THEKITEMAG ISSUE #53
It’s a big deal for our oh-so-nichey sport when a kiter winds up on the TV, particularly back in 2008 when the sport was in its oh-so-exciting infancy. Way back in the day, when we used jumpers for goalposts, our friend Murray Smith ended up on series two of the BBC’s seminal reality TV work, Last Man Standing, proudly branded as a ‘kitesurfer’. Highlights included him battering a fellow contestant with a seven-foot-long pole, in a borderline culturally misappropriated Ethiopian Donga ceremony that probably wouldn’t wash in our now more enlightened times. The boy did well though, narrowly missing the win in an emotionally charged canoe-based finale, but did a fabulous job representing our sport, although ultimately losing to a boxer from London.
Post his reality TV experience, he was promised further fame and riches, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for Muzza) absolutely tap all ever came of it. You’ll be glad to hear he now lives happily with his family on a farm near Dartmouth, and as a testament to his endeavor, Murray has been permanently etched on my phone contacts as “Murray off the Telly”. All in all, it’s a happy ending for Murray.
Here we are, 15 years later, in the same situation with young Edgar Ulrich on Love Island. In that timespan, and with the terrifying evolution of social media, reality TV has morphed into something far more complex than twatting each other with big sticks or some casual Indian mud wrestling. Luckily Colin has applied some vigorous psychoanalysis to the situation to help the more world-weary among us make some sort of sense of it all. Unlike Murray though, Edgar only went and won it…
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