Pretty stoked to have been selected by the Jesse Richman (in my opinion best kiteboarder in the world) to be one of the event judges for the 2019 Maui Kite Fest.

To start off the event it was fun jumping on the back of the jet ski to be the race starter. It’s a cool perspective sitting on the water as 50 riders go screaming by you.

The Extreme Big Air event is a Red Bull King of the Air Qualifier. We had great wind today especially for a contest. I was really impressed with some of the riders. Tons of local riders threw down hard but the event winner goes to the South African Stuart Downey. A well deserved win indeed. He really exhibited a wide variety of tricks with a high level of difficulty and risk.

I had a lot of fun helping judge the contest. Super impressed how in sync the 5 judges were. Nearly every single heat places 1-4(5) were unanimous.

I was planning to enter the contest this year. I had been working on pushing the level on my kite loops and board off tricks. I think I could have made it to the semi-finals but would have ended there. All of the young guys in the finals have better knees then me.

Tomorrow is another day. More races followed by the women, groms, and foil freestyle classes.

Aloha. #mauikitefest