Well actually I came second (luckily, cos that meant a KA sail instead of kite stuff!)

Just wanted to share with you guys my experience when it came time to pick up my KA sail.

The Comp conditions said the prize was up to the value of $700. I wasn't sure what this meant I would be able to get, but I wasn't about to complain.

Laurie emailed me and told me to get in touch with Andrew McDougall of KA sails and he would arrange a sail for me.

When I met with Andrew, I couldn't believe what he did.
-he literally threw the doors open and said "congratulations! Take your pick of anything!"
(There were 2009 and 2008 Koyotes, Kults, Kaos', and even Koncepts of all sizes being offered to me!!)

My initial thought was a 5.8 or a 6.4 Kult 'cos this is the size I use most. (and the 2009 have gone to the metal-ex film which looks awesome)

Andrew talked to me about what sailing I do, what boards/fins I have and what my current sails are.
He said he would love to see me on a 7.5 Koncept as this would make the biggest difference to what I currently do, and maybe change the way I think of sails this size.
Since I was already well set up in the 5.8 and 6.4 range I decided "why not?"

I walked out with a 2009, 7.5 Koncept. -Brand spanking- over $1000 worth!
(still with a bit of metal-ex film, top and bottom, to satisfy superficial me)

It was over a week before I got to try it. But I'm wrapped with it.
First go was with a 103ltr board and a light wind (initially). It was fast. (I'm used to a 7.2 camless) Probably lots of you GPS speed demons have used Koncepts over the years, but for me it seemed amazing how locked in and smooth it felt. It was at Elwood, and later, the wind picked up to the point that we could have been on 5.8's. But Jman, KGB and I stuck with the 7m+'s and had a blast. The top end was alot faster than what I'm used to, so I wil have to HTFU. Looking forward to trying it some more, especially at Inveloch or SP.

Anyway, just wanted to highlight the generous way Andrew of KA went about things, and to thank him for his advice in selecting a sail and also the sponsorship of this website.
Cheers,
- Bondy

Congratulations. Can you post on this thread the caption that won you the KA sail and pictures of the sail itself? Sometimes getting second prize is the best.

What a great story. Shweet!

Good on ya Bondi ! how come the winners and captions were not announced/posted ???

Bondalucci said...

Thanks Richie.

The results were announced, but it was done on the actual competition site.
From memory, lots of the entries looked awesome, but were done with photo shop and superimposing etc.

Mine didn't look that good (by comparison), but at least was a genuine photo, (maybe that was what they liked) of a hand built wooden unit that houses a laptop in my van, plugs into doof-doof speakers and had the seabreeze website up and running.

Caption was corny- "every where you go, always take the weather with you"
(Maybe the judges were fans of crowded house/split enz)

I'll take some pics of the sail next time I rig it up!

I don't think that's corny, it's brilliant!

Congratulations! Glad you like the sail.