A new record for kitesurfing from Rottnest Island to Leighton Beach, Fremantle was set today when German expat Marvin Baumeister made the crossing in just 23 minutes and 50 seconds in the 19km Lighthouse to Leighton race. Marvin lead from the start and held a strong lead, despite coming off his board after hitting seaweed.
He beat World Speed Record Holder Frenchman Alex Caizergues who also competed today and who's fiancee Marie Desandre Navarre was the fastest woman to finish in 30 minutes and 35 seconds (previous record of 24 minutes and 34 seconds). Second fastest was Course Race World Champion Florian Gruber from Germany and Fastest West Australian was third placed Torvar Mirsky from Fremantle.
The Lighthouse to Leighton is part of this week's Kiteracing Oceanic Championships which finish tomorrow at Leighton Beach.
MENS OVERALL
1. Marvin Baumeister (GER) Record time: 23.50
2. Florian Gruber (GER)
3. Torvar Mirsky (AUS)
WOMENS OVERALL
1. Marie Desandre Navarre (FRA)
2. Ariane Imbert (FRA)
3. Lisa Hickman (AUS)
One very happy chappy.
Marvin - you must be busting at the seems coming in 1st against that classy field.
Great Work dude.
But whats with this germany thing??? Cmon - surely if you werent an Ozzie before this day of glory you sure are now.
We like our local heroes. 
Select to expand quotepuppetonastring said..
One very happy chappy.
Marvin - you must be busting at the seems coming in 1st against that classy field.
Great Work dude.
But whats with this germany thing??? Cmon - surely if you werent an Ozzie before this day of glory you sure are now.
We like our local heroes.
North QLDer eh , Well done Bunge. Lads cant believe it. wow.
What was the size of Marvin's kite ?
Pretty big, hey ?
The water looks really glassy.
Probably huge in our terms slave.
These race guys have light wind totally covered.
With gear to match the wind puffs they can crank up the speed cos the water surface is less challenging.
Hmmm beginning to think there is something to this new racing craze.
OMG not another learning curve - Im too old for curves 
Waveslave, most elite riders had 17m & 19m kites. I didnt see much under 13m
Well done and congrats to all who completed the race, it was an awesome event and very well run.
Btw, how did the lads on foils go?
Go Marv - Team Ozone and TemaVento Boards - Fastest combination on the water, Good times
Surely we can claim Marvin as an Aussie?
Well done everyone, glad to see the event building in momentum.
I'd be interested to hear what conditions were had for the race, gear used and any anecdotal stuff.
Select to expand quotedefault said..
Surely we can claim Marvin as an Aussie?
he is sitting on the fence, but he should make his mind up ;)
On yar Marv great race - I tried a few mods to improve speed on my board but realised the day before race the board is now slow as to much rocker & hard to ride as I fell off about 6 times- Ah to much tinkering Johnno - But still super fun & looking forward to next year if I can get into draw- going back to drawing board with last years design. Th emost fun I was watching Alex C in front of me stacking big time on his foil.
But thats racing
Great event again Tim & Crew again ran like a well oiled clock again
Select to expand quoteSaveTheWhales said..
Guys hes a Kitesurfer - build a bridge & forget Politics ....
while I was trying to be humorous, not political with the "claiming" thing.. you know how good aussies are at claiming foreigners as their own when it suits
but build a bridge?.. come to think of it - I've done 1 in the last year and another coming up later next year 
and Marv.. what about the Olympics!? 
Gear:
Kite: 19m Edge
Fins: 32cm Vector EX Fins (straight fins)
Board 7'9 Custom Carbon Stonker / My design
A big thank you to Tim & Crew for a great Event. The quality of the fleet assembled was truly impressive!!!
Light wind conditions, a glassy ocean with heaps of sea weed about... all made for a very interesting and unpredictable race.
I think a lot of the local riders were hoping for a bit more swell and wind to make it a bit more of a technical race.
Not much weed was spotted on the way over to Rotto but on the way back it was everywhere!!!!
Well done to Marv for the record, there were a bunch of us all using 30-40cm straight fins, and he still pulled away and powered his way to a record.
You could feel weed collecting on the fins through out the race, and chatting to many after the race we all were looking for a bit of swell to try pop it and drop it off... glassy condition made swell few and far between :)
Stoked to have finished 8th, conservative start with a good clean race. Had one racer stack it hard in front of me (think it was Ricci) about 6min in and lost a bit of time)
To the bloke who finished 10 (i think), was on a TT, and only just passed him in the last 3rd of the race. There is a great example that any rider with equipment is in with a chance :)
My GPS track below, starting gun at 5min.
See the speed drop off as you hit each weed patch :)
www.movescount.com/moves/move22530435
Looking forward to next year, weed fins and some mods to my board
The weed made for a very tough day for those that foiled. Saw some absolutely EPIC stacks as foilers hit weed patches.
I think that safely answers the Foiling for L2L debate
Great effort by Marvin B to win and set a new record, especially looking at the class field. Well done!
Kiting isn't in the Olympics anymore...
Well done Marvin, sad we can't get this much support for events like the freestyle Nats hey! Dunno what that means really haha.
Select to expand quotesir ROWDY said..
Kiting isn't in the Olympics anymore...
oops 
I have just put up the first lot of aerial photos from the Lighthouse2Leighton. More to Come soon.
The site is aerialphotographywa.com/lighthouse-2-leighton-2013/
Here is Marvin coming across the line.
