Kingscup in Phuket

I just had a very good time at Kings Cup Regatta in Thailand and in its 25th Anniversary year the event has invited the KTA to bring kiteboarding to the Kings Cup. I was very excited to get the invitation to join the largest sailingregatta in Asia and one of the most respected in the world.

We were 20 riders from 12 Nationalities and our goal was to demonstrate kiteboarding race with race management from the KTA and IKA under the watchful eye of the Kings Cup Regatta Race Director Simon James. 'ISAF is promoting kiteboarding and it could be an Olympic demonstration event as soon as 2016 in Brazil, so the Committee decided that it is likely to become an Olympic class at some point and the discipline is attracting a younger generation of sailors. Kevin Whitcraft, President of the Regatta Organising Committee explained.

The first two days were a bit frustrating as there was wind, but too far outside with the offshore winds, so even when we tried we couldn’t make it from the beach of Centara Grand Beach Resort out to the wind, while the yachts outside were racing, while all of us needed rescues cause our kites just didn’t relaunch anymore. Patience was worth is and day three held difficult conditions for us, with winds in gusts up to 25 knots and inside close to the beach 6 knots only. We still managed to do 2 nice races, which got finished first by Olivier Dansin followed by Yo from Thailand and the 2 Cabrinha riders Ken Nacors from the Philippines and Turkey tying for third place. The sailors, who were watching us either live or at night on the screen got amazed and fascinated by the kiteboarding and this is all we wanted. We wanted to show, how fast the kiteboarders can go and how exciting the kiteboardraces can be.

The next 2 days the forecast showed no wind again and it happened- but everybody was hoping for the last day with forecasted 20 knots. And the wind was there, but so gusty and on the beach again nothing! Some of the riders used one gust and made it outside and some riders were just swimming and the couldn’t make it to the start for the first race. All in all we finished another 3 races under difficult circumstances, but everybody was happy to have more results. Same battles on the water as before with Olivier winning in front of Jo and Salih.

We were only 2 girls so we didn’t count as an own class, which proves one more time, that we definitely need to motivate more girls. But I got still a price for first girl and I was happy about my 8 place in the overall ranking together with the guys.

Am back on Boracay now and hoping for the wind to start soon.

Kings Cup Phuket- Kiteboarding joins first time biggest Sailing Race in Asia

Since 4 days we have been in Phuket now. Yesterday was the kings birthday and the kings cup inaugurated in 1987 to celebrate the 60th birthday of his Majesty . Since then it developed to the biggest sailing event in Asia. We were pretty excited to hear that we gonna race together with yachts. We arrived and are still impressed by the Centara Grand Beach Resort in Karon Beach, with its amazing room setups, huge pool with a river on which you can tube through the whole hotel, the gym used by all of us, cause not so much wind and the poshest kitestorage we ever had- the ballroom. As long we are waiting for wind, we keep ourselves busy with fitness, shopping, islanddiscoveries by motorbike and go karting.
The sailors are very excited and can't wait to see us on the water- unfortunately we have been a bit unlucky with the wind so far and had an attempt yesterday and today. But today 16 of us needed a rescue as the offshore wind died when all of us were out in the sea. So we are hoping for the next few days as the wind doesnt look too bad.
Belayed Happy birthday to the King- it was an amazing dinner last night and an amazing event with the sailors from all over the world and very forward looking to combine kiteboarding with sailing regattas!

Seasonstart on Boracay- Secotrip

Its been a while and its already December. We had a good start into the season on Boracay. The Surfers Home is renovated. Isla Beach Club is open with new furniture and new ideas - Coffeecreations and homebaked cakes and every day 3 specials of the day.
This year seems to be even more busy on Boracay then ever before. Almost all instructors from last year came back. Bulabog is full with kiters in November already and more and more the kiting activities are extending to Union Beach as well.
We started with awesome guests into our new season and just came back from a Seco trip, where we saw Dolphins and had good conditions as well for beginners and advanced people. Flat crystallclear water, sunshine and such a nice group dancing in the night under the stars around the campfire. An unforgetable trip for everyone.

