I am super happy to win the IKSurfMag Wave Classic held in West Cornwall from 20-25 October. With British Kitesports cancelling the Wavemasters at the last minute it was an amazing effort by the team at Iksurfmag with help from Kernow Kitesurf Club to run such an amazing event with a great turn out and some wicked prizes along with a goodie bag for all competitors.

With great conditions the weekend before the comp, most of the 22 competitors enjoyed pretty perfect Gwithian and the forecast for the week was looking pretty tasty.

As is sometimes the case with contests the wind never really played ball on the first day with it just teasing enough for an expression session where I used the 15m Juice and Whip 5'6 mostly doing some airs.

Tuesday and it was ex hurricane Gonzales providing 40+ mph of wind from the NW. Unsuitable for any of the contest locations we headed to my favourate spot of Porthleven. The busiest its ever been but was great to see some others out enjoying my wave. It was super windy, I was riding the Neo 5m with full depower at times and using the 2015 5'7 Pro Series which provided amazing grip, allowing me to tuck into a few tasty barrels. A great session made better at prize giving when I was awarded Wave of the Day for 'owning the pleace' :)

Wednesday and Thursday and it was back to comp action, starting at the Bluff. Light winds and slightly onshore conditions made for tricky conditions for the first round, however all the usual suspects made it through along with some surprises who showed they were a force to be reckoned with.
Thursday and the forecast looked like cross off down the line conditions for Sandy Acres with a pumping swell. Yet again the wind gods were unkind with low cloud blocking the wind in the morning but some great waves. As the tide dropped the sun started to come out and the wind picked up but unfortunately turned more onshore and the waves dropped considerably in size. Still was perfectly good to compete in and the comp got underway after a quick expression session.

With light winds again I rode the Neo 12m in my semi final against Ned Taylor who rode really well and then with the wind dropping even more for the final rode the Juice 15m which worked surprisingly well in the waves and allowed me enough power to smack the lip and stay upwind in 10knts.

Big well done to Rich Burton for 2nd and Mikey Mikes on 3rd who both rode really well all week and took out previous champ George Nobel in the semis.
Also well done to Marc Rowley for winning the seniors and Sukie Robertson the ladies.
Thanks to my sponsors-
North Kiteboarding, O'Neill wetsuits, Pasty Adventures
and support from-
Satorial supplies, Inlayz, JP surfboards, Freeriders, XM leashes, Astrodeck.

Big well done to everyone involved for an awesome comp, can't wait for the next one :)
Read the official write up here- http://www.iksurfmag.com/kitesurfing-news/2014/10/iksurfmag-wave-classic/ 

Really pleased to announce I have joined the Fastafoil Team and will be helping to test and develop the Sencillo Kitefoil and Race wings to make foiling accessible and easy as possible for everyone.
Over the coming months I will be keeping everyone up to date with my progress, firstly learning how to fly and then onto more advanced techniques with my foiling diaries. So that you don't miss out subscribe to my Technique Blog or keep an eye out on www.kitesurf-magazine.co.uk. 
Once we have completed the testing process the Sencillo Foil will be produced in the UK by F-Hot giving us a really great UK made foil at a copetitive price. Stay tuned to www.fastafoil.com for all updates on this, at the moment looking like end of August for the first ones and orders are being taken now!

Foiling is the future and I am amazed at the feeling you get from flying and how easy it is to learn with Fastafoil, Sencillo. Foilboarding lessons will be available in Cornwall soon at Pasty Adventures
Cheers and enjoy
Lee

