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.