27th August 2006, Datchet, Berkshire
Wow!! What an event. With some of the World's Best Jumpers across Barefoot, Wakeboard, Freestyle and of course Waterski this event was always going to be impressive and it certainly lived up to expectation.
The day kicked off with the knock out heats for the main Night Jump event. Each jumper had 3 attempts to fly as far as they could with the top 8 going through to the big Night Final. It was Jason Seels who clocked up the longest distance of the afternoon with a staggering 64 metres.
As the evening drew in the Liquid Leisure Ski Show set the scene of things to come with a great display including pyramids and tricks. Next up was the Wakeboard Big Air comp with some of the top names going head to head. It was Jonty Green who took first with Matt Crowhurst in a close second. There was some serious height in their jumps but that was just the start of things to come. After the wake boarders it was the turn of the Barefoot skiers. These guys and girls literally hit a ramp at 45mph with nothing on their feet fly through the air and land on their bum before rocking back to feet!! Definitely not for the faint hearted. To round up the build up comps the Freestylers took to the water. These guys were doing front flips of the ski jump! And then twists but 3 at a time!!
By 21:00 it was properly dark and the 8 finalists were paraded around the lake in front of the hyped up crowd of about 5,000. The jumpers flew in reverse order with the theory that jumps would just keep getting bigger. As a jumper came in they were escorted up onto the stage to take the "throne" until there distance was beaten. However it was Christian Rampanelli who jumped second who stayed in the "throne" most of the evening. Fat Face Team Rider Damien Sharman came within 10cm of taking it. It was Ryan Fitts from USA who finally took the "throne" with a jump of 62.1 metres (204 feet!) but with only one jumper to go Christian was guaranteed a podium place. The last jumper of the night was Jason Seels who gave it his all but just fell short of first place with a great jump of 61.6 metres (still over 200 feet!). Prize giving was done Formula 1 style on the roof of the Fat Face events unit where Ryan took hold of the massive Night Jump trophy as well as his $3,000 prize money.
The official site www.londonnightjump.com has loads of photos and video clips so check it out.
If you were there or saw it on the live webcast please send ant feedback to nightseries@fatface.com
One more event of this years Night Series to go - The Night Windsurf