This weekend we had the Edge Cup in Exmouth which for 2014 is also the British Kiterace Nationals. 
Starting on Friday 13th  June we had amazing weather but unfortuanately a lack of wind, that was until about 5.30pm when a land breeze filled in from the North. After waiting all day with my 18m Dyno rigged on the beach, I hit the water with the GoPro to get a bit of footage for the BBC news before the first race. Not realising how quick the wind was  building I stuck with the 18 but ended up exploding around the top mark so retired and headed in for the 13m Dyno ready for race 2. With much better power I was flying and managed a nice 3rd closely behind Connor with Olly way out front.
For the next 3 races the wind was up and down and Jack was going really well just pipping me on the final downwinds using his lighter weight to great use.
Saturday and it was more of a waiting game, until there was just enough breeze around 4pm to tempt us all out but alas we all ended up getting rescued.
The evening due was yet again amazing and big thanks to Jeff from Pebblebed Vineyards for amazing food and wine.
Sunday and without much wind forecast we headed out early in very light wind with the hope of some seabreeze. With just about 6knts on the course at the start we got away with some power but by lap 2 I was struggling and ended up just behind Jack again, before the wind totally died and all but a few just made it back to the beach under our own steam.
Results-
1st and British Champion-Olly Bridge, 2nd Connor Bainbridge, 3rd Jack Galloway, 4th Lee Harvey, 5th and British Ladies Champion- Jade O,Connor 

Also well done and impressive kiting to Guy Bridge, British Kitefoil Race Champion.
Thanks to my sponsors, North & O'Neill for all the support, I will be training hard and back in the top 3 next year!

For the official write up see  
http://www.kitesurf-magazine.co.uk/edge-race-cup-2014/ 

I recently spent 2 weeks in Qatar training their National Kite Team to start riding race boards and the kiterace skills needed for them to compete in the 2014 IKA Asian Championships which is being held in Qatar this November and ultimately the Olympics in 2020.

This was my first time in the Middle East and it was a great experience. Qatar has some great kite spots for both freestyle and racing with consistent wind and lovely warm water with a great friendly bunch of people.
The coaching went really well and they have a great group of kiters who are really keen on racing as well as a few of them who are keen to progress into freestyle. Working with Nico and Pinar from Kite Academy who were coaching the freestylers, we had a busy schedule to determine who would concentrate on which discipline, giving each there own goals to work on over the coming months before the next training camp in Turkey in August.
During the camp we ran several Twin Tip races to get everyone into racing with their first taste of competitively riding around a course and being on a start line. During the few no wind days we covered all aspect of theory including rules and fitness training. 
By the end , all of the guys were happily riding freerace boards and had the knowledge and know how of what is needed to progress onto full race boards over the coming months, ready for full on race training in Turkey.

If any organisations or Countries are looking for a race coach or kitesurf coaching of any kind please contact me through my school Pasty Adventures

Stay tuned to my Facebook page for all of my latest news including upcoming Kitesurf Clinics in Cornwall.
Cheers
Lee 

Here is my final video from my seven week trip to Cape Town. 
Thanks to everyone that made it special and my sponsors for their continued support. Next up is Morocco for the PKRA World Tour :)

On Sunday 15th December 2013 it all came together for myself, Lee ‘Pasty’ Harvey and Neal Gent to Kitesurf the notorious Cribbar located off Towan Headland, Newquay, Cornwall.

The Cribbar which is known as being England’s biggest wave is a fickle spot needing a large, long period swell and a low tide before it even starts to show its teeth. With its location off the headland out in the Atlantic making it really affected by the wind, the Cribbar only has a rideable wave a handful of times a year at best. Add into this the fact that we need the right direction and strength wind to be able to kitesurf out there and it drastically reduces the number of days so much so that I have been waiting for 4 years to tackle the beast. 

