BayAreaKiteboarding.com

Some shots I took Friday and Sat.

http://www.flickr.com/gp/87847811@N00/K5FEf4

Also some at:

http://joshanon.com/windjamDay1/

enjoy!

Even more:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jonorb/BigAirWindJamChrissy
[yes, apparently I'm OV's personal photographer ;)]

Where is the hang time video?!!! Gabe, post a low-res teaser -- it must have sold to ESPN already, we wanna see!

Listening to the podcast I expected the jump / ramp to be like hitting a 30' face... looks more like 6'

Hope it was a good time. I would like to know overall impressions of the event.

So where's the pic's? I was hoping to see pic's of riders going 60 feet and throwing loops.

The ramp was about 6 feet high, but there wasn't enough water on it that anyone even tried to jump off. A few people jumped OVER it.

I assume everyone has seen Spinal Tap? Remember the Stonehenge scene? BAWJ was basically the kiting version of that.

Chrissy field may be a good place for kite racing, but it's not a great place for a freestyle comp. At least not right in front of the beach.

So someone did a 22 second hand time in that crappy wind in front of the beach -- kinda a fluke but they did it...

a glass half full response to question on the event....

I thought it was a great event from a spectator and recreational kiter perspective. I was there W/Th/Fri/Sat and kited two of the days and watched the others. Fluky weather and conditions but still I'd say it was a success. I imagine it was frustrating for some of the competitors, but I was stoked.

Thanks to the people who put this on, the St Francis Yacht Club for letting ragtag kiters hang out w/out putting on blue blazers, the SFFD guy on a jet ski who rescued me Friday night when it died (wish they were there every day), and especially Chip Wasson for bringing a great spirit to a great sport in a great place.

Yes, good event and I think it's going to be way bigger next year if word on the 22-second jump gets around and we see some video.

I was there for a couple of hours today and actually went out chasing container-ship wakes for a while (for the first time ever at Crissy) when the sun came out. Total frigging mess if you ask me . . . . it was hilarious (in a tragic sort of way) to see the competitors running out from the beach to start a race, only to to have the loss of apparent wind from running cause the kites to start falling out of the sky! Then a bug mess of desperate competitors trying to kiteloop their way out to the wind line, which was at any rate too far upwind of the starting spot. Kites falling out of the sky, slamming into each other--good drama I guess, but little of the finer aspects of our sport on display. If the course was a few hundred yards off the beach where there was some wind, it could work, but wanting to keep things close for the benefit of spectators ruined it for many of the competitors. I'm sure there are better wind days than today--at least I sure hope so for all the regulars there.

I saw somebody bobbing a 10 second hang-time jump slogging his kite back-and-forth in the air. That was interesting and reminded me of the training I was doing to enter the Big Air until my job got in the way, but that ramp was (with apologies to those who I'm sure worked hard on it) a total joke. IMHO, Crissy is a terrible place for this kind of competition and I imagine it will be tough to get any top riders back. Move the competition to 3rd ave next year . . . . or even better, split the competition between 3rd for races and Waddell for big air and waves (a disappointing omission).

Again, sorry for the harsh review based on only one day. I know many people worked hard on organizing this and deserve much credit for it. Still . . . there are much better places to hold a competition in our beloved Bay Area--overall one of the best wind sport places in the world. It didn't look like it today.

Cheers,

Gideon

PS -- I did see the Crissy wind meter registered strong winds very late in the afternoon when I got home. Maybe I missed the best part.