This past week I spent some time in Ebensee, Austria, sailing on the beautiful lake Traunsee. This event was an invitational regatta with a small entry list. I was really lucky to get a spot after the first round of invitations went out to the top riders in the world.
Myself and a training partner, Kai from the United States arrived with 5 days to spare for training before the event. The venue is an freshwater lake flanked with tall mountains with a grass launch at the south end of the lake. Usual conditions are light winds with less than 12 knots onshore and very flat water.
We had a few really nice days on the water before the event with 21m (big kite) conditions and plenty of other riders on the lake. The event had some really good sponsors and we were treated exceptionally well. The event provided dinner for all the riders every night and on Friday we were taken on a special boat cruise dinner around the lake.
During the scheduled race days there was minimal wind but the Race Committee was determined to get a few races off. We got sent out on the water many times and sailed the first leg of the race before the race would be abandoned for lack of wind. This tested our light wind skills for sure.
Although the wind was light the committee was able to get 4 races off this event. I unfortunately got in a tangle in race 2 and my foil cut my hand open which caused me to go to the hospital and get 6 stitches. I subsequently missed the the remaining races. This was pretty disappointing by I did have a great time in Austria. I made new friends and learned a lot from the best kite racers in the world.
Mac Morrin Kite Racing 
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