Name? Age?
Craig Sparkes 21
Years Kiting? Discipline?
8 years + Kite Buggying, Kitesurfing, Kite Longboarding
Main Discipline? Riding Style?
Freestyle Kite Buggying Technical & Powered
Signature Tricks? Latest Tricks?
Fork Spins
Boneless's
Backloop Kite loop Boneless + 2 Wheel Landing
Aerial 360 Rotation + Fork Spin
Locations Kited Worldwide?
England, Wales, Scotland, France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, USA
Favorite Locations?

Internationally - Quiberon, West France, since making a trip to this beach this year I could not imagine a better beach. It is a 7 mile Bay that is rock solid. The backdrop is crystal clear blue waters with little islands dotted off the shoreline. There are dunes in the backdrop also making this an excellent place to ride.

Nationally - Black Rock Sands, as the sheer size of the beach means that what ever the condition of the beach you will defiantly find a spot to have a session.

Locally - As a beach location it would have to be Brancaster, the home of freestyle or Tibenham as its 5 minutes from my door and offers clean wind and plenty of space added with tarmac allows you too boost so big. For the Southerly Winds I would head down to Frinton in Essex to take advantage of the Green for full on Grass session with clean wind coming off the sea.

Kit Bag? Accessories Bag?
- Flexifoil Blade IV - 4.0m, 4.9m, 6.5m & 8.5m
- Flexifoil Blade V - 4.0m, 4.9m, 6.5m
- Flexifoil Neutron 9m
- Flexifoil IonFour 12.5m
- Flexifoil Blurr - 3.5m, 5.0m
- Flexifoil Freestyle Buggy
- Bern Watts Helmet
- 661 Knee Pads
- Dakine Holdall
- Customized Rock Climbing Harness
- Oakley Sunglasses
Bio?

How it all started

Kite sports for me all started when my uncle purchased me a delta kite for my birthday in 1998. I use to fly this as much as possible at a local school field & during the summer of 99 took this on holiday. We went to Lecaute in Southern France where the wind were very strong & this little kite gave me pull & drag, from this I knew I wanted to get into power kiting. I Purchased a small Symphony to learn to fly foil kites & in 2002 purchased a T-Arc to learn the principles of powerkiting.

Later on in the year I went to Hunstanton kite fest and met up with a group of fliers who had a nice selection of power kites that they allowed me to fly on the beach. I was straight away wanting me. I sold my old kites and saved up and purchased a Flexifoil Blade 2 3m of my own & would go out as much as possible. In April 2003 I purchased a Flexifoil buggy, and from this point would practice as much as possible. I was totally hooked. To allow me to get out in lower wind I purchased a 4.9 Blade 3 with the help of my local shop, Edge Power Kites. During the summer of 2003 I worked part time at Edge Power Kites which allowed me to gain extra knowledge into the world of kiting & this has certainly helped me out.

Towards the end of 2003 I got into Buggy Jumping. This had always been something that I had looked into doing and I felt I was at a standard that would allow me to do it safely & progress. Edge once again helped me out and enabled me to get a Blade MK3 3m & 4m to join my 4.9.

In October 2004 I attended the X-Zone autumn games. At the games I entered all the possible buggy disciplines. As I was only into freestyle I only entered the Buggy race as a laugh with a close friend  of mine. At the end of the race I ended up winning the Novice Race and coming 2nd in the pros! This was one hell of a shock and was achieved on a standard Flexifoil buggy and Phantom 6m! At the same event I came 3rd in the Buggy Freestyle which was a pretty sweet feeling.

During 2005 I was lucky enough to be asked by Charlie from Flexifoil to go and help him with demos and events, this allowed me to travel around the UK with him meeting and helping people who were involved within the sport & progress further in the sport. At KiteJam I nailed my best result, best overall buggier of the event. With some of the top riders at the event this was a real boost for me.

Overview of 2006
In 2006 I entered the NFC, but the wind was not great but I managed to win the 1st heat, sadly the wind was not there to complete the competition. As with 2005 I Traveled to even more events with Charlie from Flexifoil allowing me to gain more profile in the sport of Freestyle Kite Buggying. At one of the events I had a small accident that left me with a hole in my knee which required hospital treatment & 2 months out of action. Sadly there were no real competitions held and the reaming events were either demos or social meetings.

Overview of 2007
2007 has been my best year for level of riding & media attention, I have featured several times in each edition of Powerkite Magazine & some national newspapers also. I have attended a vast amount of events and tried to as much for the freestyle side of the sport as possible. In the competitions that have been there I have placed 3rd at the 1st on of the year at The Gathering & winning the South West Freestyle event.

Peter Vanden Busche from Mellow (Flexifoil European Distributor) also gave me an amazing opportunity to attend the Freestyle Europe tour, where I traveled out to, France, Spain, Belgium to demo freestyle kite buggying for Flexifoil . 

I was also appointed Editor of a new Power Kiting Magazine, called IKITEMAG which is totally free & online. If anyone had said at the start of 07 what I would achieve I would not have believed them.

Overview of 2008

Coming Shortly

Overview of 2009

Coming Shortly

Plans for 2010

Coming Shortly