Voilà un bon compte-rendu du PKRA Venezuela de la rideuse Flexifoil Johara Sykes-Davies. Une rideuse encore peu connue mais qui ne devrait pas tarder à gagner en popularité (elle ne ride que depuis 2 ans)! Désolé, encore un texte en anglais.


Flexifoil, PKRA rider Johara, reports on Round 3 of the 2008 PKRA - Venezuela

The third round of the 2008 PKRA was to be held in stunning Venezuela. The first day would be on the small island of Coche, with a long pristine white beach, only a couple of hotels and bang offshore wind with turquoise pond-flat water. After that the event would move onto the main island of Margarita to the beach at El Yaque. This is the home of the best freestyle windsurfers in the world and some top Venezuelan kitesurfers. The beach is lined with little restaurants and windsurf and kitesurf schools with strong cross to cross off-shore winds and choppier water than the Coche flatness! The village has a lovely, laid back vibe, all the locals are super friendly and you can get to know everyone in town within a couple of days.


I spent a month training in El Yaque in the winter and loved it so was so excited when a PKRA event was announced there. I went a couple of days early to spend a day at each spot and remember how to ride there as did many of the other riders! J It was great to be back! I had a quick evening session in El Yaque the day we got there; I couldn’t wait to get out!! Then I trained on Coche with Sam Light, Tom Court and Susi Mai on the first full day. It was amazing conditions with the super flat water. I was cruising happily on the 7m Ion3 even though it was quite light and the guys were on big kites. However, the only down side was the jelly fish! There were some huge ones which apparently aren’t a problem, but it was the little stringy ones that you couldn’t really see that really hurt!! Susi and I got stung quite a lot so took a break in the hammocks at Coche’s Flexifoil kite school, run by the amusing commentator for this event Chris, until the stings stopped hurting then we went back out for an amazing session! We discovered if you stay close to the beach there are not so many jellies, so we fared better on the later session!! I decided the next day to register in El Yaque and make the most of getting back into the choppier conditions there. It was super windy so I was on the 5m Atom08 which I was stoked about!


Wednesday morning all the riders, judges and staff gathered with big kit bags in tow at the jetty at the bottom of El Yaque to catch the boat to Coche. Typically for Venezuela, the big boat which was meant to take us all over had broken down! So we hung around, catching up with where everyone had been since France and waited for the little Coche boat to ferry us over!! After a rather damp boat ride everyone started to pump up and get ready for the single elimination. Sam was up first against Alex Pastor and they both started the competition well. Sam pulled out some really good passes but Alex just won. Tom and Aaron stomped their way up the single’s heats after they had ‘bys’ for high ranking in the first round. Jo Wilson won against Audrey with some awesome powered riding but then just lost the next to Susi. I was up against Pauline Boussard who has been on Coche training for three months. I had a super good heat staying upwind by the judge’s tower the whole time. I landed the second railey to blind and then downloops and surface passes etc. Pauline took the lead in the last minute when she landed a blind judge in the bottom of the competition area but I was stoked with the heat anyway.
We got through the first half of the singles with the rest to be finished the next day in El Yaque. There was then time for us all to head out for a sunset session which was AMAZING J Towards the end I landed awkward toeside and thought I’d really hurt my leg so hobbled in. Typical, on the flattest water you could get!! But it wasn’t as bad as I thought and just had a strange penguin limp for one day!


So the first day on El Yaque beach they finished the single eliminations and started the first round of the guy’s doubles until the wind dropped off late afternoon. Poor Karolina had a bad luck double kite-mare day as she ripped her kite practicing before her heat, so borrowed Jo Wilson’s, which then deflated after a hard landing during her Karolina’s heat against Susi. It was great to see the guys were straight on the case with both Aaron and Alvaro heading straight out with kites for her. She continued her head, landed a slim chance, but unfortunately was disqualified as she’d taken the kite off the boys whilst in the competition area. Well done anyway Karolina! The singles guy’s final was unsurprisingly against Kevin and Aaron. They both put on an amazing show, and despite Kevin landing the first kiteloop 7 he’s landed in competition, Aaron was unbeatable. Super stoked ! Sam won his first heat of the double eliminations then the wind dropped off so it was postponed to the next day. I was really thankful for the day’s break for my leg.
It was pretty light wind the next day so the start was put off until just after lunch when the wind picked up enough to continue with the doubles. We amused ourselves for the morning signing and stickering the board deck that is to be auctioned for Surfers Against Sewage by Turbulence later in the season. The excitement on everyone’s faces when you ask them so sign it is hilarious! Even the guys got excited about designing some little cartoons! Eventually the wind picked up and we could continue with the double eliminations. My heat was against Jalou Langeree. The wind was so up and down Jo Wilson and I decided the best tactic was to head in straight with a railey to blind in the first run. I was stoked I landed the first one as I came into the competition area then carried on with downloops and back to toe surface passes and stuff. Jalou landed similar tricks but with ‘more power and technical difficulty’ so she went through. My leg was ok in the heat but hurt a bit after so was pretty lucky it was not worse! I was super happy with both my heats and I learn more of what the judges are looking for each time J
As they were running the heats between two people all the way through, the doubles took quite a while so the exciting last heats of both men and women were then held on the Saturday. They started at lunch time again as it was too light in the morning, so I went out for an awesome session on the 10.5 Ion3 as there was enough power for me on it. I found the landing that hurt my leg the least was to blind so worked on landing more consistently and with more power on railey to blind and back to blind. I was SO impressed with the relaunch of the 10.5 Ion3 as I was giving it a full on crash test! Every time I popped back up to the surface it would be just bobbing there at the edge of the window waiting patiently for me to give a little squeeze on the bar and it was up off the water! Made my session so enjoyable!

