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Old 03-03-2010, 07:53 PM
kent kent is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2004
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Wow! Another tough day. We got 3 races in a variety of conditions. There clearly seems to be two schools during the race. We have the pointers and the footers. Damo, Adam, an myself are clearly going very high upwind, while Farley, Bruno, and Gebi are going lower but fast. It seems as though the best boards upwind, are a bit slower off the wind. We will learn more over the next few days.

Day 2.

Race #1. Conditions were a bit light as the thermal wind increase. riders really have to take care to insure that they don't go too big in the early race as we run 2 races back to back and getting back to the beach and out to the course can be a challenge.

The Cabrinha guys pretty much opted for 13's on the first race. It was full power on these kites as the breeze built during the race. Course A was run which is a windward, leeward, windward, with a leeward finish. The racing was very tight at the top of the fleet. Damo rounded top 3 along with Adam, Farley, and Bruno. In the end, Adam, Bruno, and Farley took the top 3 spots followed closely by Damo. I got an 8th which was better than my outing yesterday when i had to take a penalty.

Race#2: As the breeze picked up, most racers headed to the beach to grab smaller kites. For the Cab guys this meant 11's. Bruno went long lines on the 11, while Damo and myself took near production setups.

Farley ran away with this one as he footed into a large header off the beach on the second upwind. He seemed to have found some speed today. Adam held strong in second, while Bruno edged Damo out on the line. Gebi had a good one with a 5th, and I ended 8th again.

After the second race we hit the beach for some food and water during a short 25 minute break.

Minutes before the 15 minute warning, I was thinking 9 meter but thankfully I opted for the 11 at the last minute. Bruno took the same kite as me while Adam and Damo downsized a bit with Damo taking a 9.

The building clouds led me to believe that the thermal would die soon, and i was clearly right on this. Riding to the start line I was happy for my choice as the wind came down a few notches.

I got a great start and held my lane, while clearly Damo was struggling on his smaller kite. Farley rounded 1st followed by a bunch of us in a row including Julian, Bruno, Adam, Heiniken, Gebi and myself. There was a bit of a tussle at the top mark with Julian tacked to a starboard tack lay line and Heiniken short tacked him but failed to make it. Heiniken and Gebi floundered at the top while Farley, Julien, Bruno, Adam, and myself blasted down wind. With the lighter winds, managed to reel in Adam and make up good ground on Bruno. Around the bottom was Farley, Julien, Bruno, and myself. Upwind was close for 2-4, but Farley stretched this one out taking an easy first followed by Julien, Bruno, and myself.

In the end, Heiniken teamed up with Gebi to toss out the Frenchy, Julien. Julien was forced to take a penalty that was pretty suspect. Had he spoken more fluent English, I'm sure that he would have brought this one to the protest room, but that's racing. Know the rules and use them. His 2nd quickly turned into a 4th

After today the results are as follows for the top 12. Things will change quick after race 7 whereby we get our first through out.

Name Country 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total
1 Sean Farley MEX 9 3 3 3 1 1 15
2 Adam Koch USA 2 7 1 1 2 8 21
3 Bruno Sroka FRA 5 1 9 2 3 3 23
4 Damien LeRoy USA 1 10 2 4 4 9 30
5 John Heineken USA 7 2 4 7 6 5 31
6 Julien Kerneur FRA 4 5 6 5 7 4 31
7 Michael Gebhart USA 3 4 8 6 5 7 33
8 Kent Marinkovic USA 11 11 5 8 8 4 47
9 Cameron Biehl USA 10 8 11 10 9 DNF 65
10 Chip Wasson USA 9 6 DNF 9 DNF 10 68
11 Andrew Koch USA 15 12 7 DNF 15 DNF 83
12 Donald Parker USA 14 15 DNF DNF 12 DNF 92


Thursday will play host to a long distance race that will not count for the overall world cup points. There will however be big prize money up for grabs. I'm sure that a few of the top guys will not participate as they want to save their legs for the main event. I'll keep you posted.
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