Back to Jupiter for the running of the Kiteboarding Invasion for the sixth consecutive year.
The beach on Saturday (
Click photo for full sized image)
Jon Modica riding easy for Cabrinha and NPX. Being a Jupiter native, riding in the waves here comes naturally to Jon. Got a ton of great shots of him in action.
Damien Leroy also riding for Cabrinha passes while inverted. Damien came from Olympic snowboarding not so many years ago. He was ranked in the top ten worldwide, it shows.
CJ and Lia scope out the action
Ray Leroy loops one. Ray has taken over operation of Seven Sports shops in Islamorada. They have a big kiting event coming up in March in Islamorada. Stay tuned for more on that.
Cameron Dietrich riding for Cabrinha ripping very well and in all the way from Maui
Billy Parker, real strong kiter from Tampa, riding for Flexifoil
Excellent conditions!
Melissa Gil riding for Cabrinha looking very good in the waves
Andy Hurdman riding for Liquid Force has been a very strong rider in Florida for many years. Went off north for a while but he's here again, welcome back!
Helga rips, looking fine. She works with Neil at Tiki Beach, Lauderdale kite launch and standup paddleboard center.
Damo flys off into the ether
David DeBerard rips along, comes easy to him living in Ft. Pierce. Great waves up that way. Dave along with Gebi and others helped to rescue three kids from a floundering powerboat in high seas off the Inlet there. They all used kites to bring the kids to shore, impressive. There is an illustrated account of the rescue at:
http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=1448
Hamish riding for Slingshot and Tiki Beach has been a real strong strapless kiter for years. In fact, he crossed to Bimini from Ft. Lauderdale on a surfboard in everything from gnat sneeze breeze to 20 kts, in calm to 7 ft. seas. Wonder what kind of board glue he uses?
Lots of regulars at these events including a bunch of these kitegirls. Staying warm on the beach between hitting sessions out in the waves.
Great conditions for hitting it
Jessica from Ontario riding fine
Ray drops into one
Jon drops in
We owe Neil a lot for announcing and helping to organize lots of kiting events over many years across the country. He even did a stint in La Ventana within the month. Thanks Neil!
Nick flies his brand "X" kite, now famous through lots of events
Cameron hunting tubes
Damo just glides along
You can get going really fast with all the surface area of these boards as Rick demonstrates. He did well in the wave riding, coming in third against some major talent.
Lots of us were looking forward to seeing Billy nail some huge moves. I can recall his casually riding along in the leading group heading down to Lauderdale from Jupiter and boosting these monster jumps, just playing, on a 60 mile race. There's talent,. Anyway, it looks like he boosted a real high handle pass off the water, he dropped his bar, the resulting line impact of his fall broke something on his leash. He was dropped to the water, DQ'd unfortunately, and his kite went sailing off downwind. It shows up in the next sequence.
Matt a major force in the Collegiate Kiteboarding Association (CKA) heads out
Nap time? Great form!
Collision? Not this time
Damo boosts up as Andy rides in
Jan gets ready to go
Making it look so easy, it's not!
Big thanks to Jeremy of Jupiter Kiteboarding for making this great event a reality, six times and counting!
Daniel charging real hard and looking good
Great balance there, as I recall Damo hammered in but good from a handle pass but nailed the landing
There goes Tracy, ready to ride!
Nick shreds
Nicci catches up with Stacey. Stacey is a mover and shaker at Best Kiteboarding and the first woman to kite across the Straits to the Bahmas
Garry Menk and Kent Russell show off a prize they donated for the best wave riding of the morning. The guys have joined together to take over distribution of Jimmy Lewis Boards to all of North and South America.
Dan Floyd of South Carolina showing off some of the excellent techniques that won the Jimmy Lewis board for him. Dan has a kite and water sports shop in SC.
Have to say most of the expressions in the wipeout shots are pretty cool and collected.
Nick races Hamish?
I think this is Paul Porter with an unexpected dismount. Paul shoots excellent images from all over including of the last 60 mile race from Jupiter to Ft. Lauderdale.
Strapless riding has been around for a long time, since the start really. Still, you have to think it is coming into its own these days
On Sunday lots of standup paddle surfing
So, that's a short look at Saturday. More to come ...
Copyright Rick Iossi 2009