KITESKIER BLOWS OUT SAILBOARDS!
Santa Barbara student and kiteskier Cory Roesseler made history in the 1989 Gorge Cities Blowout, a 20 mile sailboard race, on July 21, 1989. Roesseler finished the race in 56 minutes, breaking the existing course record by more than 10 minutes!

Cory began the race in a (typically for him) unorthodox manner. Having pre-launched his 3-kite stack of Flexifoil kites (one 16'-er and two 12'6"-erstotal sail area 100 square feet), he awaited the starting gun, while being literally held down by Jon Waters of Catch-The-Wind kites and Tony Russi, Boeing engineer and kitecraft consultant. Thirty seconds before the start, a "pretty good" gust of wind caught the kites, lifting all three men off the beach. Jon and Tony wisely let go and Cory was offstraight up!

Fortunately, he was able to recover and sail back and forth, staying behind the starting line, until the gun went off. Cory then sailed through virtually the entire fleet of 180 of the best boardsailors in the world within the first mile. He never looked back and by mile ten, was half a mile ahead of all but 3 or 4 sailors and had passed even the leader, Nevin Sayer.

The TV camera helicopter caught lots of great shots as Cory leaped over the six foot swells, sometimes hitting altitudes of fifteen feet and jumping 40-50 feet downwind.

The tremendous pounding, along with gusts as high as 45 mph finally took their toll. At mile eleven, one of his kite spar tips broke and the first kite became useless, slowing the rest of the stack. Cory continued to sail, at speeds of over 30 mph, and finished the last five miles neck and neck with Sayer.

Upon rounding the last mark, Cory discovered that his damaged rig made him incapable of sailing to windward, up to the finish line! Sayer did cross, to cheers, world acclaim, and big cash prizes. Cory sailed into the beach, secure in the knowledge that he could beat the world's best and that, finally, kitesailing was on the map in world-class sailing events.