PKRA 2008 - Germany Day 1

Germany hosts the 7^th Tour Stop of the PKRA 2008 World Tour; A total washout day kicked-off the event

After a three-week break, the PKRA riders are back in action for another exciting competition that will spice up the kiteboarding scene once more. For the 3rd straight year, the Professional Kiteboard Riders Association (PKRA) – the world’s foremost authority on kiteboarding events is holding the competition at the beautiful North Sea cost of St. Peter-Ording in Germany. Organized by ACT Agency GmbH, the event dubbed Colgate Kitesurf World Cup 2008 is without a doubt, the best organized kiteboarding competition in the world. This grand slam event includes the Freestyle discipline, Course Racing, and Boardercross. A total of 52 professional freestyle riders from 16 different countries will be competing in the main Freestyle event while 37 world-class racers representing 10 countries will be gunning for the first to cross the finish line in the Course Races. The Boardercross will showcase 41 extreme athletes from 10 nations vying for a total prize money of € 50,000.00 (US$ 73,800.00.)

The Colgate Kitesurf World Cup 2008 is proudly sponsored by Colgate, We Love, TV Today, Gard New Style, Chevrolet, the local government of St. Peter-Ording, Quicksilver, SevenOne Intermedia GmbH, Naish Kiteboarding, Jever, and Kitelife. The 2007 Freestyle champion’s trophy was bagged by top-ranked Dutch kiteboarder Kevin Langeree (Naish) and the young Spanish champ Gisela Pulido (Slingshot) for the men and women’s event respectively. St. Peter-Ording will also be hosting the last of the five Course Racing events of Tour at the largest beach of all PKRA tour stops.


Day 1 Highlights

The day started with the men’s trials elimination under a rain-soaked kick-off day. The rain came in early in the morning at 6:00am and by 10:00am for the skippers meeting, the event site was flooded from the amount of rain that dropped. The wind was marginal for the course racing while the mandatory skippers meeting was delayed by about an hour to allow for more competitors to make their way to the meeting. Finally at 11:00 am, the skippers meeting started but the wind had fallen off a little so the competition went into a series of postponements until 3:00pm when the wind picked up considerably. Event director Olav Van Tol decided to start with the Freestyle Trials instead of the originally planned Course Racing.

At exactly 3:30pm, the red flag for heat #1 was raised and the games went into a sequence for an eight-heat elimination series with the first round having six heats and a double elimination (round two) of two heats. It took a total of two hours to finish the eliminations under a 15° Celsius cold weather condition so the day wrapped up at 4:50pm. The wind speed ranged between 15 and 20 knots in the early heats but gradually dropped off in the later heats. It rained until the last heats were done so the competition was a total washout for the day.

Immediately following the final heats of the trials, mother nature decided to provide some brief sunshine and the skies started to clear so everyone is looking forward to some sunnier and warmer conditions for day 2.

A BMX Dirtjump Show was also held at the event site from noon until 6:00pm while a mini-concert presented by WE LOVE was held in the evening at the beach featuring Stefanie Heinzmann and Band.

Day 2 riders meeting is slated at 10:00am with first possible start of 10:30am. Stay tuned to www.extremeelements.tv for live results and the freshest photos and videos.