Kiteboarding Clinic with Nuria Goma and Jessica, courtesy of Liquid Force.

Several months ago a mutual friend, Adam Koch, introduced Nuria Goma and me on Facebook on the basis that we both ride Liquid Force, we were both going to be in La Ventana in January and February, and we love to promote the sport. Online we started talking about hosting a free kite boarding clinic with Liquid Force here at Playa Central Kiteboarding and we were both very happy with the turn out.

Watch the 1:30 minute candid video clip of Jessica explaining how to water start on a strapless.

Nuria and I decided we would focus on encouraging intermediate riders on strapless boards. We covered water starting, difference between tacks and jives, how to jive, hot to switch to toe side while heading the same direction, turning into toe side, etc. We also covered twin tip technique and how to turn, jump, ride toe side, do jump transitions, etc.

Nuria and Jessica helping Rosalie, a Bay Area kiter who visits La Ventana every year.

At sign up we gave everybody a piece of paper and had them write down 1-3 key skills they wanted to work on and had them drop it into a Liquid Force helmet. We drew out the questions and together covered them all. After the lesson Liquid Force provided kites and boards for demo and the clinic. People loved the Fish, a great beginner surf board.

Nuria handled most of the twin tip and freestyle questions while I gave the strapless tips and pointers. Once on the beach we decided to divide the group in two, and each one of us work with our area. While rigging the gear, La Ventana just started nooking. It went from 18-48 mph in about 90 minutes from when the clinic started. Only the more advanced riders decided to go out on 5m, 6m and 7ms. We were all overpowered and decided to just free ride. Although we would have liked to get close to the students and give instruction, it was still pretty fun to just have a session with them.

For lessons and more kite camps in La Ventana, we recommend Playa Central Kiteboarding.

La Ventana Race Series at Playa Central Kiteboarding

From November to March Playa Central hosts the La Ventana Race Series the third Monday of every month. Sponsors and cohosts include Pro Windsurf Ventana, Air Rush Kites, Captain Kirk´s, the Flying High Resort, Diamante Real Estate and Liquid Force Kites. It is a slalom course designed by Tyson Poor and the race is directed by Dave Tyburski. Windsurfers and kiters race a five buoy slalom course and we run 5 races a day. Playa Central serves lunch and drink specials and spectators come to enjoy an exciting day of racing.

Tyson Poor designs the slalom course for the La Ventana Race Series

Dave Tybursky from Airush directing the La Ventana Series at Playa Central.

In November there were 10 skippers who participated and the results were 1. Tyson Poor (windsurf), 2. Adam Withington Sanchez (kiteboard), 3. Lyn Preuitt (windsurf). By the second race the enrollment doubled to 20 skippers, and the results were 1. Tyson Poor (windsurf), 2. Adam Withington Sanchez (kiteboard) 3. Dan Koff and Gabor Vagi. There were also kiters who were racing for their first time and afterward said it was the best time they have ever had on the water.

This is the 1st race ever held of the La Ventana Race Series at Playa Central.

Dan Koff and Gabor Vagi tied, this picture captures their experience in the race pretty well, photo from the December Race.

The official La Ventana Race Series T-Shirt has the seires´ logo on the front, which has the tip of the Cerralvo Island in the background with kite and windsurf sillhouettes lined up at a start line. The long sleeves say La Ventana on the left one, and Race Series on the right one, and the back of the shirt has our sponsors. You can buy them at Playa Central for 20 usd.

What inspired the La Ventana Race Series?

Vivien and I (Jessica) from Playa Central went on a 10 week roadtrip to CA and OR over this 2011 summer and the events we enjoyed the most were the three Thursday Night Races we got to race in at the St Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. While there we found out that Captain Kirk´s, a great hotel in La Ventana owned by our friends Kitty and Kirk, were one of the sponsors of the race. It also happened that Tyson Poor and Wyatt Miller form Pro Windsurf Ventana had mentioned the idea of running races out of Playa Central a year ealier. But it took us actually being in races, experiencing the sportsmanship of the whole deal, being at the startline when that cornette blows, and the best part, making friends with new people in new places to get us excited about the idea of hosting races in La Ventana.

