Windy, Gusty, Short Ebb to Big Flood…welcome to Crissy Field and the EPIC Demo Day

What a crazy afternoon it was today. Managed to get out with some of local racers, which included Chip Wasson, while it was still ebbing at Crissy Field. Started by pumping up an EPIC Renegade 9m, but with the lulls dropping in, thought better of it and also pumped up an EPIC Renegade 11m. Knowing that Dimitri Maramenides of EPIC Kites would be visiting our Nor Cal enclave, I figured lots of people would be wanting to try his kites so it couldn’t hurt to have extra ones pumped up. Of course, as it turned out, any of these kites would have been fine as the wind persisted nicely, albeit gusty on occasion.

Wind at Crissy Field (San Francisco, CA)

Got out on the 11m Renegade towards the end of the ebb current and made it out to the Golden Gate Bridge. Always a lovely site and there was some nice swell heading from mid span crossing towards the other side of the north tower of the bridge, that was rockin’. Also caught up with a few tourist ferries, which make for some great swell riding as long as you can keep up with them. While I’ve ridden the Renegade 9m, this was my first time on the 11m and what struck me was how smooth and consistently it turns, just like the 9m. I just didn’t feel the size difference in the reaction of the kite. This of course is EPIC’s wave kite, but it’s so stable and predictable that you can really ride in any condition. The bar is very reactive and powered, which is great when wanting to keep your turns strong on a wave or on the swells put out by the ferries.

EPIC Renegade 11m

After about an hour or so of awesome riding under the bridge, I returned to shore to find Dimitri and his new bride, Helen, ready to enjoy the Crissy vibe. Dimitri rushed up to me to get me to try out the Screamer 12m which is a completely different kite. It’s also very different than the Screamer 10m LTD which is the other kite I have. It didn’t take much convincing to take the Screamer out for spin. Of course, it was nuking by this time and anything bigger than a 9m was totally unnecessary, but I thought it would be good to put the bigger kite to the test, especially on a directional board, so I could see how much wind it could withstand.

EPIC Screamer 12m

To my surprise, this kite not only had very light bar pressure despite the 25+ gusts we were getting, but it was totally stable in what would certainly be overpowered conditions for most 12m kites. It also handled great around turns, and you could only tell the full power of the kite by boosting a jump and realizing that it was keeping a lot bottled up. On any jump, it would unleash its fury and you’d get really scary BIG air. The thought of a kite offering that much control in that much wind with so little bar pressure is unheard of to me. It’s a very different shaped kite than the Renegade, but one that you have to take seriously. For unhooked tricks in any conditions, this would be the superior kite, since you’d be sacrificing nothing in terms of performance in order to get some very forgiving bar pressure.

Lots of kiters got a chance to trial these kites, and all came back raving about the different features of each kite. Because I like to ride a lot of waves, I naturally prefer the all in power of the Renegades, but secretly I harbor desires to have full quivers of both Renegades and Screamers to match my mood of the day.

As the flood tide moved into action and the winds got gustier, those trying the kites were still having no problems making it back to shore. One friend even went out on the 9m Renegade and managed to get back in what seemed to be very light winds. The downstroke power of the Renegade gets you through any adverse low wind circumstances.

Needless to say, I’m a big fan of these kites and recommend that anyone considering new kites at least give these babies a try out. Looks like Dimitri is sticking around the SF Bay area one more day on Thursday (3/25/10), and if the winds come up on the coast, he will likely be doing another demo day at Ocean Beach, otherwise he will be back at Crissy Field. Look for tweets about where he will be for the demo on the Epic Kites site.

A brrr-y cold day at Ocean Beach

After what had to be an epic Spring day with temperatures in the 60s this past Sunday at Stinson Beach, the temperatures dropped rapidly and we have been rewarded with 50 degree temperatures, cloudy, haily and some times sunny skies over the past two days.  While yesterday was futile because of how the winds would either nuke to 9m kiting weather them simply die or have hail pouring down on us for 10 mins before starting the cycle all over again, today it was clearly small kite day at Ocean Beach.  Over 20 kiters came out to meet the winds, with most of them riding anywhere from 6m to 8m kites.  Oh yeah, and it was f-en cold!

