The Bar Has Been Raised For Freestyle Kiteboarding

How far we have come

It seems an age since we first heard about the formation of the VKWC and the attachment of the ‘Virgin’ brand to kitesurfing, and whilst opinion differed on just how positive such a commercialisation of the sport would be, any positive thoughts went straight down the toilet with the 18 months that ensued.

We tried to keep you updated with the goings on behind the scenes, IKA, WS, GKA, IFKO, VKWC, PKRA, KRU, WKL but to be honest it became hard work and like most on the outside, we began to lose interest and hang our heads in shame especially during some very public arguments between certain individuals on Facebook. Yes, the people trying to battle for ‘ownership’ of our sport were throwing punches in Facebook comments, …and we had officially become a bit of a joke.

Now we are not afraid to tell it like we see it and although this does often lead to us getting in a bit of trouble and not always making as many friends as we could, we also feel that as well as handing out the criticism, we are able to give credit where it is due and that is what we are here to do.

We watched the entire live Facebook feed of the Cabarete event, and although there were certainly teething problems, by the time we got to the finals we could be forgiven for thinking that we were watching a proper television broadcast worth of the same placement as the surfing gets on the satellite channels, and multiple times more exciting.

Hello world

Yes, we said it, …freestyle kiteboarding is now globally accessible to anyone who enjoys watching a sports event. You can follow it like you would the freestyle snowboarding at the winter Olympics or the Gymnastics at the summer Olympics, …and by that we mean, you don’t have to know every move to get captivated and enthralled by competition and skills of the athletes.

This has been the vital ingredient missing from competitive freestyle kiteboarding for so long and has been passed over by so many of the organisational structures, but the WKL managed to see this and make the biggest change in competition format since kiteboarding competitions began and suffice to say, it worked.

Why did it work so well?

Did any of you see the finals? We will break it down for you.
Riders are now under much greater pressure to perform to their best and build up a solid set of tricks and score throughout the heat, however fortune favours the brave and as the winner of the men’s event Luis Alberto Cruz found out, risking everything can have the greatest rewards as he won the event with 2 huge tricks as his final attempts, stealing the win from the consistent favourite Carlos Mario.

So the format is different, the riders love it, we love it …but that is not the only thing that captivated the audience, because the kitesurfing public are a demanding bunch and you cannot run a competition these days without the words LIVESTREAM being screamed from the rooftops.
There have been many forms of livestream over the years and we have even attempted one ourselves so we know what is involved, …but this event nailed it.

Ok, there were teething problems and for cameramen and commentators that are not world class freestyle kiters it takes a little time to get used to things …but by the end of the event and the final heats we had the most perfect close ups up every single trick and with pro riders making a stop in the commentary box to add their words to the action we also had all the knowledge on what was going on available.

Nobody's perfect

Ok, so we have been very nice …let’s give a bit of constructive criticism just so the people responsible for the event can get their heads out of the door after reading this …

• We need slow motion replays. We know this adds another level of logistics to the poor guy controlling the multi-camera feed, …but hey, look what you have done so far, set your goals high.
  (We did hear mention of this on the livefeed that it might be possible for the next event – fingers crossed).
• Some kind of top left compressed onscreen score table so we can see what is going on without having to have the computer open in one hand and the phone in the other.

That is it, …yes really, we have nothing more to add. Get those sorted and we are a professional, marketable, packaged action sport and we can finally be proud of where we have arrived and even invite our non kiting friends over to watch the action.

The bigger picture

So what does this mean for the bigger picture of freestyle kiteboarding. Simple, as the title suggests, the bar has been raised. We will not accept events without this level of media coverage, we want to know what’s going on LIVE as it happens and we want to feel proud of every event and tell the world about our sport.

This means that ANYONE wanting to put on a world class kiteboarding event suddenly can’t get away with a half-arsed job. The public and the riders just won’t accept it. This also shows to some of the warring factions what the public want and how the public representation and marketing of our sport is infinitely more important that who holds the right to crown an ‘official’ world champion.

Isn't this all getting a bit commercial?

This is an interesting point and something rife throughout the internet comments threads. Well, the answer is simple, kitesurfing needs to be commercial in order to grow and be a viable option for large scale investors and advertisers to get involved.

This does not mean you as a rider have to see yourselves as a sell-out and it does not mean that the tour riders are suddenly becoming rich.

As with anything that grows and reaches higher levels of success, there will always be those looking to shoot it down so everyone involved better just get used to it and get on with what they do best …be it riding at their local spot, representing a brand, competing on the tour itself or being part of the machine that makes it all happen.

What now?

The next event will be in Germany from the 26th August to the 4th September and we will be there in person to support the girls and the tour and bring you all the latest updates from the biggest kiting event in the world. We hope to see you there.

All photos: Svetlana Romantsova / World Kiteboarding League

Published on: 29th July 2016