Wrap Up of the Movistar Kitesurf World Cup in Chile, PKRA 2008. Final event of the year.
Overall Results Freestyle and Waves.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

[Source: ExtremeElements.tv]

The 8th Edition of the Teri Kite Surf Pro 2008 will take place from the 1st to 9th November 2008 on the fabulous competition site of the Pointe Magnin, Nouméa New Caledonia (22°.18”S 166°26”E), organize by the LVLNC (Kitesurf league) and withstand by the local institutions.

This year the Teri Kite Surf Pro 2008 is an International competition open to riders from all around the world with all the organization found on international tour, it will also prepare the entry of the event into the PKRA 2009 competition calendar, therefore a mostly PKRA judges an race director team will be there at work along with PKRA ‘s president; Mauricio Toscano invited as a guest by the organisation.

A spot recognize by many competitors over the world as one of the best … just imagine white sand beach, Alizea blowing a continuous and warm 15 / 20 kts wind, emerald lagoon gently warmed at 26c° by a tropical summer sun…

Don’t need anything else to make a success! Join us to make the show and gather the 35000 AU$ offered by our sponsor TERI, NISSAN, ORANGINA, GLP Hôtels, an international judge Pro-team will evaluate your ability to win in the following event :

• Freestyle Mens / Womens 20000AU$
• Freestyle Junior 5000AU$ (equivalent kite gear )
• Racing race 8000AU$
• Best tricks 1000AU$
• Hang time 1000AU$

[Source: PKRA]

After the final leg of the 2008 PKRA Speed Tour, Sebastien Cattelan stays on top of Alex Caizergues and Chritophe Prin-Guenon (all France). The womens world title goes to Charlotte Consorti, FRA, ahead of Sjoukje Bredenkamp, RSA, and Katja Roose, NED.

Caizergues started the season with a victory in his hometown Port St. Louis, but was beaten in Fuerteventura not only by Sebastien Cattelan but also by hotshot Rob Douglas from the USA. This, and the higher ranked Fuerteventura event, costs him too many points to stay on top. Cattelan was winning in Fuerteventura, and his his third place on the final leg in Luderitz he closely snatched victory ahed of Alex. Christophe Prin-Guenon, with three 4. places constantly in the top riders, secured third place.

Charlotte Consorti was dominating the season in Port St. Louis and Fuerteventura and became second in Luderitz, leaving her the world championship title ahead of Sjoukje Bredenkamp, winning the Luderitz Speed Challenge. Katja Roose with constant podium places in third.

The Topspeed Ranking is dominated by the Luderitz Speed Challenge contenders, with Alex Caizergues world outright record time of 50.57 knots in first, Rob Douglas (50.54) in second, and Sebastien Cattelan (50.52) in third.

In the womens Topspeed Ranking, Sjoukje Bredenkamp on top with new outright world record as well (45.20 knots), then Charlotte Consorti (44.74) and Katja Roose (39.58).

The sixth day of the Movistar Kiteboard World Cup 2008 started with less fog than the past two days. Partly cloudy skies dominated the first half of the day which quickly turned into overcast skies by 11:00 am but cleared up and became mostly sunny as the day wore on. The wind was light in the morning, at 4 to 5 knots average but showed signs of picking up which it did, peaking at 20 to 25 knots during the afternoon.
Since the people at the beach were waiting for the swell to come back, there wasn’t any competition for today. There were several riders such as Tom Court (North, GBR), Tom Hebert (Airush, New Caledonia), Andy Yates (Slingshot, AUS) and Etienne Lhote (Fone, FRA) who spent a few hours building a dam on the beach from a river that flows out onto the ocean. On the other hand, some of the riders just chilled the day out watching movies on their laptops or surfed the Internet. There were a few adventurous souls who also went kiting at a spot upwind from the event site, located at a river mouth, including Sky Solbach (North, USA), Drew Beavis (North, Australia), the Brazilian riders including Guilly Brandao (Mormaii) and PKRA staffs Mauricio Toscano and Antoine Jaubert.
The event site in Matanzas, Chile is approximately 140 km from the nation’s capital of Santiago. It is a very small village where a lot of extreme water sports are practiced due to its reliable wind conditions, strong waves and remoteness. This time of the year, the average swell reaches 3-meters while the average wind speed is 11 to 15 knots (4 bft.), cross or cross-onshore.
Tomorrow’s weather forecast tells the same story with light wind and no swells so it is still a waiting game at the competition site.

