Aaraon Hadlow was in Greece testing his 2009 Pro Model 
[Souce: Youtube]
Archive for August, 2008Wrapping up Day 8 of the Colgate Kitesurf World Cup 2008 in St. Peter-Ording, Germany was a particularly quiet day. There was no wind throughout the day as forecasted but the weather was sunny and warm. There were a lot of people on the beach today, enjoying the sun while the weather is good. The skippers meeting was held exactly on time and then there was a Judging Freestyle meeting where the participants discussed the judging criteria with the competitors at 11:30 am and a course racing meeting at 4:00 pm.
The riders were seen with their laptops in the riders lounge while some took the time to play foosball or Playstation. Some of them took the opportunity to dry out their kites, wet suits and equipment while the sun was up.
A friendly competition for stand up paddle board racing was held at 2:00 pm. A stand up paddle board is a much larger surf board where the rider stands on the deck and uses a paddle. The race was a relay with two people per team. The first person of each team would run to the water and then paddle from one mark to another then switch people and the second person would paddle back. Since the competitors were paddling parallel to the beach the small ankle high waves made standing on the board a little more challenging with a few people loosing their balance and falling of the boards. The distance between marks was approximately 150 meters.
There were a total of 10 teams and 2 heats of 5 with the first 3 advancing to a final heat for a total of six teams for the final heat. There results were: 1st - Kevin Langere & Tom Court Tomorrow’s skippers meeting is scheduled at 10:00 am with first possible start at 10:30 am local time. The Colgate Kitesurf World Cup 2008 is proudly sponsored by Colgate, We Love, TV Today, Gard New Style, Chevrolet, the local government of St. Peter-Ording, Quicksilver, SevenOne Intermedia GmbH, Naish Kiteboarding, Jever, and Kitelife. [Source: kiteworldtour; Photos: Roberto Foresti/Canon] The Boardercross competition got underway with a perfect weather wrapping up Day 7 of the Colgate Kitesurf World Cup 2008. This is the 7th Tour stop of the Professional Kiteboard Riders Association 2008 World Tour. The mandatory riders meeting was held at 10:00 am while the Boardercross event started exactly on time at 11:00 am after all preparations and work time on the water setting up buoys and marks were completed.
The Boardercross event requires the kiters to navigate around a series of buoys and jumps around the course while doing required tricks. The course is generally laid out in a ‘Z’ fashion with all the legs somewhat downwind. If one of the required moves or jumps were not performed, the competitor would drop one place overall in the heat. Because of the wind angle, the competitors managed to do beach starts instead of line starts in the water.
The competition ladder was set up as the best two would advance and either the other two or three would be eliminated. The first round had 5 competitors and then the subsequent rounds only had 4 competitors. There were a total of 17 heats for the men and 7 heats for the ladies with the first heat requiring a restart because all kites got tangled at the start.
The Boardercross event finished at 1:30 pm and then an hour of lunch break was held. The plan was to run one more round of Boardercross eliminations but was abandoned due to some technical difficulties so a racing event was run instead which finished at 4:45 pm.
The wind for the day topped at 18 knots for the men’s Boardercross heats. Then the rain came in and the wind dropped to 13 knots during the later women’s Boardercross heats but strengthened again between 14 and 15 knots during the afternoon for the race and picked up further more before the start of the race. It took 27 minutes for the first racer to complete the course, again won by Charles Deleau (FRA, North). Boardercross Results Men: Women: [Source: kiteworldtour; Photos: Roberto Foresti/Canon]
Aug
29
2008
Colgate Kitesurf World Cup St Peter Ording 08 - Presentation VideoPosted by: Kitemovement in Competition, PKRA, VideoPresentation video of the pkra 2008 in St Peter Ording. [Source: ExtremeElements.tv] It’s the sixth day of competition for the Colgate Kitesurf World Cup 2008 in St. Peter-Ording, Germany. Race director Olaf Van Tol decided to release the freestylers and boardercrossers for today and went for an all-race day. The weather was partly cloudy but the wind finally gave the course racers an excellent day for competition, packing a sustained speed of 15 – 20 knots. The sea was a bit rough in the morning. High tide came in at 11:00 am then started ebbing as the seas became a little flatter, not very choppy but less swell which was very good for racing. The mandatory riders meeting started an hour later than normal. The competitors met at 11:00 am then got started at 12:00 noon. Two races were held just before lunch which finished at 1:15 pm. A short lunch break followed then another two races were held