Hi Everyone,

Following the launch of the 2011-2012 Victoria Kiting Events Calendar, KBV is very proud to announce to our members the first Victorian Kiteboarding event of the season. This will be the Sail Melbourne Kiteboarding Championships presented by Cabrinha and KBV from 10-12 November as part of the ISAF Sailing World Cup Carnival.

Competition Overview:

In line with Kiteboarding's bid to participate in the 2016 Olympic games in Rio De Janeiro; KBV, Sail Melbourne, Cabrinha, and SHQ have teamed up to provide KBV/AKSA members with the opportunity to participate in an internationally recognised sailing competition. The Sail Melbourne World Cup Carnival is a world renowned event and is one of the stops on the Sail World Cup route. This event will be fully televised and reported in the media, and will provide a fantastic platform to promote our sport within the international sailing community.

KBV/AKSA members will have the opportunity to experience the following four competitions, including two proposed Olympic Kiting classes, in an official competition format:

- Course Racing (proposed Olympic class) - upwind-downwind course racing
- Freestyle - expression session with elimination finals, specific format depends on number of competitors in each division and weather forecast
- Kite-X (proposed Olympic class) - slalom racing with obstacles, running elimination heats and finals
- Big Air - expression session, if conditions permit

Winners will receive a recognised medal from Sail Melbourne. Plus Cabrinha and SHQ will provide prizes to the winners on the day.

This event has been created to cater for all levels of kiteboarding ability. Once you are competent at riding (upwind/downwind), basic jumping, and emergency water pack-downs, then you have the skills for this event. The Course Racing and Kite-X events are particularly suited to all levels of kiteboarders, male and female, and we encourage you all to come down on the week and participate.

The Kiting portion of the Sail Melbourne World Cup week will be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 10-12th November, at Hampton Beach.

Registration

There are three registration options with different fees:

- $50 to compete in all competition disciplines from Thursday to Saturday, or
- $30 to just compete on Saturday only, in those disciplines where the elimination rounds haven't started (definitely Course Racing, most-likely Kiter-X and Freestyle), or,
- $30 per discipline (Course Racing, Kiter-X, or Freestyle)- note, the day(s) each discipline will be run will be based on wind conditions

Registrations close November 3rd at 5pm. After this, there is an additional late entry fee of $20. All registrations will receive a FREE Cabrinha Powerdriver multi-tool. All competitors who register to compete in all disciplines from Thursday to Saturday ($50) will receive a Sail Melbourne Competitor Bag with T-Shirt, Competitor Pack and other goods.

Interested in participating?

Please head to the Sail Melbourne website and register. More details about the event schedule and divisions can be found at the bottom of this post:

Instructions:
- Link: sailmelbourne.com.au/website/competitorinfo.html
- On Entrants page, please leave ISAF field blank
- On the Boat page, please ignore boat details, provide your number if you would like to receive text message updates during the event
- Options page, in the insurance section, please enter AKSA/KBV as your 'insurance company', and your KBV/AKSA membership ID as 'Policy Number'.

You will need to be a KBV/AKSA member to compete. You can join KBV online at www.kbv.org.au and by following the link to the AKSA website.

A formal notice of race will be published soon in advance of the competition which will include further detail on race instructions.

Other fun stuff!

On the Friday and Saturday, KBV and SHQ will be hosting a BBQ area where kiters, friends and families can hang out. Sail Melbourne will be hosting a formal awards ceremony for all the sailing classes, including kiting, at the Sail Melbourne Lifestyle Party on Saturday evening at Sandringham Yacht Club.

This event will also be our first stop on our 'King/Queen of the Bay Event series'. So this is a great opportunity to get points on our inaugural league table.

Additionally, if you fancy trying something new, equipment will be available for charter during the week from SHQ (details below).

Wind permitting, it promises to be a fantastic weekend of kiting. Supporters go free so please encourage all to come along.

See you there!

Yours,
KBV
[Derek]
For queries, please send an email to [email protected]
For KBV information, please visit www.kbv.org.au

Event Schedule:

As the event is weather dependent, the schedule of heats will be flexible and will be confirmed at the rider briefing each day. However, at this point we anticipate the following schedule:

- Course Racing (Thursday-Saturday)
- Freestyle (Thursday-Saturday)
- Kite-X (Saturday)
- Big Air (strong wind dependant and open to all competitors, no need to register for this discipline separately)

Thursday
10amRegistrations open
11:30amRegistrations close
12pmRider briefing
12:30pmCompetition Start (Wind Permitting - Course Racing, Freestyle)
7:30pmEnd of competition

Friday
10amRider briefing
10:30amCompetition Start (Wind Permitting - Course Racing, Freestyle, Big Air)
7:30pmEnd of competition

Saturday
9:30amSaturday only registrations open
10amRegistrations close
10:30amRider briefing
11amCompetition Start (Wind Permitting - Course Racing, Freestyle, Kite-X)
4pmEnd of competition
5pmSail Melbourne Lifestyle Party including Medal Ceremony (Sandringham Yacht Club)

For those of you not available to compete Thursday/Friday, there may still be an opportunity for you to get involved on Saturday, so call down to the Hampton Beach at 09:30 to see what competitions are still open.