Wow 23 min over 19 km... Must have been averaging over 60 km/h in the faster sections. Not bad for "glassy" conditions!
Marvin's kite was a 13m. I made a note of that at the finish. The wind peaked at 2.30 that day and was averaging over 14 knots on the wind meter at Leighton. although never gusting over 21knots I think drag and being over powered on the bigger kites would surely make them slower beyond a certain wind speed.
A large Rottnest ferries sponsored RiB led the race leader throughout, creating a nice chop -smoothing wake behind, Marvin was slotted in nicely in the smooth patch behind, and that would have allowed him to gain a HUGE advantage because he got miles ahead and then behind him it was quite tight again between 2.3 and 4. Even a fall wasn't enough to allow his lead to be overtaken. I felt the RiB should really have followed the leader and not smoothed his path, thus making the person who got in front at the start the almost inevitable winner. That said this is not aimed to try and take away from Marvin's great victory and a new course record, but just to make future races as fair as possible
niall it's been the same in previous years with the wake of the lead boat that's why it pays to be out in front. You would need to ask the front runners how much of an advantage it is and for how long was the winner/s slotted into the wake of the lead boat.
13m and slalom board would have been a perfect combination , especially with marvin's weight . the 13 edge is a sweet kite and easy to hold down in 20 knots .
hey guys,
thanks for the kind words and especially a massive thanks to Tim for organising another epic event and looking after myself, Rikki, Flo and Alejandro like he did!
It was mostly his effort that guys like Alex C, Rikki and Flo came to Perth to race and they will all come back 100%.
After travelling the whole world for racing and freestyle the L2L is still the funnest and most challenging comp I have done especially with 3 major racing regattas in my legs the 4 weeks prior to this race.
The days before the L2L must have been nerve wrecking for Tim and his team as forecast was very unpredictable.
On the day it looked ok. On the ferry over to Rotto it looked liked no seaweed at all and we were all relived hoping for a fast race without crashing.
We had 13-15knts on Rotto and us guys on directional pumped 13m kites, the foilers 10/11m and the twintips 17-19m.
I had my 13m Ozone edge on short lines rigged and my slalom with 32cm fins as it was light and I didn't want to take smaller fins.
Florian and Alejandro did same.
10mins prior to start I went out and there was seaweed everywhere. I crashed few times before start.
At the start lined up with the foilers as I expected them to have a good start. However, there was so much weed I crashed 3 times in the first 2km and I just cldnt get going. I saw the field getting away from me 500m ahead.
I got frustrated trying to jump of the weed on my fins, trying to slalom around it. Then the water cleared up and I started to find my groove.
I caught up to the group passing Jordan, Alex, Olly and Torvar.
My backleg was already cramping up so I took it easy once I had a good lead on this group. One more big crash next to boats in heavy seaweed line. I tried to get going but too much weed on fins so I had to stop swing board around and take weed of fins.
I started following the lead boat which was a mistakes since it did not go in straight line. A few others behind me told me I was going zigzag.. I also tried to go in the 'smooth' water behind boat but felt like my fins didn't grip in the wash so I went out of it.
When I checked my watch and I saw the beach coming closer with 19mins on my watch I went from cruising mode to full speed and put the hammer down.
Stoked to win and set a new record but I reckon with less weed, more wind (lit on 10m or 7m kites) and fresh legs im sure we will go faster next year foiling or on slaloms ;)
gear is used:
Ozone Edge 13m 21m lines
Temavento Sl 63 Slalom
Tectonics T43 32cm
weight 80kg
Congrats to all racers that did the race
Select to expand quoteniall barrett said..
Marvin's kite was a 13m. I made a note of that at the finish. The wind peaked at 2.30 that day and was averaging over 14 knots on the wind meter at Leighton. although never gusting over 21knots I think drag and being over powered on the bigger kites would surely make them slower beyond a certain wind speed.
A large Rottnest ferries sponsored RiB led the race leader throughout, creating a nice chop -smoothing wake behind, Marvin was slotted in nicely in the smooth patch behind, and that would have allowed him to gain a HUGE advantage because he got miles ahead and then behind him it was quite tight again between 2.3 and 4. Even a fall wasn't enough to allow his lead to be overtaken. I felt the RiB should really have followed the leader and not smoothed his path, thus making the person who got in front at the start the almost inevitable winner. That said this is not aimed to try and take away from Marvin's great victory and a new course record, but just to make future races as fair as possible
Hi Guys, Just for the record, no advantage was or is given to the lead racer, both myself and the Head Referee were on the lead boat this year and we controlled the speed and distance ahead of the leader, to ensure that no advanatge is ever given to the lead racer, it is super important to the integrity of the race that this does not happen. The REX Eco Express is there only to provide a clear navigationla path for all the leaders.
Gear: 13m Edge, 7'4 Slalom Board, Single Rista Fin held in with some rope and potted with some know-how 
Thanks to Tim, WAKSA and the L2L crew for another amazing event.
Perfect conditions for the race, it really was record breaking material with not much weed around after the start and super flat water. Any more wind and it would be slower with all the chop.
When Marvin went past me he looked like he was going at Mach 5, and I wasn't going too slowly (I ended up 5th). Congrats on a win with style! Hats off to all the guys who did the race on a full raceboard set up, I hope your legs have recovered by now!
I will definitely do a lot more testing this year and see you all next year with a new secret weapon! Thanks to everyone who signed my board, it will make a great wall item!
