Gorge Games Day 1 - Freestyle & Racing

pkh · Since 27 Feb 2005 4808 Posts P-Town / W-Salmon Site Lackey

Hey all - here's the report on the ground from the Gorge Games.

The Event Site was completed dedicated to GG today. The parking lot was about 60% full, with the majority of the spectators seemingly fellow kiters and friends and family of participants. There was no fee to sit on the grass, or for parking.

It was windy first thing in the morning, winds averaging in the 20's with gusts to 30's. A few of the heats the wind dropped out but mostly it was cranking.

Freestyle - A four bouy "box" was setup with the closest/most downwind buoy being about 150 feet off shore from the event site. Competitors were supposed to do their tricks within the buoy course to get points.

Both Pro and Outlaw classes ran all day with a continous clock. I was really impressed by the organizers and judges ability to stay on top of the judging and bracket updating, great job! Continous clock and heats non stop from around 11pm and 3pm.

Alvaro Onieva (ranked #3 in the world right now) took home the pro title for mens, Oregon's own Reed Brady won the Outlaw class, Clarissa Hempel took home #1 for Womens, and Gorge local Tonia Farman took home #2 in womens (congrats Tonia!)

Huge props to Joey Pasqualie made it all the way to the finals and got #3 overall in the Pro class, strapless on a skimboard! Backroll kiteloops, huge ollies over the buoy!... you'd swear the board was super glued to his feet.

Kite Racing - Wow this was really an impressive site seeing 50-60 kites all in the same race. Also impressive was the amount of competitors from all over the country and specialty race boards on the scene. There was a definiate gap between the top pros and the rest of the riders.

Damien Leroy and Sky Solbach placed high in each of the races, actual results will be reported on Saturday when the second half of the races can complete.

Cheers from the Gorge, we are going to go check out Riverboarding today! Very Happy