Over 20 kitesurfers out at Ocean Beach

I arrived at the beach in time to get an afternoon session at around 3:30pm, but after standing around for 15 mins or so contemplating it, I lost the psychological edge which comes from just getting your gear out of the car, getting dressed quickly and getting out there.  Soon I was whining like a little girl, talking about how cold it was and watching all my friends arrive one-by-one and getting out there with nothing but a comment or two about the wind and cold.  Before I knew it, I was back in my car warming up, then jumping back out to get a couple of shots on my camera phone so I could feel good in having captured the moment for posterity.

Marcello Segura getting ready to ride an 8m kite

Finally, with my tail between my legs, I scampered away knowing that a fun session had been missed.  As I looked over the surf, you could tell that while the inside and middle had that washing machine effect that shows up at Ocean Beach pretty regularly in the mid-afternoon, the outside had some crisp set-ups with overhead sets.  The sets were close together which offers little room for error, but they were so nicely lined up that the rides to expect out there would have been divine.  Oh well, after being so spoiled on Sunday, I guess my jones wasn’t sufficient to break my will to stay warm.  Until the next time.

Comcast Security…or Something Moronic? You Decide

{NOTE: what follows is my rant against this morning’s experience with Comcast.  If you’re having a great day, you may just want to skip reading this.}

= FAIL

A month ago my wife and I decided to begin paying our Comcast bill from our bank’s online bill payment service.  For some reason, Comcast was one of the few bills for which we were still receiving dead trees over snail-mail and it didn’t make any sense given the convenience of paying online like all the rest of our bills.  From my bill payment service I elected to receive Comcast bills directly there and to be notified when these arrived.  With other bills we do this, clicking on the “View Bill” link displays the invoice with all of the details, in other words, convenience to the max!

Today was the first time I received the notification that the Comcast bill had arrived.  As with other bills, I went to the site and clicked on the “View Bill” link, however the ensuing pop-up didn’t show me the invoice and details, instead it asked that I sign in to the Comcast site to view the bill.  Well, that was going to be tricky because we don’t use the Comcast email account for anything nor do we login to the site ever.  Heck, just remembering the email address that Comcast had designated to us was tricky.  Fortunately, I managed to get a customer service agent on their chat system to help in this matter.

Sure, it took 15 mins to wait for an agent, but that was a small price to pay, and when the agent came on, they were very effective in helping resolve our account info.  Strangely however, he tried to up-sell me on the Comcast phone service…which we already have.  Reminded me of the follies of behavioral advertising, offering stuff I don’t need or already have.  Almost like what’s the point of having all of my information if you don’t know or are not going to use it properly.  So here I thought, our trials were over and I could proceed to complete my bill payment transaction.  Well, I thought wrong.

After logging into the Comcast system a screen offered me to update my account information.  I clicked on this and was faced with questions about needing to provide my “Security PIN” with an option of changing it, as well as provide yet another security question (beyond the one for the normal login).  Decided to cancel out of that process figuring I could leave well enough alone.  Once again, I would be wrong.  From then on, any procedure to see my bill or check email would result in that same Security PIN screen popping up.  There was a link to have the Security PIN resent to my email address…the one on the Comcast site of course.  I clicked on this, went to the Comcast.net site, and could see that indeed that email was there (that page shows the subject line of the last 3 emails you’ve received).  Clicking on the email brought up the Security PIN screen….WHAT?!  I have never seen a bigger case of circular security logic than this flawed process.  In order to get the Security PIN from the email, I would need to have that Security PIN…huh?!

Called Comcast customer support and while I got a very nice and polite young lady on the phone, and despite providing to her all of my account information that she needed to be assured that I was the account owner, she could not change the email on file for me.  The Security PIN would be snail-mailed to me in 4-5 days.  In explaining that I couldn’t pay my bill because I couldn’t see it, she suggested that I pay it by phone.  As happy as I would have been to do so and get past this hassle, there was no easy way to get the itemization of what we owed.  Now she is snail-mailing the bill too.

