Day 1 - PKRA - Kite Masters Portimao World Tour 2007
The Kite Masters Portimao World Tour 2007 in Portimao, Spain kicked off to an exhilarating start as the competition began under way in the beautiful and sunny Praia de Alvor in the southern coast of Portugal. The crowds were treated to two major kiteboarding events, the Kiteboarding Course Racing World Tour and the kitemasters freestyle event. Mexican Sean Farely (North) won the opening race for the men’s division while UK pride Stephanie Bridge won in the women’s race. The freestyle event was also a crowd-pleaser which was made more exciting with the mandatory inclusion of board-off and kiteloop moves for extra points.
The opening day was greeted with calm wind but clear sunny skies prevailed throughout the day with the temperature maxing out at 24° Celsius (75.2° F). By the afternoon, the wind started to pick up speed coming from the southwest peaking around 18 knots (4 bft) before changing directions by 4 pm, just in time for the start of the first race.
Excitement quickly brew during the start of the race competition which saw a crowded starting line along with a few racers tacking early on to port to get some clear air for maximum speed. Leading the fleet at the first mark was Sean Farley (North, Mexico) and hot on his heels was blisteringly red hot and crowd favorite Paul Caswell (Cabrinha, United States) After changing kites right before the start, Caswell missed the layline and had to tack back onto starboard and had a few port/starboard troubles with Austrian Michael Schitzhofer. Farley went on to dominate the race lapping the final finishes on the short course. Steph Bridge (United Kingdom) also performed well among the women, even beating several guys to finish in 3rd place
overall.
In the freestyle event, heat #1, Portuguese Francisco Lufinha (RRD) went up against Denzil Williams (U.K.) who both displayed spectacular kiteboarding with both landing a few kiteloop moves amongst their regular freestyle tricks but it was Lufinha with an airpass and kiteloop handle pass who took the win. In the next heat, local kiteboarding prides Fabio Martins and Paulino Pereira went head to head in a battle of the Portuguese masters.
Pereira landed a slim and handlepass but no kiteloop nor board off moves which put him at a disadvantage as Martins was able to land a kiteloop/backloop as well as a sent handlepass and back to toeside with surface pass which gave him the win. In the third heat, Michael Schitzhofer (Naish, Austria) beat Spanish ace Abel Lago (RRD) with a kiteloop slim and tail grab board off while Lago landed several big board offs with spins and a big kiteloop but Schitzhofer won thru technical difficulty.
The fourth heat was a close battle between Kevin Langeree (Naish,
Netherlands) and Alberto Rondina (Cabrinha, Italy) both landing several technical moves. In the end, Langere’s kiteloop handlepass and tail grab board off along with a regular and switch KGB, powered 313 and blind judge with aerial handlepass won the game. Rondina equally rode well nailing a regular and switch aerial back to blind, regular and switch blind judge, board off and kiteloop handlepass.
The last heat of the day for the freestyle event of the men’s division saw Lago overwhelm Williams with massive board off spins and board off tail grab and kiteloop. In fairness, Williams rode well and landed a big kiteloop and sent handlepass but no board off moves which cost him the heat.
In the first heat of the women’s freestyle event, Kari Schivebaag (Ozone,
Norway) lost to Steph Bridge (United Kingdom) who nailed a variety of technical moves and a big powered kiteloop. Schivebaag also had a nice performance, landing a raley to blind and a small kiteloop. Meanwhile, the second heat ended in a tie between Jalou Langeree (Naish, Netherlands) and Angela Peral (Spain, North). Both riders landed a few kiteloops and butt-checked some board offs which proved to be a tough game for the judges to decide after both landed different freestyle moves – Peral landing a downloop to blind while Langeree landed several moves including a vulcan and krypt to surface pass and raley to blind. In the third heat, Ania Grzelinska (North, Poland) won over Bridge with a huge kiteloop and board off along with a raley to wrapped and raley to blind. Meanwhile, the fourth and final heat of the day went to Peral who landed a massive downloop to blind, raley to blind and a small board off move in a game against Schivebaag who landed a raley to blind and kiteloop but with no board off move.
The competition wrapped up at 7:00 in the evening with the crowd cheering for more action. Tomorrow’s skippers meeting is at 1 pm with first possible start at 1:30 pm. Be sure to tune in for more exciting games as the PKRA World Cup 2007 continues in Portimao, Portugal.
Day 1 Results: (Course Racing)
Men
1. Sean Farely (Mexico)
2. Bruno Sroka (France)
3. Abel Lago (Spain)
4. Francisco Lufinha (Portugal)
5. Toby Braeuer (Germany)
6. Amaud Dussen (Portugal)
7. Alberto Rondina (Italy)
8. Kevin Langeree (Netherlands)
9. Denzil Williams (United Kingdom)
10. Paul Caswell (United States)
11. Franz Schitzhofer (Austria)
12. Augusto Rocha (Portugal) – Did not finish
13. Pedro Fernandes (Portugal) – Did not finish
14. Sami Gali (Spain) – Did not start
15. Rui Meira (Portugal) – Did not start
16. Ricardo Felipe (Portugal) – Did not start
17. Michael Schitzhofer (Austria) - Disqualified
Women
1. Steph Bridge (United Kingdom)
2. Angela Peral (Spain)
3. Gina Steban (Spain)
4. Kari Schivebaag (Norway)
5. Ania Grzelinska (Poland)
6. Jalou Langeree (Netherlands)
7. Camilla Ringvold (Norway)
Visit http://www.kiteworldtour.info to get the latest PKRA riders ranking and http://www.extremeelements.com for a comprehensive, live game results. The official webcaster of the PKRA 2007 World Tour is http://www.extremeelements.tv. Fresh videos uploaded after every event can be found at http://www.youtube.com/extremeelementstv.