Scotland, Norfolk and even a French man, far and wide they had traveled to take part in the Prestigious Pasty Cup, part of the Golowan Festival, sponsored by Skinners Brewery and hosted by none other than Pasty Adventures! If you have not guessed it yet The Pasty Cup was held in deep down Kernow at Long Rock near Penzance and it had an exceptionally tasty forecast for the first day.

Day 1.

You name it we had it weather wise, sunshine, rain, high wind with low wind in between (gusty). Lee 'Pasty' Harvey gave the riders briefing in the morning for 4 back to back races with the Pro and Am fleets racing together but with the Ams doing a shorter course. The committee boat was Daddy Pasty's fishing vessel with Dave Scooby on the race flags and a 0.7 nautical course laid out in a upwind downwind course, I had left the beach with my 9m bandit and traveled out about 200 yards then turned round and got my 7m, it twas proper nuking out there in Mounts Bay! The mighty Mogsy (Gareth Morgon) was out on a 10m somehow managing to keep it down and Pasty was on a 9m.

The Green flag was up (out of sequence but we got the gist) and the 1^st race got under way, I seemed to be pointing higher than the other guys and made good on the upwind, it was extremely hard going with the gusts getting stronger and the lulls getting lower, one moment you would be straining to hold down the power, the next you would fall back wards into the water with no power in the kite. I finished quite comfortably in 1^st place with Mogsy in 2^nd while Pasty had snapped a line so was out for the 1^st 2 races while he was rescued and got another kite sorted out.

As the races carried on the wind picked up more and more which made for extreme conditions, I was informed that the winds were peaking at 42mph that day, not for the faint hearted. Pasty returned for races 3 and 4 and gave me a run for my money, he beat me by a few board lengths in race 3 getting me on the downwind and in race 4 I got destroyed on the last downwind part being overpowered way over the top. I still managed to come 2^nd even though I had wiped out good and proper.

Paul 'Stubby' Stebbings made a great impression and finished 1^st in the Ams, not bad for his first ever race event with Scottish hero Mark Ward coming in 2^nd place.

In the afternoon after consuming a pasty lunch we had more local riders turn up for the long distance race, it started from long rock and the course went out around the farthest away Cardinal mark and then back around the windward mark we used for the earlier races and back to Longrock, an all round trip of about 3 miles. We started on the green flag and it was a mad dash for the first mark, everyone was together neck and neck which I found a bit hairy in that strong wind, slowly everyone started to spread apart. I managed to reach the mark first with Pasty directly behind me but when tacking around the mark I hit a lull which gave Pasty a chance to overtake, it was neck and neck then for most of the way back, I was really close behind Pasty but just couldn't catch him, we rounded the last marker then it was the straight for home but I managed to bury the nose of my board in a wave which sent me flying over the front of the board, by the time I was up again Pasty was all but over the finish line. So I crept in followed by Mogsy and the rest of the crew.

Day 2.

It looked like it was going to happen but it didn't!

Results

Course Race Pro

1^st Denzil Williams (F-One, Escape, Mystic)

2^nd Lee 'Pasty' Harvey (North, Pasty Adventures)

3^rd Gareth Morgan (North)

Course Race Am

1^st Paul Stebbings

2^nd Mark Ward

Denzil on his Escape Custom Race board.