The first day of the event followed a week of hard storms. Clear skies and great on shore switching to side-on shore winds followed. Buggiers, Kite Boarders, and Kite Ground Boarders (KGB) came from all over the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand.

Buggy:

The conditions for riding were great, typical of Sunset Beach. The westerly winds allowed riders of all sorts to make fast 10-12 mile reaches along Oregon’s hard packed shoreline. Buggier’s set up with big foots could use the dune fields and terain; the riders were catching massive air at high speeds using the dunes like launch ramps. My man Elton from San Fran showed us how it’s done by putting on a buggy flatland huck fest with his Razors.

On the KGB side of things:

The main attraction was a launch ramp, artificial terrain, built specifically for SOBB. I threw it together, not realizing the potential and the new direction for KGB. With a 52 degree pitch, the ramp sent riders staight up, really high. Even in light wind it was easy to catch over 10 feet of air and pull hard tricks. Some of the buggiers even looked at taking on the Ramp. With ramps on the beach, the potential for rad airs became unlimited.

Water Fun:

Brian Schenck from WindzUp was the first to bust out his kite skim boarding skills. During high tides, if the wind’s not good for kite boarding, just grab a skim board! I grabbed my skim board and joined in; pot shuvits and small airs kept us happy in between low tides. When the wind was good, we took the Frenzy 04’s out for some kite boarding. I personally took a couple runs so far out that I couldn’t see land when I looked back - I might have even spotted china! The waves were pounding as we had just had some major storms, so the wave riding was the best it’s been in a long time. With big waves, come strong currents, making it impossible to stay upwind in the long shore current. So Richard Ridgeway let us park his van 6 miles down wind of the event so we could enjoy the nice wave riding sessions. Thanks Richard!

The event was a great success, after this year and the buzz it gave all the participants, it’s sure to be even better next year! I for one am looking forward, after this winter and all the kite snow boarding I can digest, to get back to the SOBB Event!

Eli OUT!

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