LORD OF THE WIND 2017

Posted by Ian Gibson on Jan 29, 2017
 
The 7th annual Lord of the Wind has wrapped up, and what a jam packed five days and six nights it has been! The competitors were amazing! And although we had less this year than last year, the skills demonstrated on the water were incredible!
This year was the first time that we had Boardercross. This is the slalom race with obstacles that look like giant hot-dogs. It is also the event that will be featured if Lord of the Wind hosts the 2018 Pan American Youth Olympic Prequalifying event next year. The competitors looked like they had a great time running the course. It was most definitely fun to watch! The hydrofoil course racing was, as always, great to see. And the freestyle and big air events were off the charts!
This all being said, the wind was not playing nicely throughout the 5 days. We had good wind on Wednesday, but then Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were difficult for the kiteboarders to even ride their foils. No problem…. What a great time to have an egg toss competition! The announcers, Chris Ernst and Grom Gromley, kept the audience entertained.
And as it always does… the wind came back. Sunday morning was a perfect day to fly a kite, which is what the young kids of Los Barriles did! At 9:00 in the morning, the children, after loading their bellies with free pancakes, filled the sky with the kites that they had made the prior day. Then, from 11:00 on the sky was filled with somewhat bigger kites pulling the riders up and out of the water for the amazing tricks of freestyle or the seemingly-forever-flights of big air! A KILLER day on the water!
 
After competing in four required event categories, we determined the best all around kitersurfers . We are proud to announce the crowning of the 2017 Lord and Lady of the Wind. Both kite surfers have won their respective titles for three years in a row – an amazing accomplishment and a testament to their exceptional ability.  
Lord of the Wind 2017 – Julien Kerneur
Lady of the Wind 2017 – Cynthia (Cynbad) Brown
(Due to a tabulating error, the Lady of the Wind 2017 was initially incorrectly awarded. The scoring and tabulation was reviewed and corrected by the race operation team. We deeply apologize for the confusion and thank all who were involved for their understanding and patience. Sincerely, The Lord of the Wind Team)
In addition to the action on the water, throughout the week there was a plethora of options for evening entertainment. Vagos and Joe’s Pizzeria opened up the festivities with a great welcome to our Lord of the Wind guests. Wednesday brought the Tamale Cook-Off, a great evening which also provides some much appreciated funding for the school. Smokey’s Grill & Cantina delivered rock’n roll with awesome margaritas (at least that was what I was having). Hotel Buena Vista put on a wonderful dinner and the auction was everything we could have hoped for (tipping the scale of $20,000)! The beach party at El Gecko’s started with the First Ever LOW International Beer Pong Championship and ended with fire dancing by the fire pit. The Awards Ceremony held by Palmas de Cortez was a beautiful place to close the week. My hat’s off to those who went to all the above…
In summary, this year’s Lord of the Wind was fantastic! The Lord of the Wind Team, the Los Barriles Rotary Club, and Baja Sports (the non-profit who provides the management oversight to the Lord of the Wind), would like to thank the community for the overwhelming support in putting on this event. The Lord of the Wind takes a ton of effort and significant finances, and it could not be done without your support. In the end, the proceeds from the Lord of the Wind go back into our community through the Rotary Club.
Follow this link for all the results: