Cabrinha Stacks the Top Ten...
 

For Immediate Release:

Cabrinha Stacks the Top Ten in Gulf Coast Kiteboarding Challenge

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The 2010 Gulf Coast Kiteboarding Challenge was supposed to take place early in the 2010, but was delayed by poor conditions and eventually left to run this Fall. The notice came on Friday Dec 4 that race was on for Sunday with a perfect forecast of strong NW winds. 45 competitors from all over Florida traveled to Sand Key Park in Clearwater to battle it out with their peers on the pristine waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The finish is downwind at the Undertow in beautiful St. Pete Beach. Although the course starts out as a downwind reach, the coastline curves throughout the race to end nearly straight downwind.

The conditions were perfect with 15-20 knots of wind. Most competitors used stock kites and some type of directional board that is both comfortable to ride on a single tack for long periods of time, but super fast as well. Local Mike Hall won the race the previous year in under 45 minutes, so he was the obvious favorite for the 2010 running. But with racing veterans Damien Leroy and Kent Marinkovic in town, anything was possible.

After gaining a nearly insurmountable lead, Leroy struggled towards the end where the course goes almost straight downwind and the winds let up just a touch. Kent Marinkovic on a 16m Crossbow with 28m lines and a custom downwind board was flying through the bottom of the course. Mike Hall kept things interesting in the top three by staying close to Leroy and Marinkovic. Damo stepped on the gas at the end to hold off Marinkovic and preserve the victory in 51:40:07. Leroy is a world cup professional kiter and chose the Cabrinha Switchblade 12m kite with a custom downwind directional board. Marinkovic finished by himself in second position and the race’s favorite, Mike Hall (a native of the area), finished in third place also flying Cabrinha’s and using a custom directional.

Cabrinha riders tore it up in the Juniors as well with Naples’ own Jan Lucas Gianello taking top honors and 4th place overall on the Crossbow, while Chaz Lawrence grabbed 2nd and 6th overall. I hate to sound like a broken record, but Cabrinha riders once again shined in the Masters with Naples’ ripper Richie Gardner taking top honors and 8th overall and Enrique Gianello taking 2nd and 10th overall.

Once again Chris Moore, Steve-O, Jon and all the crew in the Tampa/St. Pete area put on a killer race and we’re all stoked for the next one!! Congrats to all the competitors, especially the 33 that finished the grueling race. There were a lot of new faces at the finish line and that is a good sign of things to come in racing. Cabrinha racers took 7 of the 10 top places in the overall standings – a big CONGRATS!!

Cabrinha Results
Overall:
1st Damien Leroy
2nd Kent Marinkovic
3rd Mike Hall

Juniors:
1st Jan Lucas Gianello
2nd Chaz Lawrence

Masters:
1st Richie Gardner
2nd Enrique Gianello

Well done guys!

Here's the layout of the course. Glad the winds stayed side onshore for the entire race.

http://kiteracing.com/forum/gallery/...10_9_33_17.png

cabs are not even in the top 5 kites.
IMO
they are way too expensive and slow and too much bar pressure.
no offense too cab drivers.
stick with best, flexi, ocean rodeo, slingshot, flysurfer.
truth be told...mike and damien could prolly win on peter lynns.

Looks like riders on Cabrinha kites did well in this race, first, second and third Overall, first and second in both the Junior and Senior categories. Your are correct, they didn't win the first five positions in all these categories.


There is a perception that Cabs are expensive, this was posted on another forum:

"Just so you guys can see here are some prices for 2011 kites.

Naish Park 8m K/C = $1469
Cabrinha Swichblade 8m K/C = $1579
North Rebal 8m K/C = $1599
Best Taboo 8m K/C = $1617.99
Slingshot Rally 8m K/C = $1679
Liquid Force Havoc K/C = $1599
Huh Isn't that funny Cabrinha seems to be one of the cheapest on that list!!!"


Given the speed race in Namibia, it is hard to say they are slow. There are lots of fast kites out there, likely more on the way too.

People should ride what good kites they like. Try different kites, form your own well informed opinions. Cabrinha had a good run this time, next race, we'll see. Each race as they say "is up for grabs."

