Getting young folk stoked and on the water this summer!
The Armada Trust, the BKSA and BSUPA (together with funding support from KiteRight) are delighted to launch the Kite & SUP Youth Tour 2018. The Tour will run throughout the Easter holidays visiting nine tour stops around the country, aiming to engage hundreds of young people in power kiting and SUP boarding sessions.
Dan Charlish from the Armada Trust said:
‘We love getting young people involved in kitesurfing and SUPing and after the success of the first tour last year, we wanted to run it again. Its fantastic to be able to support the grassroots development of these sports in a small way. We are trying a slightly different approach this year – running the Tour throughout the Easter holidays rather than on consecutive weekends, and we are looking forward to getting more children and young people on the water and flying powerkites than ever before! And best of all, it wouldn’t be happening without the support of the kitesurfing and SUP communities who raised the funds needed to fund the Tour at the Kite SUP Run event and at previous Armada festivals’
Additional funding has also been generously provided by charity KiteRight, who decided to stop operations this year and support the Kite & SUP Youth Tour with their remaining funds.
At each tour stop local young people can sign up to try power kiting and SUPing for free, with sessions lead by fully qualified instructors from local kite and SUP schools.
Andy Gratwick from the BKSA and BSUPA, who’ll also be helping coordinate this year’s tour, had this to say”
‘We have so many great kite and SUP schools around the country and having them as partners at each tour stop is really positive and makes sense. We all want to see more young people getting into these sports and this is exactly the sort of initiative the BKSA and BSUPA should be supporting.’
Young people must be 12-18 years old, and will be reached through assemblies given at local schools and through promotion locally – Tour Manager Will Kay is qualified in both Kite and SUP and is looking forward to the challenge. He said:
‘It’s going to be great fun touring around all these different parts of the country, seeing loads of kids engaging in these sports and having fun. And if they want to take it further, we have the support of local kite and SUP schools to help make this happen – or they could even visit the Kitesurfing Armada Festival in summer and get more involved there!’
The Tour is also supported by some fantastic sponsors including North Kiteboarding, Ozone, Red Paddle Co, Kiteworld and SUP Mag UK.
For more information and to register a young person to take part please go to: www.armadaevents.co.uk