Our brother, Adam Withington, has been racing for a couple of years and is on Liquid Force´s International team. For 2012, Liquid Force has their new NRG kites designed for racing, so lets just say that was another great reason to put on a race series.

Wyatt Miller (Pro Windsurf Ventana), Cynbad Brown (Baja Boardriders), and Adam Withington (Liquid Force) getting ready to head out to the start line.

The first week of Novomber Tyson, Dave Tibursky and I got together a few mornings over coffee and talked about some ideas and from there on everything has fallen into place. We now have volunteers who help with the finish line and buoy set up, a special thanks to Padre David and Johnnie. We are also getting great feedback from all the participants and have gotten requests to make this a weekly or every other week event. We think we will keep in monthly for this year, and maybe run the race trwice a month starting next November.

By the 2nd race enrollment doubled, and we had 20 skippers.

Padre David and Jessica Withington getting the heats ready before the race.

The slalom course makes it pretty equal for windsurfers and kiters since we can cut around buoys quickly, which is our advantage, but windsurfers usually gain speed quicker than kiters do from buoy to buoy. Kiters have a hard time power strocking their kite since we have to be careful with the tall masts of the windsurfers in front of us. If a windsurfer is behind and just downwind of a kiter, the kiter probably has their kite low and w

indsurfers simply cannot get by if they want to speed up while keeping their line. All in all, we all feel like the slalom course is very fair for windsurfers and kiters to race in the same class.

As a spectator, it is also really fun to watch these guys commin´at you as fast as they can.

Here we have Adam Withington cutting around a buoy, you can see how much space windsurfers need and how Adam can zip around it.

Photo taken during the skippers meeting in December.

Jessica Withington and Tyson Poor leading the skippers meeting at Playa Central during the December race.

Chas Walter and Jessica Withington, both trying to get across that finish line first.

Chas said this was the most fun he has ever had on the water, and it was his first time racing!

Walk ins are welcome, and don´t worry if you have never raced before, look at Vivien and me, we never had raced up until recently and now we are running them! Beleive us, you might not do well your first time, but every race makes you a better kiter and after two or three you feel great and comfortable at the start line. And the best part before and after the race, when you hang out with everybody for race talk, beer talk, and more fun talk.

For more information you can email me at Jessica@playacentralkiteboarding.com and you can see lots more Pictures of the race on our Facebook page.

Book your lodging and kite lessons in La Ventana with us www.playacentralkiteboarding.com

Free Kiteboarding Self Rescue Clinic with Jessica at Playa Central in La Ventana

Jessica, the lead instructor at Playa Central Kiteboarding in La Ventana, offered a free clinic on how to do a self rescue and safety tips on how to handle unexpected situations. Her kite school instructs all level of kiteboarding and has found that even some advanced riders would benefit from a review like this. In this clinic she also encouraged people to feel comfortable enough to pull their safety release on the beach or in any unfriendly situation on a dime.

After announcing the clinic on her Facebook Page and a local Newsletter, Jessica had about 16 kiters of all ages show up at 10 AM and soak in tips on how to calmly self rescue, and what to do if you can´t remember any of the tips!

Here are some tips and FAQ´s from the clinic:

*When would I have to do a self rescue?

If you simply cannot re launch your kite after several attempts

If your lines are tangled/inverted/twisted and you have lost control of your kite.

If you and another sailor get tangled; and other unexpected situations.

* Step by step Self Rescue:

1. Execute your safety release (most safeties are push away safeties, make sure to know how to release from a kite before you use it in the water).

2. At this point you are not connected to your bar, only your leash will have tension and be connected to one of the center lines, and your bar and the 3 or 4 lines (depending on if it is a 4 or a 5 line kite) will bounce away from you toward your kite leaving all other lines with slack. When all the tension is on one line, the kite can no longer take shape of that solid wing, thus it will keep depowring the more slack the other lines and keep the tension on the leash line.

3. Pull yourself to your bar, wrap the line around one tip of your bar to secure that tension. Then grab all the lines and continue wrapping until you get to your kite, if you have rubber bands around your bar use it to keep the lines wrapped up. You will be tired, so rest here and catch your breath.

