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Shredding in Paradise - Day One, Photos and Story

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RickI
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Shredding in Paradise - Day One, Photos and Story

Postby RickI » Wed Apr 02, 2003 5:43 pm

ISLAMORADA INVITATIONAL KITEBOARDING COMPETITION

MARCH 28 - 30. 2003


Take an island in the sunny, warm Florida Keys, add miles of shallow, calm water, throw in a cadre of stoked hard core shredders from all over sprinkle liberally with rum, fasten your seatbelt and just add wind ...
cause things are GOING TO GO OFF!!!

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Rum Runners Bar all decked out for primetime shredding and good times!

The second annual kiteboarding competition in Islamorada, FL, USA was an outstanding event full of fast fun times both on and off the water with great riders from all over. More at: phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=7272

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Hamish does us proud

Who showed up to ride?

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Pro Competitors Amateur Competitors


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Flying anyone?


It would be good to thank the folks that made this event possible, first to the riders that signed up of course and t:

Sevensports http://www.islamoradainvitational.com/

Ultra Nectar http://ultranectar.com/

Globeriderkites http://www.globeriderkites.com/

Slingshot http://sskiteboarding.com/thanks.html

Dakine http://www.dakine.com/frontend/home.asp

Naish http://naishkites.com/top.aspx

Fone http://www.f-one-usa.com/

Eye Candy Butique http://www.eyecandyboutique.com/

Islamorada Elevator 2elevators.com/show.php3?Which=1069

Hot Buttered Eyewear http://idiomeyewear.com/

and a huge thanks to Brad and Malea Lange of Sevensports, 1(877) Yes-2-Fly, and to ALL the volunteers. Without your hard efforts it wouldn't be possible for the rest of us to have a blast at events like this. If I missed anyone please let me know. THANKS!!!

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Brad Lange and his wife Malea at 2002 Kiteboard Masters


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Francisco boosts one

More about the actual riding that happened on Sunday with all that wind in the next article. For starters lets go to Saturday, a day of "wind waiting." Wonder what a bunch of hard core shredders will get up to while waiting for some good blow stuff in outer Margaritaville???!


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Well ... they could launch a new sport, Neil, Oliver, Kent and Co. are checking it out ...


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Neil is even being interviewed about this new sport by Pietro who came all the way from Italy to do the announcing for the competition. Pietro travels all over announcing at PKRA kiteboarding competitions and decided to slide down to the Keys to join in the fun.

SO WHAT IS THIS NEW SPORT?

Pietro calls it the NEIL SPORT!

Whaa?

Yes, the Neil Sport and in its original form it was almost the Neil MEMORIAL Sport. Snap Shackling in and towing HIGH set this episode apart in many critical ways. More about Neil's incredible, near terminal ride at:

phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1997

So what is it? You take a wave runner with a short ski tow rope, a kite boarder with a traction kite ...


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You launch the kite ...


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You start towing the rider up with the rider HANGING ON TO AND NOT CONNECTED TO THE SHORT SKI TOW ROPE ...


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Amuse the spectators ...


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Tow him up about 20 ft. or so ...


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Get that kite up there ...


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and ... he lets GO! The kite can really boost some lift at this point depending on how you handle it. What really counts ... at least at this event??? It's the "il fattore di scimmia" as Pietro would call it. Or for us English speakers the .... MONKEY FACTOR!!!


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John Holzhall gives it a try with a slingshot foil. Zack take it easy on the gas as the slingshot slingshots John off the waverunner!


Can you get hurt doing this, YES, broken lines, getting wrapped and jerked, torn kites. Does it help to keep under 30 ft. above the water, sure does to try to reduce the impact when things go wrong. It helps to be FAR away from land, buoys, day marks, boats, etc. You have no idea how far you might glide. Not real safe is it when you think about it. Boys will be boys and wind waiting can be a desperate time for shred heads and wind junkies! As they say on Romper Room, "don't try this at home kids."

What else to do .... hmmmm?


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You could make strange hand signals such as Toby here trying to communicate with some local Conchs ... Ah X-Shooter Boards, got it! http://www.x-shooter.com


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You could hang your new GlobeRider Kite up for all to checkout. Greg Kuklinski, late of NEXT kites and an FKA AC is putting his hot new kite out for his new venture, Globeriderkites!
http://www.globeriderkites.com/


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You could put out your latest hot line of riding ware as Lightwave Dave has done here. http://www.litewavedesigns.com/


or, you could go on the water ...


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Wakeboarding over a canoe aka slider. Ryan Riccitelli of Kiteboarding Mag. styles WITH A HELMET!


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Ryan slides again ...


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Kent rigging up with John Holzall of Maui as spotter and Zack the riding wonder from the Florida Panhandle at the wheel. John is the author of one of the very few books on kiteboarding (3 different books out in English?) that was recently released titled "Kiteboarding's Simple Plan!", http://www.kiteboardcenter.com/


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Kent Marinkovic has at it and glides over first try ever with a slider. Kent is the guy that brings Cabrinha and Bic gear to your door in North and South America through Adventure Sports, was one of the three guys to make it from Key West to Cuba with a kite and is also a former olympic windsurfer.


