Flexifoil, PKRA rider Johara, reports on Round 5 of the 2008 PKRA - Tarifa

Tarifa, Spain... Kite Mecca... the closest point of Europe to Africa, the home of the fifth stop of the PKRA World Tour 08 and a very exciting place for the Flexifoil family this summer!

I rocked up straight of the flight from Cabarete with my chica travelling buddies a day in advance of the first comp day. With our flight booking skills, we’d somehow won the race across the Atlantic Ocean and beaten our fellow riders by nearly 24 hours. We were so glad of this rest and refuelled on half a cow at ‘Toro Loco’ in Tarifa old town!

The Tarifa event in ‘07 was my first PKRA stop and I’d loved every minute of the howling Lavante it had brought. This year we had sunbathing mornings and light onshore winds picking up in the afternoon. Despite a couple of frustrating no wind days, we got enough good old Tarifa Poniente’s to get the event done.

These gentle wind conditions made it ideal for the Flexifoil onslaught to 100% Fun, the new Flexifoil Pro Centre right by the PKRA event sight. In contrast to the usual Flexifoil PKRA presence of Aaron and me, a huge number of the Flexi family had come out to try the amazing new facilities at 100% Fun, have a play on the famous Tarifa beach strip and come and support their World Champion.

We also had another new addition to the Flexifoil team at this event, Forest Bakker. His first PKRA competition, the youngest rider at 13 years old and under year of kiting experience; Forest went out there and ripped it up! He was busting blind judges and kite loops on his 7m AH Pro to win the first heat of his competition. Forest threw his all into the spirit of the competition, not only riding his little sole out, but helping Jason Furness running round the beach keeping track of first Aaron’s heats and then mine, and getting involved with some commentating. Big up Forest, welcome to the team and we can’t wait to see you in Fuerteventura.

Aaron’s heats went well in the Single elims until his heat against Michael Blomvall. Aaron’s mission to take kitesurfing moves as powered as possible went against him as the judges ruled Blomvall’s tricks were higher as his kite was higher. So Aaron came back with a vengeance in the Double elims, determined to give the judges just what they wanted despite the less powered style. He fought his way back up to the finals alongside Kevin. The two riders went off in their final heat wowing the weekend crowds. Kevin just took the win as he was riding with more energy as Aaron had his eight heats to get back up to the top. Well done Aaron, such a good come back!

I was drawn against number 3 seed, Karolina Winkowsk, in the Singles. I had a fun heat but had to wait for the Double elims. A lot of the Flexifoil gang took a brake from kiting to come and watch the action. Jason Furness launched my kite for my first heat of the day, passed me my board and said ‘no pressure, not as if the owner of Flexi here to watch or anything!!’ I won the next two heats against Erica and Laura Fernandez and then lost to Jalou to finish seventh.

So a big thank you to the Big Boss Anthony and the rest of the gang for coming out to Tarifa, to Miguel and the rest of the guys at 100% Fun for treating us so well, to Jason Furness for running round like a mad hatter keeping everything together and to Aaron and Forest for putting their all into the comp.

Jo x





The next round of the PKRA (freestyle) starts 29th July



Aaron rides the Flexifoil HadlowPro - visit 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 Ion3 and Atom08 - visit http://www.ionthree.com and http://www.atom08.com to findout more.
Johara is sponsored by Flexifoil - Turbulence and Jimmy Lewis