5. If your kite is face down on thew water, just like you would have it on the beach, then sometimes it is hard to flip the kite over belly up. Start at a wing tip if you can, and slowly get flip the leading edge over.

6. You will sail in toward the beach by using your kite as a sail by essentially holding the two wing tips. Sometimes you grab the back line and ce

nter bridal and feel out the kite and find the best position to sail with the kite. Remember the canopy needs to be exposed to the wind to get it to sail, so play around and find that sweet spot where you start actually sailing back to the beach.

* What if you cannot remember any of this?
Just release your kite, grab the only line you will be connected to (your lead through or leash line) and pull yourself to your kite, don´t bother rolling your lines up, and once you get to your kite make a sail our of it and sail back to shore.

Jessica´s school is open to everybody but it so happens that a third of our clients are kids! Yes, kids! Ages 8 and up, so if you are a parent please make sure to contact Jessica and ask about Kid Camps and special kid packages.

For great kiteboarding lessons in La Ventana reserve your spot by e-mailing jessica@playacentralkiteboarding.com or visit www.playacentralkiteboarding.com

You can also check out the link from The Kiteboarder´s website for beginner kiters:http://thekiteboarderschool.com/self-rescue/ to see some videos and read the tips they give you.

Happy Hour in La Ventana from 4-6 PM, at Playa Central

On October 1st Playa Central´s Bakery and Restaurant opened and started the season with a Happy Hour special where guests order a cocktail or wine and get free appetizers from 4-6 PM. After a day of kiteboarding it´s a releive to walk down to Playa Central, order a Margarita or a Mojito and enjoy the evening with pleasant appettizers being brought to your table while you sit at the beach bar and gaze at the bay and the Isla Cerralvo or enjoy with a group of friends. People often come a few times a week and bring other friends who have never been here for Happy Hour.

This picture is of the South end of the bay, you can see that La Ventana is an L Shaped Bay, ideal for beginner kiteboarding. In this picture we have owners of Diamante Real Estate in La Ventana and local homeowners enjoying Playa Central´s Happy Hour. Three people from this party just got off the water, and one of them will start taking lessons soon!

What is Happy Hour?

Free appetizers when you order any cocktail or wine. We have margaritas, mojitos, sex on the beach, screw drivers, sangria, red and white La Cetto wines from Northern Baja, Cuba Libres, and more.

When?

Every day from 4-6 PM.

What Free Appetizers do I get?

Garlic break, home made humus and flat bread, parmesan bean dip, ceviche tostadas, carrot soup espressos, mini pizzas, chicken wings, and more. Trust us, you want to check it out.

Pizzas and specials are served during and after Happy Hour, the view of the Cerralvo Island is beautiful! Look at the colors!

Some of our appetizers include garlic bread, flat bread and home made hummus, parmessan bean dip, carrot soup espressos, ceviche, and more. Our number one selling drink is our World Famous Margaritas, since we make each one with the best ingredients available. Our wine sellection is mostly La Cetto wines from Northern Baja, which Jessica picked out at the beginning of October to compliment the pizza and pasta recipes.

You can go to our website and visit out Wood Oven, where you can see our daily menu tweets as well as out daily pizza menu www.playacentralkiteboarding.com

Jessica loves the Petitte Sirah from L.A. Cetto, a spicy red wine that goes great with tomatos sauce and meat. Order a bottle of wine for a great price, come and see.

Playa Central´s Restaurant has a beach bar with a seating area and hammocks where you can enjoy the view of the bay, pink skies and the moon rise.

You should make it to Happy Hour, most of the people who have tried it have loved it and come throughout the week to wind down after a great day on the water. Welcome to Playa Central!

Thanks Sandy Parker, a pro's time goes a long way.

By Jessica Withington.

I met Sandy Parker in La Ventana in 2009 when she and the Live 2 Kite team headed down to Baja for the annual La Ventana Classic. After the 4 days of racing, big air and demos, she offered a free race clinic for women and I thought to myself, why not, it’s free and could be fun. Since that day at Sandy’s clinic I have competed in every race I happen to be at for the last 18 months, one of them being Thursday’s Race Night at Crissy Fields last week, where I placed 39 our of 51 on a strapless surfboard. My next move is to get my hands on a new fast race board and be a part of this technical and competitive side of kiteboarding and I owe all of this to Sandy’s willingness to share and promote her passion for women kiteboarding and racing.

