Hello, and welcome to the inaugural Kitesurf Pro World Championship Tour.
The KSP's 2011 Mauritius One Eye Pro kicks off the circuit with great style, bringing
the world's best wave riders together for 10 action-packed days.
Delivering next-level performances amidst the world-class conditions, the riders have
been dreaming of an event like this for years, which undoubtedly will change the face of
the sport.
Renowned for its natural beauties, the small island of Mauritius, a peaceful heaven surrounded
by warm blue waters, rests 900 kilometers east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.
Bustling with economic activity, the capital city of Port Lewis lies up in the north, but
it's the south of this paradisiacal island that features the sweet conditions that sportsmen
dream of.
With its near-perfect reef break, LaMourne has put Mauritius on the action sports map,
making it an iconic and must-visit destination.
So, Mauritius is a really good kite destination, especially LaMourne, because in one small area,
you've got three or four really, really good wave spots.
And not only for kite surfing, but for surfing, SUPing, all kinds of stuff.
The weather's good, it's sunny all year, it's windy.
You can't really ask much more from a kiting destination.
LaMourne's known for one-eyes, which is a long, fast wave with very side-off wind conditions.
So the wave is pretty extreme, it's a pretty, pretty extreme ride, but once you get used
to it, it's a lot of fun.
Thrilled to be a part of the groundbreaking adventure, a highly-motivated group of accomplished
kites flocked to LaMourne-Mauritius, aiming to make kite surfing history.
Yeah, it's a bit difficult to tell who is going to adapt to this place, but I think
all good riders, once they've ridden the wave a few times, can adapt, you know, especially
today they're riding strapless, unhooked, so I'm sure they'll get it right, you know?
On the second day of the One Eye Pro, the conditions on the water look really, really
good.
We might have the wind yet, but the waves are looking really, really nice, it's almost
perfect, so we're all just waiting at the moment for the wind to come up and to go out
there and rip in the expression session, and right after that to get into the competition's
first round.
As the wind picked up and the first swell of the event hit LaMourne's coast, riders
quickly hit the water, gravitating to the One Eye Peak.
Competitors took turns riding the perfect peeling surf in this aquatic playground.
If you look at the entry list, we pretty much got the best wave riders in the world
here.
I don't think any of the heats are going to be really easy, everybody is at a very
high level, there's a lot of skill here, so all the heats, everyone's going to give
100%, it's going to be a really, really good show.
The conditions of the surf are absolutely mind-blowing, we've seen surf coming through
here all morning in the 6-8 foot range I would say, perfect barrels, big walls, steep, clean
blue water, Mauritius is absolutely beautiful and the waves have kicked in, and now of course
with the wind picking up nicely, the guys are ripping out there, along with the ladies
of course too, we've seen some phenomenal, phenomenal rides, really been exciting.
Delivering some interesting surprises, the first round of competition saw the world-renowned
Mito Montero taking third place in his heat, and Brazilian ripper Gili Brandão destroying
his kite in the powerful waves, glimpses of the fierce competition and strong conditions
of the days to come.
But the bulk of the competition was yet to come, the contest runs in a KO system with
a second chance round, the winners of each heat bypass the next round in which the losers
get another chance to stay in the game.
Besides having perfect kite surfing conditions, Le Monde is a UNESCO World Heritage Site due
to its exceptional historical value.
In fact, the Le Monde cultural landscape is the only place in the world where we celebrate
the resistance to slavery.
In fact, the maroon slaves, they found refuge on the mountain, on the summit of the mountain
of Le Monde, and according to a legend, it says that the slaves, the maroon slaves, they
even jumped off the mountain in order to achieve freedom.
For them, death is the only way to achieve their freedom, instead of going to slavery
again.
There is a lot of oral history associated to it, which has been transmitted from one generation
to the next.
For example, the folklore, the traditional fishing, storytelling, and also healing practices,
ritual practices, traditional meal.
So we can say that there's a living tradition that still exists at Le Monde that makes the
mountain so special in the world and with all the history associated to it.
Offering 8 to 10 foot face-bearing waves, the competition resumed on the third day of the
Mauritius One Eye Pro.
With a score of 18.04 points out of 20, Marc Ramseyer from Switzerland stood out, while
Mitu Montero waited for his chance to come back.
