The World Championships of Kiteboard Course Racing commences

Another Beautiful day in San Francisco

If you were driving across the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday around lunch time it was like having balcony seats to an all out arial assault. Jet planes flying in and out the gate, painting the sky with red, white and blue and then over a hundred sky divers leaping from thousands of feet above the bay to promote T-Mobile's new myTouch 3G phone.

• View photos from Day 2 of the World Championships of kiteboarding

In the city of San Francisco, recreation strives and as soon as the last sky diver touched down, the first kite left the beach at Crissy field to skim gracefully over the waters of the San Francisco Bay. Not over an hour later, the second day of the 2009 World Championships of Kiteboard Course Racing was underway under sunny, blue skies.

Crissy field is one of the most frequented beaches in the US with hundreds of thousands of locals and tourists visiting it's sandy, city beach and scenic bike path every week. Even the regulars who jog and bike the path through the marina, Crissy field and Presidio would be hard pressed to find a more scenic, daily run.

Kiteboard Course racing is still a relatively new discipline in the maturing sport of kiteboarding. This year, "the equipment is far more evolved and the level of competition is extremely heightened" says Chip Wasson, race pioneer in the San Francisco bay.

Competitors scrambled through bags of board fins like a golfer digs through his bag of clubs when confronted with a new and challenging course.

Racers assembled at Crissy Field from all over the world and what may have worked in the flat water of the last European race is likely not going to cut it here in the choppy, challenging conditions of the San Francisco bay. After one day of competition, competitors get a little more in tune with what fin combinations may give them the best chance out there. "It's just gotten so much more competitive with the International field bringing all the latest gear and seasoned racers. The finishes are just getting that much tighter", says top racer Sky Solbach.

Some of the top racers like local NorCal Surf Shop owner, Jeff Kafka could even be found unwrapping brand new boards that he shaped less than a week ago. That's how fast the discipline is evolving! Others like Damien Leroy could be seen shrugging as they lined up different fin combinations on the bottom of their boards. "I'm doing alright. I'm flying down wind. I just can't hang with these guys going upwind", says Damien who after the first day of competition was sitting in 5th place.

Kiteboard Course racing has been the motivational shot in the arm that's brought back the competitive spirit in original freestyle, PKRA World Champion, Martin Vari. "In 2001 the BMC held a second discipline of racing. It was a lot of fun but I never imagined it was a glimpse into the future of kiteboarding", says Martin. Many kiteboarders don't know this but I was a windsurf racer before I started kiteboarding. I actually went to the Worlds as a junior. I'm competitive and while this is my first time course racing, I think it is a good compliment to my passion of wave riding. I've got the right gear and I'm just trying to figure out how to ride it. The hardest part is going down wind. I'm hoping today I can get some top 10 finishes."

 The course was set by 2:00 pm and the competitors had once again been split into 2 fleets; yellow and blue. Yellow took to the water at about 2:30 and the day of competition was officially underway. Many of the top battles were similar to day 1 with notable top finishes by local racers Chip Wasson (2,2,2), John Heineken (1,3,3) and Geoff Headington (5,5,4) all ending up in the top 10.

Results after 2 days of racing:
1 Green 8 Sean Farley MEX M O 1 1 1 1 1 5
2 Red 18 Bruno Sroka FRA M O 2 1 5 1 1 10
3 Yellow 15 Chip Wasson USA M M 2 2 2 2 2 10
4 White 11 John Heineken USA M O 6 3 1 3 3 16
5 Green 16 Sky Solbach USA M O 1 2 4 2 8 17
6 Red 0 Paolo Rista ITA M M 3 4 4 4 3 18
7 Blue 18 Damien LeRoy USA M O 3 4 3 4 7 21
8 Green 10 Geoff Headington USA M O 8 5 5 5 4 27
9 Green 11 Bjoern Rune Jensen DNK M M 5 7 6 11 4 33
10 Red 19 Michael Gebhardt USA M M 10 5 2 12 5 34