A World Champion at the ECWF Cape Cod 2015!

It's official now: we will have a World Champion competing at the East Coast Windsurfing Festival Cape Cod on September 19-20! Kiri Thode, PWA Freestyle World Champion 2013 and currently ranked #2 in the PWA freestyle competition, just booked his flights.

The pro freestyle competition at the ECWF Cape Cod should be fantastic - top East Coast freestyler Mike Burns was recently spotted in Kalmus working on one-handed Burners and other crazy freestyle tricks, and will do his best to add Kiri to the list of PWA freestylers that he has beaten in competition. We are also expecting top level PWA freestyler Phil Soltysiak again at the event; at the recent competition in Fuerteventura, Phil and Kiri competed in a very close heat that Kiri won (Kiri finished the event in 2nd place, Phil was 7th).

We are very exited to get the chance to see the inventor of freestyle moves like the Kono and the Kabikuchi on Cape Cod. Here's an movie of a Kiri Kono:

So mark your calendars, and join us at the ECWF Cape Cod on September 19-20 at Kalmus! As much as we love to see Kiri and Phil compete, this is primarily an amateur event, open to windsurfers at all levels. We will have fun races and an amateur freestyle competition, and a couple of new ideas to make racing more fun for all. On the 20th, we will have a raffle for all competitors where we give away many fantastic items from our sponsors, which include some amazing items like a sail, a winter wetsuit, a free ABK windsurf camp, and much more!

Many thanks to all the windsurfers who have helped to make this possible by donating! We have raised almost $1,000 in less than two weeks, making this possible. We are still looking for additional donations to reach our fundraising goal of $1,500 - every donation helps, and shows support for windsurfing and one of the really outstanding windsurfers from Bonaire.

Help Us Bring Kiri To Cape Cod!

Last year, a lot of windsurfers helped us to bring Caesar Finies to the ECWF Cape Cod. It was absolutely fantastic to have him here - he put on a great show in the freestyle competition, often was way ahead of everyone else in the races, and gave great technique demos on the beach during the breaks.

For the 3rd Annual ECWF Cape Cod, which will take place at Kalmus Beach on September 19-20, 2015, we hoped to get another world-class freestyle to join the event. Our friend Myles happened to see Kiri Thode at an event in Aruba, and asked him if he'd be interested.

"Who is Kiri Thode?", you ask? Really? Kiri is one of the best freestylers in the world, and was crowned PWA Freestyle World Champion in 2013. He is currently ranked #2 in the PWA freestyle competition, and has a very good chance to win the world title again this year. Kiri also invented several "must-do" moves often seen in freestyle competition, including the Kono and the Kabikuchi. Here's a short video showing Kiri in action on Bonaire:
 
(There are a lot more Kiri movies on YouTube!).

When asked about coming to the ECWF Cape Cod, Kiri said yes right away - he is quite excited to return to Cape Cod, where he had some of his early successes (check the "Children of the Wind" movie!).

So we have again started a fundraising campaign to pay for Kiri's ticket and board bag fees. All donations are very helpful, even small ones! If you are feeling more generous, there are also a number of excellent perks, which include pictures with Kiri; signed event T-shirts; private lessons with ABK's Andy Brandt or Kiri Thode; a cottage rental on Bonaire; and many more. So please show your support for getting Kiri to the ECWF and donate!

We have already raised $560 in 6 days, and several enthusiastic windsurfer have offered to cover substantial parts of Kiri's expenses, if necessary. This means that we will definitely be able to pay for Kiri's ticket and board bags. If we should raise more money than needed to cover Kiri's expenses, the excess will go to the East Coast Windsurfing Association and help pay for the cost of organizing and insuring the event. The bill for the insurance alone is about $750; having the restrooms open costs about $200; and then we have additional costs for trophies, the event permit, and so on. We cannot recover these costs from the registration fees alone, which we prefer to keep low to encourage participation - instead, we rely on donations. Many thanks to all who have helped out in the past - and many thanks for thinking about helping now!

Better than 7 of 9

Seven of Nine was cool. Or maybe hot is a better word. But my extensive math background tells me 8 of 9 is better.

Nina freestyling

We went to Egg Island today. Nina first tried to break her ankles. She went switch in the straps, ducked the sail straight into the water, and went flying over the front on the other side. Except that she was still in the straps. Lying facedown in the water, she wondered whether she should worry more about her ankles, or about drowning.

She did not drown, and her ankles are fine (well, mostly). She took a break, and then said "forget about the stupid straps". So she just did regular duck tacks. 8 dry ones in a row. All that practice in chop paid off. Flat is easy! Then, the 9th one was wet. But 8 of 9 is pretty darn good. Better than 7 of 9.

She did end up going back into the straps switch, and did a couple of dry switch duck jibes in the straps. The sail was coming up a bit to much to the front. Happens even to the best PWA guys. It's just a question of time until she has this duck down, too.

Don't ask me what I did. It's boring. But I got to sail my Skate again, after a month that it took to fix the broken nose (ok, that includes 3 weeks in Brazil). The nose held, even when I tested it with crashes. Several times, just to be sure. Perhaps the best thing I did today was to carry the back pack with water for Nina to Egg Island. Staying hydrated is the key to success! Or maybe it's trying relentlessly.

That's what happens when I try freestyle

Nina's Shove It Secrets

She's done one. A Shove It. It's Nina's first new-school aerial. Congratulations!

Nobody saw it. But we saw a lot of tries that looked good. The picture above is from one of her not-so-good tries. Also, we know Nina. She did not claim to be planing out of jibes for a long time, after Andy Brandt and I said she was. Only after she planed through with tons of speed, and was caught on camera, did she admit it.

Her first tries were 4 years ago in Corpus Christi. There were few tries after that, including a few at last year's Hyannis camp. But overall, she's probably done many more Flaka tries, and at least 10 times as many Duck Tack tries before she got her first Duck Tack.

Some freestylers think the Shove-It is a hard move. Nina now can explain it really easy. So easy it fits into the limited free space in my brain. I'll try it again soon. That tells you how easy it sounds!

Her success came after first seeing photos that Eddie had taken from Chris and Mike doing Shove-Its and Shakas at Kalmus. The second important part was when Marty told her "It's like a backside wave ride". Something clicked, and she did not just get air and get backwinded, but she also had a decent landing.

I only told you part of Nina's secret. Marty and I are eager to try out what she said. We should get wind today. I'll report back what happens. Maybe we can even get Nina to take the GoPro.