Comment from the winner of the 2013 L2L from Marvin B...
Quoted from Seabreeze.com.au
http://www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Kite ... -Leighton/
"hey guys,
thanks for the kind words and especially a massive thanks to Tim for organising another epic event and looking after myself, Rikki, Flo and Alejandro like he did!
It was mostly his effort that guys like Alex C, Rikki and Flo came to Perth to race and they will all come back 100%.
After travelling the whole world for racing and freestyle the L2L is still the funnest and most challenging comp I have done especially with 3 major racing regattas in my legs the 4 weeks prior to this race.
The days before the L2L must have been nerve wrecking for Tim and his team as forecast was very unpredictable.
On the day it looked ok. On the ferry over to Rotto it looked liked no seaweed at all and we were all relived hoping for a fast race without crashing.
We had 13-15knts on Rotto and us guys on directional pumped 13m kites, the foilers 10/11m and the twintips 17-19m.
I had my 13m Ozone edge on short lines rigged and my slalom with 32cm fins as it was light and I didn't want to take smaller fins.
Florian and Alejandro did same. 10mins prior to start I went out and there was seaweed everywhere. I crashed few times before start.
At the start lined up with the foilers as I expected them to have a good start. However, there was so much weed I crashed 3 times in the first 2km and I just cldnt get going. I saw the field getting away from me 500m ahead.
I got frustrated trying to jump of the weed on my fins, trying to slalom around it. Then the water cleared up and I started to find my groove. I caught up to the group passing Jordan, Alex, Olly and Torvar.
My backleg was already cramping up so I took it easy once I had a good lead on this group. One more big crash next to boats in heavy seaweed line. I tried to get going but too much weed on fins so I had to stop swing board around and take weed of fins.
I started following the lead boat which was a mistakes since it did not go in straight line. A few others behind me told me I was going zigzag.. I also tried to go in the 'smooth' water behind boat but felt like my fins didn't grip in the wash so I went out of it. When I checked my watch and I saw the beach coming closer with 19mins on my watch I went from cruising mode to full speed and put the hammer down.
Stoked to win and set a new record but I reckon with less weed, more wind (lit on 10m or 7m kites) and fresh legs im sure we will go faster next year foiling or on slaloms
gear is used: Ozone Edge 13m 21m lines
Temavento Sl 63 Slalom
Tectonics T43 32cm
weight 80kg
Congrats to all racers that did the race"