The day before this Neal actually windsurfed the Cribbar along with Ross Williams but due to the wind being on it all day it was a bit bumpy and they both took a few beatings. Thankfully the wind swung SE and dropped right off overnight, so much so that when we arrived at Little Fistral car park it was blowing dead offshore about 10mph. Steve Thorpe was already rigging his windsurf kit convinced it was going to start blowing soon and sure enough by the time we had walked out along the headland to check the wave, the wind had started to swing cross off and pick up a lot. We looked round to see Steve swimming his kit out off the old lifeboat station, so Genty and I quickly ran back to the van to drive round to North Fistral to launch off the beach while Ross and Jan Sleigh decided to wait for a bit more wind before rigging their sails. Standing at the beach looking out at double overhead close outs crashing onto Fistral it was hard to know what size kites to use to be safe enough to get out of trouble but not too powered to be able to ride the wave. Neal chose to use his RRD 7m Religion while I went for my trusty 6m North Rebel, both of us were strapless using 6ft JP Surfboards with Inlayz.
By the time we launched around 9 am, it was pretty windy and with the tide on low we timed it perfectly. I scooted out through the huge rip in front of Fistral rocks with Neal right behind me, who unfortunately was just too close in for a huge set and took a couple of beating s before making it out the back and start riding down to the reef. Getting into the line up it took a while to get my bearings and work out how deep you could get without getting taken out by the 20ft+ waves. As the Cribbar is really a right it was not ideal down the line conditions, but we will probably never get a huge swell with NE wind. The answer was to try and backdoor the section and smash a few turns without getting too deep and washed onto the razor sharp rocks below the headland where your only escape would be swimming around the corner and around one mile to Newquay harbour. Everyone had some amazing size waves with us all hooting and hollering each other in and shouting go deeper boy. The photos really don’t do the size justice as they are taken from 300ft up on the top of Towan Headland, next time we will hopefully have a boat or ski as support and media vessel!

An Awesome session shared by just us on the kites with 3 windsurf friends and a fair size crowd on the Headland.

Big thanks to JNP Events for taking the pics, Neal Gent for being my wingman and also the first person to Kite and Windsurf the Cribbar. Bring on the next time!
Cheers
Lee ‘Pasty’ Harvey

After four years of waiting, yesterday it finally all came together to Kitesurf the Cribbar, Cornwall's notorious big wave spot located off Towan Headland, Newquay.
Neal Gent and myself, Lee 'Pasty' Harvey were Kitesurfing using normal surfboards with no straps while Steve Thorp, Ross Williams and Jan Sleigh were Windsurfing. More pics and full write up coming soon!

After missing the last two years due to being away competing on the KSP World Tour, I am super pleased to have won the men’s open and become British Kitesurfing Wave Champion for 2013. Massive thanks to all of my family, friends and sponsors for their continued support. I could not have done it without you!
Read on for how it went down.

The Perfect Forecast
With a huge low pressure system approaching and storm force winds forecast to hit Western Scotland on Sunday 15th, I quickly changed my ferry ticket to Saturday morning and took the day off from fishing to drive to Oban on Friday. The plan was to get there in time for a beer and have a nice sleep, so I left at 9.20 am as soon as I could get some Philps pasties for the journey. Well the traffic gods had other ideas and I didn’t get to Oban until 2.30 am. The plus side was that as soon as I arrived in Scotland all the signs on the motorway were giving out ‘Warning High Winds Sun/Mon’. Sweet I was heading in the right direction!

To Tiree
The ferry from Oban to Tiree takes 4 hours and the first part is really scenic as you travel down the Sound of Mull. Upon arriving in Tiree I headed straight to the beach along with 2012 Champ George Noble, runner up Stubbie and a few others with Ian Edmondson from ExPix to check out what was on offer. We found a smallish wave at Balephuil and a gentle cross on breeze in glorious sunshine with a surprisingly nice warm temperature. Most jumped in for a SUP but I waited and sure enough the wind filled in for a fun evening session alone on the 12m Dice. A good start to the trip and with a forecast 18ft 14 sec  swell and 40-60 mph winds the next day, while the locals battened down the hatches we all headed to bed.

The van started rocking overnight and we awoke Sunday to a very different Tiree. Cold, grey wet and very windy, first we checked Balephuil but found a huge confused mess so headed to get some inside info from Seb the French local. Looking right out at Crossapol from his house most of us quickly jumped in for a windy 2ft cross off session on 5-6m kites. Some huge hail squalls blew most away but there were some small fun waves to be had. After a couple hours and many hail stones to the head, the wind started to turn slightly more offshore, so I came in and grabbed Ian to go find some size as by now it was meant to be pumping!

