Website Updates and Radio Programmes

I've managed to get copies of Frasers interviews from Radio 4 Live on Friday morning and Radio Cumbria on Monday morning.

I'm going to be updating the website over the next week or so hopefully to include the Radio Interviews and hopefully the border TV footage if we can get it.

I still need to gather together a selection of images and a little bit of video from various sources. We didn't really manage the use of our helmet cam batteries very well, but to be fair the Go-Pro control software doesn't not lend itself to battery conservation and also actually switching it on and off and getting it back onto video is a right pain in the backside when your kiting. If it went straight to video it would much better. A new firmware is on the cards soon so hopefully that will fix it. A waterproof wireless remote would be cool!

Richard Branson is trying again today - wind looks a little light and variable today but tommorow looks epic down there. Good luck to them. They've got a top notch team of kiters down there so if one of the doesn't break the record I'll be very suprised. I know who my money is on!

Border TV shows the crossing and Sir Richard is thwarted by the weather

Border TV did a small piece on the crossing and made a bit of a mess of it by mentioning the website but not putting the caption up for the weblink. They said it would be fixed for the later program but again it was not right. Frustrating for us yet again.

Sir Richard Branson's record attempt on crossing the England Channel had to be cancelled by high winds - basically it was good for kiting but not for the safety boats.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/aug/24/richard-branson-kiteboard-record-off-course

Welcome to our world Sir Richard - We had to wait two bloody years :-)

Sir Richard Branson kitesurfing the English Channel

Well it seems like you can't do anything without a copycat event!

Sir Richard Branson is going to kitesurf across the channel for his 60th Birthday, along with 5 time world champion Aaron Hadlow and Laird Hamilton.

Good luck to them, this will raise the profile of kiting for sure and can't do our achievement any harm for sure.

http://www.aaronhadlow.com/2010/08/22/english-channel-crossing/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-10652352

Dunno where they get the 6 hours from though - Chris Bull did it some years ago - there AND back in under 4 hours - but they had pretty strong wind and caned it.

We finally did it!!

Well we finally did it. After two years of planning and several false starts we completed the crossing of the Irish Sea from Cloghy in Northern Island to Silloth in West Cumbria. We set of from Cloghy at 09:00 Saturday and landed at Silloth at 18:00 a distance on the GPS of around 110 miles.

I'll do a more detailed write up once I get some more time but thanks to everyone who helped on the day - we couldn't have done it without you especially at such short notice. Everything didn't go as planned but we did it nevertheless.

To everyone who helped us a big thank you is due and I will post more details in due course.

I must thank all our family and friends who supported us throughout this two years and without whom we couldn't have done it.

The reception we got at Silloth beach was fantastic - a big thanks to everyone who turned up to meet us.

This was for you all. Thank you all so much.

Cancelled for today.

Well the weather defeated us yet again. It was agreed that it was not safe for the boats and crew due to the wind speed and sea state. We are the process of discussing options for tomorrow. Meanwhile we are going to ride with some of the lads from NI.
Fingers crossed. Again.

Breakfast at Wong's Royale in Portavogie Northern Island

We are over in Ireland having a leisurely breakfast waiting for the weather to clear. Its still pretty bad over in cumbria but it's clearing over here. The wind is looking good at the moment and the forecast is to drop. We are waiting for a decision from the boats. This could be it finally!

We are go!

We are heading to the ferry at Stranraer. The forecast is looking potentially good but could be on the strong side early in the morning. We've taken the chance and hopefully the boats will be able to sail. It's going to be touch and go!

Thanks to John Lowry and New Gin Zulu II

Just a quick up date to give a thanks to John Lowry over in Northern Ireland for the offer of boat support from the coast of Northern Ireland to rendezvous with the boats from Cumbria.

http://southdowncoastguard.co.uk/

We are into our second two week window of the year which closes on the 22nd August and typically we've not had the right conditions. A week of wind with a bias from the North is no good for us. Pretty chilly as well for this time of year.

It's forecast to turn SW again later in the week so we'll see what that brings.

On another note it was a good weekend down at the Barrow round of the BKSA. We've also been flying the new Gin Zulu II from Gin Kites. Can't really fault the kite in any way - contact us for a demo!