jumps with scores well above 8 on the scoreboard. Ticking box after box, with late backs, doubie loops and board offs 5min into the heat all three riders were pretty much on the same (high) level and it was impossible to say will take the lead. As the heat continued with 5min on the clock, Liam continued to go big, also crashed hard after a kite loop board off but managed get back up fast and put more tricks on the scoreboard. Lorenzo had some trouble finding the right kicker, ended up in white wash, but then suddenly banged out a maaassive Boogie Loop Board Off with a perfect landing – that might have been the move of the day. 4min left on the clock… still super close scores and impossible to says who will take the win. Lorenzo went for an early board off, but could not get the board back on while Liam was flying by and claiming his trick. This might have been a turning point in the finals… Liam still banging out move after move after move and Lorenzo had troubles to find another kicker. Lasse meanwhile continuously scored, but did not manage to keep up with Liams scores. 1min left on the clock Lasse put out another board off to add more variety and also a maasive late back just seconds before the end of the heat. With one point away from each other, it all comes down to the variety score – what a final so far! Total scores at the end had Lasse in third with 25,27, Lorenzo second with 26,13 and Liam in first with 27,02. With the variety score of 6,7 for Lasse, 7,5 for Lorenzo and 9,2 for Liam the final podium did not change anymore and Liam made it to the top! Congratulations! And congratulations to Lorenzo and Lasse as well as all other riders of the event – one of the sickest kite event in history!!!
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