Image courtesy of Peter Kaminski at Flickr.com
Damien Leroy is a 35 year old kiteboarder currently living in Jupiter, Florida. He has won many national and international racing and freestyle events. He finished second at the world racing championships in 2010 and won the 2011 AWSI Kiteboarder of the year award. He first saw kiting in 1999 in Hood River, OR while he was training as a national ski racer in Mt. Hood. He has been kiting now for the past 17 years. Here is a little about his life story.
Leroy was born in Vail, Colorado on August 4th, 1981, and so he lived most of his life in the mountains. At the age of three he got his first pair of skis. Skiing ran in the family. His father was one of the pioneers on the evolution of freestyle skiing, an amateur and a pro racer; and his cousin raced for the US ski Team. So skiing became his passion immediately. He later joined the Sun Valley ID, Vail CO, Steamboat CO, Big Sky MT and Alyeska Alaska ski teams and dedicated his life to ski racing.
When he was ten, he and his family moved to Alaska to start a fly-in fly-fishing river camp on the Talachulitna River, 100 miles northwest of Anchorage. Along with his older brother Ray, they worked as fly fishing guides taking guests fishing and showing them the Alaskan experience during the summers. In the winters, they would return to Anchorage to train and race. He was homeschooled, practiced fishing, motocross, rock climbing, mountain biking and even flying (all the boys in his family soon became licensed pilots).
But soon the price for his skiing came and he had to start undergoing knee surgery after another. It was not possible to recover in the mountains, so he went to Naples, Florida in 1998. Soon he started experimenting with the new sport of Kiteboarding. Just like skiing, he fell in love with the sport and in no time he went on to devote his life to practice it. A few years later, he had established himself as one of the top kiteboarders in the world.
The sport has taken him to Israel, Australia, Greece, all over Europe, Honduras, Brazil, many islands in the Caribbean and many other places. He has been on the podium in the disciplines of freestyle to course racing and to speed and slalom racing.
Leroy was born in Vail, Colorado on August 4th, 1981, and so he lived most of his life in the mountains. At the age of three he got his first pair of skis. Skiing ran in the family. His father was one of the pioneers on the evolution of freestyle skiing, an amateur and a pro racer; and his cousin raced for the US ski Team. So skiing became his passion immediately. He later joined the Sun Valley ID, Vail CO, Steamboat CO, Big Sky MT and Alyeska Alaska ski teams and dedicated his life to ski racing.
When he was ten, he and his family moved to Alaska to start a fly-in fly-fishing river camp on the Talachulitna River, 100 miles northwest of Anchorage. Along with his older brother Ray, they worked as fly fishing guides taking guests fishing and showing them the Alaskan experience during the summers. In the winters, they would return to Anchorage to train and race. He was homeschooled, practiced fishing, motocross, rock climbing, mountain biking and even flying (all the boys in his family soon became licensed pilots).
But soon the price for his skiing came and he had to start undergoing knee surgery after another. It was not possible to recover in the mountains, so he went to Naples, Florida in 1998. Soon he started experimenting with the new sport of Kiteboarding. Just like skiing, he fell in love with the sport and in no time he went on to devote his life to practice it. A few years later, he had established himself as one of the top kiteboarders in the world.
The sport has taken him to Israel, Australia, Greece, all over Europe, Honduras, Brazil, many islands in the Caribbean and many other places. He has been on the podium in the disciplines of freestyle to course racing and to speed and slalom racing.
Image courtesy of Kitesurf Tour Europe at Flickr.com
His kiteboarding accomplishments include:
“You get to travel the world and see the most warm, beautiful places. It’s a unique sport. Everyone looks at my job and says: “You have the best life!” Yes, it’s a wonderful life, but just like anything else, it becomes a job. You travel so much that you’d give anything to sit on your couch and just watch a movie instead of being in airports, traveling. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to enjoy travel more. I stop and look at the flowers. When I was young, I’d go to places like Israel and I would be thinking: I want to win! Now I look at everything, do things in Israel, and then leave.”
- 2013 2nd Place North American Speed Sailing Championships Invitational Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
- 2013 3rd kite Mondial Du Vent, "sosh cup" Leucate, France
- 2012 New Hawaiian Speed Record 44.33 knots!!
- 2012 Personal best Speed "51.99 Knots" In Speed racing.....
- 2012 2nd Place North American Speed Sailing Championships Invitational Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
- 2012 3rd Place World Championships Speed, Port St. Louie, France
- 2012 2nd Place Freestyle, La Ventana, Mexico
- 2012 3rd Place Crossing, La Ventana, Mexico
- 2012 1st Place Racing, Kite Masters Miami, Florida
- 2012 2nd Place Freestyle, Kite Masters Miami, Florida
- 2011 SLALOM WORLD CHAMPION Mucia, Spain
- 2011 KITESURFING ATHLETE OF THE YEAR!!
- 2011 3rd Place North American Continentals, Puerto Rico
- 2011 1st Place, Course Racing, La Ventana, Mexico
- 2011 2nd Place, Freestyle, La Ventana, Mexico
- 2011 2nd Place, Crossing, La Ventana, Mexico
- 2011 2nd Place Course Racing, Lord of the Wind, Los Barriles, Mexico
- 2011 2nd Place Big Air, Lord of the Wind, Los Barriles, Mexico
- 2010 1st Place Kite Masters, Tampa Bay, Florida
- 2010 Carribean Course Racing Champion!
- 2010 2nd World Championships Course Racing!
- 2010 Top five in the world for speed!
- 1st Overall, Muskegon, Michigan King of the great lakes 2009
- 4th Overall, San Francisco, California Course Racing World Championships 2009
- 4th Overall, Port St. Louis, France Kite speed World Championships 2009
- 2nd Overall, Corpus Christi, Texas US National's 2009.
- 2nd·Jupiter Florida, Jupiter kite Invasion Freestyle 2009.
- 2nd Tampa, Florida, Tampa bay Downwind race 2009.
- 1st·Place·Crandon·Beach,·Miami Masters·kiteboarding 2008 and 2009
- 1st·Overall,·National·Champion·San·Francisco,·California Course·Racing·2008.·
- 1st·Overall·Hood·River,·Oregon Big·Air·Champion Gorge Games 2008.
- 2nd Hood River, Oregon Course Racing Gorge Games 2008.
- 3rd Hood River, Oregon Freestyle Gorge Games 2008.
- 1st·Place·Corpus·Christi,·Texas South·West·Course·Racing 2008.
- 1st·Place·Naples,·Florida Pier·to·pier·downwind·race·2008.
- 1st Overall Champion Hookipa, Hawaii King of The Air 2004.
- 3 time defending champion Jupiter, Florida Jupiter Kite Invasion 2005,2007,2008.
- 1st Place Hatteras, North Carolina Freestyle Triple S Event 2007.
- 2nd Overall Hatteras, North Carolina Triple S Event 2007.
- 1st Place San Francisco, California Boarder cross, Big Air Jam 2007
“You get to travel the world and see the most warm, beautiful places. It’s a unique sport. Everyone looks at my job and says: “You have the best life!” Yes, it’s a wonderful life, but just like anything else, it becomes a job. You travel so much that you’d give anything to sit on your couch and just watch a movie instead of being in airports, traveling. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to enjoy travel more. I stop and look at the flowers. When I was young, I’d go to places like Israel and I would be thinking: I want to win! Now I look at everything, do things in Israel, and then leave.”