Final of KTA 2011/2012 in Pingtan Island/ China

I just came back from the final of KTA 2011/2012 and it was as an amazing final. China is just so different with everything, but lets start from the beginning. Its pretty sad, that KLM changed their baggage rules and every board longer than 1,07m gets charged one way with 200 Euro. Well meant advise to declare it as golf luggage is not possible with a 1,88m raceboard. 

My plan was to do a bit of sightseeing and shopping in Xiamen for 2 days until there was a shuttle from the kiteschool in Xiamen to Pingtan Island, where the competition is on, I dropped my gear in the kiteschool and loved Xiamen right away. A super nice beach with a long boulevard, many parks and a nice pedestrian shopping road in the middle of the center. My only problem- no one speaks a single word of English and I can not read any sign, so it turns out difficult to realize which buildings are hotels. Soon I found out, there would be  no chance to find a hotel – so Mc Donalds was the place to be to book a room online with Agoda and to find the nearby address by taxi. Even in front of the hotel, you are still not sure if this is it. Penguin Hotel turned out as a super good deal. 14 dollars for a room with TV, bathtub and free wifi, in the middle of the shoppingdistrict and close to the seafront.

After seeing some sights like the temple, the island and some shopping and my first contact with Chinese food, I took the KTA shuttle to Pingtan, having learnt that its pretty hard to move with public transport, if you can not read the signs. Many of the Chinese riders, who joined  the shuttle just learnt kiting and signed up just for the fun and to be a week for free in the Golden Gulf Resort in Pingtan and not to miss the event. 

And it really turned out as an spectacular event with the highest mediapresence, biggest number of spectators as well as riders and the highest pricemoney in KTA history. KTA s work paid off finally and there is a huge media presence, also because this is the first event after they announced that Kitesurfing will be Olympic in 2016. 1 billion people watched the kiteevent on TV. The whole town got a day off to watch us. Unfortunately there was especially on that day no wind, but the spectators got their show on the following days. On Friday it was blowing constantly 15-20 knots and we started the event with freestyle and went through the whole single elimination followed by 3 courseraces raceboard and 2 amazing races of twintip with over 80 riders.

Even though 10 knots forecasted for Saturday there was not even a breeze. More spectators than on Thursday waited to get some kiteboardaction to see. But KTA organizer Willy Kerr did a perfect job entertaining the crowd by turning the beach into a dancefloor and teaching hundreds of people his “big fish, small fish dance” until the rain started.

But Sunday turned out to be a perfect day- the wind was blowing and luckily not too strong as the forecast showed 28 knots. A day packed full of action putting all disciplines in one day. Starting with a big air show in the Old School competition, going through the whole double elimination moving on to a twintip race and a raceboardrace with 25 knots finished the competition.

The wind blowing made the day feel like European temperatures, which made it hard for the Asian riders not being used to the cold. I was super happy have fighted myself up in the freestyle double elimination to the fourth place, as I didn’t have a twintip on my feet since January and it was better than expected- my final Good bye to Freestyle competitions!  As forecasted the wind picked up in the afternoon and our last race for the raceboard happened in 25 knots and all girls were struggling on the 9m kites. Super happy after my result in Podersdorf to win China again and hopefully doing my next events in Europe better as well.

Thanks again to Cabrinha for great support and to the KTA Team for organizing amazing events again and for the great season 2011/2012.

Ergebnisse Kitetour Asien 2011/2012

Freestyle Frauen 1. Nanette van der Slugt (Niederlande) 2. Su Kay (Neuseeland) 3. Alison Dudfield (Australien)	Freestyle Männer 1. Ken Christopher Narcor (Philippinen) 2. Narapichit Pudla (Thailand) 3. Doque de los Santos (Philippinen)
Courserace Frauen 1. Kathrin Borgwardt (Deutschland) 2. Aya Oshima (Japan) 3. Bilge Oztürk (Türkei)	Courserace Männer 1. Salih Sakir (Türkei) 2. Narapichit Pudla (Thailand) 3. Ken Christopher Narcor (Philippinen)

Informationen zur Kitetour unter www.kiteboardtour.asia sowie Eventvideos unter http://vimeo.com/42590717

1st stop KTE in Podersdorf/ Austria- not a lucky one for me

It was an amazing event and start for the European tour sponsored by MINI. 92 registered riders  from 22 nations was a new record for this continental tour. Sunny, windy and temperatures around 27 degrees and the combination of sportsevent, lifestyleshow and music and entertainmentfestival made the event for a perfect weekend for both riders and the 119.000 spectators, who were changing the shore of the lake into a huge beachclub.  I enjoyed the atmosphere, but it wasn’t really my event and everything that could go wrong went wrong.