If your referring to late model cabs Bayflite then your spot on. Seems your opinion is old. My guess is you haven't ridden the newer cabs. One thing I've learned in this country about being on top in anything.....your gonna have the haters. It's human nature.

Seems alot of great riders out there have no clue but you. What a slap in the face IMO.

Just for the record since it was posted, I must point something out.

A Best 8 meter Taboo with their latest control bar is $1419 full retail cost. Not $1617.99 as posted. Making it the most inexpensive on the list.

http://www.bestkiteboarding.com/Taboo

Thats not including the Buy 2 get the 3rd kite free deal they just had on the Taboo.

Like I said, just correcting a posting;)

I didn't do the research on the prices, just quoted what someone else posted. I don't know what sites the individual prices were taken from. It would have been better to put in urls for all the prices quoted to be more complete. That is a good price. I wonder if you looked around it you could beat even that? On the other hand, just found the same for $1598.00 on another site. Prices will vary, shop well!

You found a site that sells the Taboo and bar for $1598? Please send me the link. What I posted is full retail Best website price. Not friends price, not 10% off price.

Through the ASM site, the Cab price looks correct.

I know you used someones post and I know you did not verify. Being a very happy Best customer due to their superior customer service and product quality I felt like I should point out a possible error.

I bet you could find all the kites listed for both lower and higher prices if you looked around. If MSRP is listed somewhere that might be quoted but that price may not reflect what people actually might pay routinely despite manufacturer intent. The price I listed was from Air Padre, Kiteroam lists some over $2000. for the kite alone. There is a lot of variation in pricing for kites in general out there.

That would be the same for all the kites on the list then right? So maybe to make a point using an unverified post to answer someones elses claim isn't the best. I only wanted to step in for Best since I personaly did not think the listing was accurate and still dont.

Choose your own brand based on what you want and what your willing to pay. Market conditions set themselves.

the fin set up on some racing boards are more $$$ than the average riders entire deck.
all kites rock.

I'm pretty sure none of the riders in the press release were riding a course race board that would heavily rely on expensive custom fins. There was a split between fast directional boards and twin tips. Kent and Damo both used stock mix and match Futures surfing fins. I have seen a good stock quad set goes as cheap as $30 and as much as $100. That's cheap when you consider the average cost of one twintip fin is $15-20. A current model year twintip deck costs at least $400 even for the cheapest models.

It's true that course racing fins are expensive, but those are mostly custom and range from 26cm to 40cm each (x 3 or 4 for each board). Figure $175/each plus you have to pot them yourself and cut them down to the correct length that works in the board.

Plenty of kites do not "rock"...

That was a great race and felt good being on a starting line. I think Steve O and Chris also did a great job when it came to waiting for the wind and giving every one a fair start with horn signals and flags. I bet that no one would want to be in there shoes when it was 10 O clock and the breeze quit.

For the people hating on Cabrinha.... dont hate. You get what you pay for. I will ride Cabrinha over any kite hands down.

And Cab Driver I was on a twin tip, no directional for me ( I think its cheating). Just kiddin. Damo and Kent were flying on Sunday.

Pray for some Warm wind.

Mike

Wow, same old crap. Who gives a shit what kite people ride? Followed by the RickI "misquote" on kite prices. I know who cares about this stuff (and the only people who care) - the people that sell and distribute the kites to make money. Always looking for an "edge", a press release, anything, in efforts to sway one more rider so they can clear more money off that next possible sale. These types dream about this stuff at night (sad, I know).
Then they somehow manage to suck in so many others around them in to this ridiculous branding mindset. Heck, they even make vids following a race featuring only riders of their brand. If that is a supposed vid sharing the stoke of an event, then I am Muhammad Ali. This bias and fractured brand oriented view of kiting is not what good clean fun (which is what kiting was originally about) should be. But for those selling this stuff, stoke and fun are simply tag lines used in sales pitches to make bank. Nothing more. To believe otherwise is beyond naive.

Congrats Mike, you have always been about having fun. I am confident you indeed love your kites and it's great you are sponsored, you deserve it.
This pimping at the top is what makes some of us (especially me) disappointed as they jockey for pimp pole position (pun intended).

