PKRA Thailand adjusts its dates

[Toby]

PKRA News:

PKRA Thailand adjusts its dates

The Intercontinental Hua Hin Kiteboaridng World Cup in Thailand is adjusting their event dates for promotional reasons. The new dates will have registration on Sunday March 14th and the competition will be from Monday March 15th till Saturday March 20th. This dates changes will result in additional promotion of the event and a big increase in the number of local and regional competitor to the event, as well as the large number of international professional competitors expected.

Online pre-registration for the event will open up on Monday February 1st at the PKRA website:

http://www.prokitetour.com/event.php?id=99

The Grand Slam event, featuring Freestyle, Course Racing, and sliders disciplines will be the first professional kiteboarding event in Asia in the history of the sport, and it promises to be a new beginning for the sport in the region, as it is expected to become an annual kiteboarding mega-event in Thailand.

In Addition to the PKRA Grand Slam event there will be a regional qualifier event which will be offering direct wildcard entries into the PKRA freestyle main event. Registration for this event will be on the 11th of May and competition will be from May 12- 14.

[doublerumandcoke]

On behalf of the BWA schools of Boracay (Boracay Windsports Association) we are glad to see the PKRA has adjusted its event dates so as to not purposely clash with the KTA (http://www.kiteboardtour.asia/ktainfo_team.htm) which was scheduled at another centre for 6 months.

The KTA is a regional tour allowing many riders from Asia to compete on a circuit who normally wouldn't have the means to travel much further a field.

Well done the PKRA for seeing past business differences and putting the riders first.

On behalf of the BWA
DRC

[Nico]

Don't fool yourself, this is a business solution, in fact the only smart one.
Not shifting the date would have had too much negative impact for the PKRA.
Staying out of Asia would have been a move for the riders (asian riders) and for the newly born KTA.
This would however have credited the KTA with too much power in Asia, and thereby weakening the whole structure of the two world tours.
Nico

[Toby]

it is good to have an Asian tour as well to promote the sport more in Asia...which has a lot of potential. One stop of the PKRA will not have such a big impact in Asia. But good to have the world tour stop in Asia as well.

Thx for sorting it out, the riders and the sport won. That's how it should be...always!