In a small village on the largest saltwater lagoon in the world are gathered a select group of the South American continents best kiteboard athletes. Ranging in backgrounds from sailing, hang-gliding, surfing, jiu-jidsu and more, brought together to share a passion for the kitesurf lifestyle.
A simple yet functional event site with fenced off launching area and a huge bus blaring ska to punk to hip hop, shade for the riders and an abundance of fresh fruit, guanana, and water - what more do we need?
Well, as we all know, for kiteboarding we need wind. And luckily we were blessed enough to get just enough to show the remarkably good turn-out of spectators the show they had come to see.
Miller, from the island of Ihla Bella in the state of Sao Paulo, dominated the action with his various no foot tricks including board passes and tick-tacks and blindside on the mutant he shaped. He is one of the most successful kiteboard shapers in all of Brazil and recently finished 2nd in the ABK Brazilian Contest.
With a first day of relatively light wind, local instructors Leko and Hali Kite School (http://www.kite.kit.net) spent the afternoon teaching kids how to fly kites. And can I say that they did remarkably well despite the challenging conditions! Some of these young kids really have talent for kite flying. One line kites are everywhere here in Brazil, kids are going crazy for them, and the Brazilian people have really embraced the sport of kitesurfing.
The format of the event is quite relaxed really. The principal disciplines are best trick and hang time. Each rider has 5 minutes in the water and is recorded by the official videographer. The riders then review the tape and we vote on who is the winner. Light wind made for challenging conditions and certainly no hang time records were set! But nonetheless the show must go on, and the tricks and antics of the riders playing around in light wind were quite entertaining for the spectators.
We also had a distance race, from the beach around a buoy on the other side of the lagoon and back. That was really funny, I got caught in a gust and exploded early on losing my board and managed to finish not dead last (2nd to last!) One of the first 3 riders to cross the finish line lost his board just before the buoy and actually body-dragged across the line!
Miller made an incredible trick during his heat kicking the board off his feet mid-air and after a couple of rotations of the board he grabbed the board and just to finish added a front loop rotation before an amazingly smooth landing. I have to say that this trick looks pretty freakin cool and is perhaps one of my personal favorite no foot tricks I have seen.
Brazil's answer to Spain's Alvaro Oneida or Maui's Niccolo Porcello is Reno S. Romeu from Rio, 12 years kiting since may 2002, coming from surfing, swimming, taikwando, skateboarding. Started kiting with his dad who is his trainer partner, his goal in kitesurfing is to ride like Marcelo Cunha, but he is not really into competition much, so this Kite 4 Fun event is perfect for him to come out and show the world that kids can kite too!
This was the 2nd Kite 4 Fun event and many more are planned for the future, initially in the state of Rio and expanding to all of Brazil and the world! An event is tentatively planned for directly following the KPWT World Cup competition in November 2003 in Rio. For sure this type of demonstration/show/competition/parties/clinic formats will have unlimited success in the kite world.
A big thank you goes out to the event organizer, Robert Atalla (mkt@graciemag.com) , to the Prefeitura (City) of Sao Pedro de Aldeia and to all the sponsors especially the Sal e Sol Pousada and Pizza e EctFor more information visit the Kite 4 Fun website http://www.kite4fun.kit.net. Until next time good winds and ALOHA!
Xoxo
Laurel
Laurel Makayla Eastman
http://www.laurel-eastman.com
special thanks for this pictures to LIA CALDAS
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Toby on 2003-02-04 01:37 ]</font>
