Ryun Singh took flight at Williams Bay, Chaguaramas and glided a distance of 52ft before touching the water at the inaugural Red Bull Flugtag in T&T. He and his crew, "Obi Wanted Red Bull" were quite clearly one of the most original of the 39 craft to take to the Red Bull ramp on Sunday. Having to wait for all other crews and craft to complete their performances and attempted glides, Obi saved the best for last. Singh was always confident. "We thought we had a good chance but from the start I knew we were going to win," Singh said. "The craft was well built... and yes, you can also say we won almost by default," he continued with some laughter. Most of the other craft also had an original appeal to them and many of the teams spent months working on the designs.
However, most of the teams may have spent too much time on the craft's appeal to the eye and not it's ability to travel in the air. Despite winning, Singh expected to reach further. He said: "We needed more height to travel further." Construction of Obi Wanted Red Bull the craft began in the final week of May, and according to Singh, the effort was tremendous, but in the end, worth it. He and his crew which consisted of Matthew Lee Hing, Varun Seenath, Keshtav Suresh Ramdial and Avinash Rambeharry started working before most of the other contestants and on the final week worked overtime, after work to get the job done. "Since day one we were working on it, looking at the background information, coming up with a design and going for materials.
Caption: RIGHT: With a 48 ft distance and a tally of 117 points, the Tattoo Inc Flight Club crew pose after claiming second place in the Red Bull Flugtag on Sunday. The team was awarded an all expense paid trip to Barbados for an ultimate kite boarding experience. LEFT: Team Emancipation placed third in the Red Bull Flugtag on Sunday and were rewarded with a year's supply of free Red Bull and a trip to Tobago. Emancipation also took the "People's Choice" award with 46,510 votes
The amount of effort is indescribable, we endured hot sun, rain, arguments, lack of materials, etcetera, but in the end, everything was worth it," noted Singh. The team and craft were sponsored by Singh's employers, Digicel where he works as an engineer. Digicel covered the cost of the craft which amounted to roughly $15,000, a lot of which was spent on custom made poster tops which were supplied and printed by SIGNPOST Ltd. When asked if the team was excited about their trip to Panama, Singh responded: "Yes definitely, it's going to be a while before we go, but that's okay, we didn't do it for the prize, we did it for the fun."