Farley Tops in Final Tune Up

[experienced1]

Farley Tops in Final Tune Up

In the final Cabrinha Race Series prior to the World’s, 34 racers went head to head in a very cold and windy night of racing at Crissy Field; but isn’t that the usual, you might ask. Well, yes, but tonight was blowing 11-22 at the start of the first race, then 17-26 at the second and 18-28 by the third; and this was at Anita…it was 30+ outside. Oh yeah, did I mention that most riders chose 11-13m kites and only two came in to change to smaller ones. You couldn’t tell how windy it was on the outside as there was no sun…just fog everywhere. And just to make it a bit more challenging, there was about a 4 knot ebb, making the downwind leg a bit more challenging.


Sean Farley (North) made everything look easy as he was first in all three races and first overall with 3 pts (1,1,1). Jeff Kafka (Cabrinha) finished second overall with 10 pts (2,5,3), while Shawn Richman (RRD) finished third overall with 13 pts (4,3,6). Chip Wasson (Ozone) was in second overall going into the third race (3,2) but was over early and did not heed the over early hail from the race boat and was DSQ’d.


In the first race, it was Farley, Kafka, Richman and Wasson at the windward and leeward marks, with Chip passing Shawn on the upwind leg to the finish. Farley bested Kafka at the finish by 22 seconds. Between the first and second race, Farley came to the beach and swapped his 11m for his 10m


In the second race, it was the same four at the windward and leeward marks with the addition of Mike Gebhardt (Ozone) who beat out Kafka in the closest battle of the evening for fourth. Farley beat Wasson at the finish by 10 secs.


In the third race, Chip and Gebharbt were over early, Chip was DSQ’d while Gebhart restarted and managed to capture a seventh. At the windward and leeward marks its was the usual suspects; Farley, and Kafka, and now joined by Johnny Heineken (Naish), Rob Kindt (Ozone) and John Gomes (Cabrinha). Actually it was Farley, with his largest lead of the night and then the rest. Note that Heineken came to the beach after race two and swapped out his 12m for a 9m. Farley’s margin of victory was 43 seconds (even with a fall on the downwind leg) over Heineken, then Kafka, Kindt and Gomes.


After a cold and probably one of the more grueling nights of racing, the riders found refuge at the yacht club with hot showers, food, some drinks and a free raffle by Cabrinha and Ozone Travel.

The Cabrinha Race Series is sponsored by Cabrinha, Ozone Travel; “Because all you want to do is ride,” and Adventure Sports Miami; “In stock now, Never miss another session,” and hosted by the St. Francis Yacht club


Note on the World’s: Farley,’09 USA National Champ and ’08 runner up and Gebhardt, ’08 USA National masters champ and windsurfing Olympic medalist, and Shawn Richman (RRD) ’08 USA National 7th, remain in town to train. They were joined by Damien Leroy (Cabrinha), ’08 USA National Champ and ’09 runner up, and Melissa Gil (Cabrinha) ’09 world speed champ and USA National runner up. While they are also joined by locals Chip Wasson, ’09 5th place USA Nationals and current Cabrinha Race Series leader, Jeff Kafka ’07 USA Nationals runner up and Cabrinha Race Series Champ, Sandy Parker (RRD) ’09 USA National Champ, others like Jesse Richman (Cabrinha) ’08 KPWT Champion and ’09 USA National 3rd place is tuning up by a first place finish (elimination round) in the KPWT wave masters in Portugal, Bruno Sroka (Cabrinha), ’07 world champ and ’09 European champ is dominating the racing at the PKRA Germany event as he has in all 5 previous world cup events in ’09, Steph Bridges (North) who leads in the PKRA Germany event followed by Kristin Boese (Best) ’09 USA Nationals 3rd . And I’m sure even others like Paolo Rista (Cabrinha), Sky Solbach (North), Jon Modica (Cabrinha), Nils Stolzlechner (Cabrinha), Adam Vance (Naish), Ken Winner (North), Jeff Headington (Ozone) and many others that I know and don’t know, are putting the final touches on their boards and their skills to make this a very exciting and very competitive first ever World Championship….come out and join in the excitement August 4-8!