There’s something ironic in trying to reduce the use of dead trees, and by doing so increasing its use by two or three fold.  However, clearly Comcast has issues to think about with their security system, that is so impenetrable that you can’t even get to the information you were meant to access in the first place.  Not to mention that they’re just a cable company, it’s not like my life savings is sitting in their vaults somewhere.  Even my most secure online banking service, with multiple levels of security, let’s me register and get to my money online whenever I want to from day one.  What Comcast has derived here is clearly not security, it’s moronic but I leave it to smarter minds than mine to figure this out.

Frank Eliason, if you’re still out there in cyberspace doing the good work for Comcast, you might want to intervene in this one, they need a solid mind to get involved here and you understand this stuff more than most.  Please jump in and save Comcast from itself.

Moving from 2009 to 2010 Motivated to Get Back to My Kite Blogging Ways

Just a heads up that after nearly a year hiatus from blogging here, seeing all of the new cool kites that are being released into this 2010 season, and the fact that the San Francisco Bay Area has been getting some crazy winds of late, this has all conspired to get me back into blogging about our local kite scene.  Already since December, there have been several north wind days at Crissy Field and we’re currently experiencing some storm conditions that are bringing in south winds to the coast.  Half Moon Bay brought some joy to kiters both yesterday and today, while Ocean Beach got a bunch of us out there today.

As well, I just changed my quiver from Eclipse to Dimitri Maramenides’ new kite line, Epic Kites.  While he may not describe them in this way, the Epic Streamer is the next gen of what was the Eclipse Thruster, while the Epic Renegade is the next gen of what was the Eclipse Kima.  Having ridden the Eclipse kites last season, what I have experienced so far has been quite an improvement to an already good design.  He has also come out with a special treat in a kite called the Epic Streamer Limited Edition which only comes in a 10m version, but is more powered than the equivalent sized Streamer.  As for the bar, don’t get me started, simply said, it ROCKS in its simplicity and smart design.  My quiver this season are 6m & 9m Renegades and the 10m Streamer LTD.

Managed to get a 30 minute session on the a north wind day at Crissy las weekend and can just say that it’s a power machine with great grunt on the low-end and feels like it’s begging for me to let it send me into the air.  Sort of like a Ferrari begging for you to take it into the 125+mph zone, if you know what I mean.  Unfortunately, I was riding my strapless surfboard so I couldn’t let’er go, but I could feel what that puppy wanted to do.  Can’t wait to get it out with my twin tip to see what kind of air time it’s going to provide.

Today, managed to ride one of those weird south wind sessions at Ocean Beach.  It was a hard core ride due to the rain, slightly gusty winds and some mid-sized swell, but from a direction that we don’t get very often there.  Definitely fun while it lasted, which again was only about 30 minutes for me before the winds just shut off like a light switch.  For this session, I took out my virgin Renegade 9m and was not disappointed.  Fast turning, exceedingly responsive, and with plenty of power at every stroke.  Any time the wind dropped off a tad, all it took was a down stroke to get some good power back into the kite to avoid any slowing in the waves.  Wish I could have been out longer to get a better feel for the kite’s range but I now have tasted blood and am looking forward to my next session on this kite.  It’s definitely the wave kite to beat this season.  I’m expecting some solid competition in this segment from the RRD Religion which was just announced as their wave kite and has a nice, though different shape.  Will give that kite a fair review as well, as soon as I get to try it.

Looks like kitesurfing season is going to be a blast with this early start in January, things are only looking up from here.  This rain is also bringing lots of snow to the Lake Tahoe resorts, so I may slip out for some snowboarding, and who knows maybe take the kites along to put them through their paces on snow.

Kitesurfed Ocean Beach on January 25th…how crazy is that?!

It was just another great day to be alive.  Got a call from fellow kiter Jono at around 10:30am telling me that the surf at Ocean Beach (CA) was not only up but the winds were holding steady at 20+ kts.  Music to our ears.  Of course, the temperature was supposedly at a crisp 58 degrees meaning that the water would certainly be colder, but no matter, we were jonesing.