Refreshingly Sri Lanka, just as in the advertisement! Kite, surf and discover

I don’t even know anymore when and how the idea came up to travel Sri Lanka. I heard a lot of things about it- everybody I to, told me different things. Wind, no wind, dangerous, friendly people, many animals, empty and endless beaches, kiteschool on the east coast, the guidebooks tell us Kitesurfing is on the westcoast,amazing surf, slow travelling, rainy season or not- time to find out all those things myself.

Once arrived in the airport we went straight to Negombo, 10km away from the airport , our first contact to local transportation, which turns out to be super super cheap but which requires a bit of patience as well. Kite and discover country and people that’s the plan. Not very well prepared, but open for surprises and what ever comes up, we are quite flexible in our travelplans- actually there is none. All we got is a map and a quite old guidebook, some tipps of all the Boracaypeople who visited in the last few weeks and a couple of local telephone numbers thanks to KTA, who wants to do a tourstop here in May, which Stephan should check out.
Nice to be back to warm climate and exotic, but spicy food. First stop for us is the fishmarket in Negombo- colourful women, which were supposed to smoke cigars (but they didn’t) and all kind of fish that you can imagine, tons of fish getting dried in the sand on the beach and busy fishermen coming in with their catch of the day and cleaning up their nets.

My boardbag got lost and shame for the airline we can’t not wait to get to the spot, so they have to bring my kite to wherever we end up- and they won’t have been happy when they got to know where we ended up. Out travel brought us straight to Kalpitiya- a place in the middle of nowhere, but an amazing place which will always stay in memory, also the travelling there. First lesson Sri Lanka: Local buses are slow, very slow- maximum speed allowed is 60km/h, but normally the road is so bad or the bus is so full with people who hop in and out, that you make max. 30km/h distance. So it took us long- a couple of bus changes and we found the kitemekka and an idyllic place called Kite Kuda with many lagoons and endless beaches for long downwinders and a group of people, all loving the same: kiting.

6 basic bungalows without windows and doors, actually more a roof to be covered by rain and enough for what you need with an amazing view in the middle of the sanddunes. From your bed you see the stars and listen to the howling wind. Our home for the next few day- kite, eat, sleep, perfect to relax and a very amazing crew taking care of the place. Thanks to Leo and Mischi and Dilsiri, who showed us all the surrounding kiteplaces as Fabio lagoon on an awesome downwinder and Puttalam lagoon on a very special daytrip. Thanks also to Stephan with his VW bus to take us around for the trip.

If you are a kiter and going to Sri Lanka- don’t miss to join one of the islandhopping trips in Putalam lagoon with loads of space and countless kitespots. The wind is on every day and the lagoon just next to Kite Kuda offers perfect training conditions. Beginners are up on the board within a couple of hours. Shallow warm water and constant wind and we get motivated to learn new things.

New schools and resorts will start in the next few year here for sure. Evenings are filled with delicious buffets of the chefs Leo and Mischi, bonfires, rumcoke and chats about the latest tricks learnt. Almost the end of the season and the weekend fills up with expats who ve been living here for more then 20 years, who didn’t leave the country because of war or tsunami and who went through all the difficulties and run a health gym or produce t-shirts or kites for Core and North and paragliders for U-Turn.

Time to say good bye from a place where we will definitely return and thanks to Stephan to take our kiteluggage by VW to Negombo- it would have been a hassle travelling in those local busses, where are double amount of people that fit are squeezed in. Stephan showed patience travelling with me, who gets easily bored after sitting squeezed for hours in a bus and comes up with funny questions that need to be googled at night. I leave out the T-Shirt story in detail, but every pant is stitched by 8 tailors and a bra by 11 people (nothing automatic J) and there are as many sign languages as languages worldwide, which means someone german does not use the same sign language someones uses here- thanks to Mr. Google, important things that one should know. I don’t know how many busses but we ended up somewhen after 8 hoursin the middle of teaplantation in the mountains in the highest city of Sri Lanka 1800 m in Nuwara Eliya. We are very open in our travel plans and decided to skip Adams Peak, although the weather would have been cold but wonderful for a climb in the night, cause the hike starts at 1 am to be on top for sunrise. Next trip…. We realized you can not see all in 2 weeks, you have to pick!