The beach was absolutely rammed with people to watch when the day’s competition commenced. The wind was pretty light with the guys on 12m and 13m kites and the girls on 10m kites. As the heats progressed up towards the finals Jo Wilson carried on winning her heats and moving up. As the wind was so light I was waiting at the bottom of the competition area with Murray and Hectare from Margarita Extreme to run Jo and her board back up to the top, plus anyone else who needed a hand! There was huge excitement as Jo kept winning and she eventually made it up to third place, loosing her last heat to Gisela. Her smile just got bigger and bigger with every heat won! A big well done to Jo she is so happy J

Aaron then headed out for the finals against Kevin. He took the 13m out as it was still very light, but a few minutes before the start of their heat Aaron lost his kite. The UK guys on the beach quickly had his 11m in the air and passed it over. However, it was not enough power on the 11m and the last minute panic had not put Aaron in a good frame of mind for his heat. He did manage to pull some awesome moves out of the bag, but Kevin won the heat as he had much more power. So a second heat was to be run after the girls to determine the winner of the doubles. Meanwhile, the same happened in the girl’s final with Gisela beating Bruna. Aaron got his 13m back during this heat, sorted himself out and went out and stormed the final heat against Kevin. He was riding with loads of power and the whole of El Yaque beach was going mad. After this Gisela and Bruna headed back out for their final heat and Bruna took back the win. There was a mini prize giving/ place announcement ceremony followed by a full PKRA photo and then the Venezuelan press descended on Bruna and Aaron.


When they eventually emerged from the paparazzi, we had a celebratory beer, everyone full of smiles and totally stoked, and then we headed off to get ready for the prize giving ceremony in the Hard Rock Café in Porlamar’s Sanbil shopping centre. Jo Wilson, Jalou and I had a girly celebratory drink at the apartment so were in full party mode when we all caught the coach to the Hard Rock. Food and drinks were followed by the final prize giving ceremony and thanks to the organisers. There was then a local girl’s catwalk competition. The guys loved it and we were vaguely amused for a while until boredom hit and we decided we should organise a guy’s six pack competition to follow. After a lot of coaxing of the organisers we eventually persuaded them it was a good idea and headed up on stage with race director Eric as commentator. We invited Kevin Langeree, Sebastian Garat, Peter Tyuskevich, local rider Bruno and Tom Court up to show off their abs. Amazingly subdued, the guys headed up and the huge applause for Bruno from the local contingent got him the vote! A great night was had by all so a big thanks to all the organisers.

Sunday was meant to be a down wind slalom and board off event. But we all awoke to complete calm. El Yaque beach looks very different with no wind. So I headed up to the roof pool of the El Yaque club hotel with Jalou, Karolina and Bruna to do some interviews with the Tronolone guys and then Jalou and I decided to be complete tourists and we both got flower henna tattoos!

Final farewells were said and I packed up ready for the Monday flight back to the UK with Sam. However, my journeys NEVER seem to be that simple! On arriving at the airport we were told that our flight was delayed for 24 hours! So back to El Yaque to unpack for another quick last session!
So we’re finally on the plane and I am pretty sad to be leaving El Yaque again. As I found last time, the place and the people have the best vibe of anywhere I know. The slight chop and gusty wind become part of the whole character of the place and the enthusiasm of the local riders is really inspiring. The El Yaque Kite Team did well and we hope to see them at Cabarete or Tarifa as long as they get the support they deserve. So watch this space for some top Venezuelan action at more PKRA events.
As ever this year, it was so good to have a big group of UK riders at the event. They all did really well and are flying the British flag high! So Aaron won, Jo Wilson finished third, Tom Court finished seventh, Sam Light finished ninth, his first taste of PKRA prize money, and I was just super happy with how my heats went and how inspiring I’m finding each event to push my riding. A BIG well done to Aaron as he’s taken a firm lead on this year’s score board – the fifth year for the World Champ here we come!
BRING ON CABARETE! -Jo x
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The next round of the PKRA starts on the 25th June in Cabarete.
Aaron rides the Flexifoil HadlowPro - click here for more info - www.hadlowpro.com
To visit Aaron's blog site and read his thoughs on the PKRA comp so far - visit www.aaronhadlow.com
Aaron is sponsored by Flexifoil, Red Bull and Chiemsee
Johara rides the Flexifoil Atom08 - click here for more info www.atom08.com
Johara is sponsored by Flexifoil, Turbulence and Jimmy Lewis
All photography copyright Johara / Flexifoil 2008