Authors: Justin Cote

Authors: Patrick

Ben breaks down one of his favourite moves when riding on the Sunny Coast in side onshore winds.

Jeep kitesurfing instructional - Drop wallet from BENWILSONVISION on Vimeo.

Authors: Patrick

Kiteboarding, Windsurfing and SUP highlighted in “Sand Masters” 20th Episode.

The Lord of the Wind Showdown 2012
No Envy Who’s it Gonna Be…?

Los Barriles, Baja Mexico (December 12, 2011) - The Lord of the Wind Showdown (LOWS) is back! Considered one of the top extreme water sport events of 2011, LOW will again seek out the world’s top talent in kiteboarding, windsurfing and SUP, January 12-16, 2012.

Unique to the 2012 event will be the filming of Sand Masters 20th episode for the Travel Channel, produced by Painless Entertainment.

Sand Masters is a half-hour docu-series that follows a team of talented sand sculptors as they travel the globe building incredible works of art at some of the world’s premiere events.

“Kiteboarding and windsurfing will get a full episode on network TV. This is a wonderful opportunity for the wind sports industry!” Said executive producer and director of content, Erin Calmes, Keta Films and LOWS.

Painless Entertainment will shoot the segment alongside the theme of the event, The Lord of The Wind Showdown. No Envy. Who’s it Gonna Be…? A Kiteboarder or Windsurfer to take the title of Lord of The Wind and part of 20,000.00 in cash prizes!

“We’re excited that Sand Masters is on board for our second annual competition as their desire to be involved highlights both the success of our first event and the enthusiasm already in gear for 2012,” Chris Rogers and Dan Holbrook event organizers and owners said.

Experience The Lord of the Wind Showdown from anywhere around the world while EpicSessions.tv and Meta Café deliver live action and interviews. Participate directly in the event via live-chat and chime in on the action. Utilizing brand new exclusive motion tracking hardware from Epic Sessions, experience firsthand the competitive pressure of the winner-take-all Kiting Big Air and Showdown with live 3D data integration.

Chris Ernst of ESPN, X-Games, and the ASP World Tour, is the official host alongside Josh Sampiero of Windsurfing Magazine.

Send your athletes. It’s Gonna Be Good!! Register at Lordofthewindbaja.com

About:
The Lord of The Wind Showdown event takes place in the Sea of Cortez in Baja Mexico. The event is open to professionals, amateurs and spectators. The event is packed with non-stop course racing, freestyle and big air competitions ending with the face-off between windsurfers and kiteboarders to determine who is Lord of the Wind. Three days prior to the competition and event, LOWS is offering clinics with pro windsurfers and kiteboarders January 9th- 11th.

High Profile Sponsors and Partners include:
Hotel Palmas de Cortez, Postal Annex, Dakine, Corona, Wind Alert, Kiteworld, Kiteboarding and Windsurfing Magazine, Secretaria De Turismo Baja California Sur, Windsport Magazine, Pacifico, Kiteworld, Nextel, Epic Sessions, Director De Turismo Municipal La Paz, Transcend, Pro-Motion Wetsuits, Real Wind, Baja Goodlife, Ultra Nectar, BRP, Makani, Cofradia, Rotary International Los Barriles, Pepsi, Rockstar, National Car Rentals, Keta Films, Lori Makabe Photography, Exotikite, Cabrinha, Kiteboarding Baja, Gorge Surf Shop, Keops and many others.