at 3:15 pm. The day was finally called off at 4:45 pm. Course Racing Highlights Once again, North kiteboard racer Charles Deleau (FRA) dominated today’s games, winning the last three races while finishing 2nd in the first race. Deleau is still way on top of the leader board with a total of 4.9 points. In a surprising show of racing ability, another North rider Sky Solbach (USA) wearing jersey #34 finished the first race of the day ahead of everyone while crossing the finish line behind Deleau in the remaining three races. As a result, Solbach now occupies the 2nd place overall with a total of 15.7 points. Still another North racer, Sean Farley (MEX) maintains his 3rd place position overall after finishing 3rd in the first three races and 4th in the last race. Flysurfer’s Sebastian Bubbmann (GER) who occupied the 2nd top spot after five races drops down to number 4 after being disqualified in the first race and finishing 5th in the other three. Another North power racer dominated the women’s event in the person of Steph Bridge (GBR), finishing first in all of the four races. As a result, Bridge jumped from number 4 yesterday to 2nd place overall and is now only 2.15 points away from Gina Esteva (ESP, Best) who occupies the top spot. Esteva only managed to cross the line in 3rd place for the last three races behind Fabienne D’Ortoli (FRA, Cabrinha) who finished three 2nd places and one 4th place. D’Ortoli drops down to 4th place overall. Meanwhile, Kristin Boese (GER, Best) drops to 3rd overall from the number 2 spot after finishing 3rd, 4th, 4th and 2nd in today’s races. Course Racing Results (after 9 races) Men Women [Source: kiteworldtour] Czesc Karolina, How old are you and where are you from?
Currently your competing in the PKRA, why are you competing int he PKRA and not in the KPWT?
When did you start to treat this sport professionally? Where do you live right now?
How often and where do you usually practice? Which is your favorite trick?
On which trick are you working right now? What is your favourite book? Movie? Music?
What do you do when you are not kitesurfing? We are in the middle of the PKRA season. Is the competition going the way you were expecting? Are you happy with your performance?
Who is your favorite rider? Who according to you rides the best? From what you know you belong to La Ola Team, right? What is that team about?
We saw a couple of pictures of you ridding balance boards. We tested the board and we were impressed with her performance. Which is your favorite spot? What are the perfect condition for you to kite?
Do you have any idol in kitesurf? What are your plans for the future? [Interview: Kitemovement.com; Photos: Karolina Winkowska] After a windy, fast-paced, action-packed and wet Day #5, the Colgate Kitesurf World Cup 2008 in St. Peter-Ording, Germany concludes another day of exciting kiteboarding competition with the Freestyle double event now in the history books. The weather was cold and windy, as is typical in Northern Germany. The temperature peaked at 16° Celsius with winds of up to 22 knots. There were brief pockets of rain with some higher winds during the small rain squalls that rolled through but most of the male competitors were on their 9-meter kites for much of the day.
The freestyle doubles event started right on schedule at 10:30 am after the 10:00 am skippers meeting. The final heats were completed at 4:00 pm after which a course race was planned by 5:00 pm but due to technical difficulties and the subsiding winds, race director Olaf Van Tol decided to cancel the plan and call it a day at 5:15 pm. Freestyle Highlights There were a lot of exciting matches both in the men and women’s events as Bruna Kajiya defeated world champion Gisela Pulido in an exciting two-heat final. Joanna Litwin (POL, Nobile) defeated Jo Wilson (GBR, Naish) in the 12th heat with higher technical difficulty score in the air passes, landing a slim and blind judge over Wilson’s krypt to surface pass and Vulcan to surface pass.
The younger Jalou Langeree (NED, Naish) defeated veteran Kristin Boese (GER, Best) in the 13th heat with a krypt to surface pass, raley to blind and front to blind winning with greater power versus Boese’s raley to wrapped, front to wrapped and raley to blind. Langeree’s bid for the podium would stop there as EETV’s very own Susi Mai (GER, Cabrinha) defeated her with a higher technical difficulty score, landing a raley to wrapped, raley to blind, front to blind, and krypt to surface pass against Langeree’s krypt to surface pass, Vulcan to surface pass and raley to blind.
In another twist of luck, Mai was defeated by Julie Simsar (FRA, Liquid Force) who landed a raley to blind, front to blind, kiteloop and back to toeside surface pass, winning with a higher technical difficulty score versus Mai’s raley to blind and kiteloop-backloop. Simsar would then succumbed to the riding powers of Karolina Winkowska (POL, Naish) in the 17th heat with a higher technical difficulty score in air passes, landing a slim, blind judge, blind judge 360, raley to blind and front to blind.
