North Race Team scores in Egypt!
The African Continental Championships in Egypt was the perfect way for the North kite Race Team to start the season. Most riders registered sizes 9, 11, 13, 17 mtr Dyno 2013ltd kites and all were riding the new race ltd 69.
Following the 1st 2 days of qualifiers, mens gold fleet racing was an intense battle amongst the top 30 qualified Kiters. The North Race team were consistent & managed to get 3 team members earning their place in the final days medal Race. These included: Maxime Nocher (FRA) , Florian Gruber (GER) and Blazeg Ozog (POL)
Meanwhile a heated competition was going on in the womans division with UK rider- Steph Bridge consistent & showing experience counts for a lot in the varying wind conditions. North race team manager - Dirk Hanel took some bad luck in the protest room , narrowly missed gold fleet but dominated silver fleet with a string of bullets.
Other North race riders included 2008 Race World Champion , Charles Deleau (FRA) who was stoked to make a come back into Gold fleet along with Danish rider James Johnson. Youth World race Champion, Oliver Bridge (GB) is learning the hard way, mixing some confident starts and gaining vital bigger fleet expereince with some top 10 results. Olly is age 15 and took 2nd Youth & overall 20th in the mens Gold fleet racing.
The final medal Race day was a huge one for the North Race Team and the pre- track training, tactics, strategy & shared knowledge really paid off. It was Maxime who cranked up the big gears, moving from 8th place to a podium 3rd final position in a series of 5 minute short track races. Team mate-Blazeg was black flagged on race 1 ending his medal day glory while the German, Florian took a penalty in the race 2 ending his overall ranking in 2nd.
The womans finals also left spectators on an edge , however with good power on all points of sail, Steph did what she set out to do – win the 1st medal race which would Secure her the tittle. French rider – Ariane Imbert proved that time on the water really counts & now, after only starting racing last year is top 10 in the womans fleet.
Podium places for 3 of the North race Team riders , followed by a big party & a huge energy amongst the team to be riding the best boards & kites for the 2013 race season.
The year is coming to an end and again overall results show the domination of North Kiteboarding: Congratulations Mario, Steph, Stefan, Flo, Luke, Sabrina and Maxime!
Four days of spectacular competitions, light and strong wind conditions at the beach of Castelldefels came to a fabulous end, when the European Championship in Kiteboarding Freestyle as well as the winners of the MINI Kitesurf Tour Europe in Course Racing were crowned. 97 riders out of 19 nations participated in Spain.
The wind didn’t came up on the last day to run the double eliminations in Freestyle and to continue with Course Racings, but everyone enjoyed the friendly spanish atmosphere and the prize giving ceremony at the beach. The first day of the event had amazing conditions for Freestyle, with perfectly sunny weather and winds up to twenty knots. This allowed the riders to show how far the riding has come over the last decade. In the single eliminations, Mario Rodwald (GER, North) and Stefan Spiessberger (AUT, North) made their way to the final. Apure North Kiteboarding final of team mates! Rodwald travelled to Spain as the leader of the MINI KTE ranking and was unstoppable to get the title. In the final of the single eliminations, he won against Stefan. Place one and two for North Kiteboarding. Luke Whiteside made it to the excellent 3rd place overall.
In the women division, dutch freestyler Annelous Lammerts won the spanish stop against Therese Taabbel (DEN) with powerful and clean moves. German North Kiteboarding rider Sabrina Lutz gained third place on the podium after her heat against Kelly Schouten (NED).
After five events all the results are in: Rodwald and Lammerts are the winners of the final stop of the MINI Kitesurf Tour Europe in Castelldefels, Spain and were also crowned European Champions 2012. Stefan Spiessberger and Sabrina Lutz, obtained second places of the overall ranking 2012. Well done boys and girls!!
