Cook Islands - Rarotonga a paradise of Polynesia

Kia Orana…

I arrived in rarotonga after a short journey from Sydeny. It was my longest Saturday, I started on Saturday at 9PM in Sydney and landed in Rarotonga at 7AM… Saturday morning. That’s because the cook islands are just behind the date line.

The international airport is big for a small island but it still keeps it’s island living touch. From the big bustling city’s of Australia back into the island live time was a bit of a change but I really prefer it. Everything is goin at a slower pace, there is no stress and people are happy and very welcoming and after all it was warm again, jandals time. That’s how they call flip flops or thongs over here.

After a short nap I met up wt Paka, the main organizer for the competition. We went straight to the local market in town, it is a very colorful and busy one. They sell different kinds of local food, fruits and veggies here as well as the Polynesian style gifts to bring home like traditional wood masks, black pearls, sarongs...

It didin’t take me long to adjust to the island style again, and I met all the local kitesurfers down in Muri beach. Rarotonga is a round, volcanic island wt a reef all around it, at some spots it is very close to the beach and on other spots the reef is up to 800m outside the beach and inside are flatwater lagoons some wt sandy bottoms and others wt coral heads spread out.

Muri beach is one of the places wt the lagoon inside the reef, two small islands are right in front of the beach which can create wind shadows. So the wind here is very dependent on the direction. I had a good session here, the visibility of the water is crystal clear, so u can enjoy just cruising around.

Another spot is just 10minute drive away, but the wind comes from the other direction since it is around the corner from muri. This spot is close to the Rarotongan resort and it has a lot of coral heads inside the lagoon, so not really good for learning new tricks but nice to ride.

I spent the first nights in a hotel and then changed over to Conrads place, which is Muri Hillside. It is located uphill of the kiteschool on muri beach. From here u have a fantastic view over the bay. Conrad has a lovely family wt 4kidds, the family bond on the island is much bigger than I’ve seen it in any city or island before. The kids know how to behave, are very helpful in and around the house.

We had a lot of good dinner at his house and in all different kinds of restaurants on the islands.

The best food I had here was at a place called island living. It’s not the usual restaurant place, it is more like a plantation wt a big family house where the cook only once a week for a group of max. 15-20people. I was lucky enough to get a invitation from the minister. The food is absolutely free of any kind of conservation crap. Everything is fresh out of the garden and the sea. The whole idea behind this planation is to preserve the plants, fruits and vegetables that are growing in the Cook islands. There are many different kinds of limes and lemons, papayas, kaffir lime, mango trees and various types of local potatoes and roots.

The buffet meal is just the best that the island has to offer, a few food travel magazines just discovered it and gave em their highest notes.

I met wt a lot of people which are involved in the sailing federation of the Cook islands and in the OSF. It was actually very interesting to talk wt them and find out that the OSF and the Cook islands are far ahead of most other countrys, the kitesurfing is included in the sailing federation and they will start a school project together wt New Zealand that will be held in Aitutaki. Students can study the history of transportation and sailing of the Polynesian islands, this will give em official points towards the final exams. The course will then also include kitesurfing.

This is definitely a step I the right direction, the ISAF is just to big, old and slow of an organization to keep up wt these kind of things, so it is very good to have people here that are actually taking action and not just talk about it.

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Australia - Brisbane

Next one up after Sydney was Brisbane. The main reason to go there was to meet my good old friend Kate. Finally i made it to Australia, so i had to fulfill my promise and visit her over here.
She's living couple of minutes out of town in a suburb called Taringa, the roads out there are a bit like riding a roller coaster...up n down hill.

The main transport around town is either bus, train or boat, last one is very nice on a sunny day, to cruise along the river all the way through town. I did some cultural day wt a visit to an art exhibit in the old power station, they showed a selection of the price winning photos from 2011 awards.

I spent some good time wt Kate, we had some lunch at her Uni, the Queensland University which is a very big university where u can easily get lost.
The nightlife and bars of Brisbane are good and i think u can find something for every taste. We had a dinner at a Tibetan restaurant, which was delicious. Lots of new flavors that i haven't tasted before.
The nights out in OZ a not very cheap, a bottle of beer can easy cost 8$ in any kind of bar and in shops it is still 2-3$ for a bottle.. but hey they have good wine, which i like too :-)

So from here on i was supposed to head up to Townsville for an event, which was actually the whole reason why i came to OZ, but sadly the local organizer told us in the last minute that we have to pay now to run his event due to him not being able to secure a sponsor, so this would be kinda u come to work for me and then pay me to watch u working... This leaving us no other choice than to drop the comp ,which in the end had no wind anyways... karma...
So instead of that i took the chance and went over to the cook islands a bit earlier than planned
.. and that's gonna be my next blog :-)

big hug and thank u to Kate and her house mate Tim to let me occupy the couch for a while... next time we meet in Europe...

