By Jason Goorman
Local Sports Journal

Who doesn’t like to be considered the top athlete in their sport? Whitehall native and kiteboarding extraordinaire Chris Bobryk has been nominated for the Association of Wind and Water Sports Industries’ Kiteboarder of the Year award.

Chris Bobryk

Chris Bobryk

Bobryk needs west Michigan’s help in winning the award. He needs you to vote and it’s pretty simple how to do that.

Visit sbckiteboard.com’s voting page, scroll down until you find Bobryk’s video and click the Facebook like button just beneath the video.

Bobryk has become one of the best in the industry and has been traveling the world under BEST Kiteboarding. He recently gave the LSJ head’s up he’d be in town after his trip to Europe. His visit home was short lived to a single day and went right down to Hatteras to catch more wind.

Cutting your teeth in a sport that is so select and difficult doesn’t just take luck. It takes meeting the right people to teach you and finding good consistent wind. Both of which the Muskegon area has plenty of.

With shops like MacKite Surf Shop in Grand Haven and wind junkies like Marc Hoeskema around, there’s plenty of help to learn how to kite. Throw in Pier Marquette that consistently has just the right conditions and kiteboarding junkies are born.

Bobryk is currently in third place in voting with 168 Likes and trails Alex Fox (373) and Jalou Langeree (244). A top three finish will get Bobryk’s video shown at the AWSI Awards Party at the Surf Expo in Orlando on Sep. 7. The overall winner will be chosen from the top three by a panel made up editors of The Kitboarder, SBC Kiteboard, and Kiteworld magazines.

The contest closes Monday, Aug. 26 so don’t miss out the opportunity to help out your fellow local boy.

To watch Bobryk’s video, click here.