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
