I arrived at the final stop of the KTA in China as the overall leader in mens TT-racing class. The forecast looked good when I left from home but has changed to worse by the time I arrived with only one day left of strong wind. There were over 120 registered riders from 30 different countries joining this final stop on the KTA tour, about 50 of them were competing in mens TT-racing together with me.

The first day of the competition was a sunny day at the beach with winds of about 3-4kts. I spent the day putting on a race depower on my new speed4 10m dlx and stitching/splicing extension lines for the back lines.

The second day we had about 15kts offshore wind and we managed to do 4 races, I was on my speed3 19m dlx and my Flydoor4 XL all races and managed to finish 2nd-2nd-1st-2nd. When we were about to start  the 5th race of the day the wind dropped dramatically and within 10 minutes there was almost no wind left and about 40 kites dropped out of the sky and the rescue boat got really busy. I manage to keep my kite up in the air a few more minutes than everyone else but when the wind totally died I also dropped my kite about 400m from the beach. I packed down my kite in the water and started swimming to shore, after about 100m swimming the rescue boat picked me up and we headed to the beach.

The third day was really windy and cold and it was time for the freestyle riders to enter the competition. It looked good for me since I was some times underpowered the day before and now with the stronger wind I can be more competitive. I needed only two more wins to overtake the first place in the competition and also to take home my lead for the overall. I really wanted to get out there and win!
When the freestyle riders were almost done the wind dropped down to 10-13kts and they had to stop the single eliminations. I realized that my chances to win now dropped down to zero. Since the forecast for the last day showed almost no wind so it was now or never if I was going to win. They sent out the womens fleet for three races and the lightest girl (40kg) with the biggest kite (19m) won all 3 races easily. The wind never came back for the rest of the competition and we only manage to do a total of 4 races and I unfortunately never got the chance to improve my second place.

In the overall on the KTA tour I finish in 2nd Place in the TT-racing and in 4th place in the RB-racing, my goal for the overall was to win the TT-racing and top 5 in the RB class so I almost reached my goals.

Thanks to my good results Kitesurfchina.com decided to sponsor me with a brand new raceboard and a new harness (THANKS), I just brought it home from the competition and it will soon be on the water.

I will also like to thank Flysurfer and Flyboards for there awesome equipment and to Kajtech.nu for all the support to get me were I am today. Last I will like to thank LIP sunglasses and muchachomalo underwear.

The goal now is to get comfortable with the new board since this is my first directional raceboard so I can reach good results in the Asian championship and the world championship in November.

You can continue to follow me here
kappel.se and facebook.com/attekappelpro

Thanks everyone

/Atte

Flysurfer – everyday is a kiteday