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and Andre of Antigua, the winner of the competition, shows off fine sliding style ...


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Zack and Ben, riders out of NW Florida, hang out wind waiting. You will see some nice shots of both of these good riders from Sunday's activities ...


So what else to do? You could go BAR cruising, that is sandbar cruising a time honored Islamorada tradition. That is by those that are able to remember having been there! It is a pair of bars that bracket the channel leading out from the south end of Holiday Isle into Hawks Channel. A little city pops up there full of stoked partiers most weekends as they stroll through the shallows from boat to boat.


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The gang's all here ...


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and then some ...


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Got mine! You got yours? ...


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People even fly in, got any OFF? These ultralights are getting close!


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Sunset in Paradise.

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Click on the following for a full sized image:
http://gallery.kiteforum.com/gallery/al ... 8_03_VR1_s


Tomorrow is another day and one with WIND!!! More to tell and a ton more action kiteboarding shots to come in future articles so stay tuned!!!

Copyright FKA, Inc. 2003
Last edited by RickI on Sat Apr 05, 2003 4:39 pm, edited 12 times in total.

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Postby Guest » Wed Apr 02, 2003 8:32 pm

cool any more riding shots?

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RickI
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Postby RickI » Wed Apr 02, 2003 9:00 pm

Not on Saturday, which this article covers. All the riding shots, about 1000 of them followed on Sunday. As this article says that is still coming so stay tuned. Believe it or not these writeups and image processing take some time to pull together.

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Postby Guest » Wed Apr 02, 2003 11:32 pm

Rick are you actually encouraging people to tow themselves up by a jetski!!!!!!

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RickI
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Postby RickI » Wed Apr 02, 2003 11:59 pm

Anonymous wrote:Rick are you actually encouraging people to tow themselves up by a jetski!!!!!!
People will do what they feel regardless of what I have to say about it.

Does:

"Can you get hurt doing this, YES, broken lines, getting wrapped and jerked, torn kites. Does it help to keep under 30 ft. above the water, sure does to try to reduce the impact when things go wrong. It helps to be FAR away from land, buoys, day marks, boats, etc. You have no idea how far you might glide. Not real safe is it when you think about it. Boys will be boys and wind waiting can be a desperate time for shred heads and wind junkies! As they say on Romper Room, "don't try this at home kids."

What else to do .... hmmmm? "

sound like a recommendation to go out and do this?

Life can be dangerous and is full of choices. It is good to have as much information and appreciate its significance before you make those decisions. The purpose of the narrative is to describe what went on.

The next posting is going to have a ton of shots of guys without leashes. Take it as given that I don't recommend doing that. These guys will come around or they will stack the deck against themselves in competitions where leashes ARE REQUIRED. They won't have enough experience in doing tricks with a leash to compete with guys that do it routinely. Times change, good to change with them or be left behind.

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Postby RickI » Thu Apr 03, 2003 3:34 pm

I just added some more images to the original posting and some important sponsor information. These are the guys that make events like this one possible and deserve a good plug. Still busy Photoshop'ing away on the action photos from Sunday. Checked out the digital video last night as well. There is a LOT of good riding to be seen. More to follow soon. In the meantime a couple of shots from Sunday's activity:

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Beto styling and flying hard!

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Should I move?

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Three to go ...

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Postby kitingkt » Thu Apr 03, 2003 9:31 pm

nice to see that hamish has a leash attached during his handle pass. good to see pros promoting safety.

kt

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Postby RickI » Thu Apr 03, 2003 9:42 pm

Yes, there is a rumor going around that Hamish, Neal and a couple of other SE FLorida riders will be doing a kiteboarding demo in before a few million spectators at a prominent upcoming beachside event. All the riders WILL BE USING LEASHES during the demo. So, with efforts like this and in the European competions in which leashes are required and with them starting to appear more in the media people should start to get onboard. Taking care of access is important as this sport is too good to give up.

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Postby Guest » Sat Apr 05, 2003 1:14 am

I heard the entrance fee was like eighty bucks, no 86 w/ tax!!! The event didn't even supply water or any other rider support with the outragious entrance fee. They did have a annoying DJ my friend said though. I for one am damn glad I didn't wast my time with such a piss poor event. It is a shame because the keys have some of the best riding in fl. Hopefully someone with a little know how can put on a kiteboard event in the state of florida we sure as hell have good enough riders to make it epic. Oh, I also heard brad competed in the event too! Is that such a good idea?

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Postby RickI » Sat Apr 05, 2003 1:33 am

From a spectors perspective, uneven Florida wind and all, IT WAS AN EPIC EVENT! Brad did a great job as always, he didn't win the competition so I wouldn't sweat that detail too much. You may recall that his event, has been the only competition this year in Florida so cut the guy some slack.

He worked hard and delivered a great experience for riders and spectators. Too bad you didn't make it, even at $86. I think it would have been worth a unique experience. Where do you think the prize money came from and the funds to pull the rest of the thing together? I don't think he is going to retire to Switzerland on the proceeds do you? Looking forward to next time already.

Rick Iossi


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