It's going to be really interesting because there's a high level.
All riders here are experienced on big waves.
It's going to be good.
The most important, it's to have fun on the water, and then I'll check the results.
With conditions holding strong, veteran riders such as Jesse Richman, Skye Solbach, and John
Amitson made an easy breakthrough to the next round.
But the young newcomers Ozzy Smith and Patry McLaughlin turned a lot of heads with their
radical style and progressive approach.
I think for sure this event is going to bring up new names for the future and that's what
we're looking for.
You know, there are guys that are still ripping, but there are guys that are yet to be discovered.
You know guys coming from different countries that have never been seen and showcasing what
they've got to offer.
I think it's an excellent potential for athletes to come together and see what others are doing
and actually learn off each other too and see where the sport of kite surfing and waves
heads.
Delivering an astonishing performance, the shy and unsponsored Ninja Beechler amazed
everyone.
Calling Mauritius home, Ninja gives us insight into her passion for wave riding.
So I'm Ninja from Germany and I'm working here in Mauritius.
Since four years I'm here and it's a great sport, yeah, of course the waves are amazing
and I came here actually just to stay one or two years, but yeah, I stay longer because
it's just amazing.
So basically I discovered the waves by surfing, which I learned in Brazil already a few years
ago and yeah, then in the spot here with windsurfing I also started in the waves and with kiting
two years ago and yeah, waves are just, it's just more, I don't know, adrenaline, it's
more fun, it's changing all the time so you kind of need to really be aware and I love
it.
Throughout the event, riders are judged on their two best waves and scored based on power,
flow and technical difficulty of maneuvers.
All of the five ISA accredited judges score each rider's wave on a scale of one to ten
with a perfect heat score being twenty.
With slightly smaller waves than the day before and winds blowing stronger at twenty-five
to thirty knots, the competition continued.
As the field boiled down, some star-studded matchups took place, such as the clash between
Mito Montero and Gilly Brandow, two of the most renowned kite surfers on the scene.
Man of the day, however, was Skye Solbach, scoring a wave of 9.43 with his top to bottom
strapless surfing.
Yeah, it was a bit of a strange day today here in Paradise because we had some rain
and some schools, some really windy schools.
The waves weren't quite as consistent so it wasn't so challenging for the guys riding.
We're just finishing the last of the ladies' consolidation and then it'll be about five
o'clock so time for wrap up and then a really early start tomorrow because the big wind
and the big swell is going to come in tomorrow, that's what we're told.
Happy with the outcome of this first stop so far, Kristen Booze explains what motivated
her and a group of riders to start the Kitesurf Pro World Tour Circuit.
Our main objectives with the KSP Tour were really to bring the riders to the best wave
and windspots around the world and to really make kiteboarding look good, to really further
the image of the sport, to produce some amazing images and pictures and just really make the
riders happy and just focus on them a little bit more.
The way we're running the KSP Tour right now is a really exclusive approach.
We've kind of modeled it after the surfing tour.
We have an exclusive field of 24 male and 12 female riders following the tour around
the world.
We've ensured that the riders will complete the whole tour by introducing tour licenses
and have a really set amount of tour riders.
Of course we're going to be able to sign on different riders for each of the events.
We're going to have local wildcards for every event and then also whenever a tour rider
drops out, can't make it to one of the events, we will have local riders or actually international
riders move up to the spot.
It is already pumping and the swell is just rising.
It's definitely going to be a bit of a scary day.
We've got some solid sets rolling in so hopefully we come in the same way we came out.
Long anticipated, the mega swell hits one eye just in time for the crucial round four
and five heats.
With no room for errors amidst the huge, perfectly barreling walls of water, riders
put on an epic strapless show of a caliber never before seen in competition.
Yeah, this is sick to have an event where it's just focused on wave riding so we go
here where there's awesome waves and it's going to be awesome and this is definitely
the way to do it.
I'm stoked to be a part of this and I'm really happy to support and see where this tour will
go.
I think that's the best thing that could have happened to the sport in the past couple
of years.
Me personally, I've been hoping and waiting for something like this to happen for a long
time.
There's been a vacuum for it and finally some riders took it in their own hands and set
it all up and I think it's going to be a great future for a wave riding tour.
