Seb: PKRA Germany Report.

It's now the end of the 5th PKRA Event we had in Germany – St Peter

Ording from the 17 to 25 July. It's a pretty long 9 days event in Northern Germany.
It's for sure the biggest event of the year in terms of Prize Money, Event Area, Quantity of Spectators and Riders Registered with more than 110 riders for All Disciplines (Freestyle, Racing and Big Air Board Off).

Due to the numbers of Freestyle riders, the 1st day was just for the trials to select the 32 riders of the main event. Thanks to my actual ranking I'm already in the main event.

The Single Eliminatio started on the 2nd day.

I had my first heat against a German Guy, « Van Der Kop ». I advanced this 1st heat in a pretty light on shore wind. I was on my 12 Obsession 2011 wich is very good for those conditions. That was it for the day, as the wind conditions were not suitable anymore for freestyle the race direction switched to Race Discipline.

On the 3rd and 4th day, we been waiting and chilling on the beach with real summer temperature like I never saw here in Germany !!!

On the 5th day, the weather forecast were not that good, but some nice side off shore wind picked up on the late morning. On my first heat of the day (for the 2nd round of the single elimination) I was up against Mario Rodwald (Germany). I was perfectly powered on my 10,5 Obsession.
I could ride really powerfull on the heat, without crashing any trick and I logically advanced to the ¼ final.

Now I was up against Alex Pastor. As the wind dropped, I took my 12. I had a really good heat again, with 17 tricks (and 5 just on the 1st Tack !!!), 5 switch tricks and one front mobe to blind, just missing a bit of power. And that's the reason why I lost. Alex 11 tricks were enough to take the win. Judges said he had a better kite position, and a nice KGB to Blind.

I've been pretty pissed about this result, but it seems that Judges really want to see quality over quantity right now. We had a meeting about judging criteria here in Germany, and it said that from now « In case of close heat (most of time technical difficulty vs power) the quality of the execution (determined by power, risk factor and speed) will be the key factor to decide the winner ».
I've been the first « victim » of this new criteria, and from now I will need to change a bit my style of riding and go harder, bigger and faster on every single trick…. !

Still no action for me on the 6th and 7th day. Just the beginning of the double elimination started on the 7th day, but I didn't had to go, as they runned only the 1st rounds.

8th day : End of the double Elimination.

I had to wait and see who's coming up against me. And Logically, it's Mike Shitzhofer (AUSTRIA) that I met in my first heat of the double elimination. I had a good heat on my 10,5 and advanced to the next one.

This time I was against Brasilian Rider, Reno Romeu. Still on my 10,5 I had a really good heat with good power and nice tricks.

Then the wind dropped a little bit, for my next heat for a 5th place. I was against Rondina (ITA) this time. I put my biggest kite, my 12. The wind was really light, too light most of my heat. I could make few tricks but not that powered. I only got some good gusts on the 3 last minuts where I could go pretty big. But that was not enough against Rondina tons of tricks he could make getting a bit more gusts.

I stopped at the 6th place in Freestyle. It was pretty disapointing to run in such a low wind where I couldn't express myself. Moreover, 10-15 minuts later, the wind picked up!!!

And the wind didn't stop to pick up to finally reach a good 25 knots. PErfect side on wind to start with the Big Air BOard Off Competition. Judging Critera are : 80% hight, 20% Technical Difficulty.

I was on the 1st heat and I went on the water with my 10,5 perfetly overpowered to go high !!!

And I went high, doing some huge board off like board flip, back loop board off, or tail board off.

And like this, I won all my heats until the final were I was against Langeree (Netherlands), Permien (Germany) and Van Der Vlught (Netherlands).

I went in this heat really confident with what I did in the previous heats.
I started the heat with a big board flip to get some points. Followed by a big back loop board off.

As only the best trick count, I could now take some more risk to take the win.

I took a good gust and went pretty high and I could performed a double board flip pretty high with a perfect landing. That's the trick I really wanted to show to the judges. I was on fire now really
thinking I would win with that trick. I finished my heat with a back loop board flip.

And like I expected, I won the Best Tricks ! So Happy !

Final Results for me are :

6th in Freestyle and 1st in Board Off Best
Trick.