Banana Hammocks - The Kiteboarder Magazine

LAUNCH
Alex Caizergues charges down the ditch for another 50+
knot run, a speed that has become almost routine for him.
Photo Kolesky/Nikon/Lexar
Zach Kleppe entertains the crowd with a particularly good wipeout.
These speed records are recorded as average speeds over a 500 meter course
located in a remote part of Africa that resembles a shallow ditch. For this year’s
event, the course was redesigned by organizer and competitor Sebastien Cattelan.
He said, “I designed the channel to begin 50 meters further upwind, which
straightens the course. To avoid a wind shadow caused by a surrounding hill, we
extended the channel by 250 meters at the start to ensure that from the start line
the speeds were already fast. After that the channel ran at a constant 135° angle
downwind, ensuring riders could be at full power when they crossed the finish line.”
At 55.65 knots, Rob Douglas averaged 64 mph (103 kph) while hitting max speeds
of over 58 knots (66 mph/107 kph). At that speed, he covered the entire 500 meters
of the course in about 17.5 seconds. “I planned on taking the first run that day up
to 53.5 knots, fast enough for a new American record and to put some pressure
on the leaders, but as soon as I put the kite into the zone and held on through the
first couple of gears, I knew I was onto something serious,” said Rob. While these
records have yet to be ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC)
at press time, it’s expected that they will be. When that happens, a kiteboarder will
once again hold the world speed sailing record as the fastest wind powered craft
on the water. Many people in the sailing world like to complain that these records
shouldn’t count because kiteboarders aren’t real sailboats, but the plain truth is that
kiteboarders with stock kites and a few custom boards are faster than the speedspecific
sailboats built just for this record that have budgets stretching into the
hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
Luderitz is a very remote town, so there’s not a lot to do there while waiting for the
wind to come up enough for record attempts. Alex Caizergues said, “Luderitz is really
a special place stuck between the Namib Desert, some diamonds mines, and the
cold Atlantic Ocean. The town is really quiet, I mean too quiet, and sometimes the
streets can be totally empty, like a ghost town, and that’s a very strange feeling!”
Sebastien Cattelan had to deal with putting on an event with limited resources. He
said, “The next town is 190 miles away. The only way to get to Luderitz is by car. You
can’t get everything you need, but we were able to find a 24-ton excavator to build
the course. An old German army truck was used by the Time Keeper and housed all
of his equipment. We used four shipping containers for storage and had a rescue
boat with a top speed of 45 knots. Everybody in town was very enthusiastic and
welcomed us like long lost family.” For Rob, the ample time gave him a chance to
question what he was doing there. “Mentally this place is a serious challenge for me.
The weather forecasts give you four or five days warning before a big 45-50 knot
blow. That’s plenty of time to ask yourself some serious questions. Do I need to put
By recording a run of 55.65 knots, Rob Douglas is now the fastest
kiteboarder (and sailor) on the planet. Photo Adrien Freville
myself in this situation What if I break something bad I’ve got a wife at home, I’m
not getting paid enough for this #@$@!, etc. You look for excuses to not run the
place at low tide. I let my coach Mike Gebhardt make the call to go or not go and
that left me with the task of just kiting. That helped take some of the pressure off
and kept the stress levels low!”
What makes the achievements of all the competitors at Luderitz this year even more
amazing is that the new speed course was a narrow trench with dirt on either side.
According to WSSRC rules, the water in the trench must be at least 18” deep, but at
low tide there wasn’t enough water to compete. Sebastien decided to close the end
of the channel to keep the water in, meaning that when riders crossed the finish line
at over 60 mph, they had 70-150 meters (depending on who you ask) of room to
stop before hitting dirt. “For some riders it was a mental challenge to have the end
of the channel closed,” said Sebastien. “They saw it as an obstacle at the end that
prevented them from keeping their speed up until the finish line. In an ideal world
we would have had a wider, longer channel, especially at the end, but this simply
was not possible – if we left the channel open we lost the water depth. If we did not
close the channel we would not have been able to reach the speeds we did.” The
decision to close the channel was controversial with some of the competitors, who
demanded it be left open. When asked about that, Cattelan said, “What people have
to remember is that this is an extreme sport and the competitors have to push their
limits in order to break the existing records. That is what makes this competition so
unique – we are pushing boundaries all the time and if people cannot cope with the
challenge then they should not be participating in an event like this.”
Every year the remote Namibian town
of Luderitz becomes home to the
fastest kiteboarders in the world for
five weeks. Photo Kolesky/Nikon/Lexar
For a video interview with Rob
Douglas as well as video of his
record run and his crash, go to
www.thekiteboarder.com/2010/11/
video-interview-with-rob-douglas/
Even the top competitors seem to be intimidated by this course. Rob said, “This course
was very fast and somewhat dangerous, but that comes with the territory. Imagine
stepping out of a jeep as it screams across the beach at 65+ mph. Now hook into to
your favorite 9 meter — hairy and gnarly for sure!” Alex Caizergues, who finished third
at the event with a run of 54.93 knots, said, “The exit was crazy, with only 70 meters
after the finish line to decelerate from more than 100 kph to zero! The only way to stop
before hitting the shore (full of rocks) and then the hill was to crash the kite as soon as
you passed the finish line and pray that you didn’t tangle your lines.”
Kiteboarding
By Paul Lang
in a
12 thekiteboarder.com
at
Ditch 64 MPH
With only a few days to go at the 2010 Luderitz Speed
Challenge in Namibia, 45 knots of wind blew across
the new course and previous speed records were
destroyed. In one day, Sebastien Cattelan pushed the record
past 55 knots for the first time (55.49 knots) only to be
quickly outdone by Rob Douglas who bumped the record to
55.65 knots. Charlotte Consorti became the fastest women
and the first over 50 knots with a 50.43 knot run while Sophie
Routboul was the second fastest woman with an average
speed of 48.64 knots, a run she did with a broken hand.
After his record-setting run, Rob decided to do one more run as the immediate
result isn’t always completely accurate. “I took a second run just in case as the
speeds you see on the display after a run are estimated and can go up or down .2
to .5 of a knot. After crossing the finish, I crashed and got my legs caught in the bar
and lines. With the kite looping and dragging me feet first at 45+ knots I went over
the sand and snapped my wrist as I tried to get to the release. I flew home to Boston
for surgery the next day and the Doc expects a full recovery. Three days before the
run I told my younger brother Jamie that I was willing to break an ankle or wrist for
the new record, but nothing more, and that’s what happened.
Organizer Sebastien Cattelan decided to close the channel at the end of the run, a
controversial move that was designed to keep the water level in the ditch high enough to
compete. Photo Adrien Freville
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