it was a great race. I'd guess that we had 22-24 by the finish. i'm guessing that there were 75+ on the start line and it was tight at the start. only the top 25 qualify for course racing finals so some riders just wanted to be conservative in order not to tangle and others looking for the win charged hard. most to the top racers hit the middle to leeward end of the line on kites that ranged from 9 meters to 14 meters. the worlds fastest man, rob douglas said that he wasn't going to lose this thing slogging so he took his 14 meter switch! as we arrived the island very early and before the Norte wind kicked in, most of the Cab guys pumped up the large kites in the 12-14 meter range. during the riders meeting, the wind fully filled in so i pumped a 10 and put on some long lines. after testing both kites, i went back to the 13.
so.... i believe that the following riders were on:
Farley: 9
Damo: 12 switch
Douglas: 14 switch
Richman: 12
Heiniken: 9
Aguera: 11 cb
Marinkovic: 13 cb
Bison: 12
Koch: 9
Most riders opted for directional style down wind boards while Heiniken and Koch decided to ride more powerful course boards. as usual, farley hopped out the an early lead along with damo, heiniken, and local favorite bison. the first 1mile is usually a game of avoiding people blowing up in front of you or hammering you from behind. I started in mid 20's with a fairly conservative start. Jan Lucas was in front of me and blew up! i narrowly missed him and got into the grove. Farley, Damo, and Bison were a 150 yards in the lead while Shawn Richman was to leeward of me along with Rob Douglas. Big Alex Aguera was motoring over the top of me and the race was setting up to be a great battle.
Richman and i ran together for 2-3 miles and his speed fell off a bit. Bison crashed in front of me, making for an easy pass. Aguera was on fire with killer speed, but was butt checking from time to time keeping him reeled in. Damo was in hot pursuit of Farley, but the crossing Dark Horse (Heiniken) put the hammer down and started to close the distance on the top 2.
Not the battle was essentially down to Farley, Heiniken, Damo, Marinkovic, and Aguera, currently running in that order. Alex and I were never running more than 30 ft. away from each other and were pushing hard. Damo slid back to about 100 yards behind the charging Heiniken and Farley had the lead by 50 yards at 8 miles into the race. Damo started to butt check a but allowing Aguera and myself to close the gap. I was thinking that Damo was over and that I'd be looking at a possible 3rd place, but it is still damo...
Around the first mark across the channel it was Heiniken by a bit of a margin, then Farley, Damo in a distant 3rd, myself and Aguera at the same time. less than a mile down wind to the finish. I was confident that I would take 4th because at the last event Big Al proved to be a heavy crasher off the wind! Well... not this time. Big Al put on the after burners and smoked though the finish in 4th! Arriving at the beach, i had assumed that it was Heiniken, Farley, and Damo, but was surprised to learn that Damo had closed the distance on Farley to take 2nd.
1st Heiniken: Ozone
2nd Damo: Cabrinha
3rd Farley: North
4th Aguera: Cabrinha
5th Marinkovic: Cabrinha
6th Richman: RRD
A big congrats to Cabrinha's NW representatvie Kirsten Ulmer! She blazed to a 1st place finish in the crossing upsetting 5 time winner, Marie Leclaric! Good job Kir! Hot and Fast!!!
|