Top Windsurfers said to take up Kiteboarding for Rio 2016

[maddy]

I have an idea what should have been dropped from the olympics instead of windsurfing...
http://gawker.com/francis-higgins/

[kitewindunite]

That's a riot!

They don't need to drop any class from the Olympics - they just need to hire this guy to do all the live commentary! He'll make everything worth watching

[ronnie]

Tips for Rio - A windsurfer example of describing how your course race went.

Windsurf course racing world championships have just started. In his half of the draw this guy finished 2, 1, 1, 1, in the first 4 races.

Despite sailing like this

[MikeBirt]

Tips for Rio - A windsurfer example of describing how your course race went.

Windsurf course racing world championships have just started. In his half of the draw this guy finished 2, 1, 1, 1, in the first 4 races.

Despite sailing like this

ha ha
that's funny - these are the best races, when you don't really care too much about winning.. I envy him, looks like he had a right laugh! A few really good guys I know, including one of the top formula guys Ross Williams I met again recently have the genius with a lightness of character like this that makes them very quick and resilient. Fun guys to race with.

Formula will be much closer to kite racing than anything else. Their tech and rider ability are much closer than olympic (which has no tech!).

[ronnie]

The first United Kingdom RYA Olympic Ranking Event for the 2016 Olympics has taken place.

The winner of the kite course racing event was 19 year old Tom Squires, who switched from the Olympic RSX windsurfing class and started kiting less than 5 months ago.

http://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/news/P ... anker.aspx

[kitewindunite]

In front of Bridge, Bridge and Harvey... ouch! No way he's just picked up kiting.

[ronnie]

In front of Bridge, Bridge and Harvey... ouch! No way he's just picked up kiting.

What I have read reported is that he actually started kiting in June, so if that's correct he took less than 4 months to get to that level.

A bunch of young RSX sailors all started kiting together this summer AFAIK and he seems to be the exceptional one.

I think quite a few RSX windsurfers are awaiting the result of the appeal in November to see if RSX is definately out of the Olympics. This result suggests they will have enough time before Rio to reach their full potential as a kite racer (at least for Olympic conditions) if they start after November.

[Tone]

In front of Bridge, Bridge and Harvey... ouch! No way he's just picked up kiting.

Lee Harvey cheated and ended up 3rd.... Using un-registered kites for the event.

Tom seems to be exceptionally talented!

[wdric]

In front of Bridge, Bridge and Harvey... ouch! No way he's just picked up kiting.

Lee Harvey cheated and ended up 3rd.... Using un-registered kites for the event.

Tom seems to be exceptionally talented!

What sort of kites was he on that aren't registered ?
Or was it just that he used a kite that he didn't register for the event?

[Tiago1973]

around here kids who are into salling are breed to compete - they are either training, resting or competing.

from what i see kite-board is really into different mood, even the local "pros" kite to have fun, a chat with friends, a beer in the end

So yeaah. If those young folks from salling bring their training ethos and competitive mentality things will be different