The first day started with the single elimination in freestyle - 32 men and 18 women. The wind dropped in the afternoon and at 5 pm we started 2 races. Unfortunately I choose my kite too small as the wind dropped completely in the second race and almost 16 kiters were swimming home and just the 18 and 21m kites were lucky to reach the finishing line.

The second day started early for the freestylers with a skippersmeeting at 7.30 and it was pouring down, almost no visibility. Rain, rain, rain and no breeze until lunch. When the wind started the freestylers battled and we saw an impressive high level in the guys final between Mario Rodwald and Michael Schitzhofer, which Mario won. The wind was still on and I learnt my lesson yesterday and grabbed finally my 16 m kite for todays racing. I entangled in the starting line and struggled with the choppy water of the lake, but it went better than yesterday, but still too many mistakes happened and I was not too happy about my result. Alice Brunacci and Christine Bönninger presented theirselves in topform and I got really motivated by their level. With the guys the battle between Riccardo Leccese from Colombia and Julien Kerneur continued.

The third day started with racing and we entered the water with big kites again. The wind grew up, so the organizers switched back to the freestyle double elimination far outside in the middle of the lake with offshore and gusty wind very difficult conditions for the riders. In the women heats, Chiara Esposito from Italy made especially strong impressions in the final heat against Michalina Laskowska from Poland and won the first round in Podersdorf. Another closely watched heat of the day took place between Stefan Spiessberger and Mario Rodwald, who continues after his first place in the single. Mario won this close and fantastic heat during the sunset.

As there was not even a breeze, racing on Sunday was not possible anymore and all riders joined the beachclubatmosphere- watched the amazing RED BULL Airshow and the finishers of the 60km Stand up Paddle Marathon.

In racing discipline, the colombian rider Laccesse won over this event. The french racers Julien Kerneur and Maxime Nocher taking place two and three on podium finishes. For the women, Alice Brunacci from Italy was riding really constantly throughout the whole competition. Christine Bönniger and Nuria Goma followed in second and third.

KTA and Asian Racing Championships- 1. Place in Raceboardclass

One day in between the Thai Nationals and then KTA started- time to move to Pak Nam Pran, which is 20 km sotuh of Hua Hin. Asian course racing titles were for the first time this season being run as a championship event rather than as a cumulative title scored throughout the tour. 68 riders from 24 nationalities were joining and a new record was set by the girls- first time as many girls as guys joined the freestyle.

The wind really surprised me in Thailand- every day 12 noon it was like somebody switching the button on for wind and we always started with 2-3 reaceboardraces. Then as the wind filled in with the daily thermal the event would switch to TT racing and then finally over to the freestylers. The men’s RB Class throughout was a hard fought affair with riders from Japan, China, Philippines and Hong Kong all putting in good performances, but the fiercest competition decided the two top slots with Bjorn and Salih, who finished in the end in that order, with Yo in third position.

I really enjoyed the girls RB Class- we had some exciting races between Rachel Holliger, Astrid Berz from Switzerland and a new racergirl, who has a lot of potential Fon Banyapa Jantawan from Thailand. Still I could win quite a lot of the races, but it was good to see on which things I need to work for the upcoming competitions.

The freestyle was amazing to watch and its amazing to see how the level of all the riders increased. After the completion of the single eliminators first place was held by Poland’s Marek Rowinski, Japan’s Hiro Nakano was in second and that Yo Narapichit Pudla in there once again in Third. For the women Kristin Oja took the top place in another well fought single elimination round, it was very close indeed though with the Kiwi Su Kay in the finals. Ali Dudfield found herself once again in the third, think she might now own the rights to this position by now, though due to the doubles, which could not get finished she did share this time with Holland’s Nanette van der Snoek.

For all the full event and Championship results you can go to the results section www.kiteboardtour.asia

Paramotor Thailand and Thai National Kiting Championships in Hua Hin

A week earlier than KTA starts, I was happy to stay with the paramotorpilots Chema, David and Alex again for some paramotor flying (www.paramotorthailand.com) Thanks for the hospitality and letting me stay in their house in Huahin. Some kiting, some sunsetflights close to Pranburi, cooking in the house, dinners out with super nice thai food, cruising in the city with the scooter, discovering the shoppingmall and nightmarket , visiting the temple of - all this made life really enjoyable in Huahin.

Surprisingly and just one week before the event announced the Thai Championships came up and it gives points for the worldranking as well. Why not join, plus it’s a good training and some of the riders who would join the the Asian Championships in Pak Nam Pran thought the same. So I met Salih from Turkey , Björn Rune Jensen form Denmark and Yo from Thailand, who had an amazing race.

