It has been a very busy week for the politics surrounding freestyle kiteboarding with so many announcements. We sum up the week as it happened. This is going to be quite a long article, so we have split it into the following sections.
Registrations Open for IKA First Tour Date in El Gouna – 20-26 March
IKA Denounces IFKO and warns riders not to compete in their events.
PKRA/VKWC becomes WKT and announces draft calendar.
WKT announces legal action against IKA to protect rights and avoid two tours.
KRU formed to represent the riders
IKA Welcomes Formation of KRU
Registrations Open for IKA First Tour Date in El Gouna - 20-26 March
So here it is. The first ‘official’ tour date for any tour has been announced and registrations are open. The IKA have announced this tour stop with the following trailer.
Here is the official release statement…
The 2016 IKA Kiteboarding World Championships are underway !
Registration is now open for the first round which will be held in famous El Gouna, Egypt, and offers 50000 Euro overall prizemoney for freestyle and big air, and 1000 points for the winner in each discipline.
Seven rounds are expected to take place to determine the 2016 World Champions in Freestyle, Big Air, Wave and Slalom.
Together with the registration the new IKA World Championships website went online at http://worldkiteleague.com.
Also the facebook presence has been launched and will provide always up-to-date information to the community.
The event will be held at the new Elements station in El Gouna which provides perfect conditions for both disciplines. Special accomodation and transportation rates are available for riders and will be published shortly.
The next rounds of the 2016 IKA Kiteboarding World Championships will be confirmed shortly.
Registration for Round 1 – El Gouna Kiteboarding Grand Slam:Click here
Notice of Race for the 2016 IKA World Championships:Click here
2016 IKA Kiteboarding World Championships Website:Click here
We will add that after our previous criticism the new website above it both complete and concise in the information provided.
Notable information is the mention of live scoring, live ‘audio’ commentary from Lewis Crathern and images photography from former official PKRA photographer Toby Bromwich.
IKA Denounces IFKO and warns riders not to compete in their events.
Here is the official statement…
Participation in IFKO events likely to prevent the ability of riders to participate in any IKA events, including the IKA World Championships in Freestyle, Big Air, Wave, and Foil Racing.
The International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) has been informed by the CEO of World Sailing (WS, formerly ISAF), that WS has requested IFKO (“International Federation of Kitesports Organisations”) to immediately remove and furthermore cease to publish or promote any information which makes a claim in terms of its relationship with the IOC and its plans for the sport of Kiteboarding.
World Sailing has ascertained that IFKO is not currently a member of SportAccord and therefore has no formal recognition. A prerequisite of membership of this body is that the applicants sport is different from any sport that is governed by a current SportAccord member. World Sailing is a current SportAccord member, it is therefore unlikely that IFKO will be granted membership and World Sailing is currently waiting for confirmation of this by SportAccord.
World Sailing has also instructed IFKO that World Sailing’s approval is required for any event that is described as a ‘World Championship’ or ‘World Cup’ or indeed uses the word “World” in the title of the event and this approval extends to all Kiteboarding events using World Sailing rules and regulations.
Such events that are run in contravention of World Sailing rules and regulations will be listed as prohibited events that can seriously affect the eligibility of riders to compete in other World Sailing events requiring World Sailing Eligibility, namely World and Continental Championships of all IKA classes (including the IKA Kiteboarding World Championships in Freestyle, Big Air and Wave, the IKA KiteFoil GoldCup and the IKA Racing World Championships), the Sailing World Cup, the Youth Olympic Games, and the Olympic Games.
We regret that IFKO does not comply with world wide recognized principles for the recognition of International Federations. It is IKA’s responsibility to make all riders aware of the risk they will take when participating in IFKO events, namely not being able to compete in IKA sanctioned events of all disciplines, and World Sailings events. The same extends to event officials, be it race directors, jury and judges.
The importance and position of the IFKO is disputable as a new self appointed federation but the message from World Sailing and the IKA is clear to both them and the riders.
PKRA/VKWC becomes WKT and announces draft calendar.
