Extreme Gulfshore Athletes- Kiteboarder Damien Leroy

Spectators here are often transfixed by the sight of athletes launching themselves from waves to sail high over the Gulf. One of the highest flyers, Damien Leroy, 23, has been kiteboarding for only two years. But he turned pro fast, winning the 2003 Florida Professional Championship and state contests in North Carolina and Michigan. Leroy was born and raised in Vail, Colo., and became a six-time qualifier for the Junior Olympic Ski Team and was ranked as one of the top 10 skiers in his age group. When rehabilitation from a double knee injury took longer than expected, he left the slopes for Naples. "I wanted to be as far as I could get from snow," he says. Pilot's lessons, classes at FGCU and discovering the kiteboarders along Marco Island and 18th Avenue South soon distracted him from his injury. A new career-in better weather-is an added reward.