Scott

I sell cabs

I love riding cabs

Even if I didn't sell cabs I would still ride em

I love to ride

I ride with Mike often

I dont hate other kites

I hate folks that tell me my kites suck

I think the folks at cab land were just stoked to see other cab lovers supporting a great event and doing well

We all love to kite

Some of us just sell them and for that we are evil

I guess I'm an evil kite loving cab fool

I can take it

Ride on

Ride hard

Ride whatever the fuc* you want

Don't rain on someones parade

Pete is the man

Bayflight is not

Peace

are u guys kidding? look at the video again! i was acutally trying to steer Enrique into talking about SW Florida Kiteboarding... his school. He was so stoked on being a Cabrinha guy he didn't get it and said he worked with Cabrinha. his son Lucas also was so stoked, he said he was "proud of himself", Richie is just super cool and had a great race. what a bunch of wankers to rain on their parade. get a life. frankly it would have been difficult to interview anyone else due to the fact that there were no other brands present, and those that were left the party early! the rest of us had a great time hanging out with some pretty cool people.

you guys sound so jaded. our guys love having fun and attend more tampa events than most of the locals do. we do it because it's a blast. i hope both of you guys get some support over there by brands that love you. maybe you will feel more apart of something rather than just left out. it sure is much more easy to have success if you enjoy doing what you do. i think my crew just enjoys it more than most. have some fun man and good things will happen.

Mike, great riding with you again. i think your old hair was way faster though! get yourself a race board and meet Damo and I in Baja near the middle of Jan. 2 great events that serve good causes. Good times.


oh... in case there was any doubt if we cared in Mexico last year... all of the proceeds go toward supporting the local school in LV.



"For the past few years at the La Ventana Classic and Kite Expo, windsurfers have legitimately claimed the crossing but also the top prize money for an event largely sponsored by the kiteboarding industry. This year, organizers could not find a sponsor for the windsurf crossing winners so Tim Hatler, owner of Palapas Ventana and the main sponsor of the event, put a final call out at the Skipper’s meeting for help.

Kent Marinkovic of Adventure Sports Miami/NeilPryde/JP Australia/Cabrinha, stepped up and threw down $1000 USD to award and recognize the top windsurf winners of the crossing. bringing the total prize to $4600. Thanks to Kent and Adventure Sports for their support and participation in the La Ventana Classic!" - The Kiteboarder Magazine

And darn it... my guy didn't win the windsurfing!!!

But... Cabrinha did win the racing!!! Good job once again Damo (i'll get you this year!)

Why don't we agree to disagree (although i'm not sure about what), but I disagree anyway! I'd suggest that we could have a "beer summit" with you guys, but it doesn't sound like much fun.

PS. Bayflight, the hating of Rob's / Cabrinha's World Record Run is getting cold on Kiteforum, you better hurry over there!


You below... right? Don't worry you don't have to be a sailor...

KiteboardingTampaBay Post subject: Re: The World's Fastest Kite. PeriodPosted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 3:38 pm

Frequent Poster

Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 5:09 pm
Posts: 330

"In my opinion that Cabrinha ad is a major slap to the face of kiters. It comes across as "We know what's best for the sport, we told you so!"
You're going to hijack our friggin' sport and give all the credit to sailors? WTF?
Who enables your rock star lifestyles by buying your overpriced kites- sailors?

It's not a "sailing device", its called a kite, you ungrateful ****s.....
I can see wanting to pimp your gear and riding Rob's talent for all its worth, but the fact remains that kiteboarders do not want to be sailors.

In closing, Congratulations to Rob for his accomplishment. Good stuff, that's crazy fast!" TBK

no hate here mike.
i just can't resist.
it's 2 EZ mayne

marketing
 

Firstly, I do not ride Cabrinha and am not associated with ASM in any way. Wether anyone likes it or not, kiteboarding is an industry and if it wasn't we probably would not be able to enjoy our sport and for a company to survive and grow they definately have to be good at marketing themselves among other things. I do not know Kent, but if I owned a big company, him and the team that he has put together are what I would want to run it, It is their job and they do it very well , it is not an easy job even if it is in the leisure and sport industry, from what I have seen it seems like they are always working , wether it is doing demo's ,putting on clinics or attending a charity event. I am also sure that they enjoy the work , because if they did not why would they put so much effort into it.

