I have a son now. His
name is Reef Toscano, and he is 16 months old. I can
wait until he starts kiteboarding. He is already
swimming so it should not be long until he is doing
it.
PKRA - WORLD CUP Rankings
2002
Austria
9
Margarita
17
Cabarete
25
Fuerteventura
25
Total
51
Place
20
Background
The PKRA
was put together as a result of a professional riders’
meeting in Silvaplana, Switzerland on August 18, 2001.
The riders as a group came to the decision that for
future contest seasons there was a need for an official
riders’ association (PKRA) with riders’ representatives
that communicate and negotiate the needs of the riders
to event organizers. The goal is to support each other
and help ensure that riders, sponsors and organizers
each get what they need from the World Tour. During
2002, the PKRA inaugural year, the PKRA worked with
outstanding event organizers in Austria, Venezuela,
Dominican Republic, and Canary Islands, bringing
kiteboarding events to the highest level of performance
and quality. PKRA is waiting for its fifth and final
event of the 2002 tour to be held in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, during November. At this events the true 2002
kiteboarding world champions will be announced and the
$25,000 2002 tour purse will be awarded to the winners.
The PKRA riders have voted for 8 events to be counting
for an overall ranking for 2003. These events, of
course, will have to meet certain riders ’ requirements
including minimum prize money, specific disciplines, a
uniform judging format, safety requirements etc, in
order to be sanction by the PKRA and be part of an
official world tour with the top riders in the world.
For the 2003 season the riders’ representatives
are: Mauricio Toscano (
maut@maui.net
),
Andreya Wharry, (dreya@watergatebay.co.uk),
and one more to be determined soon. Feel free to contact
us for more information on the PKRA and the 2003 World
Tour. Please reply before October 10, 2002, if you wish
your event to be considered for the
tour.
Interview
KITER.COM:
Where were you born? Mauricio Toscano:
Mexico City
How did you end up in Maui? I came here for Windsurfing in the early 80’s. I was at the time living in San Diego CA and going to college over there.
How many other professional kiteboarders are from Mexico? At the moment I am the only one from Mexico. The sports has really only taken off in Mexico in the last year. Now there are quite a few guys doing it all over Mexico. They are having their first national contest in Acapulco, in November. Mexico has tons of potential for great kiteboarding. There are many places with warm water and steady winds.
Where have you kited in Mexico? Yes, I have kited in Playa del Carmen (Caribbean, near Cancun) and in a lake name Valle de Bravo in Central Mexico. But I would love to go kiting to Baja, Acapulco, and Progreso.
How are you personally ranked on the PKRA? This year I’m not doing great. Have a lot to catch up, and need more training time, need to learn all the current new tricks. I’m currently ranked 20th in the tour.
How was the PRKA started? Well, last year there was a new kiteboarding world tour, which was organized by a German company named BMC. The biggest problem with the BMC tour was that there was no rider’s input on how to run kiteboarding contest. The Kiteboarding Pro World Tour organized by the French have the same problem. The organizers just run the contest without having any input from the riders, so basically the competition formats, the judging and the overall organization were a mess. Therefore during the last event of the BMC tour in Silvaplana , Switzerland, all the professional riders’ got together in a meeting and created the PKRA. The riders as a group came to the decision that for future contest seasons there was a need for an official riders’ association (PKRA) with riders’ representatives that communicate and negotiate the needs of the riders to event organizers.
So what went wrong with the BMC tour? Well, they wanted to make a big business out of kiteboarding competitions, without knowing anything about kiteboarding. They invested quite a bit of money on the tour, while speculating that they were going to get big sponsors to join the tour and make their money back plus profit. One of their biggest mistakes in my opinion is that they hired 16 riders (12 men and 4 women) to go to all their tour stops. For the riders with the contract including me it was a great deal, but for the rest of the riders including all the new talent, it was not a good deal, and some felt like second class riders.
Were any of the BMC tour organizers kiters? No, but they hire a German kiter to be their consultant.
What will the PKRA do
differently to avoid those mistakes? We are trying to be as much as a democratic organization as possible, so the pro riders doing the contest are the ones in control of how the contest are run. Also the PKRA is a nonprofit organization therefore our main goal is not to make a profit, but to have quality events that are well run, and have excellent media coverage in order to benefit the sport.
