They took a little while to put out a response as the internet went crazy with the news of the contract termination, but now they have, …and with their response they have bought a new association to the conversation, the GKA.
Who is the GKA
The Global Kitesports Association (GKA) as representation of interests of the Kite sports industry supports and promotes the interests of all (professional) Kite riders. It is the goal of GKA to work together with all national associations of kiting as well as with the organizations of professional kite sports.
So, …why does this matter. Well, read the official response from the VKWC.
Official VKWC Response
We can confirm that International Kiteboarding Association (“IKA”) wrote to us last weekend confirming their termination of the agreement between IKA and the Professional Kite Riders Association (“PKRA”).
Negotiations for a potential new contract with Virgin Kitesurf World Championships (“VKWC”) were ongoing for many months. VKWC had every intention of replacing the PKRA in a new and improved partnership with IKA. Unfortunately the parties were unable to reach an agreement and the discussions highlighted conflicting interests in the development of the sport, support of the youth, safety, event execution and other topics.
Throughout the process the International Sailing Federation (“ISAF”) has been incredibly supportive of the VKWC and our attempts to reach an agreement with IKA. We will now deal direct with ISAF in good faith in the best interests of the sport, its riders, our commercial partners and our supporters. We are looking forward to working with ISAF to develop a successful partnership which will not only enable the VKWC to grow but also will deliver fantastic developments and growth to the sport itself.
We are thankful for the confidence of our partners and the support of the industry and riders. We will continue to liaise and keep our principal partner the Virgin Group fully informed of developments and we appreciate their valued support. The Global Kitesports Association, representing the majority of the Industry supporting the professional riders on the tour 2015, has expressed its full support to VKWC in an earlier press release. We are in close contact with all parties and met with the riders yesterday evening to assure them of our continued support and investment in them, the events and the sport.
We wish IKA the best for their future. It is our desire to make Kitesurfing grow in all areas and we will continue to support this aspiration. New public events at great kitesurf locations producing thrilling media content are part of the development plans to change the way kiteboarding is recognised globally. Freestyle Kiteboarding is one of the most spectacular sports with fantastic athletes that deserve greater exposure and recognition of their talents on a worldwide platform.
VKWC will continue to promote and host the 2015 season as scheduled. Competition format and all established rules and regulations will remain in place under guidance from ISAF.
Press release of Global Kitesports Association:
What should we think of all of this
Well one positive thing for sure is that the involvement of Virgin in the sport os not over and this can only be positive. It seems there is a battle being fought and the winners will be those that have the best interests of the riders and also the best potential of pushing the sport to where we would all like to see it.
So, once again we watch this space.
As for the next events, well officially both sides have claimed to be hosting them, so for this we will have to wait and see, but with the infrastructure and setup in place we would be very surprised and saddened if we did not see the PKRA/VKWC team who have been running the events so far this year.
