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Hey Czech People:Alex Brown at the Landkiting Event
in the Czech Republic
Posted Wednesday 7th November 2007
Words by Alex Brown
Hola Czech Republic.
Iveta, one of our European reps, had invited me over for a land kite competition that was happening on the 20th of October. I'd never been to CZ and was stoked I had the opportunity to go. Even though I had forgot my passport as I left with Mumsie Brown, it turned out to be an awesome trip and great experience.
I was flying from London Gatwick again, which seems to be like a second home these days, to Prague in the Czech Republic where I would be picked up by Tomas, a good friend of Iveta's. I flew with Easy Jet. My advice to you, don't fly with Easy Jet. Nuff said.
After meeting Tomas we traveled through the city and east-bound towards a small village called Havlickuv Brod which is where the event would be taking place the next day. That evening I ate at Thomas' parent's house where they cooked me some traditional Czech food: soup, followed with freshly made lamb with bread crumbs and vegetables. It was super tasty! We met with Iveta and explored the various bars that evening before heading to bed for an early rise.
I don't really do mornings, and I found it pretty difficult to get out on my nice snug bed. The hotel room was like a ski lodge, all warm and fuzzy, not your typical hotel room with cheap decor. We drove to the event site which was an old World War II airfield. It had a real spooky feel to it as the mist rose in the morning sun, showing a field with a layer of snow over it.
We waited on wind all morning, but I was stoked at the turn out. Hundreds of boarders and buggier showed up and attempted to get their kites moving. Later in the afternoon the wind finally started to blow through. It was mental cold. I could only ride a few hundred meters before my hands felt like ice, even with gloves on. We set up a kicker and a few riders boosted off it for the crowd.
In the afternoon, a few riders jammed on the kicker in front of the cameras. It was a pretty nice ramp, with a good run up from down the hill. I did an interview for Czech TV in the afternoon which was fun; Iveta had to translate for me.
That night we went to some bars and ate some more awesome food. One beer worked out at around 25p, that's 50 cents. A beer in England costs around £3!
There wasn't a whole lot of wind on Sunday, well actually there was none. Everybody decided that it was done for the day, so we packed out gear up into Flo's (our Austrian rep) van to head back into Prague to check out the city and get a hotel for the night. It took us a little while to find our way into they city, 3 hours from the event site. Neither of us had been to the Czech Republic before, and our local language skills weren't so good for getting directions either.
The city was super nice. We walked around for a few hours and to check out all the old buildings and statues. That evening we went back into Prague to some of the city bars and clubs.
We woke early the next morning ... 11am early ;), and went to the local Best retailer in the city centre. They were stoked with the new Nemi and Waroo, and wanted to go for a fly! Too bad there was no wind or place to kite nearby. My flight back to London was at 4pm that afternoon. We both thought we had stacks of time left, so had some lunch and headed off to the airport. "Go south and right when you hit the river," said a local. One hour later when we hit the river, I knew he had no idea where the airport actually was. I don't quite know how I caught my plane on time, but somehow Flo managed to find the airport that was the other side of the city, with 1 hour until my plane took off. Crazzzzzzzyyyyyy.
Thanks Czech people for an awesome time!
Thanks to Iveta for working out my schedule and Flo for hanging out in Prague!
Pictures and video by Flo and Franta
Hey Czech People
Alex Brown at the Landkiting event in the Czech Republic *
More information (in Czech) about the event at http://www.bestkiteboarding.cz/news_clanky/hb-landkiting-fsc.php .
~Alex Brown
* When they filmed the first part right at the beginning ... Hey Czech People ... all the
Czech people who understand English laughed. So they had to redo it. Then he went and said it again.
Hehehehe.