US Wind and Water Open in Corpus Christi

carolb · Mon May 19, 08 4:55 am **US Wind and Water Open in Corpus Christi**

San Francisco Style Course Racing dominated this event. 9 races were held. On day 1 of the freestyle, the wind was light so a lot of good freestyle people didn't have enough power to get off the beach. Day 2 of freestyle nuked in the morning and resulted in a good comp and tricks but ungortunately most of the heavy guys didn't advance from Day 1. There were lots of lessons learned on how to run an event. While the organization was lacking, the event was great because of all the awesome competitiors. Cabrinha's Clarissa Hemple won big in the women's including the bikinni contest. Some of the results are posted on the event page: http://www.uswindandwateropen.com/

Kiteforum has 2 good videos. There is really awsesome slow motion of Slingshot's Alex Bloechinger who kited the Gorge last summer in day 1 video.
Day 1 http://www.kiteforum.tv/video/US_Wind_and_Water_Open_Day_1.html
Day 2 http://www.kiteforum.tv/video/US_Wind_and_Water_Open_Day_2.html

I suggest downloading as they are big and slow files, but worth the time. There is a download link on the page.

carolb · Mon May 19, 08 5:19 am **Some pics**

Here's some pics

carolb · Mon May 19, 08 5:46 am **A few freestyle pics**

A few freestyle pics

Moto · Since 03 Sep 2006 2698 Posts Still a gojo pimp! Moto Mouth

Sweet pics!!

pkh · Since 27 Feb 2005 6549 Posts Couve / Hood Honored Founder

Thanks for the update and the pics Carol!

boardrider · Since 05 Apr 2006 1034 Posts Ventura, CA XTreme Poster

Wow - did Shannon land in Water on that one Shocked

- must just be the camera angle Confused

carolb · Mon May 19, 08 7:42 am **Shanimal**

[quote="boardrider"]Wow - did Shannon land in Water on that one Shocked

- must just be the camera angle Confused

[/quote]

Tony said Shannon landed in the water and then hit the sand so kinda a combo. Laughing

forrest · Mon May 19, 08 7:56 am

Poor Corpus Christi. There are like 6 spectators and 12 kites.

carolb · Mon May 19, 08 8:25 am **CC spectators**

Actually, they had a lot of spectators on the weekend, but after a kite got out of control and kite looped through the crowed narrowly missing a few small kids and catching a mom in the face with the lines, they got the spectators back. There is a huge wall they hung out on behind the beach. All of the tents, they put across the street where they held the bikinni contest so that drew people away from the beach too. They had about 300 runners in the running race and about 25 windsurfers. Like I said, planning and organization was lacking. They held the course races so far away from shore that we looked like dots and wasn't anything to watch except the freestylers that were going off practicing because there was good wind and they weren't racing. Then when it was their turn to compete on the next day, there wasn't any wind and they got eliminated. Without a PA system, the spectators didn't know what was going on anyways. Lots of lessons learned.

carolb · Mon May 19, 08 9:13 am **Conditions**

Here's a few more pics. It is on-shore winds in nasty chop. Add barnacle filled breakers with end poles to catch kites, no rules (initially) of where to throw tricks and advertise $5,000 in prise $. They normally don't kite where this comp is held but it is better for the spectators and the city's backdrop. There is a lot of beach to spreadout on so it doesn't looked as full as it was.

KidCorporate · Since 10 Jul 2007 563 Posts Addicted

Yikes, that sounds like a bit of a shit show. There a re few things worse than poorly executed events, lord know I've been to a few for various things over the years.

grom · Since 07 Aug 2006 175 Posts Bolstad Clan

A little more about the show. From my point of view this was the worst event I've ever seen. This event was run by choads that knew nothing about kiteboarding. At one point there was a lady with a hand held microphone yelling at spectators for being in the "danger zone." This "danger zone" was 20 feet upwind of the closest kiter. Lame. The guy running the event was also a competitor and later a cheater. He even went so far as to award himself the Pete Norby or sportsmanship award. Sam Medisky felt his wraith more then anyone else when he was told he won 5th in the racing, a place that makes sense to me, so he went back to his hotel room to get his camera to give some meaning to his trip. When the awards were given the cheater somehow changed the results, giving himself 6th place. Of course they only gave 6 places. He did not earn this place I promise you this. Strange. For the ladies they gave 2 spots. It sucked. Outside of that guy who doesn't even deserve to have his name posted here, the event was boring. No activities. NONE. Mom and Tony through the only party when they spent $100 on beer, chips, and salsa and we tried to party at the pool. We were kicked out. Unless there are some serious changes and the event falls back into the hands of kiters, don't go.

carolb · Mon May 19, 08 11:08 am **comp**

The level of competition and the spirit of all of the competitors made this an awesome event but there were lessons learned from the organization side. Its the little things that makes a difference: the parties, swag, communication, etc.

Mainly, it takes a lot of work to produce a great comp and some of the people doing it in the past can't keep doing it for free. Mega hats off to the organizers like Tonia, Garrett, Rene Hanks, and Marina for all the hours they have donated and put into past events. However, the # of hours involved to do a comp justice either has to be spread out to a lot of people willing to donate the time like all the awesome volunteers for KB4C and BOG or you need to hire the professionals to run it. Corpus just doesn't have a big enough kiting community to spread it out to enough volunteers and the ones that did volunteer were spread too thin and didn't have the expertise in every event. There is alot that goes into a great comp. It also takes a lot from the sponsors too and they have a limitied budget also.

The company that took over this event is a for-profit organizations. The sponsors also need a return on their investment. And the kiters are often trying to cover airfare and accomodation costs. Rather than dissing this or any event, we need to be glad that it was held as we need more comps for our young riders and figure out how to get funding from other options and it back on track as a good kiting event.

Tony wrote up a good lessons learned and maybe I can get him to post them as all of our comps would benefit.