Gabriele Steindl: Professional Kitesurfer & Freelance Writer - Action, Lifestyle & Travels
10
May 04
PKRA Spark7 Kitesurf Worldcup Lake Neusiedl, Podersdorf, Austria, 4-9 May 2004
The first stop of the PKRA Worldcup Tour is always particularily exciting. What has everyone been up to all winter…what are the latest moves and trends. There were many new faces (especially in the girls!!) and the ‘older’ ones looked fitter than ever! What have the ‘superstars’ of the kiteindustry been up to during all these months on Hawaii and other kite hot spots…surely they pushed the limits to the full but what exactly does that mean in terms of even harder handlepasses, even bigger kiteloops ..?
Of course e v e r y o n e was there; once again DMG Sportsmarketing & Events did an awesome job with regards to the organisation and put together a perfect event. Even the lake, as opposed to the years before, showed mercy and welcomed the riders with ‘warm’ 15 degrees celsius. Anyway, during competitions everything always turns out completely different than expected…the day of the qualifiers, we had some 35 knots from the South – conditions very much ‘Fuerteventura like’ … once the males had fought out the battle, we could start with the main event.
I was up against Carolina Freitas, Brasilian Champion and an already familiar competitor of mine. Last year I managed to win all heats against this very talented rider from Rio de Janeiro.Although the wind came from the wrong direction – the South – therefore extremely gusty and forcing the race committee onto a boat right in the middle of the lake, I had good fun warming up and felt confident. After only a few minutes into my heat, however, my enthusiasm played a trick on me – I wanted to show off and to demonstrate the judges what I was able to do – and attempted a risky kiteloop manouvre right in front of the judges boat – tactically a big mistake, as one should spare difficult manouvres for the end of the 8 minute period. Mhhh, unfortunately, I did not pull it off and crashed my kite…due to the strong current and the southerly wind direction, I was unable to relaunch my kite in time and Carolina advanced to the next round. Due to a lack of wind the following days, we could not even finish the single elimination ladder and I finished the competition in 9th position.
Final results counting in the men’s division till the semi finals with 4 riders remaining Aaron Hadlow (UK), Luciano Gonzales (DOM REP), Jaime Herraiz (ESP) and Gianni Aragno (ESP). The prize money and points were divided between the riders left in the competition. Same for the girls, who also competed till the semi finals with 4 girls also becoming joint winners