In Course Racings, Maxime Nocher (FRA, North Kiteboarding) crossed the finish line as a respectful third. With this result he managed to achieve the Second podium place in the tour overall ranking, followed by german olympic hope Florian Gruber (North Kiteboarding). Great racing boys! For professional North Kiteboarding team rider Steph Bridge (GBR), the 2012 season was successful again. In Brouwersdam, Netherlands, she became first overall and then dominated the KTE. France. Here in Spain, she left no doubt again about who is one of the fastest European female racers by winning all races and clearly dominating the women’s fleet.
Altogether again an amazing weekend for all North Kiteboarding athletes showing the world they are the ones to beat!
Well done team!
Kite Race World Championships 2012 - Cagliari
In the history of Kiteboarding all that took part in the champagne racing conditions in Cagliari bay last week will always remember this event as the start of something really really big in our sport. Over 220 riders from 40 countries met in a showdown of colour, excitement & crashes for this was the start of a new road for many competitiors now that kiteboarding has replaced windsurfing for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
In the mens fleet, racing started with a qualifying series, with three groups of 51 sailors each which were re-seeded by the first racing days results before the fleet got split into Gold/Silver/Bronze for the final series day. In the womens fleet, a single opening series was run over the first three days, followed by a medal race series on Sunday.
North riders were joined by kite designer Ken Winner & production manager Dirk Hanel - most using the new North Dyno Ltd & battling it out in the first 2 days to gain selection for the much sought after Gold fleet. It was close racing amongst Maxim Nocher (FRA), Olivier Dansin (FRA), Florian Gruber (GER), Blajez Ozog (POL) with Oliver Bridge (GB) not far away.
The womans fleet saw 2012 European Champion - Steph Bridge come head to head daily with Johnny's sister- Erika Heineken. Brazilian rider -Nayara Licariao & Alice Brunacci (ITA) took top 10 results during this qualifying series.
After day 3 the top 10 riders from the girls fleet & top 10 riders from the mens went head to head in a medal race to determine the 2012 World Champion. All could be lost or gained in an 8 minute umpired fleet race which was carried out in gusty offshore conditions. The beach scene was huge & North kiteboarding provided the much needed support for the competitors that made it to the final.
It was the womens turn first, with the whole fleet starting on starboard towards the first leg, and the battle was on between Steph Bridge and Erika Heineken. Being only one point separated, it was open for virtually every sailor who qualified for the medal race series to win the event. In the end it was Steph Bridge taking the win in this race, meaning that both Erika and Steph were tied in points now and whoever won the last race would take the tittle. Coming in in third, it was Nayara Licariao (BRA, North). Race 2 of this medal race day was more of a challenge to fight back after a windshift on the start line & steph's chance of her 5th World tittle was looking in doubt. Pushing the board hard & using the bands of wind to her advantage was not enough, a 1 point defeat & steph took home the Silver medal while 4th place went to Nayara Licariao (BRA and 8th to Alice Brunacci (ITA).
The men's medal race involved huge place changes, crashes & penalty turns & the eventual results were Maxime Nocher (FRA) in 5th place, Florian Grubber (GER) in 7th place while Olivier Dansin (FRA) was in 8th position. Disappointment for Blazej Ozog (POL) who was black flagged on the final gold medal race & this pushed him out of the medal race day to finish in 14th overall.
Other huge success's for the North team were for Ken Winner who was 3rd overall in the Grandmasters and Oliver Bridge (GB) who at age 15 became Youth World Champion with Jannis Maus (GER) in 2nd & Oswald Smith (RSA) 3rd. Race Team Manager - Dirk Hanel had some bad luck in the qualifying series however what was apparent at this event was the level to which kite racing is now going to be with most athletes taking this full time in their run up to Rio 2016.
Fastest waterman on the planet!!! Best of three Event in Lake Silvaplana
BEST of 3 - the battle of the fastest waterman on the planet went into a second edition this year! Team Kitesurf won with Kitesurfer Dirk Hanel winning the individual title.
The BEST of 3 Event was held for the second time at Lake Silvaplana last Sunday and Monday. Olympic Gold medalists, world champions and legends in different sports gathered to battle for the title of the fastest waterman in three different sports: Windsurfing, Kitesurfing and Sailing. The 3 disciplines in which the riders competed were speed, slalom and course race.
