Kevin Langeree crowned Red Bull King of the Air

After a long day of massive extreme kiting, Kevin Langeree came out on top and claimed the title of Red Bull King of the Air 2014.

For the second year in a row, Cape Town played host to 24 of the world’s best kiteboarders the went head-to-head in the unique “flag-out” format the Red Bull King of the Air is known for.

It all came down to the final in which Dutchman Kevin Langeree managed to edge out his compatriots Ruben Lenten (second) and Steven Akkersdijk (third) as well as the last South African standing Andries Fourie (fourth) to become Red Bull King of the Air champion in front of a 12 000 strong crowd.

Kevin had this to say of the event:

Kevin Langeree PHOTO | Craig | Kolesky | Red Bull Content Pool

“The conditions picked up during the day and I couldn’t have hoped for anything better! The final was definitely tough and every one of us was so close to winning. I definitely had my best heat of the day in the final. This is the third Red Bull King of the Air I’ve competed in, and was a title that I didn’t have yet so I was hungry for it. I’m so stoked!”

Scored on height, creativity and style, the participants’ manoeuvres were judged by Alex Vliege (NED), William Bogaards (NED), Greg Thijsse (RSA), Arkadiusz Jerzelkowski (POL), Reinier Korstanje (NED), Ralf Bachsuster (GER) who had their work cut out for them.

Head judge Alex Vliege was pleased about how the event played out in the end:

“What an epic day! We had the best riders in the world here today with Cape Town and Mother-Nature delivering great conditions. We finally got what we were waiting for. Kevin was completely deserving of the title. He did the same moves as the others plus more, with variation and went higher than the others.”

The judging panel PHOTO | Jaanus Ree | Red Bull Content Pool

A nifty tool made available to the judges was Xensr technology. This application measures the height, speed, airtime, gravity loading, location and the 3D motion of the athlete with all data captured at 400 times a second and is accurate to within 3mm, as soon as they land a jump. All jump data is then immediately relayed to the judges and the live stream. Frenchman Tom Herbert recorded the highest jump of the day – a lofty 25.04m, while Blouberg local Andries Fourie landed the second highest jump of 23.37m.

Cape Town definitely came to the party, with 12 000 people coming to the idyllic Eden on the Bay. The competitors were able to feed off the crowd’s energy, with the jumps getting bigger as the wind intensity increased. All in all it was an amazing spectacle of kiteboarding with perfect conditions in an amazing setting.

Massive Cape Town crowd PHOTO | Jaanus Ree | Red Bull Content Pool

FINAL RESULTS

1. Kevin Langeree (NED)

2. Ruben Lenten (NED)

3. Steven Akkersdijk (NED)

4. Andries Fourie (RSA)

5. Aaron Hadlow (GBR)

5. Jesse Richman (USA)

7. Tom Herbert (FRA)

8. Billy Parker (USA)

Red Bull has just released the full video special of the King of the Air for two weeks before it goes to TV.Check out this awesome clip here