Divisions:

Course Racing Divisions
For the course racing event, competitors will be split across the following divisions, as per their board type:
- Twin Tip
- Directional
- Race board

As all divisions will be racing the same time on the same course, it won't be possible to race in more than one division.

Freestyle Divisions
- Open
- Womens
- Junior Under 16 Years (as of July 1st 2011)
- Masters Over 35 Years (as of July 1st 2011)

Kite-X
For the slalom event, there will only be one division and there are no restrictions on equipment.

Big Air
For the Big Air event, there will only be one division and there are no restrictions on equipment.

Links
For more information on the Sail Melbourne event, please visit:

sailmelbourne.com.au/website/home.html

For more information on the proposed Olympic kiting formats and their rules, in advance of the formal notice of race, please visit:

internationalkiteboarding.org/

Thanks to our partners Cabrinha and SHQ (www.shq.com.au). Equipment such as course race boards will be available for charter from SHQ during the competition. For more information, please contact SHQ at:
[email protected]

MrKite said...

Due to work commitments I will only be down on saturday.
Has there been much interest for the course racing?

Hopefully will see you down in Hampton on the Saturday. There will be a lot going on - you'll have the chance to compete in the freestyle, kiter-x and course racing events.

We are v excited about both the course racing and kite-x events as they are new events to our calendar. We have had a lot of interest in these two events over the past few weeks/months so we are hoping the interest translates into competitors that week. Great opportunity to experience an olympic format.


Yours,
KBV
[Derek]
For queries, please send an email to [email protected]
For KBV information, please visit www.kbv.org.au

Just a quick update on day 1 of our 3-day Sail Melbourne KBV/Cabrinha Kiteboarding Comp:

Great 1st day. The wind, while up and down a little, was in strong for much of the day. Great turnout of competitors and lot of fun was had down at Hampton beach.

For anyone interested in competing in the remainder of the event, registrations will be open again Saturday morning where we hope to run the Kiter-X, Course Racing, and potentially Freestyle, subject to wind.

First days results:

Freestyle

Juniors (under 16):

1st) James Carew
2nd) Aaron Kenny
3rd) Dalton Bruyns

Women:
1st) Natalie Clark
2nd) Elyse Gaynor
3rd) Clare Wilson

Masters:
1st) Andrew Burke
2nd) Bernie
3rd) Murray Kenny
4th) Natalie Clark
5th) Al

Open:
1st) Dalton Bruyns
2nd) Andrew Burke
3rd) Bernie
4th) Al
5th) Elyse Gaynor

Big Air Competition

Open:
1st) Bernie
2nd) Dalton Bruyns
3rd) James Carew
4th) Natalie Clark

We also ran the first two races of the Course Racing Class which everyone really enjoyed. We'll be posting the final results for this after race 6. Races 3-6 to be ran Friday and Saturday.

Thanks,
KBV
[Derek]
For queries, please send an email to [email protected]
For KBV information, please visit www.kbv.org.au

Day 2 Update

While we didn't get the wind of yesterday, a great day was still had. Despite the wind being only 8-10 knots, the riders received a course racing clinic from Hudson of SHQ, got to try out the new 2012 Cabrinha course racing equipment and completed 2 races on the course.

Was really impressive to see how the course racing equipment performed in such light conditions and how riders stormed upwind..

Tomorrow is our 3rd and final day. New registrations start from 9.30 with a rider briefing at 10.30.

Hope to see you all there!

Thanks,
KBV
[Derek]

Hi Derek,
Thanks for such a great event. Totally love it.
Must have a beer after next time.
Can you please correct my name from Andrew Burke to Andrew Gelston.
Thanks again

Sorry we couldn't be there the last day. Thanks for every one who helped put it on.

Day 3 Update

Despite some challenging conditions early on, the seabreeze kicked in Saturday afternoon and the group were able to complete the course racing and the kiter-x competitions.

Cannot speak enough about how amazed all the competitors and volunteers were with regards to how low a wind rage the new racing kites and boards perform in, with some riders gunning on 7-10 knots on the day before the seabreeze kicked in.

Thanks to all our competitors who competed over the 3 day event. Thanks also to Hudson and all at Cabrinha, SHQ, for hosting a fantastic event and supplying prizes.. Thanks also to Sail Melbourne for introducing kiting into the Sailing World Cup Carnival...

Offical final results and pictures from the day will be posted up shortly. Details of the next stop on our 'King/Queen of the Bay' tour also to be announced in the coming days...

All the best,
KBV
[Derek]
For queries, please send an email to [email protected]
For KBV information, please visit www.kbv.org.au

AndyG said...

Hi Derek,
Thanks for such a great event. Totally love it.
Must have a beer after next time.
Can you please correct my name from Andrew Burke to Andrew Gelston.
Thanks again

Thanks Andrew - fixed now on the link above. Will see you at the next event hopefully!

HI Derek,

Great photos thanks