I have just returned from Sherman Island in California where we had a very successful foilboard racing event. Johnny Heineken won (as usual) with Joey Pasquali and Adam Withington just behind. . There were 17 of us competing and we had a great time with 9 races over two days.
There were also raceboard races on the same days. Although we did not race with the raceboards the winning times were recorded and the foilboards were 1 to 3 minutes faster than the raceboards every day (races were typically 15 minutes.)
Virtually all of the foils were Spotz or Taaroa. There was an assortment of boards with Aguera being the most common.
Many thanks for sharing!
Appreciate if you answer to following:
1. What was an average gap between JH and the second?
2. If JH needed 15 minutes to complete the race, how many minutes (on average) did need a guy average no.5 and no.15?
3. How many riders perform tacking and jibing in air and without falling?
4. Did any foiler compete with a Formula Kite series? I saw only Erica on the both result lists.
5. What place did you take? What foil did you compete?
6. Did anybody recorded a gpx file from the racing?
7. How many Swords did you see? It looks in top 10 majority were the Spotz.
8. Did you ask JH why he had not competed on the Formula Kite?
9. What was the entry fee? In Europe organisers lost a plot and are killing the sport before it learnt to walk.
I think Johnny was often 10 or 20 seconds in front of the second place racer.
The back of the pack of racers were finishing in over 25 minutes. It was a two lap race and the leaders often overtook some slower racers who were still on the first lap.
More than half the competitors did foiling tacks and jibes. Those of us who couldn't were at a very big disadvantage.
It was not possible to compete in both every foilboard race and every raceboard race because they started some raceboard races only a couple of minutes after the first foilboard finished (there were still foilboarders racing on the course).
I competed but I am near the bottom of the results (I cannot do foiling tacks and jibes yet). I ride a Spotz foil with an Aguera board and use Ozone Edge kites (usually 7m or 9m).
The Spotz were the most popular foil. There were maybe 3 or 4 Swords.
Chris - many thanks! A lot of useful info
Glad to read that the entry was 90 bucks.
Yankees keep some common sense comparing with Europeans.
The present entry for the French Open is mad (300€)
Who is going to compete there?! That was an initial entry of 100€ but paid till 31st April. Sad thing is that NoR was issued couple days ago. That wasn't friendly move towards foreign competitors
I planned to compete in the Golden Cup but sorry guys who can afford to pay 180€ entry fee 4 times a year plus all costs of flights and accommodation? It supposed to be fun.
Anyway - I wish to take a part in any foil comp. So far only boring kiteracing.
ozchrisb wrote:Some great footage here. Go to ~40 minutes for some great slo mo tacks and gybes.
At any given moment, somewhere in the world a little girl is singing Let It Go.
Thanks for this up close footage, and the slo-mo is great for seeing how they execute the tack and gybe. I still don't know how they do it, it's like ballet.
Crazy to think that less than a year ago the only foiler I saw at Sherman was Lodwik.