News
September 2025
"Masters and Tricks Party"
English:
I was recently asked about all those "masters" competitions and why Tricks Party isn't one of them.
Let me first point out that the term "masters" is a bit of an unfortunate choice. In the sports world, "masters" refers to participants aged 35 and older. There are also "seniors" and "juniors" categories.
In the kite flying world, "masters" doesn't really mean anything other than that it looks good on a poster because it's understood as "masters of kite flying."
There's also no connection whatsoever to the quality of the participants in these "masters," since they participate only by invitation (from the organizer). That's why you see few, if any, top pilots from countries like Germany, Great Britain, or the Netherlands at these competitions.
Anyway, we understand that the organizers are primarily concerned with the show and less with quality. After all, most spectators don't know the tricks or the difficulty of what's being demonstrated.
That's perfectly possible (why not?), but then it shouldn't be advertised as a competition with "masters."
Tricks Party is still the most honest way to compare and rank the qualities of trick pilots (= competition format). Unfortunately, the number of competitions has dropped to one per year (spread over two days).
In short, I always answer the question with, "Tricks Party isn't about the money, it's about the pilots; competitions are therefore only appreciated by the pilots themselves."
If you can go see one of these "masters" near you, you should definitely do so. Enjoy what you see (but keep an open mind about the format
Dutch:
Recentelijk werd me gevraagd hoe het nu zit met al die "masters" wedstrijden en hoe het komt dat Tricks Party daar geen onderdeel van is.
Laat me eerst aanstippen dat de term "masters" wat ongelukkig gekozen is. In de sportwereld zijn "masters" deelnemers van 35 jaar en ouder. Daarnaast zijn er de "seniors" en "juniors" categoriên.
In de vliegerwereld bedoelt men eigenlijk niets met "masters", anders dan dat het mooi op een affiche staat omdat men het begrijpt als "meesters in het vliegeren".
Ook is er geen enkele link met de kwaliteit van de deelnemers aan deze "masters", vermits de deelnemers enkel op invitatie deelnemen (door de organisator). Daarom ook dat je bv geen of weinig toppiloten uit bv Duitsland, Groot Brittaniê of Nederland op die wedstrijden ziet.
Maar goed, we begrijpen wel dat het de inrichter vooral om de show te doen is en minder over de kwaliteit. De meeste toeschouwers kennen immers de tricks niet of de moeilijkheid van wat er getoond wordt.
Dat kan best (waarom ook niet?) maar dan zou men het niet mogen aankondigen als een wedstrijd met "masters".
Tricks Party is nog steeds de eerlijkste manier om de kwaliteiten van trick piloten te vergelijken en rangschikken (= wedstrijdvorm). Helaas is het aantal wedstrijden gezakt naar 1 per jaar (gespreid over twee dagen).
Kort samengevat antwoord ik altijd op de vraag met " in Tricks Party draait het niet om geld maar om de piloten, wedstrijden worden dan ook enkel gewaardeerd door de piloten zelf. ".
Als je zo'n "masters" in je buurt kan gaan bekijken, dan moet je dat zeker doen. Geniet van wat je zien krijgt (maar kijk met een open geest naar het formaat).
May 2025
We had another very fine Tricks Party at Zeebrugge, be sure to check out the competitions page!
july 2024
We were saddened to learn of the passing of Sylvie, the co-founder of R-Sky and co-inventor of the Tricks Party competition system. This is what Roger Tessa-gambassi wrote about her:
We started the adventure in 1994, on a corner of a table, abandoning a lucrative job to turn to kites, she said "what madness", but 1 year later we put down our suitcases in the south of France, to create together R-SKY, then R-SKY Events.
Since 1996, Sylvie has cut all your kites, made all your bridles, and carefully folded and stored them in the covers. She loved her job, which we had chosen to leave to move towards organizing large events.
Sylvie will have written 2 competition formats, learned all the tricks, dissected them, and recognized them. Regional, national, and world judge, she was proud to show that willpower allows everything, to the point of bringing together in 2005, 150 pilots and 18 nations for "The Freestyle World Cup" and this year almost 20 years later, The World Kite Cup Berck sur Mer. Nothing was too big, all the challenges were met!
It was she, in the shadows, and yet so important, who prepared your invitations, chose your rooms, booked your meals and gave you your welcome bag at all our festivals.
She was R-SKY, she lived R-SKY with passion and energy.
Sylvie did so much for the brand, a rigorous management of everything, which made the success of R-SKY, of which she was so proud.
She was "Pépète" for some, "La puce" for others, but she was the "Patronne" for everyone.
She will not be forgotten...
july 2024
To our delight, a Tricks Party competition has been held late June, in the UK, loosely based on the 2006 USA rules, with their own twists. That's ok, the spirit of Tricks Party is there: judge pilots on their ability to perform tricks in a fixed order and follow the trick guidelines. Two pilots competed, with Josh Mitcheson (80.9%) in 1st place, Belgian Stephan Fiers took 2nd Place, with an overall score of 57%. We do hope our UK brothers will continue to have a Tricks Party every year (or more). UK pilots should make an effort and support this honest format! Pass on the message!
February 2024
From 2024 we will make a change to the mandatory tricks: the Coin Toss now starts with a SPIKE. This was already the case, but now it is 'on paper' and counts for all Tricks Party competitions. The description of the Coin Toss has now been adjusted.
August 2023
At last we added a new trick to the Tricks Party list of tricks. It's the Cascade Multi Lazy, added to group 5. Thanks to the Dutch group to provide a video and the trick itself. Start practising!
May 2023
We had another fine weekend on the beach with the annual Tricks Party @ Zeebrugge, Belgium. Here's a recap video: VIDEO
January 20; 2023
Here it is once more: the only world wide competition that doesn't have an impact on the enviroment! Judged by the pilots itself and gifted with many prices (some of those are handed out randomly amongst the competitors). Do check it out!!
http://vf.kiteclique.com/news-top/187-vf39-is-go
May 2nd
We had a blast of a competition @Zeebrugge (Belgium). 27km/hour wind on Saturday, a nice 15km/hour on Sunday.
Results can be found here, there are some video's at the bottom of that page! Tricks Party Belgium
March 21, 2022
It's never to late to have a fun competition that doesn't make you travel all over the planet ;-)
Just saying that you can compete in the latest Virtual Freestyle competition!
All info to be found here: VIRTUAL FREESTYLE #38
March 11, 2022
The 15th Tricks Party in Belgium will be on the weekend of April 30 and May 1.
As usual on the location (Zeebrugge beach), pilots from The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium will compete.
Watch this website for the results and maybe (if we're lucky) some nice ballets on video!
April 9, 2021
It will be no surprise, Tricks Party 2021 will be another year without competitions. Nothing can be done about that, we are better safe and fortunately can still practice our sport on an individual basis. It is a pity that the social aspect is disappearing, the direct contact on the kite field anyway. It will get better over time and next year it will definitely be with competition(s) again!
And then there is the news that R-sky (the French kite builder) has stopped developing, producing and selling two-line sport kites. On the one hand, it is a pity that the knowledge and experience gained is being lost, on the other hand, the perception of a conflict of interest in organizing competitions is now unfounded.
September 25, 2020
Someone dropped a video in Facebook and asked what trick he was doing.
This happened to be a trick we didn't had a video for, so we're happy to have the link to that video in our website
(and here: Torpille )