In the windsurfing team, the 41 world title holder Björn Dunkerbeck, Karin Jaggi 15 times PWA world champion and Windsurf speed world record holder together with Patrik Diethelm the fastest shaper in the Windsurf world were nominated as winners.
In the Kite team Steph Bridge, 4 time course race world champion, together with Dirk Hanel, course race production master class world champion and German outright speed record holder and former nautical mile world record holder won the race.
The Kite team adorned itself with Ueli Kestenholz snowboard world champion and X-games winner, who is a passionate kiter and full on crazy extreme sports man! Moreover young gun Olli Bridge, son of Steph Bridge was part of the kite team!
The sailing team included the strong Moth specialists Mathis Renker, 4 times Alinghi Swiss Tour Match Race winner and 7 time Swiss champion as well as Phillip Käsermann. Together with the two German champions in Moth sailing Markus Steeg and Nina Zühlke.
Furthermore, each team was joined by local Heros and Riders in the different sports categories. On Sunday, the 35th Wind Marathon ended with a sensation; for the first time the kitesurfers Dirk Hanel and Olli Bridge were faster than their windsurfing collegues.
By the time all sailors already had the 42 km marathon in the bones two slalom races where held. In the first race, the windsurfers Björn Dunkerbeck, Nicklolas Warenbourg and Patrik Diethelm where dominating. Due to a small incident on the starting line of the first slalom, Dirk Hanel was slowed down massively and could only catch up to position 4.
Whereas in the second slalom, after a clean start, Dirk was right in there on the same jibe mark with Björn and Nicklas. Then on mark three Dirk overtook the Windsurfers in the jibe, having the same or perhaps a bit faster downwind speed he held on to the victory in the second slalom. This final result was a great success for Dirk Hanel, being able to beat Björn who is leading the Slalom Tour of the PWA this year. Steph Bridge was also extremely happy to beat
Karin Jaggi in the direct comparison, who is currently leading the PWA tour in slalom.
In the afternoon a heavy rainstorm set in and with a good forecast for the second day the riders called it a day. Day two of the Best of 3 started out with 4 Course Races where again Olli Bridge and Dirk Hanel dominated the races taking all wins and three of the 2nd places in all races. The starts where always really exciting and sometimes close calls! Then the complete fleet was literally flying towards the other side of the lake. While the Moths had an incredible upwind angle the combination of angle and speed gave the advantage to the kiters. Consequently after 4 races Olli scored first and Dirk second followed by Mathias Renker in the Moth in 3rd place.
Last but not least, the races in the discipline speed were held. For this discipline the judging tower was equipped with a speed gun and communication display, so that all riders could see the maximum speed reached. The wind was getting a bit gusty which made it difficult for the athletes to line up for the start. Björn Dunkerbeck achieved the best speed result with 60,3 km/h followed by Patrik Diethelm, the fastest shaper in the world with 59,3 km/h. Kitesurfer Dirk Hanel, winner of the speed last year with 57 km/h. scored the third place, saying: “unfortunately the kites which performed so well in racing and also slalom where just not perfect for the speed due to an to flat profile”.
Team Kitesurf took a great victory in the team category not least because of the great performance of Steph Bridge beating Karin Jaggi in each discipline and Kitersurfer Dirk Hanel taking the win in the Individual Ranking.
After the two days of racing, everybody seemed happy and athletes as well as organizers agreed that this event has to be repeated next year with some more refined rules, maybe also at other places and in different conditions, but for sure with the same fun and enthusiastic teams like this year!
Final Results:
Team BEST of 3
- Kitesurf Team
- Windsurf Team
- Sailing Team
Individual BEST of 3
- Dirk Hanel 8 points
- Patrik Diethelm 10 points
- Björn Dunkerbeck 11 points
- Olly Bridge 12 points
- Steph Bridge 26 points
11. Karin Jaggi 30 points
Fotocredit: Engadinwind / Marc von Swoll
