Hats off to Dale..... he was the fastest by a country mile & deserves the win.
You can't say that so and so would have one - had he not been disqualified.... If the so and so started in front of everyone else.
Anyway.... Next year there will be others that jump the start and get disqualified and we will have this same conversation all over again.
The only thing that was disappointing, was that, if it were true, disqualified racers were not made aware that they had been disqualified until after the race had been completely finished and the results announced.
Reminds me of the Gran Prix that Senna was disqualified for hours after he crossed the line in 1st place. Guys should be told asap when they are no longer in the competition.
... how far was the race, if its done in 14:58:45 min, and 19 km, is that an average speed, what, roughly 42 knots?? Wow, is that right???? What sort of wind was there to get 42 knots?? Maybe I read the numbers wrong???? 
!4:58'45 was the time the first (official) kiter finished, the race started at 14:30 so just over 28 minutes.
The wind was only around 13-15 knots I think, (perfect conditions for a 16mtr kite if you had one 
)
... ahhh I see, I should have seen that, been drinking abit so the right side of the brain is a bit slow!!! cheers!! 
"It's then up to the competitor to decide if he or she is over and restart the race. If you fail to restart the race and you are over the line then you are disqualified."
Yup. A time penalty is a ridiculous idea and impossible to police, also the person that jumps the start can wind shadow those behind them and also block tack/shadow them the whole way around the course.
Select to expand quote
The L2L will become a world famous (already is no doubt) kite racing classic, it will evolve, discussion by kiters will help that process and improve the race.
... its like Sydney to Hobart, lots of us wanna give it a crack!
steve steve steve
doesnt mater if hudo won , end of the day he crossed the start line early end of story full stop.
they were the rules we all new that in the pre race briefing .
hell half the race fleet were still on the beach when the race started,we couldnt get of thge beach because the kites kept luffing and falling out of the sky, but im not complaining
,
ill learn from that for next year so will alot of people,
such is life
In yacht racing if you cross the line early you have to do the penalty or be disqualified. It doesn't matter if you were 00:00:01 seconds premature or 4 hours, that's the rules.
Generally how it works with yacht racing is that you will have the different flags until the start time- 1 flag is the class- the other is time left (5, 1 and start). Once the start flag goes up if there has been any false starts then a penalty flag is raised on the start boat and it is up to the sailor to determine if he wants to loop back around and go through the start again or risk disqualification. In junior sailing often a rubber duck would come by and let you know also but pretty hard hard in a big kiting fleet.
Not sure how the L2L worked, I heard there was issues with the flags but there should be some sort of indication on the water in future years to see if you may have false started. That being said they can make the rules however they wish and you race by them. A false start is a false start, its pretty rude to start discrediting people who followed the race rules saying they only won because ....
With all this start line stuff, before we go re inventing the wheel so to speak and come up with new rules that sound great.
Kite racing should be looking towards the sailing rules, these have evolved over a hundred years and are tried and tested and work
There are plenty of sports that get more than one crack if they stuff up.
Take a sprinter, they can restart a race if someone breaks the start, three strikes and your out and they have a line drawn on the ground 5mm in front of them!
With sailing the start line is not a white line you can see in front of you to be clear about it.
With craft either side of you, you may not even be able to see either end of the start line, hell the line can even be moving by 2 or 3 feet as the boat is moving around on it's anchor.
We are not sitting there with the brakes on waiting for a green light in front of us. We have waves, wind gusts and other craft jostling for position and we are supposed to keep clear of each other and the green light is behind our back, we deserve a bit of slack because of all these variables
I believe it is unfair to use some of the sailing rules but exclude others, they all work together to give every competitor a fair go and the penalties always penalise the competitor more than he gained for what ever infringement he made.
Imagine a boat coming from half way around the world for the Sydney to Hobart and he is forced over the start by another competitor, he maybe only 1 second over the line, re starting by going around the end of the start line will put him maybe a min or two behind, that is a big penalty for only being 1 second over, but the rules work and are fair and take all the other factors into account
remember a champion will rise to the top 
It is possible if you are close to the start line that some craft can be pushed over by someone below you calling you up, that is another rule were you have to stay clear of competitors downwind of you and this may mean going over the line.
In this scenario the race officials do not notify an individual competitor they have crossed the line, but just indicate by way of flag and or horn, but it is up to each competitor to make a judgement whether it was them, if they think is was them then it would be a clear case where the competitor deserves the right to penalise himself by rerounding the start line.
