2008 Snowkite World Championships

Maggie Cleeve from the UK and based in Aberdeen has been ranked as the best performing woman at the Snowkite World Championships 2008.  As well as the men’s events the new winter tour saw 9 women competing in 3 competitions across Europe, a great start which the organisers are hoping to build on for next season.
Maggie also achieved 2nd place at the Ozone snowkite masters event at the Bernina Pass in Switzerland, great results for her first winter of snowkite competitons.

Report from Sälen
The final round of the Snowkite World Championships was held over the 13-16th March at Sälen, Sweden.
The organisers spent days up on Högfjället building kickers, bringing up rails from the snowboard parks and digging out benches and igloos for the Nordic Masters competition. 
The first day of the event became a free ride kite session with good wind but very low visibility, with kiters and kites appearing and disappearing in the mist, and no idea how high you had jumped or sometimes if you were even moving.
The mist stayed in and the wind died for the second day, so the morning was spent relaxing on reindeer hides in the igloo, and the afternoon racing sledges on the course at Lindvallen.
The final day of competition was sunny but still windless, with just a few teasing gusts to keep everyone hopeful of a light wind session.  To keep riders and spectators busy a skidoo and a towrope were brought up, and the Nordic Masters battles were fought in a tow-in boarding and skiing competition in the kite rail park.

Results were:
Master of Tricks – Andreas Toverud
Master of Style – Claes Lundin
Winner of the Battle of the Babes – Malin Rapp
Overall Nordic Master – Kevin Steen

As riders headed home over the next couple of days we finally had some fresh powder and great snowkiting conditions on the plateau.