We joined the teapluggers in Nuewa Eliya and visited a teafactory. Sri Lanka is the biggest tea exporter world wide. One factory produces 2500 kg of tea each day and there are 325 factories in the country. Green tea and black tea are made from the same leaves, just manufacturing is different. From the bush to the packed tea ready for the tea auction in Colombo it takes 24 hours only.

Best thing to visit the are with a spectacular train ride through beautiful nature of jungle, teaplantation, mountains and waterfalls and ended up in a small town called Ella, a paradise for hikers and outdoorfans and the night ended pretty relaxed with a beer in one of the many nice bars- truly a backpackerplace and more and more tourists are coming told us the locals, happy about it.

From Ella we tried to find our way to Arugam Bay, famous for Surfers on the east cost of Sri Lanka. Just 6 km outside of town we hopped out of the bus as the 6^th highest waterfall of the world waited for a climb. Monkeys were playing in the water and we made our way up to the different pools and enjoyed a refreshing swim- definitely worth the climb.

So happy to get a change from the local busses as a truckdriver offered to take us to Wellawaya to catch the bus from there to Arugam. I don’t know how the hours were passing in the busses, half sleeping I got awake by Stephan being super excited by seeing wild elephants and from time to time roadsigns: Take care, elephants passing. We found a very special place to stay in a treehouse and definitely a break from all those long busrides- “day off tomorrow” with scootertour to the different surfspots like crocodile and elephant rock with big beachbreaks and Pottuvil point, one of the best spots to surf in the whole country. 7 years ago the Tsunami destroyed the whole area and everywhere are signs showing the way where to run in case another Tsunami is hitting. Very strange feeling. We ended up in Arugam for a sunset surf- where it gets pretty busy and 30-40 people share the beginner waves.



Super happy that we got some we ended up with an incredible BBQ of Beach hut. The difference of kiters and surfers got obvious for us- 5 am all the surfers are up to go for their first session. The Muezzin woke us up with sunrise anyway and even us made it next morning for the first bus direction back to Wellawaya. We finally wanted to see some animals and decided to go on one of the Safaris in Yala Nationalpark. 6 hours and a sore butt we arrived in Tissa, the starting point for Safaris and still ín travelmode we booked a jeep right away for the afternoon safari. Beautiful landscape and after a while we discovered elephants playing in a pool, waterbuffalos, monkeys, many different birds, crocs, wild pics, just the bears and leopards we couldn’t discover. After a beautiful sunset and a safari definitely worth the money we ended up in one of the local restaurants with Kottu Roti, a noodlelike dish mixed with veggies and whatever, a bit spicy but yumm. The restaurantowner gave us a short cookinglesson and we definitely will try ourselves preparing at least some of the things.

Used to travelling one of our last stops brought us to Mirissa in the south- a very relaxed beach with big shore break also surfable and cute fishrestaurants on the beach and very few travelers. We expected a maximum 4 hours busride for our last day, but it took us again 8 hours on our last day to find our way back to Negombo- new speed record for 200 km I would say. Worst traffic and slow busses. But soon this will change as they build a speedtrain just along the coast, which will bring definitely loads more tourists who stuck so far in Unawatuna and Bentota.

Back in Negombo we were very happy to meet Mischi , Stephan and Holger with his wife again. An amazing dinner in “Tusker” a restaurant owned by a Belgian closed my amazing trip. Thanks to travelmate Stephan for sharing countless hours in the busses, hikes, spiciest and who still continue 3 more days before going back to Boracay, he will for sure enjoy the silence without me and I m curious if he is healed by busriding or if he continous 3 more days discovering Sri Lanka??!!

Anyway thanks to all the amazing people we met on our way and who made that trip fantastic- Dilsiri, Leo and Mischi, Stephan- thanks for all your hospitality and support. There are many many more places to see in Sri Lanka, I only chose a handful and will be definitely be back. Fingers crossed for all your projects and keep me updated until I am back! This beautiful place is on the top of the list and I ll see you soon!

