Red Bull King of the Air, the annual big air kiteboarding competition that is driving riders to the limits. Every year Kite Beach in Cap town, South Africa is home to one of the biggest and badass kite surf contest out there; King of the Air (KOTA). In this competition riders can show there biggest, highest and extreme tricks they can preform. The kite contest is only held with enough wind to ensure the high level of action during the event.
Red Bull King of the Air 2022 Results
The wind window is was set on 24 November – 9 December 2022. And the wind was good on the first attempt. The red bull king of the air 2022 was a blast!
Results of KOTA 2022:
- Lorenzo Casatic
- Jamie Overbeek
- Andrea Principi
Highlights of the full event can be viewed best in the video with the 2022 highlights.
Riders for the King of the Air 2022
The 18 riders for this year KOTA are:
- Aaron HADLOW GBR
- Airton COZZOLINO ITA
- Andrea PRINCIPI ITA
- Beto GOMEZ COL
- Edgar ULRICH FRA
- Giel VLUGT NED
- Jason VAN DER SPUY RSA
- Jeremy BURLANDO ITA
- Joshua EMANUEL RSA
- Kevin LANGEREE NED
- Lasse WALKER NED
- Liam WHALEY SPN
- Lorenzo CASATI ITA
- Luca CERUTI RSA
- Marc JACOBS NZL
- Stig HOEFNAGEL NED
- Timo BOERSEMA NED
This global event with riders form all over the world. there are 10 different country’s participating with 5 entries from The Netherlands, 4 from France and 2 from Great Britain. What can we expect this year? More no-footers mega loops? Who will win the Crown this year? The king of the air 2022 will be streamed live again. Stay tuned for up-communing news, data and live feed.
How King of the Air competition work
Redbull King of the air is the leading big air kiteboarding competition. The target is clear: get big, bigger, biggest. The competition is held in different heats of 2-4 riders on the water at the same time. When the green flag goes up, they have 5 minutes to show there best tricks. Tricks will be scored on:
- Height of the trick
- Difficulty of the trick
- Diversity of the tricks in the heat
Where the heights of the trick counts for 70% of the score, so bigger is better! You can get style points of points lost due to crash or a butcheck on the landing.
Af the end of the heat the rider with most points from the 3 highest scoring tricks wins the heat. The rider wil advance to the next heat till there is a clear winner of King of the air, worthy of the crown.
King of the Air 2021 results and recap
Marc Jacobs edges out three-time champion Langeree to win the Red Bull King of the Air 2021! Kevin Langeree and Stig Hoefnagel Complete the podium of the 2021 KOTA.
1. Marc Jacobs (NZL) 32.28
2. Kevin Langeree (NED) 27.70
3. Stig Hoefnagel (NED) 26.10
King of the Air 2021 highlights video
King of the Air 2020 results and recap
Jesse Richman is the winner of the KOTA 2020. The contest was held in one day with the perfect conditions. The 7 hours long kite boarding competition had 34 heats and Jesse Richman come out on top!
Nick Jacobson was the runner op in 2nd place and won the Mystic Trick of the day and the highest Woo score. Nick Jacobson won the Mystic trick of the day due to a perfect kite-loop board-off with was scored a 9.02. He had also the highest jump of the day with a whopping 22 meter.
To complete the KOTA 2020 results Aaron Hadlow became 3rd.
Watch the action of the Red Bull King of the air replay 2020 here:
Watch the Recap of king of the air 2020 here in the Highlights:
History of the event
The King of the Air first started in 2000. The contest was held in Ho’okipa, Hawaii And was always a big air competition. The first woman to won the contest was Susi Mai. The competition was held a few years in a row and stopped for a while. In 2013 the King Of the Air event was resumed and from this point forth it was held in Cape Town and was called Red Bull KOTA. Since then it is an annual kite boarding competition to push the sport and the riders to the limits. Every year KOTA is the place where the most dangerous tricks are being preformed in a competition. True this type of event the sport is evolving if going bigger and bigger.
Learn more about the History of KOTA here
Previous years and winners of the event
The winners form the previous King of the air events all in one overview.
| Year | Women | Men 1st | Country | Men 2nd | Country | Men 3rd | Country |
| 2021 | Marc Jacobs | NZL | Kevin Langeree | NED | Stig Hoefnagel | NED | |
| 2020 | Jesse Richman | USA | Nick Jacobsen | DEN | Aaron Hadlow | UK | |
| 2019 | Kevin Langeree | NED | Jesse Richman | USA | Liam Whaley | SPA | |
| 2018 | Kevin Langeree | NED | Liam Whaley | SPA | Lewis Crathern | UK | |
| 2017 | Nick Jacobsen | DEN | Aaron Hadlow | UK | Ruben Lenten | NED | |
| 2016 | Aaron Hadlow | UK | Jesse Richman | USA | Kevin Langeree | NED | |
| 2015 | Aaron Hadlow | UK | Kevin Langeree | NED | Jerrie van de Kop | NED | |
| 2014 | Kevin Langeree | NED | Ruben Lenten | NED | Steven Akkersdijk | NED | |
| 2013 | Jesse Richman | USA | Nick Jacobsen | DEN | Sam Light | UK | |
| 2005 | Susi Mai (USA) | Ruben Lenten | NED | ||||
| 2004 | Susi Mai (USA) | ||||||
| 2003 | Susi Mai (USA) |
Watch the Recap of the King of the air 2019 here:
Watch the Replay of King Of the Air 2018
Watch King of the Air 2022
Every year the KOTA gets broadcasted over the world. this way you can watch it from your sofa at home.
More events:
Want to see more event like this? Check out: Red Bull Megaloop
Or want to see a lot more kiteboarding action? Watch the best kitesurf movies
