ExPix have been working in the extreme sports industry for well over ten years now. Whilst we love covering the big events and festivals, and working with the top athletes and brands within the industry; fundamental to our work is increasing participation in extreme sports by facilitating development and growth within the industry, and that means being involved with grass roots sports. And that’s why we just love working with the Student Kitesurfing Association (SKA), especially at their beginner weekends.

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So with the Olympics over and with kitesurfing set to make its debut in Rio in 2016, the Student Kitesurfing Association, (SKA) did their bit for the cause by organising their Fresher’s event, Zero to Hero. The event, which was held at Aberavon Beach from Saturday 27th – Sunday 28th October, was aimed at introducing students to kitesurfing, with professional kitesurfing tuition being provided over the two day period by Sarah Rowley and the team from Blast Kiteboarding, together with 8 student instructors from Bristol University Kitesurfing Society.

And with their best attended beginner’s event to date which saw 135 taking part, half of which being beginners and half experienced kitesurfers who had come along as guests to supporting their beginner friends; the SKA definitely had it going on!

ExPix first joined forces with the SKA way back in 2008 when Alex Hill was in charge. Our first event as sponsors and media partners was the SKA’s huge Aussie Kiss event at Westward Ho & Bude. Hearing of our work with the old SKA, ExPix were then invited to be sponsors and media partners for the Student Kitesurfing Nationals in 2010 which were brilliantly organised by Alex Parker, Ali Shepherd and the kitesurfing committee at Southampton University. And when the newly formed SKA took shape after the 2010 Nationals, it was only natural that ExPix would be asked once more to get involved and we’ve been on board ever since!

So back to the event and there were more beginners than ever before signed up for lessons over the weekend, with students from Bath, Bristol, Cambridge, Exeter, Imperial, Plymouth, Nottingham, Reading, Southampton, Swansea, UWE, and Warwick universities taking part. And whilst it wasn’t the warmest weekend, it certainly didn’t affect the enthusiasm; everyone gave it their all, starting with kite lessons on Saturday morning for the first group, whilst those who had lessons booked for the afternoon got to take part in the SKA’s Annual SuperSportyBeachSportsSportsDay! Not much we need to say about this, think the piccys speak for themselves!!!!!!

And in the afternoon even the South Wales Police Rural and Forestry Team got in on the action as they took to the decks to lay on the beats!

Saturday night and it was back to base at the L& A Outdoors Centre for a riotous Halloween themed party. With prizes up for grabs for the uni group with the best costumes, everyone made an effort. 

Sunday morning and it was back to the beach; the kite lessons continued on land for the beginners, there was land boarding action, and guests made use of the conditions on the water and despite the cold, got in a quick session.

The aims of the SKA are to promote and facilitate kitesurfing for students at universities throughout the UK and to make sure that all students have the opportunity to learn or progress their skills in kitesurfing. But what sets them apart from other organisations and makes their events so successful is the whole atmosphere. It’s about more than just what happens on the beach; they do get to learn kitesurfing in a safe environment, are taught by professional kitesurf instructors, and they do get encouragement from other students, but more than all that is that there’s always plenty to do, especially on no wind days and the fact that students can get together and chill out with other students from universities across the country and, that all this, together with food and accommodation and some top notch prizes is provided for an absolutely ridiculously cheap price.

For ExPix our job is to support the SKA by getting the message out there and to promote what the SKA are doing, so that more students get to hear about it and get the chance to get involved. Documenting the whole event is only part of the job, compiling press releases, making sure sponsors are represented, and then syndicating those releases to our extensive database of national and international contacts is essential. By doing all of this, our aim is to encourage development and growth within the industry; media representation and coverage offers ROI, keeping existing sponsors happy and encouraging new ones to come on board, whilst raising awareness for the SKA increases participation in the sport.

So all in all another good effort and event by the SKA; well done guys; see you at Westward Ho on 30th November for the Nationals!!!!

 

If you want to see ALL the images from the weekend then you'll have a bit of registering to do SORRY!

Once you have registered contact us via FB and we'll add your username or your email (we'll need the one you registered with) so we can add you to the gallery and we'll send you a link to the event gallery section!