Day 4 – No Wind Day

Riders get a time off

Today the weather was generally pleasant, sunny, with broken clouds. The temperature was between 22° to 23° Celsius but started to drop down as dark began to settle. There was very little wind earlier in the morning and whatever wind there was blew offshore. Everyone was hopeful that it would slowly turn the other way around but that never really materialized. Later during the day, the wind blew onshore but it was just for a very few moments.

The mandatory skippers meeting was held at 10:00 a.m. and Race Director Eric Troostheide quickly announced a wind delay. The competition was called off for the day at 4:00 pm when it was apparent that the wind would not cooperate. It was a bit disappointing day for some of the fans and the competitors as many were anticipating to see the course racing event conclude.

On a brighter note, the winds have actually been more cooperative since the start of the PKRA tour here at Playa del Carmen in Mexico. Even Erika Sastre of Photopro Media Productions, the event organizer for the Movistar Kiteboard World Cup noted, “We haven’t had any good wind for several weeks now but since the press conference right before the start of the competition, the wind started to arrive so, for us that was a good sign.”

Tomorrow’s wind forecast is slightly better than today but everyone is hopeful that the wind will cooperate. It would be interesting to watch French rider Charles Deleau of the North Kiteboarding team race head to head with Spain’s Sami Gali (Best) for the battle for second place in the podium. With only a fraction of a point separating these two superb athletes, it will definitely be a show to watch.

Interestingly, last year’s overall racing champ Bruno Sroka (France, Takoon) has not been very aggressive in the waters compared to what we have seen him do so during last year’s season but it’s still a wait and see game. In contrast, last year’s number three ranked Sean Farley (Mexico, North Kiteboarding) have been very consistent and commanding in the courses. Looks like his training efforts in Western Australia have been paying off. First time entry Charles Deleau also is performing quite well considering he’s on borrowed board and has been giving Sami a run for his money.

Also we were able to sit down with PKRA official photographer Roberto Foresti who have been providing spectacular shots of the events since 2003. We got his views and perspective of the PKRA World Tour through the eyes of the camera and this is what he has to say:

“The [performance] level is really high and the maneuvers are much more technical. The freestyle event improved significantly in three years. I remember the older riders back then who would do slow maneuvers but it’s complete different now. Aaron [Hadlow] is really impressive because he’s really fast and ride with incredible power so whenever I shoot him, I take a sequence of shots in order to take good pictures because he’s really fast. Amazing, truly incredible.”

Tomorrow’s skippers meeting is scheduled at 9:30 a.m. and with wind permitting, the first possible start for the course racing event will be at 10:00 a.m.