Fans held strong throughout the afternoon, delivering more offshore wind than normal,
which created extraordinarily smooth wave faces, a rarely seen canvas to kite surf on, mind-blowing
performances and career-defining heats followed, leaving every single spectator in awe of the
astounding action going down at one eye.
Riding the ground of the sport in the quarter-finals, the relatively unknown Ayrton Casolino from
Italy scored a perfect 10 with beautifully executed turns in the most critical section
of the wave, all while riding strapless.
The day ended on an inspiring note, history had just been made.
We had the more amazing conditions for kiting, we had like around 7 meters front, the wave
was perfect, open to do really nice turns, we had a really huge pocket in the middle,
we saw the best show that the judges we can show in a contest in these kind of conditions,
windy, with waves with the best kites in the world, so for us, these guys are changing
the sport completely strapless.
This is something new for the sport.
This day is going to pass to the history for sure, because we started kiting years ago
and now, we are on the other side of kiting and today I tell you, this is a big change
for kiting, strapless, big conditions and you know how we can feel.
We feel exciting, really happy and are really nervous to see tomorrow and the next hits.
This is my kind of wave, I prefer left waves, I didn't think I would make it this far,
I'm very happy to be on the semis, now let's see what happens, I'm going to try to go
further.
I'm not saying I'm ready, but I have a good feeling to go out there and smash it, get
the wave, big bottoms, big snaps and make it through the heat.
We have all these kind of styles, riding styles, but it seems like the strapless stuff is
really getting into the surf, everybody wants to see it right now, so it's a mix of everything,
I think everybody is learning about it.
Before I came here, I set a goal to myself to stay, at least get to the quarter finals,
so I think I'm no better than this now, so I'm really happy and I try to go even further
in the contests, try to get my good waves today and maybe I can make the finals.
For sure in the strapless you have different styles, when you see here the rider take
the lift, but really in the critical section of the wave, it's strapless, so it's not
so easy, but it's not impossible.
For me, I try to push more possible the strapless in the future, to do the new tricks and to
help the kiteboarding to go so far away.
Breaking through into the final, Mito Montero displayed his fluid, innovative style, effortlessly
switching stance between snaps.
And Ayrton Casolino's remarkable top to bottom vertical turns gained advantage, earning
Casolino top spot on the podium.
Mauricio Padrera, placing third, joined second place finisher Mito Montero on the podium,
where they applauded the inspiring performance of the young up and coming Italian rider Ayrton
Casolino for his first ever world championship tour event victory.
I'm very happy with this result, it was hard to win, but I accomplished my goal.
The conditions were good big waves, I had a lot of fun with Mito in the final.
I'll try to get another good result in Peru.
I'm very happy with this competition, and I look forward to the next ones.
On the women's side, local wild car Ninja Bischler takes top spot.
With impressive style and by taking advantage of her local knowledge, the newcomer truly
earned the victory at her first world championship competition.
Marie Goutran and Steph Bridge take deserving second and third place respectively.
I think it's a lot to do with passion, so if you really like it, if you do it many times
and it's your passion, you'll get the level too.
Bringing the days and paradise to an end, everyone involved looked back, reflecting
on what it all means for the sport.
This event was just amazing, it was such a mark for the sport, we've just been waiting
for an event like this to happen for a while, really nothing compares to the one eye wave
and all the action that we have here, it's just a point marking in the history of kiteboarding.
Obviously we're blessed with conditions, we had an amazing surf, an amazing wind all week
long, so that was definitely an amazing way to kick off this tour for 2011.
The riding we saw, I think, was unreal, like one eye is a little bit different kind of
way than a lot of other places we used to ride, it's a little bit more offshore, but
I think the riders here showed that you just have to adapt to the conditions and we saw
guys going straight up, top to bottom, getting barreled, I don't think we could have asked
for better conditions and it was an amazing show.
I think the bar here has been raised, the performance bar has been set and that's the
new level and I think that's just the way it is with any sport.
The best riders, take it where it's going to go, you know, the best riders are showing
what the progression is and I think that bar has been set here and that's the new level.
And that's it for the KSP's 2011 Mauritius One Eye Pro.
Join us next time in Prakasmayu, Peru for more incredible kite surfing action.
