First SCKA kite event

On Saturday August 8th, the first SCKA kite exhibition was put on in conjunction with Alfredo's Beach Club's "Capture The Wind Festival" which is part of the Long Beach Sea Festival.

I broke the day into four parts: the first was to focus on the kids and their free kites, the second was to have a number of wind related companies on the ramp to show their wares, the third was the kite exhibition on the water, and lastly a BBQ for all the kiter's at the end of the day.

One of the first thing on my agenda was to get a few kite companies behind it and have their products for everyone to see. Kitesurfari and Captain Kirk's got on-board early and were eager to put an E-Z up tent on the Granada launch ramp to show their kite gear. I was very happy when other companies joined the SCKA around the ramp.

By the way Dan Slater has just posted a group of pictures on his web site, http://www.nearfield.com/~dan/sports/kitesurf/scka/wind1/index.htm. Paste this into your browser and check it out.

Here Robert and Danny McCullough are setting up their new Kitesurfari tent while Ruth and Joy are chatting on the ramp to the right.

Captain Kirk's brought a lot of gear too for all to look at, which included a number of stand up paddle boards as well as kite gear.

Once we got the companies on the launch ramp in their respective positions we turned our attention to the kids. They started arriving before noon. The SCKA members helped assemble the kites and showed them how to fly them. On the left is Ruth and Rijk are putting the kites together and Rosemary is handing them out. The kids also got a food coupon for Alfredo's restaurant and a raffle ticket.

Naish kites had a number of their new kites and boards for all to look at.

Other vendors included Long Beach Windsurfing Center, M & M Surf School, Long Beach Airport, Port of Long Beach, California Solar, Clew First and The Children of the Day.

Business was brisk at the SCKA tent. Dan Corbett, Francis Hu, Faycal Ferhat, Ruth and Bea all took turns helping with the event sign-up, raffle tickets and the BBQ. We had a great turnout.

The "kiters meeting" came a little later than we had hoped. But at least the wind was starting to come up.

Here Bart Gaska, the head of the kite exhibition, goes over the rules and the course.

Shortly after the meeting the wind started to come up. Maybe not as early or as much as we wanted....but at least we got some wind.

Unfortunately we could not move the PA system to the spectator area, but everyone went down to find their best spot to watch the kiters.

The horn blew and the kiters went out on the race course. I have to say they did a great job of kiting, considering there was not much wind.

Thanks to Omar Nazif and his great camera we are able to show you quite a few fabulous shots. This one is Gabor Vagi pulling off a big jump in front of two other kiters. He won the award for "BEST AIR"

This was followed by Peter Blawat, from San Diego, who is obviously got some big air but also went "vert". He won the award for "BEST OLD GUY"

The winner of "BEST WOMAN" was won by Brittney Pope. She pulls off a beauty here.

Darren Mackly, winner of "Best Novice" pulled off a nice jump going port side.

Close behind him, also in the novice class, going starboard was Dan Corbett. He pulls off a reverse 720 rotation.

Here's a cool shot of Bart Gaska getting air. He won for "BEST TECHNICAL"

Mike was pulling off some great tricks. This one was one was no exception. He won the award for "BEST OLD SCHOOL TRICKS"

This is Nemo Taylor who won for "Best Wipe Out." If I use his splash down you wouldn't recognize him, would you?

His landings and crashes won us over. I told you you couldn't recognize him.

Here is Tomas Jankovic, who won the award for "BEST CROWD FAVORITE"




There were three shots that Omar took that I thought I would post as "Honorable Mention". I will try to find out their names and update the blog. The last shot you can see Dave going port as a kiter pulls off a jump. Things were close out there.

At the end of the races we gave away the awards. That was followed by all of the raffle items that were donated. Also thanks to Joy for helping with the judging and with the awards at the end. The raffle was an overwhelming success. It took four of us to pull that off. Francis was pulling the numbers, Kristin was handing me the prize to announce, and then Ruth would tape the ticket onto the item and check the ticked numbers of the winners. We were an awesome assembly line. Thank you to all the companies that provided the prizes. They were great!!!

Meet Robby Moniot from Santa Monica, he was our grand prize winner. He purchased 100 tickets and took home a lot of loot which included the 4 day accommodations in La Ventana from Captain Kirk and kite lessons from KiteMasters.

With the event behind us the only thing left was to party. Fred had a nice spread of meat, salad and libation. Now it's time to got in the BBQ line. From left is Dan Corbett, Ruth, me, Robert and Danny McCullough (Kitesurfari) and Todd Case.


As the sun was setting, I stepped up to the mic and thanked our BBQ sponsor, Kitesurfari and all of the other sponsors, that included Captain Kirk, Naish, F-One, Wind Cult, ikitesurf, Kiteboarding Magazine, Kitesurf California and many more, including a lot of local restaurants. Thank you all for your support.

For our first BBQ on the sand we sold over 50 dinners. You have no idea the stress with coming up with an accurate number of dinners. Fortunately it all worked out thanks to Fred Khammar.

After the dinner, the video screen was activated and thanks to Kitesurfari we had a fun DVD to watch. But like many events there was still a lot of socializing going on. This picture is courtesy of Dan Slater. Check out who's on the screen, none other than Dan Corbett.

Rijk, Ruth and I wanted to take a moment to thank Fred and his wonderful staff for all of their tireless work. There day started before 9 A.M. and ended way after 9 P.M. They all did a fantastic job.

At the end of the evening, this picture of Rosemary and Klaus says it all. They had a fun day AND they have one more exciting event to do together. Rosemary won the motorcycle ride on Klaus's Harley and they are planning a ride. Aaron will just have to take a chill pill.

We look forward to next year and PLEASE a little more wind. Thanks again to all that helped, whether it was setting up in the morning, with the kids, at the SCKA tent, the judging, with the raffle, or the BBQ. We could not have done it without you.