Some of our group, its hard to catch everyone when the wind is blowing. Photo by Richard Stead
The recent Bolton Le Sands meet was in my eyes, a complete success, Bolton le Sands, by the way is a large village and civil parish of the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, NW England, it also has one of the best unrestricted non bucket and spade beaches in the UK, it can also be a dangerous beach, so local knowledge and caution must be taken and adhered to, it started as a casual “I think I will arrange a meet at BLS” thought, quickly made a facebook page to promote it, then sat back and watched the group grow until the Page listed 49 going, plus people I knew were attending who didn’t use Facebook, and partners and kids etc.
We all booked into Red Bank Farm Camp site next to the beach and people started to arrive from the Thursday night onwards, in fact we almost took the whole of our usual camping field, and there was a great crowd. We had even at the very last minute had some T-Shirts printed thanks to Nick Thompson, and our friend Olo had some badges made up to give to everyone.
I arrived at 10am with a couple of friends from Lincolnshire, and as soon as the tents were pitched and gazebo’s erected, the people that had arrived early hit the beach. The beach was in perfect condition, sun was out, and the wind was blowing. I put a 4.5m Vapor up and used that kite for the whole of the day.
Ben’s accident, and the Emergency Services that attended
Towards the end of the run we were using the was a hidden gulley, and unfortunately Ben who had travelled to the meet from Dublin, hit this gulley at speed and the Cougar 2.5 buggy launched on the far side of the gulley, cart wheeling both Ben and his buggy……he laid motionless for around 5 minutes, he was unconscious, soon fellow kiters were around him as he came around, an ambulance was called and before we knew it the paramedic had walked out the mile to us on the beach…..soon to follow was the RNLI Hovercraft, and a few moments after that the Air Ambulance arrived and after about 1/2hrs worth of checks decided to fly Ben who by this time was in good spirits, to Preston Hospital for checks, the service he received on the beach was second to none, it was excellent……his buggy survived only bending a 20mm stub axle.
The beach continued to fill with our group as they arrived, and throughout the afternoon apart from Ben of course we all had a great time, Mark Stiles ended the day with over 77 miles, I had gone over 60 miles and we had both been hitting around 46mph
Richard Stead aka Rick in the Wildkat
Friday evening and night was taking up by eating drinking and being entertained by various members of our group. We got news that Ben was ready to come back to camp, so we all clubbed together to fund the hour taxi drive back to us, we continued and somehow I found my tent sometime after 2.00am, it was a great warm night.
Mark Stiles
Saturday, the wind was blowing harder than the previous day, I saw Mark Stiles leaving early, we seemed to have this unspoken friendly rivalry going on, we had similar ability, similar buggies and kites and we spent the most of Friday chasing each other up and down the beach. I quickly got my gear together and followed him down to the beach, the wind was much stronger late 20s I would guess, so I put a 2.3m Vapor up, Mark was already flying on a 3.5m, but soon came back in for a smaller kite, the 2.3 seemed perfect for me, I am light and so is my buggy with the Landseglers on, I was continually hitting 48mph, then 49.6, I went back to buggy camp and asked Mark his speed, his was 49.3 I believe….but he was then going out on his 3.5 again, his first few runs out, he came back shouting 51.3 his new PB, so I put the 2.7m Vapor up and went out again….gradually my speed kept climbing with every run, 50.2, 50.8, then I hit 51.6mph, I was just getting into it when I snapped a main and break line, and the mess that followed put me out for over an hour, missing the best of the wind that day, Phil brought me some knew lines out, and soon I was flying again, but could not get over 50mph for the rest of the day….I did however end the day with 85miles on my GPS.
PTW heading towards 51.6mph and 85 miles taken by Richard Stead
Josh Hough
Phil Revill
Many of the group were freestylers, and a few landboarders, Carl Kirkton also arrived, and they continued to entertain everyone with their amazing skills throughout the day, young 18year old Theo Southee I am sure will be a name to watch out for in the future, I am sure it won’t be long before a sponsor snaps him up.
Theo Southee
By Saturday evening many of us were exhausted, and could just about make it to the communal Gazebo for an evening drink and chat, tonight was not a late night for anyone.
Sunday morning was a surprise, it was raining quite heavily, and more importantly the tide had covered most of our beach meaning the area we play on would be very wet, Theo went down for a look and came back saying it was almost impossibly to get onto the beach….so unfortunately that signalled the end of our meet, and within the next few hours, we had packed up and said our goodbyes, it had been really a great meet, it was perfect., everyone there played their part to make a great occasion, so thank you to each and everyone of you.