Karolina Winkowska: Being A Competitor
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23 July 2012
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After latest pkra event I came back to Poland and as always I was asked many questions about my competition season. “How did it go?”, “how are the other girls riding?” and why I’m not the first, etc… These questions are not that easy for me to answer because I’ve been satisfied with my riding this season and with most heats during the pkra world tour, however, the most important battles this year I lost and ended on the 3rd place.
The competition for me is something that gives me a lot of motivation for training, support from sponsors, a lot of cool footage and the ability to travel around the world and meet new friends. But on the other hand it is like a game, where sometimes you are lucky and the other times it’s just not your day…
During 7 min heat within 4 buoys, you have to show all your best tricks (now limited to 9 tricks).
Of course we train to show our best performance during the short show, starting with easy tricks and try to advance to more complicated ones… But I can assure you that even if you have planned some kind of a performance for a certain heat, you will almost never be able to show everything you wanted to during the heat.
Sometimes the wind unexpectedly increases or drops during the heat, and it doesn’t matter that you have pumped all your kites in the morning because you are in the water with the one you thought will be the best for the 7minutes.
The other times you can’t find enough space for your tricks because you are to close to the beach (pushed by the current). Or very often you get blocked by the other rider who is stealing your tack, so instead of doing your stuff, you end up watching his/her heat.
There are also days when you are just tired of long traveling, jet lagged, sleeping on an uncomfortable bed, , sun burned or disturbed by other stupid thing that would have never bother you, when you were on a sick kite trip with your best crew…
The last pkra competition in Germany was held for 10 days. I’ve had many thoughts about the event because everyday it was a different day. One day it was sunny and no wind, the other to much wind for kiting (40knots) and rain. You have had probably read it what was going there on the pkra website. When the single elimination had began it was a mix of rain, sun, wind and windless clouds that were coming whenever they wanted to… finally we began and I did a good job for the single elimination ending up on the 2nd place.
Two days later during the double elimination, I can’t really say that I showed my best … my heat was a total disaster… I lost ended up on 3rd place… “Why? What happened? Why didn’t you win?”,… That’s what everybody have been asking me… What do you want me to say? During that 7 minutes the other girl was better…
My conclusion is this;
The competition it is a game – only one person wins, all the others loose. There are some obstacles that you can’t overtake, but you have to deal with them. There is only 7 minutes for the performance, the weather conditions and other stuff that I mentioned previous you have to deal with then and there… This is why you should look at the competitors in a different kind of way, because if you realize how many factors are surrounding us, (training, traveling, interviews, competing, loosing, smiling etc.) … You will realise that some of the world’s best riders won’t always gain first place on the world tour.
- Karolina.
The competition for me is something that gives me a lot of motivation for training, support from sponsors, a lot of cool footage and the ability to travel around the world and meet new friends. But on the other hand it is like a game, where sometimes you are lucky and the other times it’s just not your day…
During 7 min heat within 4 buoys, you have to show all your best tricks (now limited to 9 tricks).
Of course we train to show our best performance during the short show, starting with easy tricks and try to advance to more complicated ones… But I can assure you that even if you have planned some kind of a performance for a certain heat, you will almost never be able to show everything you wanted to during the heat.
Sometimes the wind unexpectedly increases or drops during the heat, and it doesn’t matter that you have pumped all your kites in the morning because you are in the water with the one you thought will be the best for the 7minutes.
The other times you can’t find enough space for your tricks because you are to close to the beach (pushed by the current). Or very often you get blocked by the other rider who is stealing your tack, so instead of doing your stuff, you end up watching his/her heat.
There are also days when you are just tired of long traveling, jet lagged, sleeping on an uncomfortable bed, , sun burned or disturbed by other stupid thing that would have never bother you, when you were on a sick kite trip with your best crew…
The last pkra competition in Germany was held for 10 days. I’ve had many thoughts about the event because everyday it was a different day. One day it was sunny and no wind, the other to much wind for kiting (40knots) and rain. You have had probably read it what was going there on the pkra website. When the single elimination had began it was a mix of rain, sun, wind and windless clouds that were coming whenever they wanted to… finally we began and I did a good job for the single elimination ending up on the 2nd place.
Two days later during the double elimination, I can’t really say that I showed my best … my heat was a total disaster… I lost ended up on 3rd place… “Why? What happened? Why didn’t you win?”,… That’s what everybody have been asking me… What do you want me to say? During that 7 minutes the other girl was better…
My conclusion is this;
The competition it is a game – only one person wins, all the others loose. There are some obstacles that you can’t overtake, but you have to deal with them. There is only 7 minutes for the performance, the weather conditions and other stuff that I mentioned previous you have to deal with then and there… This is why you should look at the competitors in a different kind of way, because if you realize how many factors are surrounding us, (training, traveling, interviews, competing, loosing, smiling etc.) … You will realise that some of the world’s best riders won’t always gain first place on the world tour.
- Karolina.
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