The Netherlands’ teenager, Jamie Overbeek, has recorded the highest jump in this year’s WOO Worlds 2022 competition, with an astonishing leap of 33.1 metres on his Ozone Edge V11 8m2 kite.
In the process, the Ozone Big Air team rider, still just 16, also landed the WOO junior world record jump for athletes under 17.
“It feels amazing when you’ve made the jump,” said Overbeek. “You’re just hoping your WOO sees it in the same way as you. It certainly felt at the time like my highest jump. I thought I had it. When I looked on the phone app that confirmed it, I was super-stoked.”
The WOO Worlds 2022 competition ran from 16 September to 16 October, with the highest jumps worldwide in that window eligible to take the titles and the prizes up for grabs.
Overbeek, already the holder of the WOO European record with a jump of 34.6 metres earlier this year, had a plan when he saw the forecast for the conditions aligning on October 6.
With elder brother Sean, the pair set off for the Danish spot of Vorupor. The winds were gusting 30kts to 45kts under clear sunny skies, with a big swell running, and Overbeek felt the all-black 8m2 Edge flown on stock 23m lines was the tool for the job.
Under his feet he selected his trusty Ozone Code V3 twin-tip board with straps in the relatively short size of 132cms, ideal for powering through the choppy seas.
“I love that board because it goes really, really well through the choppy water,” said Overbeek. “And because of its small size, I can push harder than I might on the larger sizes.”
But initially things were not going entirely to plan. He was on the water with a few other “big air” riders and some other wave kiters who were ‘“getting in the way”, he said jokingly. In his first two sessions he could not manage to jump over 30 metres high.
Overbeek knew there was too much wind for his 9m2 Edge V11, but also that he would have been underpowered on a 7m2 Edge. He knows he can go even higher on the 7m2 , but needs even bigger winds than he had on that day.
Finally, during his third session around noon, everything came together. He hit the ramp of a wave and caught a gust of about 45kts that took him up. With every centimetre counting, he also “inverted” at the top of the jump, putting his feet and board above his head so that the WOO sensor records maximum altitude.
“The Edge V11 8m2 was just perfect for this,” said Overbeek. “I can jump even higher on my 7m2 Edge, but then I need winds like 55kts. So, when it was ‘lighter’ that day, I knew I needed the 8m2 . I always feel I’m in control when I going that high. In fact, the higher the better.”
Overbeek has had several video calls with the team from WOO after the Worlds’ window closed on October 16. His prize for the win is $2000, a Garmin watch and a kite set, from which he chose an Ozone Hyperlink V3 9m2 foil kite and bar and an Ozone Code V3 in 138cms.
Next up for Overbeek is the Porsche Golden Ticket contest in Cape Town, South Africa. It is the qualifier where Overbeek hopes to book his place in the iconic Red Bull King of the Air (Kota) competition due to run between 24 November to 9 December, when conditions allow.
Overbeek won his place in the Porsche Golden Ticket, along with two other Dutch riders, on the strength of their video entries. It is a special pre-Kota event for 16 to 25-year-old riders who have not battled in the main Red Bull competition before. It is a challenge Overbeek relishes, and one for which the recent WOO title win sets him up well.
Ian MacKinnon/Ozone