How did you get elected to run the PKRA? During the pros meeting in Switzerland when we decided to form an association, the riders nominated me to run it. I was not sure what needed to be involved, but I accepted and decided to give it a try, and so far so good. It has being a ton of work, but it is a great satisfaction to see the success of the tour this year.
How much money do you make
as the main dude at the PKRA? Well considering all the work and
time that I put into it, it turns to be somewhere about
3 dollars an hour. Great Pay!!!
Who are the other officials in the PKRA? This year the other riders’ representative is Andreya Wharry from the UK. And for next year there will be 3 of us, and elections are in the process.
We also have 3 key officials elected by the riders and required to be hired by the organizers in order to make a successful contest. They are:
The head judge: Francois Ferray (from France. He has a ton of kiteboarding judging experience)
The contest Director: Alex Aguera. (He is an avid kiter, and has a lot of experience in running PWA windsurfing contest. So far he has done an excellent job)
Our media Director: Kat Tracy (Her job is to coordinate the media, so we get the best exposure possible)
How much does it cost to join the PKRA and how many members do you have?
Our goal is to keep it affordable for the riders, so for 2002 there was a $25 annual membership. For 2003 the membership will go up to $50.
What are the key elements
in the PKRA event format? At the moment we have two disciplines at each event. The first one is the freestyle discipline, which is your basic double elimination 8-minute heats with 4 riders out, and the best two advances, during the early rounds and then it becomes a man on man format. This discipline is what the world rankings are based on and it is the one that gives continuity to the tour.
The second discipline could be Wave Riding, Hang Time, Best Trick, Slider Course, Long Distance, etc. This Second Discipline does not count toward the Overall Tour Rankings, but it is a Discipline geared for the Media. The purpose is to make an exciting and radical Show that displays the best aspects of the Sport. The Second Discipline is Location specific, and it is up to the ORGANIZER and the PKRA, jointly, to determine what discipline makes the most Media impact for that Location. (For example, in a very windy location, it would be advantageous to schedule Hang Time as a Second Discipline, since there would be a chance to break the World Record. In a location with flat water and moderate to light winds, the best Second Discipline might be Best Trick or Slider Course.)
How are decisions made among the PKRA members? All the decision on mayor issues and voting are done thru the internet.
How do you actually conduct the voting? It is all done thru email in the internet. For example for the election of the 3 PKRA officials for 2003, first I send and email to all the riders in the association and give them a week to submit their nominations. Once I get the people that are nominated, I contact each nominee, and ask them if they are interested for the job. If they are then I put them on the voting email and send them to all the riders with another week period to reply with their votes. Then I count the votes and inform the riders and the nominees of the results.
So it sounds like the Internet is what really makes this kind of international organization possible? Yes it is. It is a great tool for a global organization, since all the riders live all over the world. At the moment we have 142 members from 25 different countries.
Is the PKRA affiliated with any instructional programs or schools? Not at the moment but we are talking to IKO, and there is the possibility that we will work together to make the sport safer. Right now one of the key issues on contest is safety.
How is the PKRA different than other tours? As I said before the difference is that the riders have a saying. We have a meting at every contest to see what can be improved and what went wrong and then we work on doing the necessary adjustments. It could be anything from judging format to, safety issues.
Does kiteboarding really need multiple tours at this point or would it make sense to have
a single tour? Kiteboarding needs a single tour. We need all the media to concentrate in the best events just like in any other sport.
How you ever discussed a consolidated effort with other tour organizers like the KPWT? We have in the past and we are still talking. We hope that for 2003 we can consolidate and have one solid Kiteboarding World Tour.
How many events do you envision for the 2003 tour? We are planning to have 8 events and we really want to have 2 in the US.
Would the PKRA ever consider a snowkiting event? Snowkiting is pretty new, and I don’t know much about it, it would be kind of cool, but It would not be able to be part of the tour, since you are competing in snow, not water.
Any major improvements or changes for 2003? Yes. We will have a tour photographer; our website will be more interactive with a search engine, and a database; and we are looking at the possibility of bringing in a tour sponsor.
Thanks for the interview Mauricio, any final words? Thank you. It is great to
have professional websites like kiter.com. We need to
come together and make the sport safe, accessible, and
spectacular, in order for this great sport to continue
to grow in a healthy way. Aloha