Finally, Winkowska was the last heat winner to loose to the next heat’s competitor versus Gisela Pulido (ESP, Slingshot) with a slim, mobe, blind judge, front mobe and s-bend. Winkowska landed a blind judge, s-bend to blind with air pass and 313 loosing with less technical difficulty and variety. In the first final heat, freestyle singles winner Bruna Kajiya (BRA, Best) goes down to Pulido who landed a blind judge, front mobe and slim versus Kajiya’s back to blind air pass and slightly butt-checked blind judge and s-bend. In the second final heat, Kajiya fought back in the last few minutes to seal the deal and take the event win. The Brazilian kiteboarder landed a blind judge, s-bend, back to blind, back to blind air pass, non-inverted slim and blind judge with aerial handle pass versus Pulido’s slim, 313, front to blind, back to blind and blind judge. A higher technical difficulty score and more powered moves sealed the win for Bruna Kajiya.
EETV interviewed Kajiya after the games and got her view of the competition. “We had a really tough day today. The doubles went on thru the whole day. On my fist heat I was on a 7-meter when it rained and started to get dark. The wind picked up a lot so I started to hold on to my kite really hard but I was overpowered because I don’t weigh too much and when the wind picked up a little I was really flying so I couldn’t get my tricks so Gisela won and we had to go through a second heat. In the second [final] heat, the wind came down a bit so I went with my 7-meter again and it was nice so I landed some really good tricks and tried some powerful and clean moves. It’s really tiring but everything went good so I won.” The men’s heats were equally exciting, with the finals between Aaron Hadlow (GBR, Flexifoil) and Kevin Langere (NED, Naish) going into a repeat heat, keeping the men’s tour title bid alive. In some of today’s highlights, Tour regular Mario Rodwald (GER, North) started his 6-heat winning streak in the 19th heat beating all odds and climbing to number 4 up the doubles ladder. The world 15th ranked German PKRA athlete defeated countryman Tobias Hoelter (JN Kites) in this heat before knocking out another countryman Rick Jensen (Naish) in a closely fought 23rd heat. Rodwald won that heat with cleaner execution.
After that round, Jan Schiegnitz (GER, Liquid Force) knocked out Bas Koole (NED, Best) in a closely contested heat. The German kiteboarder landed a slim, front mobe, mobe, back to blind air pass, blind judge, front side 360 and a kiteloop-backloop while Koole had a slim, mobe, front mobe, hasselhoff, KGB and a blind judge up his trick list but had less power in his moves. Mikael Blomvall (SWE, Nobile) also had a good day, running a 4-heat winning streak starting in heat #25 after being disqualified in the singles, knocking out French ripper Florian Daubos (Naish) with a higher technical difficulty score. The Swedish kiteboarder then defeated Russian Petr Tyuskevich (Cabrinha) in the 29th heat with smoother execution and a lot of powered moves.
A strong showing from Steve Verelst (BEL, Best) put the pressure on Michael Schitzhofer (AUT, JN Kites) in their 26th heat match. Verelst landed a blind judge, front mobe, front mobe 5, 313, slim and s-bend while Schitzhofer landed a regular and switch slim, front side 360, blind judge with aerial handle pass, mobe, front mobe and kiteloop slim taking the win. Schitzhofer then lost to Reno Romeu (BRA, North) in the 28th heat.
Rodwald defeated North team mate Cesar Portas (ESP) in the 26th heat with cleaner execution and lower kite angle before ending Sebastien Garat ‘s (FRA, RRD) podium bid in the 28th heat. He also managed to fight another heat after defeating world #11 Romeu in the 30th heat going into the quarter finals. Also in the same heat, Blomvall defeated Spain’s Alex Pastor (Naish) with a higher technical difficulty score and cleaner landings. Pastor suffered a few crashes while Blomvall landed several solid and reliable regular and switch tricks.
After both riders fighting through a lot of heats, Rodwald would take the upper hand against Blomvall in their 31st heat match. Inspired by the home crowd, Rodwald moved on to fight for a higher place in the ladder, defeating the Swedish kiteboarder with a front mobe to blind, regular and switch slim, regular and switch back to blind air pass and regular and switch mobe. Tired after six heats, Rodwald would suffer a lot of crashes in the next heat against Tom Hebert (New Caledonia, Airush), loosing his bid for a podium position. Hebert took the win with a near-textbook display of smooth and powered regular and switch tricks to fight Onieva in the next round.
