Kite crossing results

[Denis]

Boarders
Women
1-45:12 Vicki Hanson

Men
1-37:23 Denis Foo Kune
2-41:45 Todd Hanson
3-42:16 Jack Nierehanson (14 yrs old. Wow!)
4-43:03 Roland Rioux
5-45:17 Josh Bowens-Rubin
6-46:38 Brad "Skip" Roman
7-46:48 Matt Volenec
8-50:07 Josh Ernst
9-50:21 James Ledbuhr
10-55:27 John Diwishek
11-DNF Justin Berken

Ski
Women
1-39:27 Lizzy Wilkins
2-54:48 Kate Perkins

Men
1-29:49 Jeff "Cornboy" Cole
2-30:27 Bryce Johnson
3-30:43 Jim Watkins
4-31:23 Tighe Belden
5-32:16 Scott Lystrup
6-32:25 Steve Switt
7-33:06 Andy Foster
8-33:42 Jesse Johnson
9-33:56 Rob Evans
10-33:57 Pavel Matousek
11-33:59 Brody Johnson
12-34:07 John Klick
13-34:44 Eric Oppen
14-34:46 Steve Albright
15-35:18 John Eixens
16-35:29 Peter Hill
17-35:47 Allen Clemens
18-36:51 Mike Bares
19-37:39 Scott Haskins
20-37:43 Barry Peterson
21-40:05 Steve Isenhower
22-40:50 Mike Manger

[JRN]

KUDOS to all the Winners, Runners-up, and all who participated. Thanks to Michael Fox, his crew and any volunteers for another great event. I managed to straggle in after all the excitement, but was rewarded with alot of interaction with old friends, as well as faces only seen once or twice a year at these events.

[Tighe]

Great event for sure. Thanks to all who put out energy to make this happen.

Great to see so many smiling faces.

Great to see Slingshot riders taking all 4 first place spots! Congrats to all riders. Everyone completed the course in under and hour!

ride on

[Denis]

Here are some nerd stats. First, the finishing time, by category (Ski or Snowboard). The skiers finished ahead of the snowboarders by about 10 minutes on average.

crossing_boxplot.png (3.2 KiB) Viewed 5866 times

Second, if we group finishers by time, most skiers finished between 30-35 minutes and most snowboarders finished between 45-50 minutes.

crossing_histogram.png (10.59 KiB) Viewed 5866 times

The distinction between the fast finishers and the rest of the group is quite sharp, especially for the skiers. Then there's a gentle slope towards the late finishers. That's expected, since it's easier to hang out and take your time than it is to go faster. Comparing the skier and snowboard groups, I would say that being on skis seems to give a 15-20% boost in speed for this type of race.

[MK]

Slingshot shirts are in. Recall SS offered a free shirt to all who attended the crossing. It will be a little coordination effort but fun to pick up a freebie shirt:)

Shoot me an email with your size and I'll help get you dressed Spread the word to your compadre's. Best also sent a few shirts too.

mike@lakawa.com

[bmr]

Hey All,

Just wondering if anybody knows the name of the boarder flying the gray/white foil (looked like a 14m or so) while sporting a backpack during the X-ing? First off, I'd like to give him BIG-UPS for the great race, and also I'd like to credit him in a vid I'm stitching together.

Thx in advance!

[Matt V]

I had the red Matrixx pack on pretty much the whole time, but my 15m HQ Matrixx (closed cell foil) is green and white.

[bmr]

I had the red Matrixx pack on pretty much the whole time, but my 15m HQ Matrixx (closed cell foil) is green and white.

Yeah, green and white...it's either my goggles or I'm getting old (or a combo of both)! With only 10secs between us, that was a helluva tough match that made for some good drama in the vid I'm putting together. (Hoping to have it on Vimeo later next week.)

Awesome to race with you - that was just plain fierce.

Kite on!

[Matt V]

Was that you behind me on the way back when I wound up stopping right on the ice ridge?

If it was you, I owe my time to you! Mostly because of what I did on Friday night. I was ready for a snowmobile ride about 5 times during the race beginning with setting up my kite before the race. Its a pretty good indicator that the race is going to be painful if you need a rest several times while setting up a foil kite. But on the first leg, I passed some boarders and felt good about about that. Half way back to the finish, I would have stopped to rest but I was really focused on keeping that "damn tubie (you?)" off of my tail. If not for that, I know I would have been over 50minutes. With you pushing me on the way back, I stuck with it but you axed me on the ridge. Congrats! I wish I could have stayed and kited after the race but I needed to catch up on some sleep.

I always say that "next year I will be more focused on the race", but we all know that got this funny little problem.

[bmr]

Was that you behind me...

Yeah that was me! You actually passed me shortly after the start and then disappeared into the horizon. "WTF!?" was the only thing that came to mind at that moment.

My whole race was spent trying to keep you in my sights and playing catch-up. I was hoping to "sneak" upwind of you so you'd have a hard time of keeping an eyeball on me, but there was a clear moment as we neared the pressure-ridge that I realized the gig was up because you turned your whole head to spot me and then really kicked it into high gear.

So back at ya, thanks for helping my time! Hopefully the vid relays the friendly battle that took place...who thought snowkiting could be so dramatic.

Hope to see you out there again. And congrats!

[Matt V]

Sweet! that was awesome that you got me from so far behind. I knew exactly what you were trying to do by staying upwind and you actually kept me much more upwind of where I wanted to go naturaly. I really did not want you to smoke me so I was on a close reach trying to block you the whole time. Therefore, I also need to credit you for keeping me from having to tack at the end.

The forecast looks awesome here in Omaha this weekend and I am stoked for tomorrow and Sunday. Our local "acceptable" lake has turned in to a "mini-corpus" with the low water levels and 55degree surface temps. It is shallow for 200 yards out in places and launching is a breeze with a delta kite. If you ever make it down to Omaha our out in central Nebraska, look me up!