The Kite Runner

Anthony Chavez isn’t afraid of flying—on the water, that is. Seven years ago, the Tiburon native had never even been sailing, let alone kiteboarding. But after watching a kiteboarder near Santa Cruz, Chavez caught the bug. “I was totally blown away,” says Chavez, who lives in the Marina, conveniently close to Crissy Field. “I dreamt about it every night for weeks.” Now, the 30-year-old building contractor is not only the nation’s champion, he wins on boards he has built himself—soaring at speeds of more than 40 miles per hour, rotating 180 degrees in the air and catching 30-foot waves.

“I love the feeling as soon as you step off the sand and get out there,” he says. “It’s like you’re all alone with the wind and the water.” And at the end of a race, “it can get so emotional, sometimes you just want to cry.”

But however passionate he gets, Chavez doesn’t lose his calm easily. “Scary things happen, but not often if you know what you’re doing. I was in really big surf at Ocean Beach, and my kite crashed. The wave started spinning me around within my lines. Each line has about a 600-pound test strength, so I had like 1,200 pounds of line around me … but I finally got it loose and made it in.”

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Q&A

Advice for beginners?
Take a lesson and get a two-line kite. Jeff Kafka at the Wind Over Water kite school [in Burlingame] is a great instructor. You also have to be a good swimmer. Just work hard and if you do start racing, don’t get too down about losing. It’s a good learning process.

What do you do in your free time?
I play guitar for a local rock ’n’ roll band called the Trash Pickers. I didn’t pick the name. We sometimes play at parties, but mostly we just do it for fun.

What’s hard about racing?
My biggest challenge is remembering to not take the whole thing too seriously. Competing can be very emotional, and when things don’t work out as I wanted, I have to let it go.

How did you pick your major at UC Berkeley?
When I applied, I needed to declare a major and I was undecided. I had just finished reading Atlas Shrugged, and consider myself a pretty artsy person, so I decided to study architecture and I just stuck with it.

Who inspires you?
I look to surfers like Kelly Slater and Rob Machado for inspiration. Surfing is such a soulful sport. I try and adapt what they do and apply it to what I do.

Hottest thing about living in SF?
In the spring, we were snowboarding in the morning and surfing in the afternoon.

Do you have a pre-race ritual?
Typically, I’ll go online and check what the various wind sensors are reading around the area as well as check tidal-flow charts. I also pay close attention to what’s going on out on the water by watching sailboats, windsurfers and cargo ships.

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