Report in from Eveline:


On Saturday, the Sydney racing season officially started! Sixteen more or less experienced – but all extremely keen – racers registered for the first official Kitesurfing race of the season. Weapon of choice was up to them - so we ended up with strapless surfboards, strapped surfboards, raceboards and twintips of every size combined with whatever kite seemed to suit the conditions.

Just after 3pm the buoys were in place, registrations taken and the much anticipated start of the first race was upon us. The sight of the guys waiting on the beach stopped quite a few spectators in their tracks. After that the game was on! Between 3pm and 6pm the competitors battled it out in four consecutive races. Big ups to the kiters for keeping the starts tangle free and friendly! And also for the amount of competitiveness between the riders – it was impressive! Whether competing for first and second place or 10th and 11th place – the enthusiasm was everywhere!!
 
The overall ranking of the day:
 
Name    RANK    POINTS
 
Richie Stenning    1    6
Marine Sudre    2    8
Ric Black    3    14
Kate Field    4    20
Ivo den Uijl    5    22
Felipe Rezende    5    22
Iain Field    7    35
Tie Penatti    7    35
Mark Kamminga    9    37
Chris Argent    10    38
James Grundy    10    38
Franck Sudre    12    45
Jonathan Steel    13    51
Alex Harrison-Smith    14    53
Jordan Girdis    14    53
Justin Elliott    16    61
 
How do we get to these rankings and the overall ranking in the end?

Basically add up the ranking you finish on every race. So if you finish 5th, 7th, 6th and 8th in the four races during the day, your point total of the day will be 26. If you don’t finish a race, you’ll automatically end last.

Because we know kiters are busy people, we understand you might not be able to make it to all race-days.

Therefore, we will only count your best four days in the end results after 6 days of racing. So if you haven’t joined yet, please don’t hesitate to come along next time!
 
Important to note as well:
- Our first attempt two weeks ago was cancelled due to no wind and we’ll make sure we add another date to the end of the season as compensation.
- The next race will be held on 19th November and the next after that is on the 3rd of December – we hope to see all of you there again. We’ll order the same wind and sun again! The remaining proposed dates are January 14th 2012, Feb 4th and Feb 18th (final). If any dates result in a no wind cancellation the final will be 2 weeks after the 18th Feb.
- Please note that if you haven’t paid the $20 entry fee yesterday, please do so before the next race. We’ll have to exclude the non-payers from the next race.
- The same thing goes for AKSA membership. You need to be a member to join the race. For the people that weren’t when participating in the race, you need to join before the next race or you will be excluded from that one and all races until you join AKSA.
- At the moment we will not separate the twintips from the surf and raceboards. This is partly because not all riders were agreeing on the matter and partly because some competitors tended to swap between different style boards yesterday. We’ve noted which board was ridden each race however so if we come to another agreement later on, we can always pull them apart again.
 
Next rance is on the 19th - check the Seabreeze News/Events & forums for updates.