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Old 01-19-2011, 11:32 AM
kent kent is offline
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Default Cab rolls through "Lord of the Winds".. good job guys!

Wow, what a windy event! The Cabrinha guys gave Los Barrlies everything they had and managed to take a good portion of the top spots. Here's a brief below! Pics to come...

Slalom: we had a 6 mark down wind slalom course. Conditions ranged from 18-25 knots. Due to rough seas, the start line was between a flag on the beach and a mark on the water. 4 racers and 2 go though hoping to meet in the finals. With 40 racers it took almost 2 hrs to make the finals. Rob and Damo were flying though the rounds along with Farley, Bison, and Colin. Due to an admin mess up, all of the last 7 heats were re-run and too bad for Damo, he failed to make it through the semis on the second go around. On the other hand, Sean Farley rocked the SL finals and dominated the final event with super speed, great board handling and kite controls that was amazing. Good job Farley!

Big Air: organizers decided to run a big air event with shadow boxes. While the idea seemed to be a good one, the shadow boxes were a total mess. Most failed and the entire thing had to be re-run. Despite cab guys taking the top 3 spots, I’d suggest that the shadow box guys need a total redesign. 1st Rob Douglas, 2nd Damien Leroy, 3rd Dante!

Course Racing: We had a huge fleet with 5 of the top 8 racers in the world. Conditions were 9-10 meter and large chop and swell. Right out of the gate it was clear that this would be the damo, heiniken, and koch show as these guys were in a league of their own. These 3 split races, crashed, and fouled each other to top spots. Out of 8 races, Damo won 3, heiniken won 3, and adam won 2. Damo got tossed on an over early in the long distance and these sealed his fate as he also was forced to hold onto a 5th place finish after his board hung up on a mark. The final 2 races of the event came down to a super final between damo and heinkien. On race 1 which featured a down wind start, then a windward leg followed by a 4 mark down wind slalom to a finish these guys were never more than a few feet apart. The crowd went crazy cheering for their rider. On the last lap, damo took a huge crash and heiniken went in for the win. Race 2 ended up being an even better battle, only finishing with a more wild end. heiniken and damo were rubbing kites on the final lap at speeds of 30 knots. heiniken butt checked and briefly lost control of his kite, altering its direction. Damos kite went through the center lines of heinikens and with a quick pump of damos bar, heinikens lines snapped and damo cruised though for the final win. 1st, heiniken, 2nd damo, 3rd bryan lake, 4th adam koch. In truth, adam missed one race on the last day and didn’t have a good last race. It seems as though heiniken, damo, and adam are alone at the top of kite course racing. Berney is clearly the most improved of the bunch and is one of the guys to watch in the near future. More to come…
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Old 01-19-2011, 02:38 PM
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ricki ricki is offline
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Well done guys, looking forward to seeing the photos. Real bad luck they made you rerun seven races!? That seems a bit extreme. Have fun down there and keep us plugged in on developments at the next series.
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Old 01-19-2011, 09:59 PM
kent kent is offline
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we are up in La Ventana at the Classic this week. just got back from sign up and it looks to be very well attended. no wind for the last few days and it looks light for tomorrow (1st day of the event) as well. SUP races on deck for A.M. and sleep for me. under the weather a bit with all of the new bugs...

Rob and Damo are ready to take a shot at the crossing, but the comp is pretty stiff. I'd say the Sean Farley is the one to beat after winning the last few years. Just saw Shawn Richman arrive. He's pretty fast too! He was second last year and I'm sure hoping for more. Rob is still working on boards and Damo is dialing in a new one so we will see how it goes. I'd guess that expected winds for the crossing will be around 20-25. The top 25 kiters qualify for kite course racing which will be a ton of fun.

Riders are allowed to bring 1 board and 2 kites over for the start of the race. It's pretty much a broad reach of 10 miles followed by a down wind to the finish of 1 mile. Winners should be arriving in around 20 minutes. The start is pretty important on this race if you want to win it.

Hoping to get a few photos up by tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for the FL boys in Mexico.
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Old 01-21-2011, 08:45 AM
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ricki ricki is offline
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Glad good wind is expected for the crossing. Sounds like one fast race. Best of luck to the Florida riders and have fun out there. Take care of yourself Kent, hope it isn't Montezumas messing with you. I understand it isn't as common there as it once was. Good winds guys.
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Old 01-22-2011, 10:05 PM
experienced1 experienced1 is offline
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well unofficially, it blew 20+ and the kiters got smoked by three windurfers. The winner was Brian ? followed by Tyson Poor...both Neil Pryde sponsored guys. Johnny Heineken (ozone) was the first kiter to finish followed by Fl favorite Damo (cabrinha), with Sean Farley (North) third. Then came the old guys, Alex Aquerra (Cabrinha) and Fl other favorite Kent Marinkovic (Cabrinha), and they were followed by Shawn Richman.

Interesting to note, the the ages of the first three riders were like maybe 22,29,22, (just guessing), total of 62, while Alex 52 and Kent 41(guessing again) total of 93...and then Shawn again at 21.

I'm sure Kent will provide a much more accurate and detailed accounting of the 11 mile crossing. AND, Kirsten Ulmer (Cabrinha), the North West Cabrinha rep was first, dethrowning the 5 time crossing champ.
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Old 01-23-2011, 09:36 AM
kent kent is offline
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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!!!
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