More Kiteboarding!

The second day of the Kiteboard Course Racing World Championship in San Francisco was windier than the first, with gusts over 20 kts.  It was also a more typical summer day in San Francisco with a blanket of fog that moved in mid-afternoon.  The race course was still far enough off shore so that close up action shots weren’t possible from my vantage points on shore, but there was great action at the colorful starts.  More images can be viewed on Rockskipper.com.

The StFYC committee boat and racers at the start.

Racers sail upwind.

The weather mark.

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“First Ever” Kiteboard Course Racing World Championship

Tuesday marked the first day of racing at the inaugural Kiteboard Course Racing World Championship hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco, California.  It was a very colorful scene at the beach at Crissy Field where nearly 70 racers prepared themselves and their kites for the preliminary races on Tuesday, August 4th.

Kiteboarders prepare their kites for competition on the beach at Crissy Field.

Typically kiteboarding is a more solitary sport, but this event is more like a sailing regatta with multiple boarders lining up on a starting line and then sailing a windward / leeward course around inflatable marks.  What makes this special as a photographer is the chance to get images of multiple kiteboards / kites in the same frame.   However, photographing kiteboarders poses some  unique challenges — for example,  how do you fit both the kiteboarder and the kite into the frame, and how do you track the focus of a single boarder when they can be flying along at 20 knots?

Racers start at the StFYC committee boat.

The racers fly past Alcatrez on their way to the first upwind mark.

Kiteboarders are dwarfed by an incoming tanker.

More photos at Rockskipper.com.

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