As far as the race went and who they interviewed etc, well they work for Cabrinha, so that is who they want on the video, you do not see a Ford video showing Chevys, or some other car in their video,s. If the other brands want their kites to be seen ,then make a video and put it up for everyone to see, and if an individual wants his kite to be seen then take the vid yourself and post it. It is that simple.

Promoting the charity event was also not their job , at least they supported it , they had no obligation to promote it in their posts, that is the organisers responsibility, and from What I have seen it seems to have been a great event that was well promoted.

I wish EVERYONE a happy evening and good winds for kiting.

Greg

Thanks Chris M. and Steve-O for putting on a great event
 

Thank you to the organizers of the race for trying to get some local racing going on in the area and donating money to a great cause. I did not participate in the race due to not having someone lined up to watch my son.


Also a BIG Thank you to all those people who traveled across the state to participate in our local race and kite with US!!! I would also like to apoligize for some of my local brothers attitude toward ASM and CAB kites

I do have a sailing background. North sails would dominate the ONE DESIGNS fleets in sailing. They spent more money on R and D and they built a fabulous product. The truth is Cabrinha has done excatly the same thing..... They build a faster kite than everyone else. They have put the time in and the money toward R and D.... good for them. I applaud them for their results!!

Kenty and Damo are some of the nicest people i have ever met kiteboarding
i do not fly CAB kites and they have befriended me anyway... and i am thankful for their friendship.
I would hope we can all just enjoy kiteboarding from the racing to the waveriding to the traveling to exotic destinations....lets all enjoy ourselves as brothers of the wind.

For the record...again and before Im dragged into a category. I was only stepping in to advise of what I feel is an error on the Best Taboo pricing. As others here have said they love riding their kites, I love riding mine. I am very brand loyal due to the customer service and support I receive so I felt obligated to step in when I felt there was an error for the Best kite.

There was no error in any of the pricing posted. The guy said about a month ago, here is "some pricing" not MSRP, the lowest, highest or any other qualification for all the models listed. In fact even higher pricing than he quoted can be found on the Net ($2148. + bar on kiteroam) and a lot lower too (thankfully!). Be my guest if you want to develop a table of high, low and mean pricing and weighted average for all those models for a given date as it will change with time. I have way too many projects underway right now to deal with it myself.

Here's a fact I don't think most people will argue with, kites cost more than they used to. In some cases a lot more.

Here's another one, not so long ago, you could fly any inflatable kite you wanted to. That is as long as it was a Wipika. Not an Airblast or Wipika Classic but just plain old Wipika. There were no other inflatable kites, it was a Model T of sorts. We don't have that problem anymore thankfully, there's lots of selection out there with new ones each model year. Even better the vast majority don't fly anywhere close to what the old Wipikas delivered, a real good thing.

So, what not chill out a bit, the Holidays are on after all, think about kiting and what you would like to do on your next riding session?

Yup Scott. Same ole crap. People finding any way possible to hate on Cabrinha, people that sell em, and folks that love em.

Been dealing with it on this forum since I joined over 5 years ago.

Thank God for Facebook, cuz over there I can choose who I do or don't want to listen to. Fn brilliant.

Lots of Apple haters out there too!!! Steve Jobs is the man!!!

Thanks again everyone for coming to the event, racing your heart out, raising some money, and coming together as one!!!

The pricing issue is my opinion. This is a forum so I expresed my opinion just as did everyone else here. I supported my opinion with a reference as you later did. Nowhere in my post did I hate on any brand or say anything negative about a brand. Without the avg., high, low, etc. evaluation, I still dont agree with the pricing. I agree, I dont really want to do that evaluation either.

The list of prices made it seem the Taboo was one of the highest priced kites in the category. I felt it wasn't fair to place the Taboo in such a high priced categroy just as you felt it was unfair for another poster to place the Cab in another category.

Point is, we can go on til were blue in the face. I just wanted to be clear what my posts were about.

