A new record for kitesurfing from Rottnest Island to Leighton Beach, Fremantle was set today when German expat Marvin Baumeister made the crossing in just 23 minutes and 50 seconds in the 19km Lighthouse to Leighton race. Marvin lead from the start and held a strong lead, despite coming off his board after hitting seaweed.

He beat World Speed Record Holder Frenchman Alex Caizergues who also competed today and who's fiancee Marie Desandre Navarre was the fastest woman to finish in 30 minutes and 35 seconds (previous record of 24 minutes and 34 seconds). Second fastest was Course Race World Champion Florian Gruber from Germany and Fastest West Australian was third placed Torvar Mirsky from Fremantle.

The Lighthouse to Leighton is part of this week's Kiteracing Oceanic Championships which finish tomorrow at Leighton Beach.

MENS OVERALL

1. Marvin Baumeister (GER) Record time: 23.50
2. Florian Gruber (GER)
3. Torvar Mirsky (AUS)

WOMENS OVERALL

1. Marie Desandre Navarre (FRA)
2. Ariane Imbert (FRA)
3. Lisa Hickman (AUS)

puppetonastring said..

One very happy chappy.
Marvin - you must be busting at the seems coming in 1st against that classy field.
Great Work dude.

But whats with this germany thing??? Cmon - surely if you werent an Ozzie before this day of glory you sure are now.
We like our local heroes.

North QLDer eh , Well done Bunge. Lads cant believe it. wow.

Probably huge in our terms slave.
These race guys have light wind totally covered.
With gear to match the wind puffs they can crank up the speed cos the water surface is less challenging.
Hmmm beginning to think there is something to this new racing craze.

OMG not another learning curve - Im too old for curves

Top effort by the winning riders, first five places all on Ozone kites!

Great effort Marvin

Thats awesome stuff dude - congratulations on kickin ass

And the board is for sale $0

Guys hes a Kitesurfer - build a bridge & forget Politics ....

Congrats Marvin! Well done.

SaveTheWhales said..

Guys hes a Kitesurfer - build a bridge & forget Politics ....

while I was trying to be humorous, not political with the "claiming" thing.. you know how good aussies are at claiming foreigners as their own when it suits

but build a bridge?.. come to think of it - I've done 1 in the last year and another coming up later next year

and Marv.. what about the Olympics!?

Great effort by Marvin B to win and set a new record, especially looking at the class field. Well done!

sir ROWDY said..
Kiting isn't in the Olympics anymore...

oops

Wow 23 min over 19 km... Must have been averaging over 60 km/h in the faster sections. Not bad for "glassy" conditions!

niall it's been the same in previous years with the wake of the lead boat that's why it pays to be out in front. You would need to ask the front runners how much of an advantage it is and for how long was the winner/s slotted into the wake of the lead boat.

hey guys,

thanks for the kind words and especially a massive thanks to Tim for organising another epic event and looking after myself, Rikki, Flo and Alejandro like he did!
It was mostly his effort that guys like Alex C, Rikki and Flo came to Perth to race and they will all come back 100%.

After travelling the whole world for racing and freestyle the L2L is still the funnest and most challenging comp I have done especially with 3 major racing regattas in my legs the 4 weeks prior to this race.

The days before the L2L must have been nerve wrecking for Tim and his team as forecast was very unpredictable.

On the day it looked ok. On the ferry over to Rotto it looked liked no seaweed at all and we were all relived hoping for a fast race without crashing.
We had 13-15knts on Rotto and us guys on directional pumped 13m kites, the foilers 10/11m and the twintips 17-19m.

I had my 13m Ozone edge on short lines rigged and my slalom with 32cm fins as it was light and I didn't want to take smaller fins.

Florian and Alejandro did same.

10mins prior to start I went out and there was seaweed everywhere. I crashed few times before start.

At the start lined up with the foilers as I expected them to have a good start. However, there was so much weed I crashed 3 times in the first 2km and I just cldnt get going. I saw the field getting away from me 500m ahead.

I got frustrated trying to jump of the weed on my fins, trying to slalom around it. Then the water cleared up and I started to find my groove.
I caught up to the group passing Jordan, Alex, Olly and Torvar.

My backleg was already cramping up so I took it easy once I had a good lead on this group. One more big crash next to boats in heavy seaweed line. I tried to get going but too much weed on fins so I had to stop swing board around and take weed of fins.

I started following the lead boat which was a mistakes since it did not go in straight line. A few others behind me told me I was going zigzag.. I also tried to go in the 'smooth' water behind boat but felt like my fins didn't grip in the wash so I went out of it.

When I checked my watch and I saw the beach coming closer with 19mins on my watch I went from cruising mode to full speed and put the hammer down.

Stoked to win and set a new record but I reckon with less weed, more wind (lit on 10m or 7m kites) and fresh legs im sure we will go faster next year foiling or on slaloms ;)


gear is used:

Ozone Edge 13m 21m lines
Temavento Sl 63 Slalom
Tectonics T43 32cm
weight 80kg


Congrats to all racers that did the race

Gear: 13m Edge, 7'4 Slalom Board, Single Rista Fin held in with some rope and potted with some know-how

Thanks to Tim, WAKSA and the L2L crew for another amazing event.

Perfect conditions for the race, it really was record breaking material with not much weed around after the start and super flat water. Any more wind and it would be slower with all the chop.

When Marvin went past me he looked like he was going at Mach 5, and I wasn't going too slowly (I ended up 5th). Congrats on a win with style! Hats off to all the guys who did the race on a full raceboard set up, I hope your legs have recovered by now!

I will definitely do a lot more testing this year and see you all next year with a new secret weapon! Thanks to everyone who signed my board, it will make a great wall item!