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ISAF Olympic Trials Day 2
ISAF KITEBOARDING OLYMPIC TRIALS: DAY-2
We woke to a beautiful day in Santander, Spain with perfect blue skies and snow on the foothills. It was absolutely spectacular! Today was a big step for kiteboarding as a sport and our hunt for the Olympics. We ran 2 Windward/Leeward Course Races in the beginning, which the wind was on the light side, most everyone was on big kites. It was amazing as all the different classes of boats were right next to us racing as well on their own courses. As the goal of this demonstration and evaluation is to try new things and show everything kitesurfing has to offer, we then ran a full Slalom round and then returned to the C.E.A.R. Sailing Club to discuss how things went with the ISAF Judges who were observing the 2 formats we ran for them today.--
As the ISAF group headed back to the center, most kite surfers took off and went sailing with all the boats and other classes out on the water. Let's say everyone was in awe. Heads turning… a great day for kitesurfing! I can only say things are looking great! Mark my words and get ready - I am a true optimist.
It was a great day for me as I managed to take bullets in all events and races. It is not so much about the winning as this is about representing our sport, but it felt good to know I can still hang with these incredible racers like World Champion Johnny Heineken. Tomorrow we will try out some newer formats like Enduro and Short Track. It will get very interesting, and it will be good to see how the ISAF judges perceive these new formats. Fingers crossed!
More soon, Damo.
Visit Damien's website for more pics from day 2 by clicking here