I believe with the weather out their now I have already chilled. I have already thought about my next riding session.....to buy a thicker wetsuit.

well judging by the turnout (37 kites) out of 77 entry fee's, the interest in this race is waning a bit...i wonder why?
i attended, competed or volunteered in the races in the past untill this one was tried in the spring...that is when i said enough.
the disregard for local regulations by kent steve and chris was unbelievable to me.
chris is a super nice guy and it sux 2 loose a friend over this but if you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything.
i don't know if the no wake zones were observed this time.
i don't know if proper permits and insurance was obtained this time.
as for kent and steve...i am a free market guy and totally understand...a business MUST grow or fail.
rick, thank you for this forum.
peace

If your speaking of the past races like the one that started at Honeymoon years ago, Tampa Bay Kite Masters for example. I was there.

I dont recall any discussion of buoys then.
I would bet there were no permits or insurance.
The race start was a nightmare with folks getting trapped at Caladesi Island.
Everyone started on the beach with even great riders getting tangled with each other. Brian Eagle for example.
There was zero boat or ski support.

If that's a race your comparing this too, then I say hypocrite.

This race had zero issues at the start. Everyone in water with time to spare.
Ski support provided the entire way.
Trolley support the entire way.
And alot of money raised to a good cause.
Everyone respected the swim areas, no wake zones, no anchor zones, or whatever you want to define them zones.

You have your agenda Brian. I can respect that but I don't have to agree.

As far as your count, you are also off. Almost 50 kites were ready to rock at 10am. Unfortunately some folks either gave up on the wind or had other obligations. Not to mention we made the call very last minute.

For you to assume that a turnout to anything is a reflection of anything is like concluding if a movie makes alot of money it must be a good movie.

I busted my ass to make this happen and I am proud to be a part of the stoke of kiteboarding.

One thing I can't stand in this world is a hypocrite. If you want to piss on a charity fundraiser then go ahead.

I don't know how you are as a kiter, but you are getting pretty good at publicly embarrising yourself.

My favorite quote from a kite shop when I first started kiting in 2004 and I was looking for gear..

"If you are going to buy a parachute would you buy the $1000 parachute or the $2000 parachute? Same goes for kites. Your life is on the end of those lines. "

Brilliant marketing. A little fear goes a long way, but I knew better fortunately.

Another good sales tactic is to call anyone who doesn't drink the brand cool-aid a "hater". I mean damn, nobody wants to be a hater!!

F'ing Brilliant!!

Sales people are f'ing brilliant. But, they have to be to earn a living.

Surprised they don't carry around those little iPhone credit card swipers on the beach at these races. Well, give it time!

No hate, just marketing awareness. I'll fly any brand of kite as long as the performance and price are within my requirements at the time.

In celebration of the race, I was chilling with my woman and I decided to put the merlot away, and instead opened aromatic, full bodied.... CAB.

And I recommend it to all my brothas

Lata Bitches

uHmmm yeah........ I'm having fun this season........

First off, I don't "hate" Cabrinha. I have zero feelings toward any brand for brand's sake. I like a particular kite/product because it is good. I have always had mixed quivers. Which brand it is is not important.
I just get frustrated when people fracture themselves into "this" or "that" camp and remain loyal to it, no matter what. Be it foil riders/LE riders, powerboaters/blowboaters, Dems/Repubs, the list is infinitely long. From my perspective, the people pushing this mindset are those that benefit from it (sellers).
I should realize complaining about brand vs. brand mindsets is pointless. Just because I wish people were less obsessed with brands doesn't mean it will be so. There will always be people who get a sense of identity from a brand. It's moderately over the top with some people. I see it expressing itself very strongly with iPhones vs. Droids and other stuff. I have an iMac but will soon be getting a Droid. So, fanboy of anything I am not.
I just view it all as silly. Not hating, more like scratching my head and wishing it would just go away.


http://www.fksa.org/attachment.php?a...1&d=1291999704

I agree Scott. It's about each kite and it's performance.
I luv SS Fuels but they've had some flops (ie.the Link).
Btw. I rode the new 2011 Liquid Force Envy the other day. Probably the best kite I've flown in the last 11 years. I'm not a LF guy but that kite rocks!
Everyone likes different gear. Demo demo demo and ride what makes you better