Sure enough back at Balephuil it was now cross shore and huge. I jumped in again on my Rebel 6m with the new 6’2 Pro surfboard from North. Among the chop left over from the morning I found some nice sections in the double overhead surf with the wind going from 40-60 mph in the hail squalls, it was pretty crazy out there but a lot of fun and what I had come all this way for. Unlucky for some who were coming on the ferry, as it got all the way to Tiree but couldn’t get into dock so had to turn around and go the 4 hours back!

Monday and after a very noisy night, we found it howling again but more NW so we headed straight back to Balephuil. This was the day, clean double overhead waves blowing cross off and windier than the day before, less gusty and even the odd bit of sun. With a couple windsurfers out along with a couple local guys on Twin Tips you could see exactly how big it was, over mast high but closing out.

I decided to wait for a couple of hours until the tide came in and the wave started breaking on the bank I rode the day before. Using the 5m Dice my wait paid off and I had an amazing 3 hour session mostly by myself until the ferry got in and I was joined by Jon Ellman Brown and Marc Rowley. That evening we all had to go to the Scarnish Hotel (only pub) for registration and meet with everyone who were talking about their day and what it would be like for the comp the coming week and a planned three whole rounds of competition for everyone. A little bit of concern was that two of the judges for the event were freestyle riders, Robin Snuggs and Craig Smith (primary role as beach marshal) who knew virtually nothing about waves. We left them busy watching videos trying to find out what we meant by a re-entry and off the lip.

The Contest
Tuesday morning and the call was made via Facebook for a 9 am meet at Balephuil. Arriving at the beach, it was the biggest case of ‘You should have been here yesterday’ you could possibly get, still howling but with waves of less than a foot. As per usual the call was made for Ladies first followed by seniors then Open Men. For once however the Ladies scored the best waves of the day, as with the dropping tide the waves got even smaller with it howling cross offshore! I was pleased to make it to the final as it really was a lottery in the tiny surf with Jon winning and Stubbie second and me third for Round 1 with us all using 6-7m kites in over 40knts of breeze.

Wednesday morning it was back to Balephuil for Round 2 with the same running order and the swell forecast to increase, we were all hoping that today the men would get the better conditions as it was super small to start with. As the tide pushed in during the afternoon, the waves started to increase as we started the first men’s heats. Unfortunately during heat 5 around 4pm, a huge black cloud came over and totally killed the wind. After waiting for 20 mins the race crew called it off for the day and everyone packed up. Half an hour after this the wind kicked right back in and with the swell picking up near the high tide I had an amazing session by myself on the 8m Rebel in clean head high waves until sunset. It was then back to check the forecast as contest director, Rich Gowers was calling a possible day off the next day.

Thursday and the forecast had changed considerably with windguru giving 30 mph and 4-6ft by lunchtime. It was back to Balephuil again but unfortunately the wind never came in as we seemed to be right in the eye of the storm and at 4.30pm we all packed up and went for a surf.

Friday and the wind had switched to the south so it was a different location and we headed to Balevullin for some left hand waves. Arriving to small waves again with the dropping tide we continued with the men’s from before with everyone using 12-9m kites. Stubbie and myself made it to the final again, this time with 2012 Champ George Noble who was much happier on his frontside. George took the win with me in second and Stubbie third in very poor shaped 1-2 ft waves.

The race crew then cracked straight on and started another round of the seniors and women with all the locals saying it was going to get really good later as the tide came in. Hopefully the men would finally get some decent waves for round 3?

Sure enough as the tide started to come up, the waves started to increase and by the time we started the 3rd full round of men it was 3-4ft lefthanders with occasionally bigger sets. With the wind pretty gusty coming over the hill we were riding 7-9m kites and with finally some good shaped waves the level of riding noticeably increased with no easy heats. I made it to the final again along with Jon Ellman Brown and newcomer Jordan Scott who took out George in the heat before with some nice turns riding switch stance. A great final heat with the biggest waves of the contest, I almost got the win dropping in on the wave behind Jordan on the biggest set of the day. Unfortunately after my first turn the wave disappeared while Jordan’s reeled all the way to the beach. This gave Jordan the win for round 3 followed by myself second and Jon in third.

