With chillier weather in the morning, day three of the La Ventana Classic broke with an early morning SUP crossing. The athletes were ferried over to Isla Cerralvo to begin what was measured to be a 9.5 mile course across the La Ventana channel to the event site at Hot Springs beach, but due to mixed winds and choppy conditions, most ended up paddling around 12-13 miles. Top finisher, Anthony Vela, went high at first to cross the channel’s bigger swell, and then halfway through the channel he pointed his board down to focus on surfing the waves for extra speed. His technique paid off as Anthony set a new record for the crossing time of two hours and nine minutes. Anthony was followed to the finish line by Jeremy Vaine, and MacRae Wyld. SUP race director Barret Tester was impressed with his athletes after the entire fleet of SUPers crossed in under three hours.
As the last of the SUP racers neared the finish buoys there was a bit of confusion between paddlers and foil boarders. Event organizers had started the first foil course race of the day, but due to the high winds, local kiter and SUPer, Dave Beddows, accidentally headed for a foil race buoy unknowingly intervening in the ongoing foil race. Foil racers struggled to stay clear in the ensuing chaos.
Maintaining his streak from the previous day, F-One’s Nico Landauer continued to lead the way, winning all of the day’s races with bullets in all of the eight races over the past two days.
The wind dropped midday, but the crowd of spectators stayed entertained as children from a kindergarten class from the nearby town of Los Planes took the event’s main stage. The kids were dressed up as snowmen and performed what Grom wistfully called a “wind dance” in hopes of bringing back the morning’s stronger breeze in order to move forward with the slalom race and freestyle categories.
The wind gods were as delighted with the adorable kids as the audience was and rewarded them with enough wind to continue the event and get the slalom course racing going.
The course was set; a two minute zig zag lap between two buoys. In an unanimous agreement, all competitors ”” twin tip, directional and windsurfers all decided to compete together (although the windsurfers smoked the kiters in every contest). The only segmentation was between the pro division, and the sportsmen division.
With enough wind to run the race, the Competitors took to the water for the first of the two slalom races of the day. Chaos ensued with consistent kite wrapping when the first, second and third place kites all tangled and another rat’s nest of kite lines entangled the second, third and fourth place finishers as they attempted to cross the finish line.
The wind picked up for the Sportsmen’s first race. After witnessing the pro’s pandemonium, the Sportsmen were less aggressive from the start and around the buoys, behaving much like their title and showing more sportsmanship than the pros in the previous race. Results are pending.
The wind played games for the rest of the day and race two for the Sportsmen seemed to be more of a race to stay upwind. Freestyle was postponed another day, but demos and gear testing continued on into the setting sun. Even in the lighter winds, kiters could still ride the 2016 gear thanks to the latest in kite and board technology.
Club Cerralvo hosted a killer Big Air Big Hair party with costumes, big hairdos, food by Palapas Ventana’s Chef Ruben and awesome beach tunes by legendary surf lucha bands, the Barracudas and The Mexican Weirdohs.
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