[Source: PKRA]

Presentation of the Kiteboarding World Tour Waveriding and Freestyle 2008 in Chile, Matanzas.

[Source: ExtremeElements]

The fifth day of the Movistar Kiteboard World Cup 2008 was off to a quiet day. The morning started out foggy and cold with air temperature at 13° Celsius. Wind speed was a mere 4-5 knots in the morning and with practically no waves, most of the people on the event site took the time to surf the Internet using the only two Internet points in Matanzas – one being on EETV’s cabin and the other which was located over at the PKRA tour manager’s cabin.

There was practically no activities at the competition area this morning. However, by 1:00 pm the PKRA staff and all of the competitors met at the beach for lunch along with other people who were already at the event site enjoying the sunny conditions as the fog finally dissipated.

The crowd reconvened at the beach around 3:30 pm for the awards ceremony which finally started at 4:30 pm and finished around half an hour later.

Men’s Freestyle Result:

1st - Aaron Hadlow (Flexifoil, GBR)
2nd - Kevin Langeree (Naish, NED)
3rd - Sebastien Garat (RRD, FRA)

Women’s Freestyle Result:
1st - Gisela Pulido (Slingshot, ESP)
2nd - Bruna Kajiya (Best, BRA)
3rd - Susi Mai (Cabrinha, GER)

Overall Year Results:

Men:
1st - Aaron Hadlow (Flexifoil, GBR) – 5 Time World Champion
2nd - Kevin Langeree (Naish, NED)
3rd - Alvaro Onieva (Best, ESP)

Women:
1st - Gisela Pulido (Slingshot, ESP) – 2 Time World Champion
2nd - Bruna Kajiya (Best, BRA)
3rd - Karolina Winkowska (Naish, POL)

Susi Mai (Cabrinha, GER) came in 4th but was very, very close to the 3rd place for the overall year end ranking only 5 points behind Winkowska. Congratulations to all the winners for a job well done and we wish all the non-winners better luck next year for another round of the PKRA World Tour.

[Source: PKRA]

Another fantastic day concludes at the PKRA 2008 World Tour in Matanzas, Chile dubbed Movistar Kiteboard World Cup 2008. The same weather condition as yesterday prevailed today with cloudy to overcast skies in the morning but bright, sunny weather in the afternoon. The wind was also light during the first half of the day so the games started an hour and a half later than the original schedule of 10:30 a.m. Most of the competitors rigged their 9-meter kites during the start but went on to downgrade to their 7-meters later in the day.

In today’s notable heats, Maciek Kozerski (Naish, POL) was defeated by Michael Schitzhofer (JN, AUS) in a tough heat #27a with more powered moves, higher tricks and faster moves. Tom Court (North, GBR) defeated Andy Yates (Slingshot, AUS) in the same heat with a fairly solid run, landing a regular and switch mobe, back to blind air pass, kiteloop handle pass, slim, shifty 3, and a blind judge with aerial handle pass. Yates on the other hand, landed a slim, 313 5, blind judge with aerial handle pass, back to blind air pass, front mobe and mobe to wrapped.

Alvaro Onieva (Best, ESP) took a decisive win over countryman Cesar Portas (North) in the 28th heat with more power and cleaner execution while Tom Hebert (Airush, New Caledonia) defeated Madison Van Heurck (Naish, USVI) in a super stylish heat, riding smoothly and more powered.

Alex Pastor (Naish, ESP) lived to fight another day and moved a step closer to challenging Mikael Blomvall for the 4th place overall by knocking out Shitzhofer in heat #29 with high technical difficulty score and better execution and Pastor in heat #30b. Russian Petr Tyuskevich then defeated Tom Court in the same heat with more varied tricks and a higher technical difficulty score.

