Name, Denzil Williams

Story,  Denzil is a fully bred Cornish Kitesurfer who has been at the top of the British Kite scene since it started, using all the best spots in Cornwall to develop his broad Kite skills he has gone from being the British Amateur Freestyle champion to consistently being on the podium in the Pro division but not only in this country but also abroad where he won the 2006 Kenya Cup Freestyle event. For this year Freestyle is now taking a back seat while he concentrates on the other disciplines of the sport, Wave riding and Course Racing!

Living in Cornwall has allowed Denzil to train in great conditions for Wave riding, in fact Denzil has been in the UK’s top 3 for the past 4 years and now he is also working hard on the new discipline of course racing, this year see’s the start of the BKSA Course racing series and Denzil has been working hard with Bill from Escape to develop the high performance Escape Raceboard which he dominated the Mens division at the first Race event in Exmouth, South Devon. Denzil is also competing on the World Circuit for Racing and is Britains number 1 seed, he is currently in 4th Place so he’s not doing too bad… Good lad

                 

New British Champion

 

                        
Denzil Williams, Brazil Trip from Denzil Williams on Vimeo.I traveled up to Poole in Dorset for the Windfest event which took place over 3 days of 12th – 14th September to take part in the final round of the British Kitesurfing Course Racing Series. This is a new discipline for the UK which is being held by the BKSA (British Kite Surfing Association), other countries from around the world have already been running Racing for a year or two so we are playing catch up but being a country that produces world winners it should not take us long.

 

What is Kitesurf course racing you may ask, a quick summary would be riders (Kitesurfers) powered by water relaunchable Kites race around a course set out on the sea, usually following a Olympic triangular course and simply the first one over a finish line would be the winner.

 

The BKSA race series consisted of 3 rounds, Round 1 was held at Hayling island near Southampton but unfortunetly there was no wind for that event, next was a great event in Exmouth which had a fleet of 28 riders taking part in 6 races, I came 1st in Exmouth which left me in a great position for the final round in Poole.

 

The wind Forecast for the final round was for extremely light winds on the Saturday and Sunday but the Friday looked promising and the best chance of racing so I set off at 5am and drove to Poole. Registration took place and we were all briefed about the course which was set up as a triangular course, so an upwind start, then a downwind leg and the last stretch was across the wind with 2 laps of the course needed to complete the race.

 

The wind was light for most of the day but then a front came through about mid afternoon and we made ready to race, a few riders were caught unaware and actually missed the race start, I got off to a good start and managed to go across the start line in 1st place and maintained that position for most of the race, the course was fairly short and I had a couple of practice laps before hand so I knew where to change tacks, on the last downwind leg I was overtaken by Richard Thompson who was riding a hydrofoil board! But on the last reach across the wind to the finish line I retook the lead and managed to finish in 1st place.

 

One thing of note was that I had a very daunting moment mid way through the race, as I was making a tack and bringing the kite to its highest point in the sky I heard thunder and saw some lightning not very far away and then I got a static shock down my left arm! It did not hurt too much but gave me a great scare, because your out on the water and the kite is 25 meters up in the air it can pick up the static in the air, pass down the lines and then off course to you! Just after I finished the race the wind switched direction and started to rain very hard, that then turned to really large hail stones, amazing change of weather when 30 minutes earlier it was lovely sunshine and people sun bathing on the beach.

 

Consequently with two 1st places this leaves me as the 2008 British Champion in what people are saying is the fasted growing aspect of the Kitesurfing sport which is said could be featured in the 2016 Olympics. I am also placed 6th place in the world for Course Racing and the UK’s only Male Racer in the top 20.

 

I would like to thank my Sponsors F-One Kites, Escape Boards, Balin Clothing, Snugg Wetsuits,  Mystic Accessories and West Pharmaceuticals.

 

 

           

So we had some feed back from Denzil after his weekend at the races

Hi ya Bill,

 

Well I have just come back from round 2 of the BKSA course racing series that was held in Exmouth over the weekend, it all went really well with a

total of 6 races run in varying and sometimes demanding conditions! There was a total of 26 riders that entered and it was held on the seafront with

a good amount of public taking an interest and also West country TV came down with their film crew, of course I did my bit and gave an interview which

was shown on the regional news on the Saturday (they need good looking people on TV!).

The level of the riders was greatly varied, but it was mainly a battle between myself and Steph Bridge (world Champion) in winning the races, the 1st race

went to Steph with myself in 2nd place, the 2nd race was interesting, Steph and myself were quite far in front of the fleet and tacking around the 2nd marker

bouy when the wind dropped and we managed to tangle our kites and were out of it then, much to the amusment of the rest of the fleet! The 3rd race was won

by myself, then followed by Steph in 2nd. The 2nd and 3rd races were run on a 2 bouy course (sausage course) while the other races were the more traditional

triangular course. The 4th race was won this time by Steph followed by myself right behind her and that concluded Day 1.

Day 2 saw race 5 and it was a real battle, the wind started off good then dropped after about 30 seconds, it was really hard to make any way upwind and in the

end all of the fleet except for Steph and myself retired, but the wind kicked in and it made for a close finish of which I managed to come in 1st. The final race was

held in the best wind, in fact I was overpowered for a lot of it but still managed to come in 1st place, followed by Steph Bridge then Richard Gowers in 3rd place.

 

So of course that meant that I won the competition which places me in the prime position for winning the British title for this year, just 1 more event and that is in

September at the Poole Windfest.

 

I used Axels fins and they work really well, I am only using the rear Fin box and have only used the front halve of the fin box positioning so far. I used the smaller

fins on the Saturday and longer high AR fins on the Sunday, they worked a treat until I was overpowered, then it took a lot of skill to keep the board under control

while going mega fast in the choppy conditions, I think the higher AR fins come into their own in the lighter wind but it is still early to tell.

 

Will catch ya soon

 

Denzil