2009 Ocean Rodeo Rise rocks the race course!
I'm really stoked to announce that the 09 Rise has already proven itself to be a great race kite. Following Ocean Rodeo's domination at Nitinat Windfest, San Francisco team riders Stefaans Viljoen and myself had the opportunity to put kite to the test again at Cabrinha's Race Series on Thursday night. The wind was almost non-existant at the launch making it extremely challenging just to get to the start line. In my estimation, close to half the fleet never made it out!
The channel presented ideal conditions though to show what works best, and allowed for tactics to come into play. 15-20 knots, much stronger on some parts of the course than others, and a solid ebb tide meant that the wrong choice could either really help or harm you.
The usual suspects owned the top four positions (I'll leave the play by play and the posting of the official results to Steve from Cabrinha), but I managed to pull off 6th place overall after four heats - and this after dogging it out at the back of the pack in my first couple of races! Stefaans nailed a 7th place in heat one, but took himself and fellow Crissy regular Marcello Segura out for the night when they tangled in heat two.
Both of us were riding an 09 Rise and a Windydevil custom race board. The 09 kite has even more range, more depower and and goes upwind even better than the 08! In addition, more top end and range is accessed through a much shorter amount of throw at the bar, making it easier to maximize and utilize the full performance capabilities of the kite.
Thanks again to Steve Gunn, Cabrinha, Ozone Travel, Adventure Sports Miami and the St. Francis Yacht club for doing such a fantastic job!
Cheers,
Evan
