Please exercise your privilege and cast your vote on November 4th!

US Nationals Finals, finals pics here

Final Day, and the 2008 US Kiteboarding Champion is...Damien LeRoy (Cabrinha). Damien rode his Contra and XB3s and a first generation NJS Design board. He was followed by Sean Farley (North) and Sky Solback (North) riding rhinos, the new rebel, and proto North race boards.

The Women’s 2008 US National Champion is…Clarissa Hempel (Cabrinha). She rode her SB3s and a Kafka/Neptune board. Last years champ, Kristin Boese (Best) rode her HP Nemesis and a North proto, while Melissa Gil (Cabrinha) rode her SB3s and a Kafka/Neptune.

Other Cabrinha Riders captured first and second in the Masters, second in the Grand Masters, and 4th, 7th, and 9th in the open class. Other North riders finished first in the Juniors, first in the Grand Masters, and 6th and 10th in the open class.

For complete results go to www.stfyc.com.

The fog rolled in San Francisco style, and never lifted. The wind on the inside was about 18, while on the outside, that’s where they raced, it was 22-27.

Continuing in the top spot thru 21 of the planned 24 races is Cabrinha’s Damien LeRoy Damien has been the most consistent rider  oover the four days with all first and seconds and one third.   He is closely followed by “team North”, with Sky Solback 5 points back and Sean Farley 7 back.

The top three are followed by Shawn Richman (WainmanHawaii), Jeff Kafka (Cabrinha), Jon Modica (Cabrinha), Anthony Chavez (Naish), Kent Marinkovic (Cabrinha,) Jon Van Malsen (North) and John Gomes (Cabrinha).

In the women’s division, Clarissa Hempel (Cabrinha) is in first with a ten point lead over last years champion Kristin Boese, with Melissa Gil (Cabrinha) in third.

For complete results go to www.stfyc.com and click on the US Nationals “button.”

The third day of racing started the championship round. After 2 days of 12 qualifying racing heats, all 40 racers went head to head for three races. Another warm day at the Golden Gate with about 18-22, building to 22-27 by the third race. First race, the weapons of choice were 12s and 14s, with 9s,10s, and 12s for the last two.

Damien LeRoy and Sean Farley were the dueling partners for the day with Farley capturing a first in the first two races and LeRoy a first in the last race. When they weren’t first, they were second.

At the end of the 15th race of the event Damien LeRoy had a slim lead over Sean Farley (North) of 4 pts and over Sky Solbach (North) by 5 pts.  Clarissa Hempel (Cabrinha) led all women. She has a 10 point lead over Kristin Boese (Best) who has a 15 point lead over 3rd place Melissa Gil (Cabrinha).

GREAT Day! Wind built from 15-20, to 22-30…and the air temp was warm; shorts and Ts, and you should have seen some of the joggers and sun goddesses. Got 7 races off, so two complete rounds have been competed. Every racer has raced six races racing everyone else 3 times and those in their fleet six times. They have one “throw out” race.

Damien LeRoy and Sky Solbach (both in the same fleet) continued their back and forth battle for the top stop. Damien never doing worse than 2nd and Sky never worse than 3rd and each with 3 wins. Going into the Gold fleet championship rounds Damien and Sky each have 7 pts.

There were several protest that were still pending so the following results are still preliminary.

More of his video work can be found here...

Sunday April 27th was Opening Day on the Bay...It was a warm, breezy and crowded afternoon at Coyote Pt. with swimmers and beachgoers lining every inch of available "sand."
The new sandbag ramp is a hit with everyone and it attracted an overflow crowd of people just trying to get close to the water.

Unfortunately someone from the concession area (see Jane's clarification below) decided to launch a beginner kiter and have him drag thru the swimming area while the instructor followed carring the student's board. A third kiter, after being warned by the ranger to stay out of the swimming area, launched from the same spot and proceeded to short tack upwind flying his kite just a few feet over a crowd of about 20 people who were standing at the sandbag ramp. After a few minutes the third kiter returned to the beach and attempted to land his kite over people wading in the water. Fortunately local kiter SNix (who had just done a safe water landing upwind and away from the swim area) went to his aid and directed the landing away from the waders.

It's obvious that the kiters launching from the concession area showed no regard for the safety of other park users and no regard for the posted rules of the Park. If kiting is banned at Coyote it will be because they refuse to follow the posted rules, standard safety practices and local kite etiquette that has until now been observed by other kiters at Coyote Pt.

Jane sent this email:
"Those were not our students. Not sure where you are getting your facts.
We don’t teach water lessons at coyote beach. It’s not safe for beginners. Also, kiting and windsurfing is banned from the swim area...and we tell all our windsurf renters and students that.

Please don’t make accusations without asking questions.
Jane"

I replied:
"If the lesson wasn't from your school than I'll retract that portion of the post. It was very obvious that one kiter was instructing another and they rigged and launched from the beach in front of the concession going directly through the swim area.
Minutes later I personally saw the third kiter (blue kite) as he came from the concession buildings with the guy who helped launch his kite. That assistant returned to the concession building shortly thereafter. Approximately 30 minutes after that, a male windsurfer coming from the concession building proceeded to use the swimming area as if it were a sailing zone, not just attempting to get to the wind line, but sailing exclusively in the swim area. He was on a Hot Sail (blue and white), couldn't tell you what kind of board, couldn't tell you if he was an employee or a renter but I can tell you he came directly from the concession building and was not a floundering beginner.
From all appearances, someone's not getting the message about no kiting or windsurfing in the swimming area and the people who are doing it seem to be centered at the concession. This is firsthand observation.

mo"

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