Shortly after Jono’s call, the emails began pooring in from some other buddies with screen shots of the wind reports for the day, and before you knew it the ball was in our court to decide whether to take on the ocean or just wish we had.  The deliberations didn’t take long and within the hour, cars were heading from where we all live in Marin County over the Ocean Beach to catch it before the dying off of the unreliable winter winds.

By the time I got there, Jono had been in the water for nearly an hour.  His call had come from the beach, able to provide a more reliable onsite report than we could get from the meters we tend to count on, and he certainly couldn’t be counted on to wait for us to arrive.  Bill had just arrived and Charlie was on his way.  Didn’t take long before we were pumped up and able to make our way over closer to the water to lay out our lines and get this party started.  Just like that, it’s second nature after all, we were good to go.  As I got in the water with my kite overhead, I noticed Bob and son Alex, were among the early arrivals who were now well accustomed to the water temperature and were more focused on smacking waves then whether their tootsies were going to get cold.  As soon as they passed by, I jumped in and off into the waves we go :)

The sets were not terribly big by Ocean Beach standards, but enough to warrant staying awake and aware of what was coming your way.  Of course, not having ridden in several months meant taking the obligatory drops into the water at the sign of the smallest wave smacking my side.  Fortunately, this only helped to more rapidly acclimate me to the conditions.  From there, it was all good.

Managed to ride for about an hour before feeling the tiredness from muscles not recently used, starting to gain the upper hand.  It was hard to leave it all behind, but my body triumphed over my mind, which could have stayed out for several more hours of this blissful experience.  As we returned to dry off by the cars, the traditional fish tales began as well as perma-grins sported by anyone and everyone who had participated in the experience.  Nothing like seeing everyone around you smiling to know that it was all good.

Two other buddies, Geoff & Jimbo were still out there after I came in, here are some pics of them having a blast…

Gotta love living in a place where this part of our lives.

Taking the fish tale thing to a whale-sized level

This is totally insane.  For all of us who have been riding in the SF Bay area riding along side seal, dolphins and at times sharks, this one takes the cake…

Took place somewhere in Australia.  See the newspaper link here.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye…the SF Bay Classic & Ultra Nectar Challenge coming up July 12 & 13

For those of you not familiar with this race, it’s pretty nuts. Last year very few people completed it because the upwind leg can be impossible on light winds. This two races in one event is fun and challenging. The SF Bay Challenge leg of the race goes from a start line parallel to the St. Francis Yacht Club, upwind to the Golden Gate Bridge, then downwind to Berkeley. From Berkeley back up to Crissy Field is the Ultra Nectar Challenge. This race requires a bit more endurance than the RONSTAN Bay Challenge, but can be equally fun. This race will also include Formula racers.

Sorry, I can’t explain what happened to item 9 below.

Here are the details from the freshly released Notice of Race (which you can also directly access here):

SF Bay Classic & UN Challenge
St. Francis Yacht Club
July 12-13, 2008
NOTICE OF RACE

1.0 RULES
1.1 The regatta will be governed by the rules as defined in The Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS), except as any of these are altered by the Sailing Instructions.
1.2 RRS 40.1 will be changed as follows: Competitors are required to wear a wetsuit at all times while racing.
1.3 Competitors in the Formula class must display sail numbers on both sides of all sails.
1.4 Competitors in the Kite class must wear a numbered jersey.

2.0 ELIGIBILITY AND ENTRY
2.1 The following classes are invited to participate: Formula and Kite.
2.2 Eligible boats may enter by completing the online entry form. Entries must be completed by July 9, 2008 to avoid late fee.

3.0 FEES
3.1 Entry fee is $85, less $5 with proof of current USSA or USWA membership, if received by July 9.
3.2 Entry fee is $95, less $5 with proof of current USSA or USWA membership, if received after July 9.