La Ventana has a thermal wind from October through May and has become one of the greatest places to kite board, network, and be inspired to bring your kite boarding up a notch. That is where Sandy and I met.

Thursday Night Race at the St. Francis Yacht CLub at Crissy Field, June 16th, 2011. Jessica Withington, #50 Black places 39th out of 51 sailors. Inspired by Sandy Parker's free race clinic in La Ventana in January 2009.

As you might know, Vivien, Marcela and I are on a summer road trip on the West Coast of Mexico and the USA. Last month we raced in Puerto Vallarta during the same week Sandy hosted Kristin Boese’s KB4Girls clinic at her kite school, Kitopia, at the end of May. We were bummed we weren’t able to make it up to Sherman Island in time for it. Good news is we got to Sherman in June and were happy to see Sandy and told her that we saw all the great pictures of the clinic and wished we could have been a part of it. To our surprise, Sandy had a great proposal for us!

We got to Sherman on June 9th and were excited about all those windy days ahead of us. A special thanks to Maui Mike and his family for hooking the Playa Central Kiteboarding girls up with a terrific camper!

KB4G women's clinic at Kitopia on Sherman Island, May, 2011.

Unfortunately we couldn't make it for this day, but below you can see the picture from our evening clinic with Sandy Parker (We had the best photographer too! Keep reading).

The deal was that we would sign up to be members of KB4Girls and she would give us a free, private and casual KB4G clinic for the three of us, we said “Yes, please.”The first thing she did was talk to all of us about what new tricks or areas of improvement we wanted to work on. We all launched our 7m kites and began the clinic. We worked on back rolls, front rolls, down loops, toe side turns, pops, and jumps. Sandy would kite in front of us, do the trick, then watch us attempt it, correct our mistakes, and we would try it again and again. It is so nice to be pushed and encouraged by a great instructor and friend right by your side!

Marcela Ley, Sandy Parker, Vivien Withington and Jessica Withington after a great evening clinic with Sandy in spirit of KB4 Girls. Photo by Mike Zajicek, from Mikeslab Boards.

We asked Mike Zajicek if he could take a picture with the girls! He's the big name at Sherman these days, mainly because Adam Koch, Johny Heineken and Andrew Koch from Team Fluid will be racing Mikeslab boards at the Course Racing Worlds in Germany next week.

The only hazard that may come from women clinics is that sometimes the guys start jumping big, real close to shore, trying to impress us, and then we end up helping save their kite. There's Mike Zajicek.

After the clinic we thanked Sandy and talked about how it went for us. Marcela said the most important thing she understood from the clinic was how to do the “Load and Pop” and losing her fear of down looping her kite by having Sandy next to her. Vivien did lots of small jumps and load and pops, when we asked her what she got out of the clinic she said simply “I used to never try new things because I was afraid of falling, but today I fell so much that I don’t mind falling anymore”. So, even if it's just to learn that falling isn't so bad, these clinics will change the way you approach kite boarding on your next session. Trust us.

Jessica Withington in La Ventana, in front of Playa Central doing a back roll. In Sandy's clinic she got to work on her front roll.

What I have learned the most is that just a little time with a pro instructor goes a long way. That may mean that paying for a 2 hour lesson or a clinic can improve your lesson and is worth the money since you make your kite boarding more fun and technical. And it also means that when a pro rider takes their time to help new kite boarders learn more about the sport, it ultimately puts more people on the start line, indirectly creates social media about kite boarding and personal experiences, promotes the sport and helps the industry grow. Playa Central Kiteboarding and all three of us girls would like to thank Sandy Parker and Kristin Boese for all their efforts with KB4Girls and encourage any new kiteboarder or advanced kiteboarder to go to any clinics available near you.

1st Stop: Mexican National Tournament in Puerto Vallarta May 20-23rd

Preface: Playa Central had it’s first season in La Ventana as a Bakery Restaurant and Kiteschool. It was a fun year meeting new clients, greeting old friends, and working hard on and off the water. Jessica and Vivien Withington managed both businesses at Playa Central, and Marcela Ley was a yoga instructor and worked at the Bakery. All three of us girls felt that we didn´t get to kite enough and deserved about a dozen weeks of pure kiteboarding, so we decided to take summer road trip starting May 17^th! Our friend Pinky who also was a member of the Playa Central crew this season met us in Vallarta for the event. We wish he could have joined us for the whole road trip, maybe next year!

