Los Barriles offered its optimal morning winds for the final day of foil racing on day four of the 2016 Lord of the Wind. Today in course racing the finishing order was mixed compared to the week’s customary results. Ruining his first place streak, Joey Pasquali placed second during race 15, still winning an impressive 14 of 15 races for the week. Julien Kerner who stood solidly in second did not finish race 14 while 3rd place’s Nico Landauer stirred things up with a fourth in race 13, sixth in race 14 and first in race 15. Despite today’s differences, the top athletes were able to hold down their rankings, Joey Pasquali claiming 1st, Julien Kerner maintaining 2nd and Nico Landaur holding down 3rd.
Winds picked up through the afternoon to continue with intense freestyle heats. With solid wind conditions, round three of the freestyle ladder pitted Anthar Racca against Augustin Tapia, Dylan Murphy against Kyle Mackie, Drew Christansen against Matt Thames, Rocky Chatwell against Jacob Olivier, Reed Brady against Hayden Fischer and Evan Netsch against Julien Kerner.
15-year-old Anthar Racca landed the trick of the day, a 317, which sent him to round four to compete against the likes of Dylan Murphy and Rocky Chatwell, who at age 25 has officially made his comeback in kiting as one of the top kiters at the event. Event announcer, Grom Gormley, also noted that Dylan’s riding today was the best he’s ever seen from the Los Barriles local.
Reed “don’t call me Tom Brady,” as Grom nicknamed him, was on top of his game with a front mobe and slim chance while Los Barriles’ top strapless rider, Hayden Fischer competed on his surfboard. Evan, who always has a consistent competition style landed a KGB and 315 to beat out Julien Kerner’s 313.
In the ladies semifinals, top competitors from last year’s 2015 LOW, Kris Kinn competed against Cynthia Brown. Kris landed a raley to blind to send herself to the finals while an unlucky Cynthia dropped her foil kite at the beginning of the heat but was able to quickly recover and continue her airstyle awesomeness. Continuing into the semifinal, newcomers Min Kim backrolled to blind to surface handlepass to reserve herself a spot in the finals while Vasilisa Zaytseva landed a raley to blind and a styley darkslide in the deep water offshore.
The top six men were narrowed down for two heats of three competitors for the men’s semifinals. In the first heat between Drew Christiansen, Anthar Racca and Dylan Murphy, Drew landed a high and stylish front to blind with a grab. Anthar was confident and comfortable landing a 315, 317, his signature double heart attack and a slim 7. It was clear that Anthar had taken first for this heat but Drew and Dylan battled it out for second, Dylan landing a 313 and Drew scoring with a high and stylish front to blind with a grab.
Continuing into the second heat of round three was Rocky Chatwell, Reed Brady and Evan Netsch. In a close contest, Rocky started out with a slim 5 but it was Reed Brady who wowed the crowed with his most advanced trick, a double heart attack. Evan unleashed a variety of tricks including a slim 5, a KGB and a toeside slim chance that Grom appropriately named a tootsie roll.
The judging format for the finals counted the rider’s best top three tricks. For the ladies, Vasilisa battled Cynthia Brown for third place while Kris Kinn and Min Kim went head-to-head for first.
Reed Brady faced off Dylan Murphy in the battle between fifth and sixth place, Evan took on Drew for the coveted third place podium and to round out the day, the week’s leading riders, Anthar Racca and Rocky Chatwell fought for first.
Anthar started the final seven minute heat with a single heart attack but struggled to land his usual crowd pleasing tricks during the rest of the heat while Rocky put on a show and perfectly executed slim chance kiteloop. With an entertaining afternoon on the books, the final standings will be announced tomorrow night at the awards ceremony.
Tomorrow’s action will see the big air finals, boardercross and of course, the course racing finals.
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