4.0 SCHEDULE
4.1 Late Registration: Saturday, July 12 from 1000 hours to 1030 hours.
4.2 Racing will be held on Saturday, July 12 and Sunday, July 13.
4.3 The scheduled time of the Warning Signal for the first race on Saturday is 1130 hours. A Sailors’ Meeting will be held at 1030 hours on Saturday, July 12.
4.4 The scheduled time of the Warning Signal for the first race on Sunday is 1200 hours. A Sailors’ Meeting will be held at 1100 hours on Sunday, July 13.
4.5 Sailors and their guests are invited to attend a social hosted by on Saturday evening and a trophy ceremony following the conclusion of racing on Sunday.

5.0 SAILING INSTRUCTIONS
The Sailing Instructions will be available at the check-in before the Sailors’ Meeting, while an unofficial copy may be found at www.stfyc.com.

6.0 RACING AREA
The intended course racing area will be set on the City Front utilizing inflatable marks. The intended area for the distance race will be from the City Front to the Berkeley Pier and back.

7.0 SCORING
7.1 One race shall constitute a series.
7.2 Kite and Formula classes will sail two distance races on Saturday, and three course races on Sunday. The distance races will be scored separately from the course racing. All course races will count towards a boats final course racing score.

8.0 DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY
Competitors participate in the regatta entirely at their own risk. See rule 4, decision to race. The organizing authority will not accept any liability for material damage or personal injury or death sustained in conjunction with or prior to, during, or after the regatta.

10. FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information please contact the St Francis Yacht Club race office at 415.563.6363, email raceoffice@stfyc.com , or visit www.stfyc.com.

Loscoco Captures the Essence of the 2008 Kiteboarding Champiosnhips

Erin Loscoco, one our local Bay area kiteboarders who also participated in the early days of the Nationals, is also a gifted photographer. He spent the latter part of the week snapping some great shots which really capture the mood and intensity of this year’s event. You can check out his site here. He also set-up a “BEST OF” page which has fewer pics but still conveys the mood, here.

2008 Kiteboarding Nationals: Final Standings…the Pros take over

Well, another great week of kiteboarding course racing comes to an end here at Crissy Field with many of the pros taking over the top spots. Where last year, amateurs Anthony Chavez (Naish) and Jeff Kafka (Cabrinha) from the SF Bay area were able to secure the top rankings, this year, many of the well known freestyle names, riders like Damien LeRoy (Cabrinha) and Sky Solbach (North), roared into the event taking no prisoners. Even 16 year young pro rider, Jon Van Malsen (North), managed to come away with 6th place after some great racing on Saturday.

What made this year more competitive is that now that the PKRA has picked up on course racing, many of the pro riders are more exposed to this form of the sport and are evolving the style and the technology. Tech played a big role, though everyone, pros and amateurs alike, are still experimenting. Here is a look at some of these new custom board designs:

It was great to see the spirit of sportsmanship alive and well here in these races, as many of the competitors would frequently trade boards between races, if only to get a feel for what the new designs had to offer. Some designs were amazing upwind machines, but were less effective on the downwind legs of the event. Different board styles suited styles of different riders, but it was nice for them to be able to do head-to-head comparisons between boards and between each other on the race course.

Here are the final standings for the week long event, with Damien LeRoy (Cabrinha) taking 1st place after dominating most of the week, Sean Farley (North) in 2nd place, and Sky Solbach (North) sealing up 3rd place. Three of the Bay area’s finest managed to lock in top 10 performances, among these were Anthony Chavez (Naish), 2007 Kiteboarding Nationals champion, working his way back up the standings to 5th place; recent Maui transplant, Shawn Richman (Waiman Kites) with a 7th place overall finish; and Jeff Kafka (Cabrinha), of Wind Over Water fame, finishing up in 9th position.