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Australia - Sydney

So after China i took a long flight over to the other hemisphere, to Sydney in Australia.
Just when we left China i found out that Alice lives in Sydney and she offered me to stay wt her. So after the early morning arrival i ended up in a suburb of Sydney, about 30minutes train ride outside of the center at a station called Como. The area looks a bit like Switzerland, except the the lake view is a sea view... and ur aloud to kite on it...

 

So as it also happend to be, there was another friend in town as well. So i met up wt Rikki in town and we had a couple of good walks... even though i think she didn't like the long walks in uncomfy shoes... hehee

We went to explore the Opera house and the Darling Harbour and over to Manly beach.. which we just reached after nightfall, so there was not too much to see anymore, but a nice place anyway.

I spent the next couple days bumming around town and at the kite beaches in the area, Kurnell and Cronulla beach just south of the airport. Alice showed me all those great spots wt her fun car, a very old model of a Holden car. The only thing stoped me from kiting around here was the cold... it's winter down under.

After exploring the Sydney nightlife and a short visit to Bondi beach (at night) i had one more thing to do, go see a kangaroo... since there is a small zoo in the middle of the Sydney that was our place to go. There is a bunch of small critters and scary big animals to see and the Koalas and Kangaroos.

 The last thing i explored was Vivid Sydney, this is an amazing gathering of art and light installation around the Opera house. Plenty of interactive and very colorful installations make this exhibit a very unique kind.If u got the chance, it will be again in 2013...

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KTA China

It's been a while since my last post and also a few miles and hours of flight in between.

After my last kite adventure in Sri Lanka i went of to the KTA China tour stop. We set up camp in a new location there, called Pingtan Island, next bigger city is Fuzhou. The wind here is nuking, most of the houses around the city have big rocks on the roof to keep it in place, 50knots is nothing unusual here.

We were lucky and got some good winds, we did the full freestyle doubles and some TT and RB races.
The crowd was crazy, it was not the usual couple hundreds it was more like couple of thousands that spread along the beach. The whole city got a day of from the government to come to the beach and check out the competition. The KTA videos were running on a massive, Broadway size screen in the middle of the city for the last month, so everyone knew what was goin on on the beach that weekend.

We also had a record of participants in the TT class, which will hopefully be soon included in the official rankings of IKA and ISAF since this is the biggest fleet at every event.

It was a very good event, wt a ginormous beach setup and a very good hotel. A small spontaneous mid week balcony room party... which ended up wt some snow like feathers flying all over... ;-)
All the riders got free accommodation and free food every day. We had great food and some cute little chines students to translate for us, these angels are very helpful if u don't speak a word of chines.

The final party was not as crazy as others but still good.

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Kitesurfing goes Olympic in Rio 2016

This is my personal point of view about the decision to get kiteboarding into the olympics in 2016 in Rio.
What a chance for a fast growing spot like kiteboarding. Sailing till now has been pretty much boring to watch, since most of the races are held a few kilometers offshore and the spectators don't see it or understand it. So what the ISAF is looking for is a new class that can bring in more media coverage and more spectators to the beach. Kiteboarding is the perfect match for this problem.
The sport is very attractive for young people, it is colorful, loaded wt action, tactics and close up finishes and most of all it will be the most affordable olympic watersport ever. A full standard quiver will cost u no more that about 3000$ - 5000$ which is affordable to pretty much everyone, compared to a small dinghy or sailboat which cost 10times as much and more...
The sad part is that we kicked out windsurfing to get our spot, but on the other hand it is the chance for windsurfing to change the rules and reapply wt a new class, which should be more attractive, modern and bring in more spectators and young guns as well. The RSX class was just boring and the lack of big names did not make it more attractive. If i chat wt any real windsurfer who rides actually in the world tour or European tour, they all tell me the same story... RSX is boring and oldskool, and no one of them can tell u any names of a windsurf Olympic champion. There is just a handful of windsurfers who do nothing else than training on that board and sail, but most of them never really achieved anything in the real windsurfing classes.
That is the best reason for kiteboarding not to become as boring and oldskool, and the way to do this is wt the boxrule and never a one design class.
There is a lot of meetings goin on and every kiteboarder have to join his national organization, so we can have proper selections of the best races of each country to join the games.
I'm very positiv about it, we will be there and show all those pessimist that we can do it, and that we actually already have some very good kiteboarders out there... we don't really need any rsx racers that has no more job and thinks he will be the best kiteboarder in 4years time.
We will need a whole lot of trainers and coaches, this is the chance for everyone to get involved.

Kiteboarders unite and show the world that we can do it! Read Full...