Virgin Kitesurf World Championships becomes World Kite Tour
The VKWC changes its name to WKT to reflect their special event status
Effective immediately, the former Professional Kiteboard Riders Association (PKRA) and current Virgin Kitesurf World Championships (VKWC) has changed its name to World Kite Tour (WKT) as part of a new agreement with World Sailing (the former International Sailing Federation ISAF). The decision was made to emphasize that the WKT will operate an official ISAF sanctioned kiteboarding World Tour and therefore crowns the kiteboarding World Tour Champions.
The WKT now has a new Special Event status and is operated under the umbrella of ISAF, similar to other successful series such as the America’s Cup, Volvo Ocean Race or the fantastic windsurfing tour, PWA.
The 2016 tour will consist of well-organized events with focus on delivering great sportive results. Currently the planning is finalised to deliver a variety of new events, like a possible city event in Malmö, Sweden and traditional events, like Tarifa, Spain. Also the event in Fehmarn, Germany (previously held in St. Peter-Ording) and the 2015 postponed tour stop in Cape Town, South Africa are part of the scheduling for 2016.
The current 2016 calendar draft includes:
April – France
May – Venezuela
June – Spain
July – Sweden
August – Canary Islands
August/September – Germany
December – South Africa
More people than ever before followed the tour in 2015. During the off-season the WKT organization worked extremely hard with all parties on developments and improvements to deliver fantastic events in 2016. The tour would like to thank the industry and whole kiteboarding community for their ongoing support and emphasizes that any party who is willing to constructively collaborate is welcome.
WKT announces legal action against IKA to protect rights and avoid two tours.
The WKT announces that it has taken steps to defend its interest in the court of law against the International Kiteboarding Association (IKA).
The constant ongoing dispute with IKA has led to this decision. Therewith not only the legal rights of WKT will be protected but also the possible running of two world tours in the same disciplines is most likely to be avoided.
On several cases all means will be taken to protect the long standing tradition of PKRA/WKT and its historic events as part of the tour.
KRU formed to represent the riders
Pro kite riders join forces in a union.
Because of the current situation of the Pro Kite Tour, the riders decided to take their responsibility to become part of the solution. The riders are an asset to the tour, to sponsors, and to local organizations. Therefore the riders will participate in the discussion about who will be the tour organizer in 2016 and in the future.
That is why, from today on, these riders will come forward as one in a union, under the name KRU that stands for Kiteboarding Riders United.
Their aim is to protect the interest and belongings of the riders, improving the communication between the brand (GKA), local and tour organization, to make the tour better than it already is and to make sure that riders will get rewarded for their effort.
The current interim members of the board are: Youri Zoon, Annelous Lammerts, Liam Whaley and Alex Pastor.
The board assigned Danny Galiart to negotiate with the different organizations, and to be spokesman to the press. Galiart will put out a tender for organizations like IKA/KWT and others. The organization with the best proposal for the riders will get to organize the tour for the coming years!
We think this is a very important step in representing the commodity of the riders themselves and the inclusion of 3 world champions as members of the board adds an even greater weight to the KRU.
We can only wait and see the industry and federation reaction to this new union.
IKA Welcomes Formation of KRU
The International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) welcomes the foundation of a riders union to truly represent the riders interests. With the 2016 IKA Kiteboarding World Championships starting off next month in El Gouna, Egypt, it is very important to the IKA that there is a true representation of the riders to discuss format, judging and rules development.
One of the key reasons for the termination of the contract with the former PKRA was the protection of riders interests – not only in terms of supporting them to get outstanding prize moneys paid, but also to reverse rule changes in 2015 that did not ensure fair competition. Giving the riders back influence on the development of the sport has top priority.
We invite the interim board of the KRU to get involved immediately to prepare the first round of the 2016 IKA Kiteboarding World Championships, similarly as we have invited the industry association GKA to come to a close working relationship to us.
We would also like to extend that there are already considerations underway to amend IKAs governance principles and constitution to allow stronger involvement of other stakeholders; and how to formally include the riders and the industry representatives in the IKA decision making process on the IKA General Assembly and the IKA Executive Committee.