Having one heat to warm to the conditions, Hebert trounces Alvaro Onieva (ESP, Best) with another solid display of regular and switch moves and higher technical difficulty score. Onieva goes hard with a lot of power but came up short on the hot fast landings. Langeree seemingly unfazed by Hebert’s regular and switch prowess goes on to demonstrate his switch abilities and technical skills. A total of 16 moves (all with aerial handle passes) in 7 minutes outclassed Hebert who despite landing a mobe to wrapped, double back mobe and several regular and switch moves would have to settle for 3rd as Langeree moved into the next round to face Hadlow and go for the event win.
Final Match (Heat #36) A total of 16 moves for Hadlow and 17 for Langeree. Hadlow landed a blind judge with aerial handle pass, regular and switch front mobe, regular and switch slim, regular and switch mobe, s-bend to blind with aerial handle pass, s-bend, shifty 3, back to blind air pass, mobe to wrapped and slim to wrapped. Langeree landed a blind judge with aerial handle pass, s-bend to blind with aerial handle pass, regular and switch kgb, regular and switch front mobe, double s-bend, 313, mobe, slim and double back mobe. Going bigger and with more power, Langere would take the win. A slight technical advantage went to Hadlow but the height and power in Langeree’s moves outweighed Hadlow’s tech and gave him the win. Repeat Final Not satisfied with 17 moves Langeree threw 18 moves in this heat. A blind judge with aerial handle pass, regular and switch KGB, s-bend to blind with air pass, a huge and fast front mobe to blind, nuclear KGB, front side-bend to blind with air pass, 313, double back mobe, kiteloop 360 and a non-inverted slim. Hadlow landed a blind judge with aerial handle pass, s-bend to blind with air pass, front mobe to blind, regular and switch mobe, regular and switch back to blind air pass, 313, slim and kiteloop 360. With more power and technical difficulty score, with cleaner and smoother execution and landings, Langeree took the win and keeps his bid for the men’s tour title alive.
EETV interviewed Langeree after the games and this is what he had to say. “I’ve been here for the last five days and the wind was pretty good yesterday but today’s forecast was even better. I started my heat against Tom Hebert and I was pretty surprised he came all the way up there. The first final heat was good. I was able to do some powered moves even though the wind was up and down sometimes. I was super-stoked riding in front of the judges but was very surprise to win that heat but I think it was pretty close just like yesterday. So we had to do another heat and the second one went even better [for me]. I think the biggest advantage is I got my 9-meter kite. The wind picked up a little more so I started the heat with a super-powered blind judge.” [Source: kiteworldtour; Photos:kitesurfworldcup.de] Day 4 of the Colgate Kitesurf World Cup 2008 in St. Peter-Ording, Germany capped one of the best days that the competition had so far in this traditionally wet region of the North Sea coast. The wind was around 15 – 17 knots in the morning which lasted longer than what was expected but gradually dropped to about 9 to 11 knots in the afternoon during the racing events. The cloud started to set in during noon time and there was a brief rain at 12:00 pm and another wet shower at around 1:00 pm. The temperature averaged at 18° Celsius. The skippers meeting went right on schedule at 10:00 in the morning, followed by the first freestyle heat of the day half an hour later with a re-run of heat #6 which was abandoned yesterday. From there, the competition went smoothly up to the finals of the men & women’s singles elimination. After a half hour lunch break, the competition switched to course racing and finished one race. The day wrapped up around 4:30 pm. Course Racing Highlights Only one race was completed today and was won by no less than Fuerteventura racing champ Charles Deleau (FRA). Sean Farley (MEX) came in second followed by Sami Gali (ESP) and Sebastian Bubmann (GER). As a result of Farley’s win, Ron Reimers (GER) dropped to number four overall while Farley moved a notch up to number three. Still no change in the overall standings in the women’s event as Gina Esteva (ESP) once again won today’s race followed by Kristin Boese (GER) and Steph Bridge (GBR) in third place. Course Racing Results (after 5 races) Men Women Freestyle Highlights The freestyle event started with a re-run of yesterday’s heat #6 which was abandoned due to light wind conditions. Alex Pastor (ESP, Naish) had a tough heat beating Julian Hosp (AUT) but came up victorious in the end with more variety and powered moves. Pastor nailed a mobe, regular and switch slim, 313, regular and switch back to blind airpass, blind judge 3, front mobe, double s-bend and kiteloop handle pass. Hosp landed a regular and switch blind judge 3, back to blind air pass, non-inverted slim, mobe and regular and switch front mobe.