This allows the race to continue as planned without a general recall of the whole fleet. There will still be a protest lodged by officials, If two people are over and only one re rounds the start line then old mate just stands up and says he followed the rules and penalised himself already, if the officials can verify this fact the other guy will be out and has to cop it on the chin, they move onto the next protest and declare a winner!
Personally I think anybody saying you should be out of the race if you are over an imaginary line has never actually done any competition sailing in their life.
These people do not know all the rules, if they wish to participate they will need to learn them, no good knowing your port from starboard and forget about the rest!
But most importantly what ever happens on the day we have to be thankfull there is a guy willing to be on a start boat rather than actually kiting and we all have the same rules to go by so have no one else to blame but ourselves if we get it wrong
Lets race 
I love the suggestion that competitors who "jump the start" should be notified so they can go around and do it properly.
Unless you have radio kits on every kiter and a team of radio operators it is logistically impossible......and just pathetic really.
if this happens count me out.......not to mention kiting reputation in the toilet as being controlled by pencil pushers.
can People just take responsibility for their stuff ups.
If you want to change what is an excellent event don't whine on this site, contact WAKSA, volunteer to run the event, go and spend weeks organizing it and then if you want to change what was a simple format then good luck to you.
Just remember that Senna example......F1 has never recovered it's reputation since ( and this is a sport where $millions are up for grabs) do we really want kiting to go that way.
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The starting was well organised and no dramas. The same as last year - where no-one jumped the gun.
The fact that people jumped the gun was their problem, not the marshalls. The rules were available from the day the event was announced and also presenetd again for questions in the briefing.
Hudson stuffed up - i say unlucky mate now wipe those tears HTFU and get back here next year with renewed spirit and a clear understanding of the rules.
Oh and this......
remember a champion will rise to the top
Can't say my time as above is accurate as I looked at my GPS and it was pretty sketchy at start as I was being pulled under water alot at time and think we may have got a thrashing for 6 min not 9min as I thought. Gps track had big holes in it as I was travelling below 3knots at time of miss adventure at start. Checking my gps my time certainly wasn't 25mins more like high 27min. My average speed on GPS was more towards high 27minutes, I was dragging alot of weed with my rear fin as were most who had longer non surf type fins, back to the drawing board, get out the grinder and resin and get some smaller fins. I also had a perfect open ocean race from my start to finish without 1 other kiter in sight until 3/4 trough race so I had to deal with no other kiters blocking me or taking my wind for 1st 3km of race. I also got into the wake of a 30ft pleasure boat for 4-5km who was doing 20knots plus and that made my ride nice and flat through Gage Rodes to first ship. Ultimately none of this tread is valid as times by race officals are the only ones that count and all other riders times a non event. Until next years event. Where you can become an valid event - if you follow the rules.
Woah. This is unexpected.
The situation is pretty simple. I didn't win. Not even close. I false started and was disqualified. Like others have already said, those are the rules and they were clear from the beginning.
I had a great time on the day and it was a great experience.
I am super stoked that Dale won. He deserves all the credit for his victory. Well done mate.
Congratulations also to Marty and all the other competitors that make it such a great event.
Lastly, my opinion is that the rules are good the way they are.
Thanks,
Hudson
On start line an totally inexperienced racer/kiter looped his kite through my lines as I passed him on line, he was stalled and bogging on line( he should have given way to everyone as he was making no progress on line before start) and didn't realise 30 kiters were passing him, our kites tangles and dropped into briny. As he told me later he didn't even know he was on the pin end of start ( that is up wind end of line closest to starting mark we were only metres from boat as he tangled me I was doing about 15 knots) and he had 30 kiters around him. Thats racing. Yes many gps programmes all have peak times , averages etc. Great for CR racing as you can kites by yourself and still push yourself. But racing in a pack is always the best experience as things just happen you never expected.
My mistake was not to realise how many kiters had no idea of racing rules I reckon about 80% to 90%, even if the officals rant on about the rules many times before race, the experienced racers just seem to freak out on start line. As proven by all the kiters who broke start and why this thread is running.
IMO after all of that I still reckon the format is perfect, super for all kiters, you get exciting starts, only way to start 110 kites on the ocean, a great race and all can have a go, I reckon the more experienced racers just have to avoid the pack of noobs. 1st one across the line ( that starts correctly) wins it. Go the Hobo. ( thats Dale by the way)