The 30th heat saw Onieva pounced Hebert, riding super-powered moves and clean tricks, going against Hebert’s big moves with grabs. With a much lower kite throughout this moves plus more variation, Onieva took the heat win and moved on the next round only to be defeated by countryman Pastor who is bent on getting the 4th place overall win. With a higher technical riding score, landing a regular and switch slim/back to blind air pass, mobe, front mobe, blind judge, and front mobe to blind, Pastor won the heat. However, his luck ran out in the 32nd heat when he landed hard on the water and hurt his ankle and headed back to the beach. Pastor landed only a blind judge, mobe, non-inverted slim while his opponent, Sebastien Garat (RRD, FRA) landed a blind judge, hasselhoff, 313, s-bend to blind, slim and kgb thereby taking the win. Pastor settled for 5th place in the overall PKRA rankings as a result of his loss.

In the 33rd heat, Garat won over Blomvall with a 3-2 decision to inch his way back to 3rd. The French kiteboarder landed a regular and switch slim, blind judge with aerial handle pass, mobe 5, front mobe, back to blind air pass, mobe to wrapped and front mobe while Blomvall landed a blind judge with aerial handle pass, slim, s-bend to blind, kgb and mobe. A higher technical score for Garat coupled with bigger moves gave him the win.

The 34th heat saw a fired up Kevin Langeree (Naish, NED) taking down Garat with a regular and switch kgb, blind judge with aerial handle pass, front mobe, s-bend to blind, front mobe to blind, double s-bend to blind, front side 360, 313, mobe, non-inverted slim, mobe 7 and kiteloop handle pass winning via technical riding and bigger moves.

The men’s double saw two final heats between Langeree and single elimination round winner Aaron Hadlow (Flexifoil, GBR). The first final heat saw Langeree outscoring Hadlow with more variety and higher moves coupled with double pass moves, outweighing Hadlow’s slightly powered moves. The second final round went to Hadlow after a strong heat from both riders. The UK’s pride landed a regular and switch slim/mobe, blind judge with aerial handle pass, front mobe to blind, shifty 3, kiteloop handle pass and mobe 5 while Langeree landed a regular and switch kgb, blind judge with aerial handle pass, s-bend to blind air pass, double s-bend to blind, front mobe 5, front side 360, 313, non-inverted slim, mobe to wrapped and kiteloop handle pass. Hadlow performed with a lot more power and took home the crown.

The ladies division on the other hand, saw the PKRA Tour regulars dominating the podium, with Susi Mai (Cabrinha, GER) defeating Russian Alexandra Maslova (North) in heat #17 with a higher technical riding heat. However, Mai was stopped in the 18th heat by top-ranked Bruna Kajiya (Best, BRA) in the 18th heat with a blind judge and back to blind air pass.

The ever unstoppable Gisela Pulido once again took home the glory in the doubles final, defeating Kajiya with a blind judge, front mobe, slim, 313 and s-bend to blind. Kajiya landed a s-bend to blind, front to blind, blind judge with aerial handle pass and had a few kite troubles after a crash. Pulido won with a higher technical difficulty score.

The freestyle awards ceremony will be held on Wednesday. Congratulations to Aaron Hadlow and Gisela Pulido – the 2008 PKRA World Champions!

[Source: PKRA]

News from Chile!

The singles are now complete. Congratulations to Aaron Hadlow and Gisela Pulido. With their respective wins both Aaron and Gisela have secured their repeat World Titles.

The PKRA 2008 World Tour in Matanzas, Chile wraps up a second successful day amidst the gloomy wind and wave forecast for the week ahead. The sky was cloudy to overcast in the morning but turned to a bright, sunny afternoon during the freestyle elimination rounds. Since the wind forecast for the coming days is not looking good, the organizers are keeping up the momentum to finish the games as fast as possible while keeping the excitement level to extreme.

The wind in the morning was mostly light, averaging only 8 knots. The mandatory skippers meeting started at 10:00 am followed by the drawing for the single elimination ladder. Since the wind was still building momentum, race director Eric Troostheide decided to delay the start until conditions were at PKRA standards.

Finally around 11:30 am, the wind was acceptable enough to start the men’s heats but since the wind on the inside was still lighter, most of the competitors headed out on their 8 to 9-meter kites. By the time the second round of the men’s elimination started, most of the riders had switched down to their smaller kites.

The wind stayed strong for the rest of the event, wrapping up another extreme kiteboarding day at 4:00 pm with a small awarding ceremony on the beach for the single elimination winners.

Day 2 Highlights

Read the rest of this entry »