We are Stoked to announce:



2012 National Freestyle/Racing Championships is teamed with the Kite Tour Asia Australian Open and will be held in Townsville from 7th to 11th June 2012.

Australian residency is a requirement for participation in the Freestyle competition.
The racing competition will be an open event and the top Australian riders will rank accordingly.
The Magnetic Island to Townsville Race is an open race and will be held on Sunday the 10th June.

There will also be open events for:
Wakestyle Park (kicker, rails and sliders) for kiters and wakeboarders on site

'Old School Comp' (Toby Braeuers- Airstyle DVD will be used as a guide for the tricks).

In accordance with AKSA requirements, the comp for Freestyle will follow the PKRA guidelines these age categories:

Juniors - Under 18
Open - Mens Any age
Open - Womens Any age
Master - 35 & Over as of 1st July

Registrations for the event will be open from the 1st of January 2012 on the AKSA website.

For sponsorship enquirers please email:
jcukiteboardingclub@gmail.com

Facebook event:
www.facebook.com/events/198920860199666/

JohnnoKeys said...

A few WA crew already very excited and planning to CR race in June. See you there.

The WA crew will make a strong appearance i am sure and you have to defend your title Jonno ;)

How many ks is the magnetic island to Townsville race ?

neoniphon said...

10 km almost exactly.

20 minutes or so if you go straight there on a broad reach, a bit longer if you play on the way!

the Race will go Nelly Bay to Townsville Strand to finish in Pallarenda.

will upload a course map soon.
The Race will be a bit under 20km i guess.

especially with the Cairns crew bringing their trailers with all them toys down.
gonna be the biggest obstacle park at a kiting event ever!

YEWW

Hey Marvin

Is this going to be course racing event or just a cross-wind then a downwind-leg event?

There is a few guys in Brisbane who started course racing and would be willing to come up if it is a course racing event with an upwind leg. Otherwise it is just a drag race with no technical skill required.

Just let us know!
Cheers

INTHELOOP said...

chittychat said...

Hey Marvin

Is this going to be course racing event or just a cross-wind then a downwind-leg event?

There is a few guys in Brisbane who started course racing and would be willing to come up if it is a course racing event with an upwind leg. Otherwise it is just a drag race with no technical skill required.

Just let us know!
Cheers

Hi mate,

there will be course racing (nationals) and a Magnetic to Townsville race the KTA Aussie open ( international race).

Both races for TT and open class.

Here is a map out the proposed race.

Hi Marve

Looking like another good event just one thing tho I hope they are not the courses that you are planning on running for the Australian course racing nationals!

Reaching courses SUCK! there is far less skill required and it is just a game of follow the leader after the start!

Why don't we just use the normal windward return?? the way a proper course race should be done?

Good work on the Alva vid too.

Cheers Damo

Personally i would like to see/race a simple windward return with a start line square to the wind.

So there are 2 marks placed out on the water one directly up wind of the other with the start/finish line 1/2 way between them and set at 90 degrees to the wind.

You start sailing upwind round, the top mark, head straight down wind to the bottom mark and then back upwind to the finish. If the wind is light or space out on the water is limiting the length of the course then we can look at doing more than one lap.

I believe that this style of course is by far the best/fairest and it will give us the best racing out on the water. With this style of course it will come down to racing skills more than anything else.

Keep up the good work Baumeister

Dezzi said...

Marvin, will there be 2 course racing events then (not counting the Magnetic island to townsville race)? One for the Australian Nationals and one for the KTA, or are they both going to be one and the same?

most likely everybody will race together and then the top aussie guys place. This has been done at the world Cup and other events and worked well.
again the details are still open for debate..

It is very unusual that it is called an "Open" but only Aussie residents can enter....

The two bottom marks are not far apart, (maybe 100 meters, sometimes closer) as long as competitors go between them at the end of the downwind leg they can round either mark to head back up to the top mark, it adds a bit of variety and brings some tactics into play as you need to decide what mark to go around or should you cover the other guy and follow him or try and make a break for it out the other side of the course ;)

The race committee decides on the day how many laps to do and is usually indicated by a particular flag on the start boat. it is usually the same for the whole day unless the wind drops off and less laps are needed to complete the course in a timely mater, but this is with normal sailboats when you can sometimes be becalmed if the wind starts to die between races.

I would think with kites though and to save confusion it maybe better to just have a briefing at the beginning of each day and state how many laps will be used. if the wind dropped off that much our kites dont fly anyway :(

This type of course would be easy for the race officials to set up as it is just in line with the wind and the start line is at 90deg to the wind.
If the wind changes that much they just gota move the top mark and let a bit more rope out on the start boat to keep the start line square to the wind direction.

All they need to worry about is how far apart to put the top and bottom marks.

The start finish line would usually be a couple of hundred meters downwind of the bottom mark to make sure there is no confusion with other boats being laped.

Occasionally as you can see in the hobie cat courses they sometimes might stick an offset mark near the top mark, this might be 100 or 200 meters offset to give a small reach just to mix it up a bit, but the course is still mainly upwind/downwind.





And here are some typical sailing instructions with course layouts listed at the bottom
http://hobiecatnationals.com.au/si/

also, we will set up a rule for validation of races

something like: "if 80% of the fleet doesn't start or finish one race, this race will not count"

this will be easier/more fair than setting up a rule of "minimum wind for validation is 8knots"

PJBeaver said...

sounds like a great event, would we be able to see much as a spectator?

yes mate.
there will be markers close the esplanade/strand in Townsville for the Magnetic to mainland race on the Sunday.

Also the ' course' racing will be close enough to beach so you can see everything.

Freestyle and Wakestyle park should also be spectacular to watch as well as the sunset "old school' show off!

INTHELOOP said...

eneour said...

hi there,

I think what's also interesting and fun to do is to alternate race shapes each day (or even during the day if the race committee is good and fast)

Either straight upwind-downwind as suggested by Damo, or upwind-downwind with a downwind gate as suggested by wdric, or a upwind-crosswind-downwind-crosswind (square like on diagram we sent out to the Townsville city council for race area), or a triangle.

The idea will be to have proper "regatta" type races with full upwind legs and full upwind start lines, the shapes should be variable.


i think a mix of courses, races is awesome!
will really show the most versatile and complete racers overall i reckon
I think we all agree that a good length is needed, so I think we will start with a 2 laps race that can be done by the first finisher in ~20 minutes which should be between 6-10 km.

We will try to organize a few fun races prior to the Nationals to get our race committee a bit more professional ;0)

spot on i reckon. mix it up. the best overall racers will show at the end.

JohnnoKeys said...

Marvin what coarses did you kite race in worlds in Germany 2011. IMO as Marvin has raced in worlds this setup must be the point of reference. Yeah I also agree with Damo but also coarses must be a good length 6 to 10 km so racers can work a race and make up places. Starts again as Damo said to get over the pinnend drama that can result in luck over riding skill. I'ld prefer a straight up wind 4 km coarse twice round, way harder, more room to stuff up on tacks and jibes, way more stress, races not won on start, if you get a slow start you can work your way back through field.

Hi Johnno,

it was a trapezoid course with a sequenced start and an about 2 km upwind stretch after start. The field settled pretty good during that upwind leg with racers approaching upwind mar from left and right.
I think the whole race was about 10km when you finished racing around the course twice.
The conditions were very challenging with big sea and strong/gusty winds.

I was wrecked after a race and 3-4 of these races per day is pretty full on..

I plan to be racing this year Marve!! So just getting in early to say I won't be holding the flags

Joe