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!