Vers van de telex, deel 3429 uit de IKA/PKRA/IFO/VKWC soap, de aankondiging van de wereldtour van de PKRA, voortaan de WKT (World Kite Tour). Deze "nieuwe" zou aan het eind van het jaar een kampioen van deze tour mogen kronen.
Exacte datums zijn nog niet bekend, maar de stop in Duitsland (voorheen St Peter Ording, nu Fehmarn) zal er vrijwel zeker deel uit van gaan maken. Of Mondial du Vent en Fuerte terug komen bij de WKT is nog de vraag.
Ook ondernemen ze stappen tegen de IKA tour, zodat we niet terug gaan naar de beginjaren van het kitesurfen met 2 verschillende wereld tours.
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.
On the other hand WKT needs to announce 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.