I thought that the race was great as well. It was nice to see something organized in a different location. The wind finally came through for a great event. I remember getting an ok start and just trying to keep from wrapping anyone's kite. The wind seem very good at the start and looking around, I was surprised to see so many fast riders staying in the front of the pack. Damien managed to pull away from the first pack pretty well, but the 4-5 others including myself all seemed pretty close in speed. There were some advantages in angle or speed, but they seem to cancel eachother out a bit. What I really liked about this event was that it wasn't so focused on having strong legs but rather making good decisions going down wind. You really had to look for good gusts on either the right or left side of the run. Additionally, you had to really focus on turning at the right time to take advantage of the wind direction. Knowing that the wind was forecast to turn to the right as the day went on, you had to be careful to take hitches toward the beach at times to avoid being caught too far off shore and away from the finish line.
For me it really cae down to trying to stay in the race with a good opportunity to place high. Near the end, I managed to reel in Gebi a bit, but i really needed my mind to say that I could beat him to the finish line. Many times over the last 20 years i have been close to him in windsurfing races, but he generally had something extra. In the closing minute of the race, i noticed that my slightly larger kite gave me about 1 degree better angle down wind and I waited until the last minute to show it. I remember diving below Gebi just before he would have needed to jibe for the finish. This made him haveto jibe behind me to ride toeside toward the beach. I matched his toeside carve and stayed just to leeward. i waited from him to bring it back to heelside to go for the finish and I turned as well. Upon hitting the beach, I was stoked to finally come out on top of him in a very close race. It is races like this that keep the fires going and make us want to do it again and again.
In the end, I was very happy that we were riding left foot forward as my other side is terrible! I am hoping that others had as much fun as I did so that we can continue to epand on these racing concepts. As more riders get competitive boards and kites, I am looking forward to seeing course racing develop in Florida as it has in SF Bay with the Cabrinha Kite Race Series. If you are interested in finding the right board for upcoming races and need some advise, send me a PM and I'd be happy to help.
See you at Tampa!
Kent
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