USA full of experiences!

Alternately Titled (by the Bitter Editor :) ): It's a Wonderful Life!

Posted Thursday August 2nd 2007, by Kristin Boese

Yeah, we definitely kept extremely busy after Dave’s Strapless Event. We went Friday night racing, racing as much as possible anyways for the upcoming Championships in San Francisco.

Also we went to shoot in the studio with Lance Koudele who is not only a very good photographer in sports and lifestyle and fashion, but also a super nice guy!

We went for the Bridge of the Gods Amateur competition where we tried to keep the people busy on the no wind Saturday and to keep them up to date on the windy Sunday (Dave and Sky announcing which was great and super fun).

And we even managed to go to the Rodeo one evening in The Dales which was my first ever Rodeo and pretty exciting to see!

But then it was time to leave the Gorge again after 2 busy weeks there and we were off to San Francisco for the Crissy Kite Days which consisted of the National Race Championships and the Big Air Wind Jam. And great! Way more riders than I had ever expected came to SF! My dear team manager Stacey came, the whole Cabrinha crew, even Jason Slezak, Davey Blair, Moehau Gold and more were there. And they came for a reason! The national Race Championships turned out to be the best organized and most professional event I had ever attended. With the great work of John Gomes, the unbelievable support of the St. Francis Yacht Club, and the help of 45 or so more people, everything went incredibly smooth.

John Gomes at the Opening:

The format was great as we had 2 days of qualifiers. In those we raced in 4 groups, always 2 of them racing against each other. For the final day, we got separated in Gold (top 35 riders in the ranking) and Silver Fleet (other riders). I enjoyed racing a lot as I could experiment a lot with my equipment, try different boards and see how fast other riders are (crazy!!!). And it is seriously amazing how much difference the equipment actually makes though. After the qualifiers I was in second place of the girls and was very impressed by Sandy Parker’s strong riding and never thought I could keep up with her. But then it happened, Steve gave me his board to try, and I just won one race after the other (well, on the girls side of things, overall I was 13-15th rider over the finish line).

So thanks to the board I actually won the girls competition but more importantly, I learned so much about racing, my equipment and myself! I am sure you all read Stacey’s hilarious reports about the race and it really is a fight out there... you fight with the current, you fight with your board and also with yourself… but somehow you always make it to the finish line… quite amazing really. Almost as amazing as the help and all the support from the St. Francis Yacht Club and the volunteers! I still am stunned by all of it.

The next part of the Crissy Kite Days was not as well organized. The big ramp that was promised did not work and was way too dangerous to go over it. 2 people tried the thing, but never made it, so Gabe Brown, who was the organizer of this part of the event, did the best thing possible – he called a big jump/hangtime competition. On a nice and sunny Saturday lots of people came to San Francisco’s beach to watch the kite surfers jump high and fly far.

The media people from Current TV were covering the event and am sure they got some nice footage and interviews.

In one of Jessy Richman’s jumps something crazy happened… he got a gust and somehow stayed in it… he looped his kite about 6 or 7 times and stayed in the air for 22 seconds! That was unbelievable to watch but it really was true! Everybody freaked out about it and the crowed loved it! Definitely the most spectacular jump of the event! The next day the boardercross took part and Stacey actually became second in it! (don’t need to mention that I am proud of her, do I?)

(Editorial Note: The only reason “Stacey” was on the podium at all is because Kristin wasn’t there to do the boardercross. And “Stacey” also admits that she was secretly glad when Kristin decided not to come back to the event ... which she COULD have done! ... and went shooting with Kim instead. Because it was the only way "Stacey" had a chance!)

I missed it though and could not cheer for her as someone broke into our rental car that morning. We were busy with Police (that actually caught the guy! Amazing!!!) and car rental, had to go back to Oakland to change the car and did not make it back to the event in time.

(Editorial Note: This is great and I am truly glad that everything was ok and they got their stuff back, but can you believe it??? I have never seen anyone living such a charmed life!! Everything is good, she’s got a great boyfriend, she wins every contest, birds are chirping in the background, Bambi is scampering around somewhere off in the distance … even when her car gets broken into, she arrives at the scene, and the police are already there and have already apprehended the perp ... AND gotten all of her stuff back! I mean, I'm so glad that she got all her stuff back and that it worked out so well, but it’s just NOT FAIR!!! MY STUFF would have been sold on Ebay by the time I got to my car!!! From now on, her name is not Kristin Boese. It's Snow White!!)

That actually turned out great for us in the end as we went to the Delta with photographer Kim Kern instead and had a great and super fun shooting which was a great success! In general I just really, really enjoyed SF. We stayed with our friend Gail and met a lot of great people. We got to kite a lot and I learned a lot too, which I always enjoy!

From SF I went to NY, where I was invited to shoot in the Studio with Kent Miller (who normally shoots way more important people then me, so I felt really honored). We had a fun day in the studio and outside and got some great shots that all look completely different. I really enjoy jumping into a different world sometimes… And to see the results in the end is so great! Big thanks to Kent and also to Kim and Kerry for the great work!

For all previous news on Kristin Boese, click here.