Johnny Heineken is sponsored by Ozone, Mike’s Lab, and Tectonics Maui.
The title of this press release on IKA kind of sums it up: America 1, rest of the world 0.”
https://www.internationalkiteboarding.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4923&Itemid=99
Six of the top seven are Americans and almost all of the Mike’s Lab boards are in the top 10…pretty cool.
Today the wind was kind of backwards from normal. It started side-off and really puffy and the kite call was super hard to make because figuring out how windy it was out there was next to impossible.
Almost the whole fleet settled on 13s, and we were all lit. The RC set up a trapezoid so they could separate the men and women and still run windward-leewards, which worked well.
The first start was a complete barge-fest, so I waited in the second row. I then got the first real feel of speed on the new gear. I pinched through a few of the top guys, and from there it was all about not messing up. All the SF Bay Area guys have really good speed upwind and we can charge straight through people on the reaches. Downwind we’re fast too.
So anyways, I scored two bullets in the first set. The second race Adam Koch and I were overlapped at the first weather mark, but I passed him on the reach and stretched from there. Much of the day felt like we were out match racing training sessions at Sherman.
I got more aggressive on the starts in the second set of races and was getting front row starts farther down the line. This helped a lot. Race 3 was me first and then Adam. On race 4 the tangle happened. Adam and I were split on the last upwind and it was a very close race.
I filed for redress and was granted 2nd. The funny thing is we’re using the 0.7pt system for 1st place, so it’s a big difference, but Adam sailed well that race and I am lucky to get a 2nd out of it (I finished 8th) and not use a throwout yet.
Full scores: https://results.extremience.com/sylt2011course.htm
Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be more normal, hopefully side onshore, but it also may rain or be light or something. There are conflicting forecasts right now. After that it should be windy for the rest of the time. Racing starts at 10:30. There’s a live feed, but we race so far offshore who knows what it looks like….
www.internationalkiteboarding.org/live
Johnny