07/07/2007 - PKRA TARIFA 2007 ::

MOVISTAR PKRA COMPETITION TARIFA 2007

The fifth stop of the PKRA World Tour 2007 kicks off at Valdevaqueros Beach in Tarifa, Spain brought to us by Movistar and Nokia. The Movistar Kitesurf Pro Tarifa 2007 will showcase some of the most exciting kiteboarding competitions this year and will run until the 8th of July. This year marks the second time a PKRA event is held in this popular kitesurfing destination south of España off the Strait of Gibraltar, otherwise known as the wind machine. A total of thirty men and eleven women from thirteen various countries will vie for a total of $46,000 in prize money.

The wind was nowhere to be found during the morning but that didn?t stop the competitors from warming up under the 25° C Valdevaqueros skies.
However, in the late afternoon at around 4:30 pm, the extreme eastern wind known locally as ?Levante? which averages above 25 knots (5 bft) started showing signs of its initial arrival which prompted the race director to sound the horn half an hour later and start the competition which lasted until 6:30pm.

Heats 1 to 8 of the men?s single elimination round inaugurated this year?s Tarifa competition and immediately, the first heat proved to be one of the toughest heats of the day. Rui Meira (Naish, Portugal) went head on with Naish team mate and local boy Alex Pastor on borrowed equipment landing switch and regular slims, a powered KGB and a front mobe to blind to take the win. Pastor crashed his attempt on a front mobe to blind including several slims to wrapped with no luck. Meanwhile, Ruben Lenten (Slingshot, Netherlands) won an easy round against Brazilian rider Victor Adamo (North) as well as Alvaro Onieva against Julien Bracht in heats #1b and #2a respectively. Still in the second heat, Julian Hosp (Carved, Austria) won a close battle over the Italian Stallion Alberto Rondina (Cabrinha) with a switch and regular mobe, front mobe and slim. In the third heats, Spanish rider and crowd favourite Cesar Portas (North) won an easy match against Leander Vyvey (JN-Kites, Belgium) landing several powered moves with more variety including regular and switch slims and KGB. Reno Romeu (North, Brazil) also defeated his opponent ?Super Mario? Rodwald (Carved, Germany). Romeu landed some nice regular and switched slim, a big kiteloop slim and mobe 5 and a front mobe while Rodwald landed a big non-inverted slimchance and double front to blind but higher kite angles, less heights in his moves and less power lost the game for Rodwald.

In the fifth heats, Mallory de la Villemarque (North, France) also won an easy round against Robin Snuggs with a power switch and a variety of technically difficult moves while Phillipp Brueckman (Carved, Germany) easily defeated Sam Light on a slim, mobe, kiteloop handle pass and blind judge.

Heat #6 was a controversial battle between Naish team mates Kevin Langeree
(Netherlands) and Michael Schitzhofer (Austria) in the first round and has to be cancelled because Oliver Panny (Best, Austria) crashed his kite into Langeree while going up against Spaniard Jo Ciastula. Langeree won the heat during a re-run who went with bigger kiteloop slim, regular and switch front mobe, indy KGB, front mobe to blind, non-inverted slim, mobe and blind judge. Schitzhofer also pulled an awesome heat with regular and switch slims, a big kiteloop slim, mobe 5 and a powered front mobe. Panny only managed to land a slim before crashing into Langeree while Ciastula stomped a slim, blind judge, back to blind air pass and hasselhoff, taking the win in heat #6b.

Young rider, Madison Van Heurck (Naish, USVI) also won against his opponent Paul Caswell (Cabrinha, US), landing a few nice powered bar pass moves in heat #7. In contrast, Rocky Chatwell (US) had a very tight match against Maciek Kozerski (Naish, Poland) winning by a slim margin. Kozerski came out strong with several powered moves while Chatwell was playing catch up but came thru with a bunch of regular and switch mobes and a massive kiteloop handle pass and slim with similar power and smoother style. Kozerski on the other hand, landed an equally fantastic 313, kiteloop handle pass, blind judge and back to blind air pass, and a kiteloop slim.

In the final heat of the day, Mikael Blomvall (JN-Kites, Sweden) also had a very exciting match against Silvester Ruckdaschel (F-One, Germany) winning with a powered switch and regular mobe, slim blind judge with aerial handle pass, 313 and hasselhoff against Ruckdaschel?s 313, back to blind air pass and mobe.

In the women?s elimination rounds, Kari Schivebaag (Ozone, Norway) defeated Helen Thompson in a close heat, winning with more variety and technical difficulty. Wiktoria Boszko of Poland also overpowered Johara Sykes-Davies in the second heat with a downloop to blind, front to blind, front to wrapped, kiteloop to wrapped, and raley to wrapped unleashing more technically difficult moves than Sykes-Davies. In the final women?s heat of the day, Jo Wilson (UK) went up against Naish team mate Jalou Langeree (Netherlands) also in a close heat but the judges scored it 5-0 in favour of Wilson. Langeree landed a raley to blind, downloop, krypt to surface pass and vulcan to surface pass but that wasn?t enough to beat Wilson whose bag of tricks included a downloop to blind, back to blind, raley to blind and a sent handle pass.

Be sure to tune in for tomorrow?s exciting competition after the riders meeting at 10:00 am. The first possible start will be at 10:30 am.

To view the current PKRA 2007 World Rankings, point your browser to www.kiteworldtour.com. You can view the latest PKRA competition videos and highlights at www.youtube.com/extremeelementstv. The live results for the Movistar Kitesurf Pro Tarifa 2007 can be seen at www.extremeelements.tv and www.extremeelements.com.

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