Jessica, Marcela, Vivien, Pinky and Baby Bobo at the Bakery. Photo taken March, 2011.

Vivien and Jessica left Playa Central and drove down the road to pick up Dalaney Overstreet, owner of the Flying High Resort in La Ventana, and headed to La Paz to drive onto a Baja Ferri to cross the Sea of Cortez over to Mazatlan. We arrived at 12 pm and drove South to Puerto Vallarta to compete in the Festival de Viento 2011, a Mexican National Kiteboarding tournament.

Jessica navigated while Vivien drove.

Dalaney slept for the most part.

Finally we got to Vallarta and met Marcela! We spent our first day at Sayulita,
a hot little surf town in the Bay.

Our brother Adam flew in for the event and we all headed to the event site where we were greeted by the Mexican Association of Kiteboarding and enrolled in the Freestyle and the Race categories. Upon enrollment we got a T-Shirt, licra, Havaiiana sandals and meal and drink tickets, they also gave us a bracelet which let all competitors have Open Bar privileges at the night parties at different hot spots in Vallarta. HBO was there to film and interview some of the competitors, including Adam!

Fernanda Ochoa, Adam, Jessica, Vivien and Paula Ochoa at the skippers meeting.

The inauguration of the tournament was held May 20^th at the Vallarta Marina where the racers would start and kiteboard to the finish line 8 miles downwind, at the event site. Over 150 competitors enrolled, for many it was their 3rd or 4th time in the race. Marcela won third place women’s, way to go!

The competitors walking to the skippers meeting just before the race.
There´s Vivien with the event T-Shirt on.

Congratulations Marcela for your 3rd place in the race!
1. Warenka Smutney, 2 Raquel Arroyo, 3. Marcela Ley

The event site was at a beach called Bucerias and gets an onshore thermal wind April, May and June that comes in around 1 pm and lasts until 5 or 6pm. There were more than 20 knots every day during the event, most competitors had their 7ms, 9ms and 10ms. There were 4 judges and a head judge, after the downwind race the freestyle began and we got through the first elimination.

Bucerias is in the Banderas Bay, by Puerto Vallarta. No wetsuit needed! Bikini kiteboarding.



Dalaney Overstreet, Paula Ochoa and Adam Withington.
The best part of the event was seeing all of our friends!
Vivien and Jessica with Paul Ramos, designer of Kush Clothesline, and dear friend Diana Valles Rojas. Girl Kiteboarding Power!

El Tate, Marcela and Adam with zinc! Thank you Red Bull for the shade.

The next morning we all had a big breakfast of spinach, tomatoes, onions, jalapenos and scrambled eggs, with corn tortillas and avocado. We arrived at the event site and rigged upwind, we were all excited to compete in the freestyle. The heats were 6 minutes long, with four riders in each heat. The final results were:

Men’s Final: 1. Luis Miguel Avila, 2. Adam Withington from Playa Central, 3. Fernando de La Torre, 4. Diego Tron

For the 8 minute freestyle heat I went out on my Liquid Force board to do some jumps, rolls, and moves, and 4 minuted into it I switched to an ANDO strapless to show off my surf moves. I think the judges liked the variety since they placed me 3rd!

Women’s Final: 1. Warenka Smutney, 2.Raquel Arroyo, 3. Jessica Withington and
4. Marcela Ley.

To top it all off, they raffled a Go Pro camera amongst all the 150 kiters and Marcela won it! What a great addition to our road trip gear for this summer.

We stayed at our friend Augusto´s house, a good kiter who spends part of his winter in La Ventana. Thank you Augusto, AKA Chuba!

It was so nice to go from the salty bay to the fresh pool. We kited from our house!

It was a great way to start our trip and we are more excited than ever to head up to CA and OR in the next few weeks and rip it up. We will keep you guys posted. Make sure to share this link. We´ll be using the Go Pro for sure!