The final days of the World Kite Racing Championships in Sylt

Friday evening the conditions were rough, but racedirector Markus Schwendtner decided to do a couple of races: 20 to 30 knots on shore winds with waves that were reaching up to 2-3 meters- not the conditions you hope for in the World Racing Championships. 4 Races were to do- I was all the time on my 7 m kite, my smallest kite I ever used for racing.
There was quite a few riders pulling out their safety equipment: the helmets, life jackets, as almost all boards have fins between 40-45 cm.
Navigation got the difficult part of those races, as you couldn’t see the buoys in the very choppy conditions and your body had to amortize the waves, often changing direction and deal with the speed. After almost 4 hours we came back to shore at 8p.m.
Saturday the northsea presented itself as the wildest I ve ever seen. Giant waves and lots of chop accompanied with strong winds made the course race impossible to ride. Even our safety boat could not be out there. Too dangerous. But I don’t think anybody was very upset about it, cause everybody was still tired from the 4 races yesterday. So we watched the kiteloopcompetition which was fantastic to see not only for the spectators also for us and finally we ended up in sauna to recover.
Sunday the the wind was so strong that it was impossible to put the security boat in the water in Sylt. For this reason the race committee announced that there wouldnt be more races and that the results from Friday are the final once. Congrats to the US Team, which took the lead in the mens division with all three first places and congrats to Steph Bridge from GB who won took the title in the womens division just in front of Katja Roose from the Netherlands. I am happy about my 6th place, it was my first worldcup and it was a good training and a good possibility to see whats my position.
My next competition will be the European Championships in Sopot in Poland end of this month. 3 more weeks to train!

Tag 2 und 3 World Racing Sylt

Den gestrigen Tag verbrachten wir mit Warten auf den Wind, der eigentlich 14 Uhr starten sollte. Und er kam, aber spät. Ab 18 Uhr blies er mit 5bft und eigentlich hatte nalle mit dem Tag abgeschlossen als Racedirektor Markus Schwendter dann doch noch zum Rennen startete. Leider keine Sonne und mit dem Nordostwind kam die Kälte. Der Wind erreichte am Abend fast 30 knoten und so gabs nur die Wahl zwischen 7er oder 9er Kite. 18.30 war dann Startschuss für das erste Rennen. Der Start wird bei den Männern und Frauen getrennt durchgeführt- die Frauen starten 9 Minuten später- da es bei einem Starterfeld von fast 90 Kitern sonst sehr eng werden würde. Die große Schwierigkeit war es downwind mit den riesigen Wellen zu fahren, wodurch viele Fahrer von den Boards fielen. Ich habe das Rennen wieder mit dem 6. Platz beendet und damit bin ich auch in der Gesamtwertung jetzt auf den 6. Platz hochgerutscht. Johny Heineken aus Amerika ist bei den Männern immer noch auf Platz 1, das gleiche gilt für die Holländerin Katja Roose, obwohl diese von der Engländerin Steph Bridge in der Tageswertung geschlagen wurde. Gestern musste das Racing dann, wegen eines Bootsausfalls gestoppt werden.
Heute starteten die Freestyler 8 Uhr mit dem Skippers Meeting. Für uns nochmal Zeit zum durchatmen. Noch höhere Wellen und Wind bis 30 knoten stellten schwierigste Bedingungen. 14 Uhr dann auch für uns das Skippersmeeting. Es gestaltete sich für die Veranstalter als durchaus schwierig, den Kurs und die Bojen bei den Wellen an Platz und Stelle zu halten. Immer wieder mussten die Bojen an den Platz gebracht werden und 16.30 dann der erste Startschuss. Durch die hohen Wellen, war es unmöglich die Bojen zu sehen und es gestaltete sich wie eine ziemliche Schatzsuche, die Boje zwischen den Wellenbergen zu finden. Beim zweiten Rennen verfing sich mein Kite mit der der Amerikanerin, wodurch ich das Rennen ausgelassen habe und halb erfroren gings dann in den Start des dritten Rennens. Auch heute kämpften wir auf dem Downwindkurs mit den Wellenbergen und erneut fuhr ich auf de 6. Platz ein. Die Amerikaner führen noch bei den Männern und die Katja Roose hat ihren ersten Platz an Steph Bridge auch in der Gesamtwertung abgegeben.
Morgen ist noch mehr Wind angesagt und wir schauen, was der Tag bringt. Das Skippersmeeting ist für 10 Uhr angesetzt. Ich werde berichten….