Thursday, July 1, 2010

Kite Jam 2010 – Sri Lanka’s First Kitesurfing Event

Kitesurfing is an extreme that has just got off the ground in Sri Lanka. The sport itself is just over 15 years old and numerous developments have occurred increasing the performance and safety of kites. Faith Kiteboarding are a high quality brand that has constantly redesigned kites on a yearly basis to suite the requirements of today’s riders.
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Kite Jam 2010 was the first step toward establishing Sri Lanka as a kite surfing destination. The conditions are ideal for Freestyle Riders and well as Wave Riders. The competition itself drew riders from a number of riders from a number of nationalities including Austria, Australia, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Japan and of course Sri Lanka. Notable participants for the event were pro-riders Miguel Willis and Joe Ruscito who also participated in the event.
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The one day event commenced with the ‘Time Event’ where participants had to run along the beach, ride on the ocean along a specified route, cross over to a lagoon and finish off the competition by sprinting to the finish line with kite, board in hand.
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The ‘Jump Event’ was more straight forward where Kiters had two opportunities to Jump the longest distance. There was no restriction on the kite size. The results for the respective events are as follows;

A large number of spectators from the village joined to cheer on the kiters at the respective events. Elements (Pvt) Limited, a BOI company currently in the process of developing a Kite Village in Kappalady is confident that the sport will grow tremendously over the next few years.
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The sport of kitesurfing is still at its infancy in the country and the need for a regulatory body has been seen as essential by the kiting community in Sri Lanka. Currently The Kitesurfing Association of Sri Lanka is been established to ensure that the sport is run in a professional and safe manner. The association would also make it a point to develop local talent and perhaps have Sri Lanka be represented in International Kitesurfing Competitions.


The event was powered by Faith Kiteboarding and Red Bull. In the pictures, Mo enjoying the evening seafood spread, Kids launching kites, Leo and Marc taking off, A determined Mischi, Hannes presenting prize to Ajimal and the local hero, The winners Mischi, Hannes, Marcel and Leo.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

wasaaaabii! (and bukakke of course!)

dilsiri said...

hahaha italiano.

Kirigalpoththa said...

Go Faith Kite-boarding! Go!!