The IKA Kite World Championships

Here i am back on tour...

It has been a long summer back home in Switzerland wt a lot of work, good times wt friends and almost winter ;-) As usual i didn't kite much back home, except for a weekend on Lake Como, which was fantastic.

My travel started from Zurich to London for a long weekend followed by a short meeting at cabrinha in Hong Kong where i got my quiver filled again wt new toys. The 2014 Chaos looks fantastic, and it feels awesome to ride. This year i got the 138 XCaliber Signature Series which is a bit bigger than last year, it goes very well upwind, give me a good pop and is very light weight.

We had a great start into the season with our biggest event up to date. 160 competitors from all over the world came to China to the course racing world championships. It took almost 1.5years to organise and many meetings wt officials and local authorities to get it all together.
We ran 61 races in mostly great and sometimes challenging conditions, the sun came out only on rare occasions. Most of the competitors were very happy wt the outcome of the event, as we got a lot of positive feedback. A new mark has been set for upcoming worlds.

I was sitting on the pin boat for the whole event and making sure no one goes over the line too early, and if then pin em down and get em UFD... ;-) apart from getting the flag up n down at the right time and checking the line during the start sequence we also had a lot of spare time on the boat... but what else to do on a chines fishing boat than fishing...

My personal note out of the many nations and people i met at the worlds... chines and americans are very similar, both think they are the biggest and best, both have not much knowledge of the rest of the world, less than 40% of the population own a passport and they are pretty loud and rude.


The KTA starts again and i'm back for more. Biggest change for this year, i'm not staying in Boracay anymore. I had a good time in the last 5 years, but in the end, Boracay will not get me any further in life. I still got a lot of friends back there, which i most likely will see when we go back wt the KTA. It's a good kite spot, which got a bit too popular and way to crowded nowadays. There is also a serious health threatening water quality issue, which has just become worse over the last 5 years. The government will probably not fix the serious pollution problem in Bulabog as long as people keep comin.

Right now i'm over in Perth where the Oceania Championships are about to beginn. Looks like a lot easier to organise an event like this over here. The sailing clubs have all the boats u need and staff that is well trained and they speak a language which is understandable...

There is plenty of kitespots around. so far i've checked out the ones closer to perth... not really enough time to do the long trips to the great spots north and south of perth but the kiting here is fab as well. U can find a spot for every wind direction.

i'll be back for more... oceanics next then xmas race in phuket and NZ for xmas ;-)

peace out...


Read Full...

KTA Bintan

It's been a while...

I have spent most of my time in Boracay till now wt some new and lots of old friends. I had some good trips for the KTA to Bintan to check out the first tour stop location and to Hainan Island where we are organising the Kite Race World Championships for Nov. 2013. It's gonna be a kick ass event there, where the riders will get pampered and spoilt and for sure not getting bored.

I moved into a new apartment which is way overpriced, like everything is here now. The cost of living doubled in the last 2-3years!!
I enjoy my time here as much as possible, as i think it might actually be my last full season on this island. It's getting too crowded, polluted and messed up by the grief of all the business owners who just wanna make bucks and don't think about the environment.
If the new airport is coming up.. and it really looks like it, since they have already started to take down the mountain at the end of the runway, then Boracay will go down very quickly. This island just can't take any more than 1million tourist/year, and they plan on up to 3million... but hey if they take down the mountain filipino style wt a plastic pipe and a nail.. it might at least take some years to build the runway ;-)

I'm looking for some new location to go for the next season, there is still plenty of locations around asia to be discovered. If anyone knows a interesting spot or locations wt a couple of month wind.. let me know. I'm pretty much up for anything that is not so crowded, has some steady wind and i'm actually really keen on some waves, maybe i'm getting to old for the freestyle ;-)

The KTA started late this season, but wt a big bang. 100rider registered for the first competition in the new kite spot of Bintan island, at the Agro beach resort.

Every one expected this spot to be light wind and not much chance of running much freestyle. We had to proof it all wrong, the kite spot if a pearl, flat water lagoon, steady wind and a massive area for course race boards. We had winds of 16-20knots every single day of the competition. We managed to run full double elimination and 11races for all fleets, that's over 50races in total.

This was the first time we had an IRO and IJ wt us to get the 50points for the ISAF world ranking. It was smooth sailing wt so many professional team members working behind the scene. I could actually concentrate on running the whole competition, which is much better then jumping from start boat to judge tower to jury room to scoring.

My next trips are already booked and seald, we have the next competition coming up in 10days in Thailand and a week after that i will be back in Boracay for the next competition. So pretty busy time right now, but it's good like that, keeps the mind focused.

U can find all the pictures of the competition on our FB event page
https://www.facebook.com/kiteboardtourasia


The full report of the event can be found here
http://www.kiteboardtour.asia/news/kta-indonesia-the-final-story/

so long, stay prosper and warm

Stephan Read Full...

KTA Boracay 2012

it's already a while back but i thought i should write a little wrap up of the KTA Boracay tour stop.

This year i had to start early to organize it, since i was local organizer and competition director. So not only dealing wt the daily schedule stuff, but also run around the island and get permissions done, wt a lot of help from Ken. The observing the whole setup, get everything printed on time and delivered. It was all on very short notice.. since the main sponsor signed the contract about 5weeks before the tour stop and we had a 2 week block off for xmas and new year.. where nobody really works.
I the end it was well worth it, first of all we had 80! competitors registered, reduced the partys to what is actually needed, and made every one feel comfortable on the spot and able to focus on kiteboarding.
The Beachfront of Aqua Boracay is definitely the best spot for the competition, the widest beach and once finished it will be a stunning background.
We started off wt the freestyle and went all the way to the single finals. Very successful first day of competition. Second day was as good as day one, races in the bag in both categories twin tip and race boards and freestyle doubles started.
We managed to make it all the way to the double finals on day3 and had the last day reserved for racing only. Lucky as we are, the wind dropped off on the last day and we could only do a few more races.
We had a nice opening party in Epic, a midweek party in Dos Mestizos and the final night was in Sands Bar and the after party in Jungle Bar... as u can guess.. we had a blast and i think no one went home sober :-)

All in all.. the best event we ever had on this island. thx to all the competitors, i hope i will see u all again next year again on my home spot and hopefully together wt Aqua Boracay again.. Read Full...

time for a change

a year has gone, a new one s about to come.
So what can we do better in the next one? hmmm same question every year. I say let's do the same shit again because it was a good year!
Traveled the world, made new friends, lost some good friends, had a lot of time on the water, a blast on the island and a lot of good chats, beers and party's.
What else could i wish for... all i can say it's a damn good life!

So with this short notes i wish u all a very happy new year, make more love, more babies and make this world a better place wt every day of ur life, don't wast ur days u have only one life.

Photos by Alexander Baranescu Read Full...