PKRA Cabarete: Single Eliminations, Wednesday June 27, Day Two

Posted Wednesday June 27th, 2007

-by Stacey Fonas

Weather was weird this morning ... rainy and windy ... but it cleared up by late morning, so we kicked Tiger, aka Alvaro, off the couch and sent him unwillingly to the 10:30 Rider's Meeting. "It's just the same old thing every time ... 'Kristin Boese is here' ... blah blah blah." His English has improved so much since I last saw him Brazil ... and he's suddenly a lot funnier. "Make sure you let them know she's not actually here," I said.

Because I am a condition snob (ie, a crap rider who can only kite in flat water) I must point out that the conditions here are far from ideal ... Bozo Beach is traditionally gusty and choppy, and today was not a day that would see a break from tradition. The official reports always make it sound so glowing and perfect, but don't let that fool you: kiting here is hard.

During the competition, they go back and forth between the guys and the girls, but to make it easier, I'm just going to pretend that the girls all went at once, and then move onto the guys.

They did start with the girls first, however, and due to her ranking on the tour so far, Bruna had a "get out of jail free" card ... "by" or a "bye" or a "buy" (not sure which) ... so she didn't have to compete until later. The two other Best riders ... local Polish rider Ola Tomkowicz and Carol Freitas (local rider from Brazil) ... both got knocked out in their first heats ... Ola by Jo Wilson, Carol by Suzi Mai, but they'll both have another chance for a comeback in the doubles.

When it was finally time for Bruna's first and only heat of the day, against Suzi, it was pretty windy ... guys were out on 7s and 9s. She tried out her little toy 5m, but it wasn't enough, so she finally decided on Alvaro's 7m. I can only recognize the tricks I'm working on, so I'm not sure exactly all she did, but it was pretty clear that she won by a fair margin (ie, she killed it), inspiring me to go for my very first Flat 3 later in the day, which ... although not a resounding success ... made me feel important.

For the girls, no real surprises for the day, and when the fight for the Single's Results resumes tomorrow (Thursday), it'll be Bruna v. Karolina Winkoska, and Angela Peral v. Gisela Pulido, to see who makes it into the Winners/Losers finals.

For the men, however, it was a different story, with quite a few upsets. Youri Zoon got knocked out in his first heat by Alex Pastor. In what's turned out to be a controversial heat, at least in my mind, Hadlow got knocked out in his second heat by Dominican favorite Alex Soto ... a 3/2 decision from the judges. Kevin Langeree was also knocked out in his third heat by another Dominican, Ariel Colniel.

Homecourt advantage

Alvaro, however, managed to rise above his status as "flat water guru" (according to the 2007 PKRA Press Release), proving himself a "chop and gust master" (according to me) as well, sailing energetically through his first two heats against riders whoses names were unfamiliar to me (Rondon, Koryki).

Two minutes before his third and final heat for the day, against Rui Meira, I'm walking down to the beach getting ready to film, and see Alvaro and Gavin charging past me, back to the condo, looking rattled and stressed. What the heck was THAT?

Turns out, as Alvaro was launching his 9m, he noticed a slice along the trailing edge, and they had to make an emergency dash for some repair tape. Something like this, right before the heat, would have caused mere mortals to crack, and at first, it did look like the pressure had gotten to him ... he dropped his kite RIGHT as the green flag went up to signal the start of the heat, but he quickly pulled himself together, winning the heat by a pretty fair margin, by my estimation.

So, after a day of surprising results, we're left with a cliff-hanger ... 4 guys battling it out for the final standings, and everyone is looking forward to it with much anticipation and no one has any idea how it's all going to go down: Colniel v. DelaVillemarque, and Alvaro Onieva, our dear little Tiger, v. Alex Soto.