Bay Area Kitesurf is stoked to announce that youngster Riley Gibbs is joining the F-One & Manera USA Race Team. At only 19, and with his great sailing background and very fast learning curve, Riley is already a top 10 foil racer in the country. He finished 9th at the latest Hydrofoil Pro Tour in San Francisco. Riley will ride the F-one Diablo kites and F-One Grand Prix foil and foilboards, plus Manera wetsuits. He will compete in as many domestic foiling events as possible. Being based in Belmont beach in Southern California, we also hope that his home base will also become another racing scene to compete with the Bay Area and other hot racing spots in the country.
Riley Gibbs
DOB: 11-03-1996
Location: California, USA
Discipline: Race Foil
Kite of choice? F-One Diablo
Current board? F-One 49 pro carbon
Sponsors: Manera, F-One, Harken inc., fse, Robline
Yacht Club Affiliation: St. Francis yacht club
ABOUT
Personal goal for throughout 2016: hopefully 2016 will bring a lot of hours on the water kite-foiling on my Diablos!
My ideal 2016 would have me participating in two hydrofoil pro tour events and many other national events here in the USA. For me I am settling into the kiting community in hopes that hydro-foiling kiteboarding will one day be in the Olympics. Along with my training until then I will be going to school part time.
From the first time my parents took me racing I was 2 weeks old, since then I haven’t stayed away from the water. I started my sailing racing sabots out of Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, there I was fortunate enough to have some great coaches who taught me so many life lessons; to never stop learning, to always keep an open mind and to have fun doing it.
Since my first years racing sabots I’ve been obsessed with perfection, striving for the perfect race or perfect tack and enjoying it the whole time. When I am not kite-foiling I’m most likely still in the water either surfing, sailing or diving. I can’t imagine life without the oceans, the freedom that comes along with kite-foiling is like no other.
When I’m riding alone I work on board handling skills and allow myself to become fully immersed in my surroundings, taking a break from the real world and allowing myself to refresh and clear my mind. Foiling takes total concentration thus is a dynamic form of meditation, always obsessing over that perfect session. Fully focused on the minute and intricate influences manipulating those influences to create perfection, and when perfection is made it is an incredibly rewarding feeling, from those countless hours on the water to finally putting all the pieces together is just total awesomeness!
Trying to feel the no feel, and that is why I love kite-foiling!!!
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