GKA Kite-Surf World Cup Denmark 2021 | Day Three

Report: Gemma Hamaini / All photos: Lukas Stiller 

The waiting game continued today as Hvide Sande teased us with another windless day. The tension amongst the riders was high as they anxiously awaited the start of competition.

The race director, Juan Antonio Aragon, held the skipper’s meeting at 9am on Day 3 of the GKA Kite-Surf World Cup in Denmark. As he explained, although the forecast for the day was not particularly optimistic, anything can happen at this location, and it’s important to be ready in case the wind suddenly picks up.   

Today’s Live-Stream Show

The live-stream show was on from 10am to 11am with Jo Ciastula and Gemma Hamaini. Today they were joined live by Peri Roberts, Pedro Matos and Capucine Delannoy, who discussed life on tour, the past event in Sylt, and what it takes to be a champion. You can re-watch the full show on Youtube.

“In The Bag” Coming Tomorrow

Whilst the wait for wind was on, we took a little time to chat with several riders about what equipment they were planning on using here in Denmark, and we went into details about their preferences, equipment tuning, and preferred set-up.

“So I’m about to go through all of my boardbag with Jo,” said Reece Myerscough. “We will go through all my boards and my kites, and talk about what I’m working on in terms of new shapes. It’s going to be interesting, so you will definitely want to watch this on the show tomorrow!”

“I normally travel with about 16 kilos of gear, which is not too bad,“ explained Kiko Roig Torres. “7 to 14m Lift kites and 6, 8 and 10m Session kites for wave-riding. I always have one kite that I use for freestyle, and one kite for wave-riding.” 

To get a full view of all current gear that everyone is using, tune in tomorrow morning at 10am for the live-stream show.

Catch-up with Karolina

Legendary rider Karolina Winkowska has been one of the biggest names in freestyle and park kiteboarding for the last ten years, so some may find it unusual to see her name pop up here as a registered competitor on the GKA Kite World Tour. Karolina has three Freestyle World Champion titles under her belt, and two Triple-S wins. After a few years out of the competitive kite scene, we spent some time with the legend herself to find out what has motivated her to come back to the World Tour, and become involved in the Kite-Surf discipline. 

“At the end of 2019, I was feeling really worn out. After competing non-stop for so many years, I just needed a break. I was in Australia looking at my calendar for the upcoming year, and was just like, I can’t do this. It’s so much travelling, “ explained Karolina. “Then the pandemic happened. I was stuck in Australia thinking, what do I do now? So I just embraced it, and focused on surfing. I surfed as much as possible.”

Karolina ended up spending most of the pandemic in Australia, mainly surfing, but also kiting. There were no flights home to Poland, and with all travel and competitions cancelled for the foreseeable future, her plans for the year changed in an instant.

After the break due to the pandemic, Karolina finally started to feel the yearning for competition return. She has competed in various sports since she was a little girl, including skiing and snowboarding, and really felt a need to return to competition.

“My competitive career was put on hold due to the pandemic. Park events were pretty much cancelled. Competition is my skill. Some people are good at painting, or solving jigsaw puzzles, but for me, competing is in my nature. I needed that feeling again. I love going to events and meeting people. So I just wanted to go to an event, ride with the best female riders in the world, and get that extra motivation for my riding again.”

As someone who has mainly focused on freestyle and park riding, the transition to wave-riding or strapless freestyle hasn’t been so easy. 

“I’m definitely stronger in wave-riding than in strapless freestyle, but coming to this event gives me an extra test to push myself. Strapless riding is definitely new to me, but I enjoy it. It takes a lot of time, and it’s very technical. I need to spend more time on this, but I have the motivation.”

Karolina has been a pioneer in freestyle riding, constantly pushing the boundaries and laying the groundwork that we see in women’s competition today.

“The level is increasing from event to event in women’s competitions now. The women are all pushing it, and it feels great to join them, but my goal this time is different. I used to compete to win, and that really dragged me down psychologically. I didn’t want to come 2nd, 3rd or last. I had to win or I would feel bad. But now my mindset is so different. I want to get my ass kicked, I want to have fun, ride with other girls, so I figured it would be fun to come to these events, and it’s been great.”

So what lies in her competitive plans for the rest of the year?

“I’m thinking about going to Brazil for the freestyle competition. I’ll see first how things evolve with the pandemic.”

No matter what Karolina decides to do next, it’s an honour to have her back on tour. The more women we have competing and pushing the boundaries of the sport, the better.

GKA Kite-Surf World Cup Denmark Schedule

The GKA Kite-Surf World Cup Denmark is taking place from the 6th -11th of September. 

The skipper’s meeting has been called for 9am tomorrow morning.

We will be LIVE with our event show tomorrow from 10am to 11am CET with our new tech-talk series – “In the bag”. Tune in to our website to follow all the action!