The 2012 ISAF Kiteboarding format trials wrapped up yesterday with an extensive discussion about the future strategy to get kiteboarding into the Olympic Games. It became quite obvious during this week that the report of the ISAF evaluation panel will be a very positive one and that everybody would love to see kiteboarding in the Olympics as soon as possible, but with currently only two medals available for windsurfing AND kiteboarding this still proves to be a difficult one. In the end it now comes down to politics, and surely the best way out of this for everybody is to get two more medals from the International Olympic Committee
Around 1500 everybody packed up the equipment then and started to head back home, where the discussions with the ISAF Member National Associations will begin, now that Kiteboarding has proven that there are no race management nor event organization implications and that kiteboarding offers new and exciting racing formats. It also became clear that kiteboards are by far the most performant sailing vessel on the water which adds a lot to the excitement for spectators and media.
The event format that came out of this will be a combination of two different fleet racing formats based on a windward/leeward course but with an added slalom part that tests not only the tactical skills of the sailors but also the equipment handling skills. The big new thing then is the medal race series which will be a straight knock out format on the new short track course with a reaching start, which is comparable to the Americas Cup Series format and by far the most exciting thing that we all here in Santander have seen for a long long time: fast and furious reaching starts, incredible tactical opportunities on the upwind and downwind legs with gates, that allow for a variety of passing opportunities and position changes, and a reaching finish that nicely lines up the fleet before the finish and gives the spectators and the media the opportunity for the money shot.
ISAF will now prepare a report to the mid year meeting when we will find out how the issue about the windsurfing and/or kiteboarding can be solved.