Canadian Champs 2011 - Day 3 - Course Racing

[ktouhey]

DAY 3 – Sun, Aug 7th, 2011 – Course Racing

PHOTO GALLERY: https://picasaweb.google.com/kyleTouhey ... directlink

The Race Committee boat took to the water this morning for a 11:30, followed by a fleet of kiters all rigged and ready for what looked to be steady 9m to 11m winds, and a forecast for much better winds than Saturday. Everyone was ready for the first start, but unfortunately both the Start Pin and RC Boat’s ground tackle had come unstuck and were drifting. The Squamish bay is actually a fjord with underwater cliffs that drop off extremely fast, resulting in waters more than 400ft deep, making it difficult at times to set secure anchors. The RC made a brief attempt to start a race with a very skewed start line, but instead thought better of it and put up the AP flag, sending the competitors ashore and giving themselves time to fix the problem. They worked hard to do so quickly, and competitors were back on the water in good time.

The first race of the day eventually went off without a hitch. The racing was somewhat of a repeat of the previous day, with all of the same battles taking place at all points of the fleet. Unfortunately though, Bryan Lake got his kite in to a collision with another rider off the start and was left swimming. He did manage to get it back in the air after some time, and rode a blisteringly fast race to make up ground. He did a very good job of it, but didn’t have enough time on the course to make it back to the top 3. Meanwhile, Adam Vance seized the opportunity and placed himself across the line in 3rd – his best result of the event, behind Johnny and Adam K. in 1st and 2nd respectively. Behind him, Alex Aguera also sailed a great race and posted his best result of the regatta with a 4th. Lake couldn’t catch him and came in behind Alex, but did manage to pull in ahead of Rista and Rynne, who were once again locked in to a tight battle for 6th. Touhey and Ernst were in a close battle as well, with Touhey taking it at the last mark rounding. Erika Heineken came in just shortly behind them with impressive speed.

The second race started to see an increase in the windstrength. The start went off as usual, but just as the first pack had rounded the windward mark, a cloud come in overhead and caused incredible lulls just at the windward mark. Many riders were forced to throw in a few extra tacks to make it around, thus putting a bigger gap between the packs. Again, it was the same three riders at the top of the fleet, all riding very well. But it seemed like Bernie (Bryan Lake) was going extra fast today. Maybe the conditions suited him, or maybe he was extra hungry, but he pulled off a nice 2nd place finish ahead of Adam.

The remainder of the races for the day seemed to go very smoothly in nice stead powered 9m conditions, with quite steady winds. The was a bit of slightly changing conditions that really affected the downwind legs though. The top 3 competitors would often split up, going for what they each thought was a slightly more favored strategy for each downwind leg. The middle of the fleet got the opportunity to watch them and pick their own course depending on what worked for the top few guys. Throughout the day, there were the same sorts of close battles between the riders. The top finishes stayed in the same order for the rest of the day’s races: Johnny, Bryan, Adam K., Adam V..
Stefano Rista, Patrick Rynne, and Alex Aguera also had some close battles, but Rista got the best of the majority of them in the end. He seemed to be racing much faster, and even rounded a windward mark in 2nd place at one time.

Colin Ernst and Kyle Touhey were in VERY close battles, getting in to many Port-Starboard crossings within a board length of each other many times, all with Erika Heineken just slightly behind them and going impressively fast.

Mark Leng and Chris Brown (who had been changing back and forth between two boards for the event) each had many glory moments where they pulled up ahead in the fleet.

Everything was going very smoothly all day, with the exception of a three way tangle at the start of the second to last race between Erika Heineken, Kyle Touhey and Mark Leng that put the three of them out of the race. But they all were rescued and managed to get back out on the course for the final race of the day.

In the end, there was a lot of really great racing over the whole fleet, with some very tight finishes at times only a second apart. Two long days of hard charging definitely tired out most of the riders. The Canadians tried to be good hosts to the out of town racers, and everyone hopes that the event was enough of a success to entice all of the riders back next year.

Full Results: http://tinyurl.com/Squamish2011results

Podiums:

Men’s Open Overall:
1st $1300 Johnny Heineken (USA, Windy Devil, Ozone, Mikeslab, Tectonics)
2nd $800 Adam Koch (USA, Ozone, Mikeslab, Ristafins)
3rd $400 Bryan Lake (USA, Cabrinha, Mikeslab, TAC)
4th $200 Adam Vance (CAN, Ozone, Ristafins)
5th $100 Stefano Rista (CAN, O’neill, Ristafins)

Women’s Open Overall:
1st $250 Erika Heineken (USA, Windy Devil)
2nd $100 Alexis Aguera (USA, Aguera Boards)
3rd $50 Kalia Aguera (USA, Aguera Boards)

Canadian Championships Men:
1st Adam Vance (Ozone, Ristafins)
2nd Stefano Rista (O’neill, Ristafins)
3rd Colin Ernst (VKS, O’neill, Ristafins)

Canadian Championships Women:
1st Jessica Sickinger (Silent Sports, Transcend Apparel)

Thanks to all the riders!

Thanks to all the volunteers who made this possible: Colin & Melanie Ernst, Rainbow Monds, Don & Penny Campbell, Chris Glazier, Kyle Touhey, Jim Hegan, Danager, JM Tremblay, Alison Calder, JP, AJ.

Thanks to all the sponsors for making this event happen: Pacific Brewing, Squamish Windsports Society, Squamish Yacht Club, Naish, Airtime Boardsports, Northshore Ski & Board, Westcoast Kollective, Ozone, Ocean Rodeo, Dakine, O’Neill, Prolimit, Airush, North, and Ristafins.
We will see you all again in 2012!

PHOTO GALLERY: https://picasaweb.google.com/kyleTouhey ... directlink

[Al-Kite-A]

Kyle great write up. But to say that you need to change the last few lines.
"Tried" to be good hosts. What? I can speak for Johnny, Erika and I to say that you all where amazing hosts! We especially are great full to Colin & Melanie for putting the 3 of up in there place the whole time we where in Canada.