Heat #9 also was a very closely fought heat between Mikael Blomvall (SWE, Nobile) and Reno Romeu (BRA, North) until Blomvall had a crash landing and tangled with Alvaro Onieva (ESP, Best) from the other heat. Unfortunately, Blomvall was disqualified for dangerous riding and Romeu would advance to the next round but would eventually be knocked out of the game in heat #13. Onieva also received a warning for dangerous riding when his opponent in heat #9b had to change course to maneuver around him as he came in hot on a landing. Onieva eventually beat Stefan Permien (GER, North) with more power and a higher technical difficulty level. Sebastien Garat (FRA, RRD) defeated Tom Court (GBR, North) in heat #10, landing more tricks with greater power while Tom Hebert (New Caledonia, Airush) knocked down Cesar Portas (ESP, North) in another tough round in heat #11a with a 2-1 decision in favour of Hebert, winning with a higher technical difficulty score and lower kite angle riding. Pastor also defeated Rick Jensen (GER, Naish) in tight second round battle of the 11th heat with better execution and more height and power in his moves before loosing to Hebert in the 14th heat.
Petr Tyuskevich (RUS, Cabrinha) took out Michael Schitzhofer (AUT, JN Kites) in the 12th heat courtesy of a slim, mobe, front mobe, hasselhoff, s-bend, front mobe to blind and blind judge. The Austrian freestyler stomped a slimchance, blind judge 3, front mobe and 313. Meanwhile, Aaron Hadlow (GBR, Flexifoil) landing an NIS 7 in this heat against Steve Verelst (BEL, Best) taking an easy win to move in the next round. In contrast, Kevin Langeree (NED, Naish) had a close heat between Garat in the 13th heat. Langeree landed a blind judge 3, regular and switch KGB, s-bend, 313, non-inverted slim, mobe 5, mobe to wrapped and kiteloop handle pass, winning with better execution and more power against Garat’s blind judge 3, front mobe, regular and switch slim, front side 3, mobe and front to blind.
In the semi-final rounds, Langeree denied Onieva a top podium bid by defeating him in heat #15a with more powered execution and greater overall height in his moves while Hadlow drew a solid heat against Hebert in the heat’s second round with more power, higher technical difficulty and variety. Onieva would then beat Hebert to grab third place in the podium with a regular and switch front mobe, slim, back to blind air pass, blind judge, front mobe to blind ole and mobe. As expected, the finals was a close 3-2 heat between Hadlow and Langeree with the current world champ landing a front mobe to blind, double s-bend to blind, s-bend to blind with aerial handle pass, blind judge, shifty 3, non-inverted slim and regular and switch mobe, back to blind airpass, slim. Langeree landed a blind judge 3, 313, s-bend, front mobe, double s-bend, mobe, non-inverted slim, and regular and switch KGB/hasselhoff. Hadlow took the top podium spot with more switch variations and powered moves.
In the women’s events, Julie Simsar (FRA, Liquid Force) took on Jo Wilson (GBR, Naish) in the first heat winning with variation and then defeated Susi Mai (GER, Cabrinha) with higher technical difficulty and more variety in the 5th heat. Kristin Boese (GER, Best) knocked out Laura Fernandez (ESP, Cabrinha) in the 2nd heat while Karolina Winkowska (POL, Naish) defeated team mate Jalou Langeree (NED, Naish) in the 3rd heat with a blind judge, s-bend to blind, s-bend and raley to wrapped.
In the finals, Winkowska defeated Simsar in a close battle for third with a 3-2 decision, winning via her air pass moves and with a higher technical difficulty level. Bruna Kajiya (BRA, Best) won the single championship title by upsetting world title holder Gisela Pulido (ESP, Slingshot) with a blind judge, s-bend, back to blind airpass, blind judge 3 and front to blind. Tomorrow’s skippers meeting is set at 10:00 am with a first possible start at 10:30 am. The plan is to start right off with the freestyle doubles elimination and with the strong wind forecast, hopefully do two course races. [Source: kiteworldtour; Photos:kitesurfworldcup.de] A short movie from Alvaro Onieva last trip to The Gorge. [Source: youtube] |
|
