Whoaaa what a race, I am not going to give any special report but if people can give us an insite on their own personal experience and any thing that happend we should be able to get a unique perspective on the event and peoples own personal experiences fortunes and misfortunes. Heres mine...

My one and only goal of the event was to finish the race and not come last! First and foremost I was amazed at all the kites flying in formation before the race, everyone had their kite neatly positioned in a tight little space squeezed in a pattern across the sky, it seemed as tho there was no room left yet we all managed to not tangle our lines. IMHO this site alone was more spectaular then all the unique kites at the festival.

The wind was pretty serious, looking back at the graphs we had close to 30 knot gusts coming through, and mike the defending champion was on an 18 metre 2002 model C kite! The 13yr old kid that came second (a 16yr old came first!) had a bow fully depowered and was still starting to lift. By pulling the lines tight whilst the kite was at 12 he managed to fly about 2m high with someone holding on to his harness, very impressive both for winning the race and kiting with such strong winds. I went out guns blazing pushing myself and my limited experience as hard as I could. I managed to keep pace with the leaders until about 1/2 km past the Coast Gaurd boat and about 1 km offshore when my freaking kite inverted (user error). It really pissed me off too cause I desperatly wanted to finish the bloody race! My board was an old surfboard with bindings and the dam thing was getting blown faster then I could swim. As I was swimming towards it I was just about to reach it my kite managed to invert back to the right way around, must have been the strong wind combined with the slack lines (I have to remember that next time!) it went straight through the powerzone at full power, I remember thinking to myself so this is what its like to be superman as I flew several metres above the waves followed by a massive crash and a nice bit of dragging. I managed to not crash the kite but now I had to body drag a good 100m back to my board, just as I was about to get there this guy in a green helmet stopped to help out (if your reading this THANKYOU!!!) I told him i was ok and he went charging off. I got back on my board and continued charging, however I was almost in last place (the second of the things i didnt want to have happen). I managed to work my way through the riders by sticking right out offshore to finish in the middle of the pack, which was an accomplishment I am super proud of.

All in all the race was awesome, the winds were awesome and the swell was perfect. It was just all over too quick, well not quick enough for some! Thank you Rob from KSA for organising it and all the sponsors of the event. Never in my life have I competed in such a high tempo, tactical, fast and extreme event. Definantly on next years to do list.

Mick

The winner was 16 years old on a 12m Naish Torch. I know someone who was nearly out at the shark nets and ditched his kite, and there was NO jet-ski's around had to swim in. But the race was awesome,cant believe that there was no tangles at the beginning.

LB

Yea sunseeker that was me . How rad was it just pumping as fast as you can over that swell. Keahi was that you that was getting lifted on the beach?

The surfboard worked awesome. Next year we need andy yates or another of the ranking riders to do it with a helmet cam like the skydivers use to help promote the event.

lol ye i was waiting for the news with images of me with my kite in the trees or me stacking a railey or something ill be sure to watch. great day altough i did not compete just kited around

quote:

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Originally posted by echostorm

Yea sunseeker that was me . How rad was it just pumping as fast as you can over that swell. Keahi was that you that was getting lifted on the beach?

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yea that was me

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Originally posted by LEWISS

CANT WAIT TO SEE THE FOOTAGE OF THE RACE TONIGHT ON 7 NEWS

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i just watched it and there wasnt one kite surfer on it :(

How lame was that !! no footage whatsoeva on the knews...that sucks
Congrats Keahi on gettin 3rd, did ya get some good prize

Phil

you think there would be some cause i heard there was 1 camera on the helicopter, 1 on the coastguard and 1 on the beach

I believe the one on the chopper was private charter by the organisers. They must be making footage available for purchase or something? Ask rob from KSA he will know.

we were told that there was 7 news on chopper before started race- bull****, would have been awesome to seen footage, but now we have to go and buy it...but will be worth it..

I didnt say you have to go and buy it, that was just my humble opinion. Anyway I would be happy to pay for it, it costs tones to charter a chopper to film from. Next year we should definantly organise helmet cams. I have some contacts in the media, so I will see about helping Rob get the publicity next year. An event like this could easily make a slot on the sports segmant or sports tonight, as long as it is filmed from an exciting point of view and provides some fast and invigorating viewing. A combination of freelance filming combined with pre-arranged media from chopper, helmet and boat cams structured out with some big falls, high speed and skimming off chop at some of the speeds reached on Sunday would make some great footage (better then the lame boxing they had on 7 news tonight). The only problem is the risk, what if the wind is crap? Its a lot of money in organising to have fail, would the media take that risk? The only other option I can think of is freelace it completley. The media is happy to buy freelance footage as long as it is broadcast quality.

i cant wait to see some of the footage

For all you east coasters... keep an eye out for the Race2Rottnest in Perth during Feb. 18km from Freo to Rottnest Island!

Great to see events like this getting off the ground, they require heaps of work from lots of volunteers - well done!

guy on that black kite was pretty powered up, it was a 16.5 with 1 inch of depower, he couldnt really stop./

there is one picture of the start in the friday noosa news. There are about 20 kites in the pic