Here are the overall standings:

2008 US Kiteboarding National Championship Preliminary Results – Championship Series

	Jersey #	Name	QR #1	QR #2	QR #3	QR #4	QR #5	QR #6	QR #7	QR #8	QR #9	QR #10	QR #11	QR #12	CR #1	CR #2	CR #3	CR #4	CR #5	CR #6	CR #7	CR #8	CR #9	TOTAL
			Y v R	W v B	R v W	B v Y	Y v W	R v B	Y v R	W v B	R v W	B v Y	Y v W	R v B
1	Blue 8	Damien LeRoy		2*		1		2		2		1		1	2	2	1	1	3*	2	2	2	2	21
2	White 3	Sean Farley		5*	2		1			3	5		1		1	1	2	12*	5	1	1	1	1	25
3	Blue 11	Sky Solbach		1		2		1		1		3*		2	4	3	3	3	1	3	6*	4	3	31
4	Yellow 10	Jon Modica	5			8*	5		6			2	2		9	5	8	10	6	5	13*	5	4	72
5	Yellow 3	Anthony Chavez	2			3	2		8*			4	3		9	11	6	5	11	13*	3	11	8	78
6	Yellow 12	Jon Van Malsen	9*			5	4		4			5	5		10	9	18*	8	4	8	12	3	6	83
7	Red 12	Shawn Richman	7*		1			3	1		1			3	DNS*	10	4	2	2	4	8	OCS	5	87
8	Blue 9	Kent Marinkovic		3		4*		4		4		4		4	6	8	9	6	10	9	11	10	12*	88
9	Red 6	Jeff Kafka	8*		7			5	2		2			7	16*	6	7	4	7	15	7	9	11	89
10	Blue 12	Ken Winner		4		DSQ*		12		8		6		5	8	12	14*	9	8	7	5	8	9	101
11	Red 4	Michael Gebhardt	1		5			9	10*		8			6	14	17*	13	14	9	12	4	7	7	109
12	Yellow 5	John Gomes	4			7	7		5			DNF*	7		3	4	11	13	14	22*	18	6	15	114
13	Red 11	Marc Ramseier	3		4			7	7		6			8*	7	DNF*	5	15	15	11	16	13	14	123
14	Yellow 6	Geoff Headington	DNS*			6	6		3			8	14		13	13	10	11	17*	10	9	12	10	125
15	White 11	Nils Stolzlechner		6*	3		3			6	3		6		12	DNF*	12	7	12	42	10	14	16	146
16	White 13	Chip Wasson		18	11		9			7	7		DSQ*		5	7	15	19	13	14	15	23*	23	163
17	Red 9	Donny Parker	16*		6			8	11		10			9	24*	14	17	17	20	15	14	16	13	170
18	Yellow 7	Clarissa Hempel	6			10	13*		9			7	8		18	15	16	20	22	17	24*	17	17	182
19	Blue 1	Kristin Boese		9		9		15*		10		9		10	15	18	19	21*	18	19	17	20	18	191
20	White 10	Marcelo Segura		10	8		10			13	14*		12		19	25*	23	18	16	20	21	15	19	204
21	Red 13	Frank Wittke	12		10			12	13		12			15*	11	16	20	DNS*	25	18	20	18	24	211
22	Blue 4	Eric Due		11		14*		10		9		10		11	23	21	24	16	16	16	25*	24	21	212
23	White 4	Melissa Gil		8	9		11			12	13*		11		22	20	21	25	19	21	22	21	27*	222
24	Yellow 2	Christopher Brown	17*			13	8		12			12	8		25	19	22	24	26	26	31*	26	20	241
25	Yellow 13	Arnaud Vuillermet	18			12	14		DNS*			11	10		17	22	25*	22	24	24	23	19	25	241
26	Red 5	Steve Gibson	15*		14			11	15		9			14	21	27	30	29	28	31*	19	22	26	265
27	Yellow 8	Bret Herscher	11			16	16		14			14	DNS*		31*	23	27	27	23	28	26	28	29	282
28	Red 10	Sandy Parker	10		12			18*	17		15			13	27	26	29	32*	30	30	28	25	22	284
29	Blue 5	Eric Geleynse		14		15		17*		14		13		12	26	24	26	28	29	29	34	DNS*	DNS	307
30	White 5	Mo Hart		DNS*	DNS		15			11	11		13		20	OCS*	DNS	23	21	25	29	DNS	DNS	325
31	Blue 13	Kris Youngberg		15		13		19*		15		15		16	DNF*	DNS	DNS	26	31	27	30	29	30	333
32	Yellow 9	Bruce Johnson	19			17	18		18			16	DNS*		32	DNF*	DNS	DNF	27	23	27	27	28	338
33	White 6	Ella Johnson		DNF	DNS*		19			16	16		DNS		28	28	DNS*	31	33	34	32	30	31	354
34	White 2	Dave Broome		7	13*		12			5	4		4		DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	376
35	Red 1	Vladimir Belinsky	DNF		DNS*			14	20		DSQ			DNS	30	DNS*	DNS	33	32	32	33	31	32	384
