We love our annual month-long visit to Charleston, SC, and not just because it’s one of America’s most beautiful cities. What we love most about Chucktown is the fact that it’s one of very few East Coast towns that fully embraces the maritime lifestyle, and it’s growing up with an eye towards the sea. It started with Charleston Race Week shining the spotlight on the harbor and it’s surrounding coast, but now we’ve got the Fort2Battery, big E-Scow fleets, and for at least a few months in Spring, Charleston is the center of high performance wind-powered action in the USA. Above you’ll find a short pre-race report from Saturday’s Fort2Battery where we grabbed a few minutes with motherfucking Bill Murray, who was on the water actually spectating the Fort2Battery on Saturday – and he’s a kiteboarder (sort of)! Here’s the post-race recap from founder Tim Fitzgerald. And if you want to watch Clean get beat to shit learning how to kiteboard today, keep an eye on SA Facebook.
What a weekend. It’s hard to believe we got away with one again, and we’re 4 for 4 on getting a race complete. I think this was the most difficult one yet because by the time we’d know if we would have enough wind– people already had to be in motion and in position.
Shea nailed the forecast again for us. Even though it was light, it was spot on. If you look at the wind graph- we raced during the exact highest winds of the day which only lasted about an hour.
I’m glad the party was fun and the BBQ contest was insane – the race was even close and exciting, with the top 5 finishing within a few seconds. I’m bummed that there were a lot of people still on the beach at race time, but that’s just the wind!
Mostly because it’s so cool to see 70 kites in the air all running toward the same spot. So this summer I’ll try to get something new together that’s easier to organize, free to enter, quick and fun.
I’m thinking it’ll be a drag race of sorts down Sullivans and ending at IOP pier or something like a big downwinder. Maybe a race, maybe a rally of sorts. We’ll keep an eye on forecast for a big weekend when the tides are right and see if we can make something happen. Along the beaches it’s much easier since we don’t need a fleet of safety boats.
Be sure to check out the results, videos from race day and photos on the Facebook page. There’s also a great gallery from Grace Adam on the water, and Mac Dickson who was shooting from the red Holy City Helicopter.
