When the pkra was taken over my virgin and their partners everyone was pretty optimistic that it was going to progress the sport of kiteboarding and make it more of a spectacle. So a season later with no live stream, poor organisation, the IKA issue and every event cancelled since Germany it has been a pretty conclusive fail. Anyone in the loop about why all the events were cancelled and what is going to happen next year?
Not again... haha.
Here's the the jist of it in point form;
- Virgin never took over PKRA, Virgin simply put their name on the tour, they invested no resources or money into it. Giving what's happened so far I doubt Virgin will be fronting it next year (I could be wrong though).
- The PKRA tour was bought and run by Javier Perez (Majority stakeholder in Best Kiteboarding).
- IKA tried to work with VKWC to arrange world championship status and set guidelines and rules for a fair competition, keeping the best interests of riders in mind. VKWC made little attempt to work with IKA thus their Championship status was revoked (Germany didn't actually count towards world championship rankings in IKAs eyes).
- VKWC didn't appear to make friends with a lot of organisers, thus some of them decided not to hold events again whilst others I assume couldn't hold events due to the fact VKWC no longer held Championship status. (That's usually a big part of why events can get funding from councils or National bodies).
-VKWC still hasn't paid all the prize money to riders for the last 2 events, they also haven't paid some staff (to the best of my knowledge).
- IKA plans to run the Championships next year at a few different locations, I'm not sure where exactly.
It's an absolute shemozzle!
Fallout from this mess is there will be a few riders who may have been climbing the ranks, who will have to make serious decisions about following the tour from now on.
These kids are pushing themselves hard, on borrowed time with injury waiting around the corner, and and if its parents footing the bills, reins will be tightened.
Glory days are done and dusted.
^Yep.
Also since a lot of riders relied on the prize money from events funding their next events or trips... Having to spend their own money to go to a VKWC event and then not be awarded any prize money as advertised would be a pretty harsh blow for most.
That sucks!
This might sound really stupid and I honestly have no idea, but did anyone win? Who is the 2015 World Champ?
Thats what i was thinking is there a 2015 champion? I guess liam whaley wins and in the females i guess thats up for debate depending on wether the points for Germany are counted as rowdy suggested. What a stuff around though!
According to IKA - Liam Whaley and Karolina Winkowska are the World champions.
According to VKWC - Liam and Gisela are tour champions.
The whole thing was a shmozzle that's for sure.
If you have a look at the silly version of a Dingle they created (especially in the womens draw) you will see why the results are as they are. Riders pointed this out all year, from the very first event but it was never amended.
Gisela didn't actually beat Karolina all year, nor in the last 8 events, Karolina won the most events, and although scoring the second highest heat in both of the events she didn't win Karolina never got a chance to better her result because there was no second chance round, as such 3rd and 4th places basically had walk throughs... If they had followed the WSL dingle, riders would have been seeded in further rounds and even had another second chance round and this situation never would have existed.
The mens draw wasn't any better, although with more good riders it kind of evened it out a bit, but they still missed the all important seedings and another second chance round. With the womens draw the problem was magnified because of having too few riders in the draw and the fact you basically only had 3 people who ever looked like winning it.
How **** it must be for Whaley to get the title this way...he deserves it imo as he was hands down the best rider this year.
Select to expand quotetbranse said..
How **** it must be for Whaley to get the title this way...he deserves it imo as he was hands down the best rider this year.
Yeah, crappy situation for him, really not the best way for it to turn out. He was for sure in the top two, however I wouldn't personally say he rode better than Christophe Tack, but that's a story for another time.
Speaking of the Tack brothers. Wonder if they are heading back to Perth this summer? I've been informed they are really welcome at the pond and even more so at Perth Wake Park.
Apparently PWP is Axel's favorite cable park in the world!
Us, the riders have not been paid prize money for last 2 events.Total outstanding is over EUR110.000.It does not look like they are going to pay us at all.
Liam killed it this year but also Bebe aka Carlos Mario was insane from what I saw in Germany. He travelled so much further than anybody else. It sucked they could not set a proper box to the wind in Germany and most of the heats only counted 4 tricks because the others were not in the box. The result would have been different with 5 tricks counted.
Bebe is insane. The kid certainly has great talent. As far as I can tell he also has a good temperament. He seems humble and chilled which is refreshing. Something I don't really get from some of the top men riders. Youri and Pastor come across pretty well too.
Back on Bebe flying further than everyone else. Could this be he uses RPMs which just keep pulling and pulling after the load and pop?
That's true, Bebe was ripping and he did travel so far, have to hand it to the guy he's come a long way and I have a lot of respect for that.
@Factory, those times he flys really far he is because he's sending it quite a bit (same as other riders) so it's kind of a moot point. You could get the same tension if you rode a C-kite more powered as well, it's just about knowing your tools, RPM does sit deeper though which makes a constant pull easier to achieve.
I like bebe too. His style looks effortless and I love how easily he manages to get two subtle grabs in. Would like to see him ride in the flesh. Youri is a powerhouse and I thought Liam was a standout in Perth last season. I predicted he would win this year.
Shame everything went pear shaped. Hope all is sorted for next year. It's nice to have a good tour to follow.
All eyes on Pipe at the mo! Luv it when it comes down to the last event.. And the Mcgregor/Aldo title on the line tomorrow 
## Update - I'm sure some of you have read by now, but IKA (International Kiteboarding Association) have now announced thier official 2015 World Championship rankings, as follows:
Men's Freestyle:
1. Carlos Mario (BRA, Slingshot - 2661 points)
2. Christophe Tack (BEL, Liquidforce - 2490 points)
3. Aaron Hadlow (GBR, North - 2460 points).
Women's Freestyle:
1. Karolina Winkowksa (POL, Slingshot - 3055 points)
2. Bruna Kajiya (BRA, Airush - 2900 points)
3. Gisela Pulido (ESP, Best - 2883 points)
More info from IKA here:
internationalkiteboarding.org/index.php/the-class/news-channels/22212-carlos-marios-and-karolina-winkowska-crowned-2015-ika-freestyle-world-champions
Kiteforum thread here:
kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2391397
