Gone riding (for the sheer fun of it)

“I did about six months in a 49erFX, about a year in a 470 and then a year in the Nacra 17,” says the British athlete, who in her brief stint in the Nacra 17 also managed to win the World Championships in 2017 sailing with Ben Saxton.

An injury sailing a Nacra put Dabson on the sidelines, but the time-out also offered an opportunity to try out a brand new Olympic discipline, the foiling kiteboard. Paris 2024 is the first time we’ll see Formula Kite at the Olympics and, with speeds up to 35 knots, it is quite possibly the fastest of all disciplines across the whole of the Games.

Once Dabson dipped her toes into kite world, she never looked back.

“I’ve been in the class for five years now, so it’s by far the longest I’ve been in any of the classes.

“It’s definitely the most fun. It’s been great to come into a class that is progressing so quickly. It doesn’t feel like five years because every year has been so different. We’re learning new things all the time and the fleet is moving on so quickly it’s just a really, really cool class to be part of.”

Dabson says the other aspect she enjoys is the friendliness of the fleet. Her coach Penny Clark agrees.

Clark represented Great Britain in the ILCA 6 singlehanded dinghy at the Beijing 2008 Games and also campaigned in the 470 class, but says there is another level of camaraderie among the kiteboarders that you won’t find in the other fleets.

“It’s really friendly on the beach, and partly the reason for that is you always need a hand on the beach getting your kite up and down safely.

“I think as soon as every kiteboarder has their own caddy, that could change. If every rider has a caddy and a coach, it could just be like every other class.

“But, at the moment, you need someone to catch your kite because if a massive gust comes through then it’s pandemonium and everyone’s just pitching in and helping everyone else. It’s the same with the coaches on the water. It doesn’t matter who gets into trouble, you go and help them out.”

Clark also suffers the unusual problem of trying to keep her athletes away from their boards when they’re not racing or training.

“The life of an Olympic athlete is so intense, most sailors don’t want to be anywhere near their boats after they’ve come off the back of a regatta or a long period of training, but I can’t keep these guys off the water,” Clark laughs.

“When I was campaigning the ILCA 6, the last thing I wanted to do was more time in the same boat. I’d go off Moth sailing or do something completely different away from the water. It was always time away from work, whereas these guys don’t look at kiting as work. They just love it and I think it’s brilliant that there’s an Olympic sport where they just want to keep on doing it. But they really do need to take some time off.”

The camaraderie on the kite circuit has mostly endured until now, but Dabson senses the stakes are going up as qualification for the Paris 2024 Games draws nearer.

One of the first signs of a changing atmosphere came on the last day of the 2022 Worlds in Cagliari. A touch of kites between the French rider Poema Newland and Spanish rider Gisela Pulido resulted in Pulido bringing a protest against her rival.

Newland was disqualified and Pulido was sent back out on to the water to compete in the rest of the Medal Series. For the Spanish rider, there were no regrets about taking a hard line, although she copped a lot of flak on social media for initiating the protest.

“We are all friends when we are together on the beach, but when you go on the water you go out there with a knife in your teeth,” she said at the time.

This ‘take no prisoners’ approach is on the increase, Dabson concedes.

“People are starting to protest about things they used to let go, and you see this particularly between the boys but a bit more with the girls too. It’s not that surprising really. Every point matters. People have always tended to protest over a big tangle, but even for a little touch of the kites some people are now protesting where they wouldn’t have done a year ago.”

Dabson isn’t too bothered about the rising level of seriousness provided it doesn’t kill the friendly atmosphere that she has enjoyed for the past five years. “As long as we fight hard on the water but leave it all out there and can still be friends when we come back to the beach, that’s good with me.”

By Andy Rice, World Sailing Event Correspondent

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