Kitesoul Magazine #13 English Edition

The beginning of the summer season is always
exciting and this year, as never before, all the
events took place so intensively. Starting with the
European Championship of Kitefoil, then the historic
Wind Voyager Triple-S Invitational followed
by the super competition Tarifa Strapless Kitesurfing
Pro and the World Championship of Kitefoil
in Italy.
We tried to attend all the events, either directly or
by recruiting prestigious names of the kite world
scene such as Sensi Graves, athlete, bikini designer
for female kiters and author of the article
about this year’s Wind Voyager Triple-S. She took
us to the heart of the most famous Park event in
the scene of kiteboarding, an aspect of our sport
that is becoming increasingly popular, also thanks
to the creation of the Kite World League. Athletes
coming from the freestyle world championship
love it, as it shows from Karolina Winkowska’s second
victory in a park competition. It looks like
a future with increasingly frequent competitions,
with interesting prizes and numerous sponsors,
and we hope that the atmosphere will always remain
as the one of a group of passionate friends
bound by a beautiful and pure vision of sport.
We also witnessed the coronation of the first European
Kitefoil champions, the French male rider
Maxime Nocher and the Russian female rider Elena
Kalinina. Then there has been the tight battle
at the World Kitefoil Championship in Gizzeria, of
which you'll see a photo gallery by our Art Director
Giuseppe Esposito in this issue, and then the
full article in the next issue in October.
After the resounding success in 2015, Tarifa and
the entire kiteboarding arena were waiting for the
second Tarifa Strapless Kitesurfing Pro, which is
now part of the new GKA circuit and which at the
end of the season will crown the most complete
rider in the wave and freestyle strapless scene.
Airton Cozzolino, the 2015 defending champion,
did not get intimidated by his opponents and after
an epic battle, point after point, against his fraternal
friend Matchu Lopes Almeida, he took home
one of the most wanted trophies of the year, by
confirming himself as one of the most complete
and explosive athletes in freestyle strapless.
We were also invited to the presentations of the
2017 materials of some of the most prestigious
brands in the market, never as rich in technological
innovations as this year. RRD opened the
dances in May taking us to the beautiful Bay of
Talamone, followed, at the end of June, by the
Cabrinha meeting which took place in the new
spectacular scenario of the Pro Kite Center of Alberto
Rondina at the Stagnone natural reserve, in
Sicily. Our editor then flew to Tarifa for the North
international meeting of which we will tell extensively
in the next issue...
Dream journeys and accurate educationals complement
our thirteenth issue, together with the
focuses on market news, kite at 360° for a summer
on fire... and we're just getting started...
Roberta Pala