Aitutaki, Manureva international kiteboarding competition

So after ten days on the island it was time to head over to Aitutaki, to the spot where the competition was held.

I met a pilot on Rarotonga, his name was Ianis, and it happened that he was also flying the day I went over to Aitutaki. When I entered the plane he called me right up into the cockpit, so I could spend the start, the whole flight and the landing up front, it’s very different from the normal seats in the back.

My first project on Aitutaki was to build a kicker, which should last for a while, so the locals can use it till long time after the comp.

Our hotel was at Maina landing, it is run by Lawten and Aunty Marie the most amazing people around here. Both of them are really good at what they do and very helpful at any moment.

The boats leave from here to the honeymoon island (Motu Maina Iti), that’s where all the kitesurfer go to play. I have seen the spot already from the airplane, it looked like paradise.

The first morning I was able to grab a ride over to the motu and got to ride this paradise spot, the water is clean and all kind of blue and green, there is plenty of fish and corals but also some spots wt sandy bottom.

I have seen lot’s of kitespots around the world but this one is out of this world, flat turquoise  water, warm weather, good winds, pregnant coconut trees, smiling people all around u and a lot of space to play.

After a couple of days here, the rest of the team arrived. They were overwhelmed by the picturesque of this place.

The wind forecast was a bit shaky for the week, but we managed to pick the best day out of it and held the whole comp during one day. We started of wt freestyle expression session followed by two around the island races. Then the wind dropped a bit and we changed the format to downwind slalom. This format was a lot of fun for all competitors. We started wt a reach start went around a couple of buoys along the south side of the island and finished underneath the island. The competitors could just walk back across the island after the finish to get back up for the next start. The races were short and a lot of fun for all competitors. We managed to get 3 races in the bag before the wind went further down and the day came to an end.

The next days was not too much wind and we did some no wind activities. We spent a morning at the local school and judged a recycle kite building competition. We had a about 60 to 100kidds running around the grass field wt their kites up in the air, amazingly some of them stayed up for almost and hour even though there was no wind on the ground.

It was amazing to see all the efforts the kids put into the building of the kites, it was probably the most difficult decision to find the best kites.

The afternoon of the same day was action filled wt local kanu paddling for all competitors. It was a big local fight goin on between Paka and Ijanis, both choose their teams and battle it out on the water… and I guess the result will bring up many more discussions… since these two guys were also responsible for the most crashed on the water during the kite races. So next year we will organize a one on one race between these two ;-)

Then we came to the final price giving night, which was held at the wharf wt a local night market. No one knew the results and so the tension was high. The winner of the kite comp was a combined scoring of freestyle and race and also the kids were waiting to know who build the best kite.

All the winners got local shell medals, which were the best medals I’ve seen in all the comps I’ve been to and the girls got some local black pearls.

We had a buffet dinner afterwards and a after party local style till the early morning hours as usual... the unusual thing came the next morning wt a 9AM flight back to Rarotonga, surprisingly everyone made it out of bed and onto the plane… hangover.

We all agree that we had the best time in the Cook islands and it was well worth the long travel. What a great end of the 2012 season. This spot has a lot of potential and we will be back for more. More competitions and kitesurfing education projects.

 

 I like to send my special thanx to all the warm, welcoming, big hearted people of Rarotonga and Aitutaki. Specially Paka the main organizer, Conrad and Serena and kids and JT and his wife for the hospitality, as well as Lawten and aunty Marie for the help and hospitality, Ianis the pilot and MA MAN and all the local boys and girls, kitesurfers and dancers.

Keep up ur good spirits and u will go a long way.

We will do our best to send u all of our friends ur way and we will tell the world what a great peace of paradise u have out there.

So now I’m sitting in the plane to Sri Lanka and looking back at a very good time.

2012 was a hard start and a blast in the end; 2013 will be even bigger and as much fun for everyone.

Next stop Sri Lanka, Australia or Bali :-), Japan and finally Switzerland…