As we were getting close to the end of the Hungarian Woo Big Air competition (#surfstationbigair2017) Tomi still needed a jump of at least 16.2m to lead the competition. The average of the best 2 jumps count, so despite Tomi had the highest jump (17.3m), with his 2nd highest jump (15.9m) he was right behind G. Balázs (17.1m, 16.3m).

I was waiting so long for such a strong windy day like this.

One week before 23rd October the windguru showed some strong wind (~39 knots) for Lake Balaton. This October was surprisingly warm. Also the Ophelia Storm (coming from the US) hit the Northern part of Europe. Thanks to it warm air came from above Africa. After the storm the air started to move back to Africa. It resulted a surprisingly strong wind around the Hungarian lakes. Read Tomi’s memories about the weekend:

Windguru and the local forecasts said that there will be a huge amount of rain. That usually stops the wind. As I want to win this competiton this much I decided to try it. Also it was a national holiday, so Kornél and Trave also came with me.

As we arrived we saw that the wind is blowing like hell. The cold and the rain didn’t effect us, since I was very excited about boosting high.

We decided to change to wetsuits in the car. I was also surprised that G. Balázs didn’t appear on the beach. Actually only 3 of decided to try it. Some other kites appeared also, but they were just spectators.

First it was Trave who tried the conditions with his 9m soft. It was way too much for that kite, he had to put it down. It almost ended up badly. He decided to leave.

I tried my RRD Obession MK9 (9m) but it couldn’t handle the wind (about 99kmh max gusts). After that I decided to use my Obsession MK10 (9m) (second time I use it). Kornél used his 7m Bandit.

It was amazing. We could jump high as hell. We had to give down the kites to each other in the water, because there was nobody at the beach, and it would be a bad idea to go out to the beach.

I felt like I jumped high. I couldn’t really enjoy it, because the shallow water and the new kite made me focus on the safe landing mostly, but I was hoping that I made at least the 16.2m or I made a new record on the Balaton. In the car we checked the results, it said: 20.6m, so we were shouting with the endorphin. Also had a 18.8m jump. So from then I was leading the competition.

It was a cold enough day that only Balala tried to kite at Velence. He had a 17.8m jump.

Next morning I created a short video about my memories in Hungarian

The next day was much better. Sunny and the wind was still strong (about 10 knots less than previous days). All the 4 leaders of the big air competition appeared on the beach. They congratulated to me, and they thought they can beat me. I knew that the wind was not strong enough for that. It was good to see that still I jumped the highest on that day. Also if the previous day didn’t count I would still leading with these results.

The competition lasts until 30th November. Here you can check the standings. Good luck everybody until then.