It was another beautiful day in the beautiful island of Noumea, New Caledonia. The sun was out in full force and the easterly wind was 20-30 knots as the riders made their way to the beach this morning for the mandatory 8:30am riders meeting. The main focus today was the long distance race, where the competitors and their gear would be transported 1 hour away to an island off the coast of New Caledonia where the race would formally begin and end between the judging tower and a red buoy in front of the main competition site on the mainland.
Riders packed up their 7m and 9m kites, jump into the boats provided by the organization team and were off to the island around 10:00am. They had a small picnic on the island and got acquainted with a few locals known as the Tricot Rayé sea snakes, although extremely venomous, these snakes are usually not aggressive towards humans. Local children normally play with them and bites are extremely rare. Racers began the long distance mission at around 12:00 noon. French rider Michael Siret (Slingshot) was the first competitor to cross the finish line with a time of 25 minutes, 45 seconds. Tom Hebert (Airush, NCL) who finished 3 seconds behind Siret finished in second place with a time of 25:48. In a brief conversation with Hebert, he mentioned how extreme the conditions were. “At the beginning the wave swell was really big and then towards the middle to the end of the race the chop was pretty bad. I was full power on my 9m and followed behind Siret for most of the race. When he would crash, I would overtake him, and then I would crash and he would take the lead again. I kept yelling at him go, go, go! it was a lot of fun!” Sebastien Garat (RRD, FRA) finished third with a total time of 26:38 while Julien Kerneur (Takoon, FRA) was fourth with an official time of 26 minutes and 46 seconds.
In the ladies division, Karolina Winkowska (Slingshot, POL) was the first and fastest female racer to cross the finish line with a time of 30 minutes and 10 seconds.
“At the beginning of the race I was so super fast, and towards the end, my legs could barely take it anymore,” said the Polish rider during a brief interview after the race. Finishing in second place was the current women’s freestyle leader Gisela Pulido (Airush, ESP) with a time of 32:08 followed by Noemie Le Bouteipper (Ozone, FRA) in third with a total time of 39:26 and Nina Cavalie (Liquid Force, FRA) with a time of 49:43.
The day wrapped up with a kite loop competition where local competitors dominated the discipline. Mega loop winner was Antoine Monnerville (Ozone, FRA) followed by Sebastien Nguyen (Slingshot, FRA) in second and men’s long distance winner Michael Siret (Slingshot, FRA) finished in third place.
Tomorrow’s skippers meeting is scheduled for 11:30am with a first possible start of 12:00pm.
The Teri Kitesurf Pro 2010 was made possible in part by the Kiteboarding League of New Caledonia, LVLNC with official partners Orangina, Le Meridien, Nissan, Teri and SeaDoo with special support from NRJ, Air France, RFO Nouvelle Caledonie and Total.
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