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.

Paramotortraining in Lingayen

It s been a while and its been quite a lot of travelling since the KTA Boracay. So here is my update on all the last few crazy weeks. It happened a lot and its hard to describe it in the short version.

I got back in discovery mode after KTA Boracay and as I had to leave to Sri Lanka for the Great Kitecrossing, I left Boracay a bit earlier and we decided to work on my Paramotorskills. Supported by Buko Pie, who organized the spanish instructor David Graupera from Thailand, (www.paramotorthailand.com) our destination was Lingayen close to the hundred islands national park. Once we arrived alex, daniel and me we were surprised by our new home. A beachresort in the middle of nowhere and just us, buko pie and the 2 Spanish paramotorguys plus 2 chefs who were cooking for us while we were kiting or flying. The first days we spend with groundhandling and some days the wind got so strong in the afternoon, we just went kiting in front of the door.

Another closed by spot was a village west of lingayen, where we had heaps of space and where an Austrian called Peter is having his flysite to do daily visits by paramotor to the 100 Island Nationalpark. David and Chema found a huge shallow lagoon for kiting and the super wide beach is very inviting for kiting.

We had an awesome week and don’t miss the video from that week below. Thanks to Buko Pie, David and Chema for organizing a great week for us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et-wl5TrKcg&feature=youtu.be