The fourth day of the PKRA 2008 World Tour stop in Canada, part of the on-going Festival of the Wind concludes with the freestyle double eliminations in the bag.

It’s the second day of the PKRA 2008 World Tour in Canada for the Festival of the Wind with the day starting out very early – very early in fact that even Mother Nature wasn’t even awake. The result was no wind as forecasted. Since the wind was more out of the North, a decision was made to move the competition to the North shore where both the wind and location were more favorable. As a result there was a wind and change of venue delay until 10:00 am so race director Eric Troostheide decided to go for an 11:00 am start.

Day 2 Highlights

The men’s Freestyle singles picked up from where it left yesterday with an early show of exciting kiteboarding action and an opening heat between Reno Romeu (North, BRA) and Alvaro Onieva (Best, ESP) in heat #13. Onieva displayed more variety and powered moves, landing a blind judge, s-bend, regular and switch back to blind air pass, regular and switch slim, double s-bend, kiteloop handle pass and 313 against Romeu’s blind judge with air pass, 313, mobe 5, slim and KGB. Current world champion Aaron Hadlow (Flexifoil, GBR) defeated Sebastien Garat (RRD, FRA) in the same heat. Both riders displayed strong moves packed with high technical score and power but Hadlow’s switch variety gave him the edge.

Fresh from his win against Hosp yesterday, Mikael Blomvall (Nobile, SWE) had a good showing in this heat, defeating Alex Pastor (Naish, ESP) in the 14th heat with a regular and switch variations of KGB, front mobe and slim, a huge double s-bend and shifty 3. Pastor landed his own regular and switch moves plus a mobe, front mobe to blind and s-bend but not enough to match Blomvall’s greater technical score and switch variation plus power.

Meanwhile, Kevin Langeree’s (Naish, NED) fight to the throne continues with a win against Tom Hebert (Airush, New Caledonia) in the same heat. Hebert displayed several switch variation but the power and execution of Langeree gave him the win, including a blind judge with aerial handle pass, 313, regular and switch KGB, double back mobe, double s-bend, indy grab, non-inverted slim, s-bend to blind and mobe. Langeree then went off to defeat Blomvall in the semi-final with an exceptional show of talent, landing a blind judge with aerial handle pass, 313, regular and switch KGB, regular and switch front mobe, s-bend, non-inverted slim and kiteloop handle pass. Blomvall lost with less switch moves, less power and variety.

Just a few days after the successful German stop of the PKRA 2008 World Tour, the guys and gals of the only kiteboarding authority in the world are back in action. For the first time, the Tour is being hosted by Canada and will be held until September 13 at Green Shore Park, Summerside at Prince Edward Island. 

This Tour stop is the only North American venue of the PKRA and is being participated in by professional kiteboarders from seventeen different countries who will be testing the wind and waves of the Canadian shores. The PKRA competition is part of the much larger Summerside International Festival of the Wind which is being held from the 9th until the 13th of September. The festival will also include a visit by tall ships from across the globe, a Round-The-Island race and the top class Summerside Roots Folk Music Festival giving the event an all-week-long showcase of kiteboarding action, fun and entertainment.

Day 1

Today marks the debut of the PKRA 2008 World Tour in Canada with the men’s Freestyle out to test the Canadian waters first. The day started out nice, sunny and warm. However, fairly light wind prevailed for most of the day plus there was a low tide which prompted a series of postponements before the Freestyle. As the day wore on, the clouds moved in and so did some small rain showers towards the end of the day.

The mandatory skippers meeting started at 12:00 noon. At 2:00 pm, an opening ceremony was held at the park with the Minister of Tourism and other local government officials formally opening the event. After a few wind delays, the men’s Freestyle started at exactly 3:15 pm.

However, since the tide was out and there was no possibility of running the heats in front of the competition event, the game was moved 500 meters down the beach where there was more water plus given the wind direction, it was a more favourable spot.