LORD OF THE WIND SHOWDOWN Schedule:

Thursday, January 12th Hotel Palmas de Cortez
Final Registration and Mandatory Check-In Noon until 6:00pm
Networking @ the Pool Bar
No-Host Mexican Dinner Buffet: 6:00 – 7:00pm
Mandatory Skippers Meeting: 7:00 -8:30pm @ Palmas de Cortez Banquet Room
Pray to the Wind & Welcome Party & Live Band: 8:30pm – midnight, on the playa @ Palmas de Cortez

Friday, January 13th Course Racing: Kiteboarding & Windsurfing
Skippers Meeting 9:00 am: Lord of the Wind Showdown tent @ race site announcer’s stage
Expert Class Racing
Amateur & Masters Racing
Beach Party Bonfire and Battle of the Bands at the race site; exhibits, concessions/ 8pm to midnight

Saturday, January 14th Kiteboard Slalom Racing & Freestyle Windsurfing
Skippers Meeting 9:00 am @ race site announcer’s stage
Standup Paddle Board Competition
Kiteboard Slalom Expert, Amateur, Masters
Windsurfing Freestyle Expert & Amateur
6:00 pm. Bikini Contest (1st round) & Beach Party @ Hotel Playa del Sol
7:00 pm. Pig Roast on the beach @ Vela Resort-Hotel Playa del Sol with live music and DJ/ 8pm to midnight

Sunday, January 15th Kiteboarding Big Air & Windsurf Slalom
Skippers Meeting 9:00 am @ race site announcer’s stage
Kiteboarding Big Air Expert, Amateur & Masters
Windsurfing Slalom Expert, Amateur & Masters
6:00pm Bikini Contest Finals & Beach Party @ race site
8:00pm-1am Beach Party with Bands @ race site

Monday, January 16th Final Long Distance Showdown Race!
Skippers meeting 9am @ race site announcer’s stage
Final Showdown Race All classes
6pm AWARDS PRESENTATION, RAFFLES, AND DINNER @ HOTEL PALMAS DE CORTEZ
LIVE MUSIC, BANDS AND PARTY UNTIL 2AM!

Authors: Patrick

 Who’d have thought a conference based at the beach in Maui would attract some of the Valley’s most successful entrepreneurs, executives and investors? Well, of course their love for kiteboarding would explain it. But don’t let the sand in their hair and the waves at their feet fool you. They’re not your average beach bums.

Facebook’s recent acquisitions of check-in site Gowalla, and question and answer app Friend.ly, got me wondering about just how many kiteboarding techies who attend the exclusive annual gathering of 150 executives, entrepreneurs and investors – are creating serious value in Silicon Valley. Gowalla’s CEO Josh Williams and Friend.ly CEO Ed Baker both learned to kite at MaiTai Kite Camp. We don’t know exactly what they sold their companies for, but in Friend.ly’s case we do know that just months prior, they raised $5 million in financing. Small exits, though, compared to other MaiTai attendees’ James Lindenbaum and Constantin Bisanz. Ruby On Rails developer Heroku, co-founded by Lindenbaum, sold to Salesforce for $250 million a year ago, December. That same month, Bisanz, who became one of the first men to kiteboard from Alaska to Russia across the Bering Straight earlier this year, sold Brands4Friends to eBay for $250 million.

Several kiteboarders have also taken their companies’ public. Elon Musk took flight last year with a kite at MaiTai, after taking Tesla Motors public last year raising $226 million for the electric car company. Its market cap is now $3.6 billion. In November of 2010, Kiteboarding CEO Young Sohn of Inphi raised $81.6 million in his company’s IPO and is now sitting on $328 million in value. Fortinet’s CFO Ken Goldman is a MaiTaier. The company had a $1 billion IPO in 2009 and it’s market cap is nearing $4 billion today.

TrueCar‘s Scott Painter is certainly on the road to IPO after raising a more than $200 million round of funding this year. He actually staffed his auto price comparison site via the kite network – hiring a fellow MaiTai’er as a lead executive. On deck next for IPO liquidity is Zynga. While freely traded on SecondMarket, Zynga is rumored to be filing with the SEC to go public at a $10B market value in 2012 – Zynga’s momentum is largely built on the breakout success of Farmvile, co-created by the kiting duo of Sizao Yang and Amitt Mahajan. Should Zynga make it out in these volatile capital markets, the running total of value of start-ups from this group would exceed $17 billion in the past couple years.