36	Red 14	Vlad Morozz	DNS*		DNF			16	DNS		DNS			DNS	29	29	28	30	34	DNS*	35	DNS	33	389
37	Red 3	Caroline Freitas	13		15			13	16		DNS*			DNS	DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	429
38	Yellow 11	Brendan Richards	14			11	17		DNS*			DNS	DNS		DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	442
39	White 14	Peter Schiebel		13	DNF		DNS*			DNS	DNS		DNS		DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	469
40	Yellow 4	James Donaldson	DNS*			DNS	DNS		19			27	27		DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	473
41	Blue 3	Raymond Deiter		DNS*		DNS		DNF		DNS		DNS		DNS	DNS*	DNS	DNS	34	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	475
42	White 7	Erin Loscocco		DNS*	DNS		20			DNS	DNS		DNS		DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	476
43	Blue 14	Shawn Murray		DNS*		DNS		DNS		DNS		DNS		DNS	DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	484
44	Blue 10	Michael Scott		DNS*		DNS		DNS		DNS		DNS		DNS	DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	484
45	Blue 2	Steph Bridge		DNS*		DNS		DNS		DNS		DNS		DNS	DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	484
46	Blue 6	Bobby Hall		DNS*		DNS		DNS		DNS		DNS		DNS	DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	484
47	Blue 7	Lance Larivee		DNS*		DNS		DNS		DNS		DNS		DNS	DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	484
48	Red 15	Ryan Lamb	DNS*		DNS			DNS	DNS		DNS			DNS	DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	484
49	Red 2	Shawn Ewing	DNS*		DNS			DNS	DNS		DNS			DNS	DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	484
50	Red 7	Jeffrey Klein	DNS*		DNS			DNS	DNS		DNS			DNS	DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	484
51	White 1	Darren Bass		DNS*	DNS		DNS			DNS	DNS		DNS		DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	484
52	White 12	Jason Trupkin		DNS*	DNS		DNS			DNS	DNS		DNS		DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	484
53	White 8	Jeffrey Ruoss		DNS*	DNS		DNS			DNS	DNS		DNS		DNS*	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	484

It’s All Smiles at the 2008 Kiteboarding Nationals – San Francisco Bay

As most seasoned kiters know, keeping a serious face during anything to do with kitesurfing is down right near impossible to do. Even on game day, when the racing stakes are up, every kiters you talk to can’t help but beam a smile. Spent Saturday walking around talking to racers after their finish and with few exceptions, it was happy all around regardless of where they placed. Couldn’t resist sharing these shots here…

(Row 1: Steve Gibson, John Gomes (race organizer), Sandy Parker (Kitopia); Row 2: John Van Malsen, Clarissa Hempel, Eric Due; Row 3: Anthony Chavez (2007 Nationals Champion), Donny Parker (Kitopia), Jeff Kafka (WindOverWater); Row 4: Chip Wasson (Ultra Nectar), Shawn Richman/John Modica/Sky Solbach/Damien LeRoy/Kent Marinkovic, Shawn Richman)

Even the spectators couldn’t help but get into the smiling trend…

(Spectator Row: Bill Tai (KiteVC), Kathy Smith/Chad Nicols, Pete Cabrinha (Cabrinha Kites)/Austin

It was great to see all of this happiness bundle up in one place :)