PKRA & IKA Sign Cooperation Agreement

[Toby]

PKRA News:

PKRA & IKA Sign Cooperation Agreement

The Professional Kiteboard Riders Association (PKRA) and the International
Kiteboarding Association (IKA) have announced today to enter a cooperation
with immediate effect. The first sanctioned PKRA event under this new
cooperation will be the PKRA KiteMasters Portimao in Portugal.

As of this writing, a sanctioning and cooperation agreement has been signed
by both parties, following up negotiations between PKRA Tour Manager
Mauricio Toscano and IKA Executive Secretary Markus Schwendtner.

As a result, the PKRA will be bidding farewell to the International Surfing
Association (ISA) which sanctioned previous PKRA events.

“The PKRA would like to extend its sincerest appreciation to the ISA
Executive Committee for their utmost sincerity in helping the PKRA these
previous months and for sanctioning past events including the recently
concluded Leucate Tour stop,” said Toscano. “We will be forever indebted
to their utmost graciousness especially when the PKRA was seeking an
International Class to sanction our events,” added Toscano.

Markus Schwendtner said, that “we are happy that we have overcome our
differences and that we have achieved our goal now to unite international
competition kiteboarding under one umbrella. This enables us to develop
kiteboarding with the help and input from all interested parties”.

The PKRA will be governed now by the International Sailing Federations
(ISAF) racing Rules of Sailing and have their world tour included in the
unified IKA world rankings, while the IKA agreed to give more influence to
the riders regarding the development of rules and judging guidelines, to
further unify and develop the sport of kiteboarding.

“We are really looking forward do drive the sport forward with the help of
the national associations as well as the professional tour operators, that
have done a great job in developing competition kiteboarding in the past
years”, Schwendtner concluded.

The International Kiteboarding Association is an International Class
Association of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). It is the world
wide governing body of kiteboarding, amongst other responsibilities managing
the global administration of the sport and combining world events into one
united ranking.
The Professional Kiteboard Riders Association has been in the forefront of
professional kiteboarding, organizing world-class, professional kiteboarding
events and the PKRA World Tour since 2000. It is a highly-respected
kiteboarding organization which aims to promote the advancement of
kiteboarding as well as the riders it represents.

For more information please visit or contact:
http://www.prokitetour.com