Big Kites and Big Balls
By: Patrick Nedele
So we all scattered after the 6th Annual US Open Snow Kite Masters in Utah. Some of us went home to work, some of us went home to rest. But all of us still were extremely excited to go to the 1st annual Dillon Snow Kite Open. The Ozone team came from all over the country to come to Dillon Reservoir for a epic race.
Beginning on Friday we had the Search and Rescue guys go out on the lake and set our race course with our new Bad ass Ozone Race buoys! As they set the marks we had our skippers meeting. During the skippers meeting most the competitors were standing around and watching the brave souls that where on the lake. Within a 1 minute period we all watched the wind go from 0 to 45 knots!! All 10 riders that were on the lake, either broke lines, one lined there kite, or just totally let go of there kites!!! So after the crazy after math the race organizers decided to cancel the race for safety reasons and then tap the keg of Ska beer!! Those of us that were feeling good about kiting went out and did some practice runs the others just practised raising there glasses!!
So the days events went straight into a great night of Bowling and dancing to a great 80's band. There are alot of competitive bowlers that are kiters! Who would have thought that we all knew how to throw a 12 pound ball straight down a wooden lane to hit 10 pins of wood. With everybody looking at each others tosses and looking at scores. Heather came out on top for the women scoring a 99. And in the men Patrick scored a 132 barley pushing out Gary Green with a 130! With the bowling comp done all the kiters hit the dance floor! WOW! We can kite but most of us can't dance!! Good thing they weren't judging the moves that were going down that night!!
The next morning the Ozone team woke up slowly with the rest of the world moving million miles a minute. We pushed to get everyone together and get some racing in. With the winds being a little liter then the day before. The racing was still really intense! With the Zephyr really excelling against the other kites. Billy Bordy, James Brown, and Anton Rainold all sporting the 17m Zephyr and they were kicking butt! With the 15m Manta 3 being in the hands of Patrick he was flying in almost no wind, when other inflatables were on the ground! The women really showed us whats up! By competing with the men and beating most of them! Congratulations to Heather Schenck and Amanda Weldy for duking it out on the snowboards and skis!
Sundays event was even better with more wind and even tighter racing. With some long distance races and some short coarse races the organizers really beat us competitors in the ground! After about 3 races we all had enough and we were ready for the lunch that Colorado Kite Force provided for us! Thank you Tahve for the great chili and also thank you for the good SKA beer!
Peace
Patrick Nedele
Big Kites and Heavy Balls!!
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