Matt Hurrell

January 2001

Matt takes his buggying a little less competitively nowadays and prefers to buggy for fun. This sometimes involves taking all his clothes off and buggying naked on a cold wet beach.
Matt reveals all ...

Q. How long have you been flying kites ?
A. "Since 1992. I've been buggying since 1995."

Q. What was your first kite ?
A. "A Skynasaur F36, 2 liner."

Q. What do you do when you are not flying kites ?
A. "I'm a Lotus Notes contractor."

Q. Why do you think kiting has gained such popularity ?
A. "The money and the women. There were only two women in the race today[*], but what crackers they were."
"There's also a lot more coverage on TV."

Q. At what point did you realise that kiting was becoming more than just a hobby ?
A. "When I started going to festivals and associating with people who were doing the same. My first festival was the 1996 Bristol kite festival."

Q. What is the most unusual thing you have seen with kites ?
A. "Watching Rob Hill jumping whilst in the buggy."

Q. What kites and kit have you got ?
A. "I prefer the old style Predators as I like the way they handle. They're a nice kite to fly and quite predictable. I haven't had the chance to try out the new style Predators yet partly because I'm no longer competing. I'm retired", he jokes.
"I do race occasionally, but I'm not a serious competitor anymore. I'm tempted out if I think I've got a chance of winning, or if the beach is dry."

"I also have, or rather had, four Sputniks and two Chevrons, but sold one of the five metre Sputniks which I had made out of ripstop nylon from a book. I then changed all the dimensions and made a three metre one from the same book, but that was a dog because it hardly flew."
"Next I made a three and a half metre one out of Icarex with help from Andrew Beattie. This was about 1994 and I'd just got on to the Internet by then. I started communicating with other like minded people through rec.kites, and met Andrew Beattie. Andrew was selling Chevrons on the Internet so I bought one."
"I remember talking to Andrew on IRC one day and he said he was driving over to Sheveningen in Holland at seven o' clock Friday night and invited me along. I drove the 200 miles from Knutsford to Basingstoke and then we drove the 400 miles to Holland. It was tiring but great fun".

Q. What is your most prized kiting possession ?
A. "My 5 Metre Sputnik. It's home made and flies well, it's my personal fave."

Q. Any unusual kiting claims ?
A. "Buggying naked at Berrow 1996. I'm still waiting for the pin for that." "SO AM I !", shouts Bob Cruikshanks from across the caravan.

Q. ..go on.
A. "It all started on the Friday night. Ian Meredith mentioned that Mike, Piers, Jonathan and himself went over to Fanoe the year before where they buggied naked. They wanted to to set a new record here at Berrow and needed ten volunteers to buggy naked. I'd had quite a bit to drink at the point when they were putting names down and so I volunteered. On Saturday we met on the beach where they called out the names, but not every one stepped forward. We moved over to a corner of the beach wearing our boxer shorts, etc. We had helpers with us to take the kites. Then we counted from ten to one took our clothes off and grabbed hold of the kites from the helpers, jumped in the buggy and tootled around for a bit. It was quite cold and after about five minutes we returned to the helpers and put our clothes back on."

	Matt bare back buggying at Berrow [**]

Q. What is Team Lobotomy ?
A. "Team Lobotomy came about from the people I shared the caravan with that year. I'd not been buggying that long so I didn't really know about the Berrow event. There was one six berth caravan left which Andrew Beattie and I booked. Andy offered the caravan to anyone who didn't have anywhere to stay and we ended up with seven people in the caravan at once. There was Andrew Beattie, Andrew Hawken, Paul Chandler, Rob Pudlo, Andy Wardley (who was only coming for a few days but stayed the whole week), Gavin Wittick and myself."
"One night I got to thinking about what you would call a collection of buggiers. We decided that when we were drunk we could become a lobotomy of buggiers, and so the team was formed. Andy Wardley even did a logo / emblem for it."
"One night we had been to the Seagull Club and decided to go buggying when we returned. There was a nice breeze blowing, the beach was dry and there was a full moon. Gradually it got darker and darker and we realised that there was a lunar eclipse happening. Although it was fairly dark it was still possible to work out where the kite was by the way it blocked the light from the stars."

[***]

Q. What are the highlights of your kite flying life so far ?
A. "Doing my first 360 on the ground. I'm not keen on jumping."
"Also winning at Scampton in 2000 & 1999. I won a lighter in 1999. I do it for the fame but not the money."

Q. What would you like to do next in kiting that you haven't already done ?
A. "Snowboarding, or skiing with kites. I'd also like to try flat jumping / freestyle jumping - particularly a 'Tornado', which is where you are on the ground and jump with the buggy to do a 360 in mid air."

Q. Where do you think kiting is going ?
A. "Paragliding manufacturers seem to be getting involved with kite manufacturing. There will probably be higher performance designs which will become cheaper. I also think that there will be new strengthened buggies for freestyle buggying."
"Kite surfing will become bigger than buggying as the sponsorship is going in to kite surfing."

Finally Matt adds that they are looking for more recruits for the March 2002 spring buggy blast in Ivanpah, California, where there are ten square miles of open flat space and smooth winds. They will probably go a few days early and start off in El Mirage which is a different lake bed near Adelento for the pre-event and then drive the three hours to Ivanpah afterwards.
If you are interested in joining them, contact Matt or any of the other UK contingent.

Links :

Matt's homepage - Includes links to naked buggying pictures, including one of himself.

www.buggy.demon.co.uk/articles/Swebb/berrowswebb.htm - Steve Walt Webb's account of Ivanpah 2000.

www.kfs.org/~abw/kite/lobotomy.html - The original Team Lobotomy page.

Berrow 1996 & naked (nekkid) buggying links :

www.festivals.tug.com/berrow96/ - Andrew Beattie's account of the clothed and unclothed antics at Berrow 96.

www.kites.tug.com/naked/ - Buggy nakedness, and the pin to prove it !

www.pc-labor.uni-bremen.de:80/kites/wwwkites/r_berrow.html - Robert Pudlo's excellent pictures from Berrow 1996.

www.freewind.demon.co.uk/berrow.htm#1996 - Paul Chandler's account of Berrow 1996.

 

[*] Berrow 2000: Wednesday 27th September. See Bob's race results.
[**] Photo courtesy of Matt Hurrell, taken by Jonathan Harris.
[***] Team Lobotomy logo / emblem courtesy of Andy Wardley.