On my wave in after the heat had finished, I managed to pull a perfect 360 straight into another turn and was super happy coming up the beach. With the race crew announcing Jon had come 3rd, I realised the title was finally mine and erupted in joy.

Celebrations
With no wind forecast for Saturday most competitors headed to the pub for food and drinks to celebrate a great week. A super friendly bunch of locals made sure we all had a great time with the local police man even giving some a lift home, including Jon’s dog.

Saturday and it was surfing day for most, with a lot of driving checking spots we ended up again at Balevullin for some fun waves if not a bit closey before heading back to the hotel for prizegiving and the Islands top band. A great end to a great week with myself winning the Open men’s, Wales Marc Rowley the seniors and Tiree local Helen Thompson the ladies, proving that the Celtic nations really do rule the waves! Big thanks to all the judges who did a great job, British Kitesports, Kiteworld, Blast, Tiree Kitesurf Academy and the people of Tiree for a great event. 

Thanks to my sponsors-
North Kiteboarding for making the best kites and kiteboards by far.
JP Surfboards & Inlayz for the greatest surf and kite crossover boards I’ve ever had.
O’Neill wetsuits UK for sorting me some suits at last minute.
Freeriders Surfshop for their continued support with all the essential bits.
Pasty Adventures for paying for me to get to the comp.

Thanks to Ian from ExPix, Marc from Blast & Leigh from Evolution boardsports for use of the pics. 
To look at all the pics from the event go to www.expix.co.uk where you can purchase if you want.

Cheers
Lee ‘Pasty’ Harvey

Join me on a Kitesurfing Coaching Holiday this winter in Cape Verde, Cape Town or Dakhla, Morocco.
See the website for details http://www.pastyadventures.co.uk/holidays.html

Had some awesome conditions up here in Tiree, Scotland the last 2 days with a huge storm blasting over 50 knot winds and 20ft of swell. Sunday was absolutely crazy with the squalls going from 30-60 knots and horizontal hail. Crazy painfull on my ears as I was the lone rider out on my 6m Rebel at Balephiul most of the afternoon in some confused double overhead bombs.
Monday and with the wind blowing cross off all night the waves had cleaned up nicely and the wind actually picked up to a constant 40 knots with only 50 knot gusts. After Sundays painfull squalls I wore my hood and along with my O'Neill Pyrotech 5/3 wetsuit was lovely and warm, again mostly out by myself on the 5m Dice and 6'" Pro surfboard. British Kitewave champs starts today at 10.30, looking bit smaller but should still be overhead and its still blowing over 30.
For the latest pics check out ExPix and Blast on Facebook and of course Like my page for all my latest updates.
Big thanks to my sponsors and family for all the support.

Been lucky enough to have been testing out the North Kiteboarding 2014 9m Dice & Rebel over the last few weeks. Had a couple of amazing sessions and they are both amazing kites with responsive steering & great depower. 
Have found the 2014 Rebel very similar in feel to last year which I love for down the line waveriding. A few nice upgrades which feature on all the kites this year to the trailing edge and the new valve consolidating North as the best built kites on the market.
The Dice is also super nice for waveriding. Needs to be worked a bit more than the Rebel but the responsiveness is the best i've felt on a bridled kite. Great depower and drift the new Dice also works amazing unhooked.
Would really recommend the Dice if you are into freestyle and waves and like to unhook, also its 4 or 5 line so fits whatever style. Would say go a meter bigger than the equivalent Rebel. 
my Dice quiver- 5,7,9,12m
I go for the Rebel most of the time as it suits hooked in riding, has amazing depower  with great low end and eats gusts! Best for heavier riders or people who want to ride with a surfboard and boost huge hooked in jumps on the TT from time to time. 
my Rebel quiver- 6,8,10m
Check out the vid from a session at Godrevy last saturday.
remember to like my facebook page www.facebook.com/LeePasty to stay up to date with all my latest news ;)
cheers
Pasty