King of the Air returns, in Cape Town

After years without a contest, the big-air event comes back at Big Bay in Cape Town; Jesse Richman wins.

Big Bay, Cape Town · Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)

The King of the Air began on Maui in 1999 and stopped after 2005. For years there was no big-air contest of its size. Then Red Bull brought it back, on the other side of the world.

On Sunday 3 February 2013 the contest was held at Big Bay in Cape Town, South Africa. Jesse Richman won, ahead of Nick Jacobsen and Sam Light, with Youri Zoon fourth. Sources count the break as seven or eight years.

Cape Town became the event’s home. In 2018 it moved from Big Bay to Blouberg, and in 2023, its tenth year in the city, it was held at Kite Beach. For a local paper it was simply an event “first held in 2013”.

In 2024 the contest added a women’s division, the first since the Queen of the Air titles on Maui.

Kitesurfers in the bay at dusk with Table Mountain behind — Kitesurfers at Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, with Lion's Head and Table Mountain, December 2017
Anonymous · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

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