With the girls there were only 2 registered, but Fon from Thailand is fast and ones whe gets more competition experience she will be riding in the top for sure. But I was happy to win the competition. Unfortunately there was only one day of competition, cause Sunday it was all day raining, o the freestylers could not do their competition.

Malasimbol Musicfestival and Cagbalete Island

KTA Thailand was getting closer and why not leave a couple of days earlier from Boracay. So many things to discover in the Philippines and so decided Francois and I to check out the Malasimbol Music and Arts Festival in Puerto Galera and I would travel from there to Cagbalete- to check the island out for its fine sand beaches and shallow area for kiting. As always short in time, we wanted to leave Caticlan with the first ferry at 6am, but funny Philippines- they set the clock ahead in the harbor to avoid delays. Never mind- we had a very relaxing breakfast on the new spot UNION BEACH in Deivis place- heaps of space and wider beach, a kiters paradise and so close to Boracay.

We finally made our way their- painful 9 hours of travelling (ferry, tricycle, bus, van), but we have to say – its worth it!!!!!!!!!! Puerto Galera it’s a super inviting small town with cute resorts and restaurants on the beach. We dropped our things in a guesthouse at the ferry port and went straight with the tricycle to the festival- flanked by coconut trees and verdant hills, in the background climbs Mount Malasimbo itself. The grass-terraced amphitheater, 250m above sea level, overlooks Puerto Galera Bay, a member of "The Most Beautiful Bays in the World". The festival is seen as one of the most important in the country, helping to spearhed the country's continued advance in music, arts & culture. Sculptures and arts and a mix of DJs, dance performances and life bands gave us a great night even though the rain was pouring down.

Next morning we headed of with the 7am boat to Batangas, where our ways split- Francois went to Manila and my goal was to discover Cagbalete island. An island on the east coast of Luzon. Its quite easy to get to – just a bus from Lucena to Mauban (40 minutes) and from Mauban an hour by ferry to Cagbalete. I knew it must be a kitespot, as its shown in windguru and google earth and google pictures gave a huge shallow area- so it was worth to check it out. I travelled with all my gear for the Thailand competition means carrying a raceboard, which didn’t make moving around easier. Once reached the island I asked for a tricycle and people were just laughing, as they have not even roads.

One fisherman brought me by boat to the windy side of the island. Villa Cleofas is a small resort on the windy side of the island, before me there was only one kiter from Hongong so far on this island.

If you don’t want to stay in a bungalow, the put you up a tent for 200 Peso a night and supply you with a horse to go to the village, because of no roads. That was the funniest thing for me- I went with my horse to the village to buy smart load for my phone. Electricity is on from 6-8pm, so there is not much to do at night and my days looked like this. Kiting before low tide, because then gets the water too shallow for kiting. A perfect spot, sideshore wind, shallow water, no seaurchins and sandy bottom. Then horsebackriding for shopping , lunch and midday nap in the hammock, kiting again, 6-8pm computer and 9pm- battery of laptop finished – so nothing else to do than sleeping.

A great place and once the island gets electricity it will develop very fast for sure- a place to come back.

“The Great Crossing 2012”- by kite from India to Sri Lanka

It was hard to say good bye to the guys in Lingayen as they stayed longer for more flying. But there was an event in Sri Lanka, which I read about in September already. “The Great Crossing” – a crossing from India to Sri Lanka, passing the Adams Bridge (34 km)., organized by the swiss kiteresort “Elements” and “Faith Kiteboarding”, a local Sri Lankan Kitebrand.

18 Islands like a chain of pearls are connected the two countries and are with the shallow and flat water perfect kitespots. As perfect as the idea sounds, as many headache it gave to the organizers Marcel and Laurent Bobay with the licences and permits of both countries Sri Lanka and India. India didn’t give the permit in the end, but there was big support of the Sri Lanka Navy and the Tourist Board. Improvisation was needed and we decided to kite from Island 8, which is the border to India back to island 1.

At the briefing on the day before we had zero knots of wind and now the bigger problem was, what to do without wind? 3.30 am we started with heaps of equipment by bus to Talaimannar in the north of Sri Lanka, where all the gear got loaded on Navy jetboats . The navy was amazed by our gear and so we were by their countless machine guns onboard.

With 20 knots and accompanied fro mthe excited navy and fisherman, who never ever saw kiters we kitet first time in history the 8 sri lankan islands back to the mainland.

„Without the support of Faith Kiteboarding, Elements Watersports & Nature, Red Bull , Edelweissair and the Sri Lanka Tourism all this wouldn’t have been possible. An event, which will be repeated for sure and next time hopefully with the support of India, so it will be a real crossing” says Marcel Bobay, partowner of the new Kiteresort Elements and organizer of the crossing.