The next stop of the PKRA Kiteboarding World Tour will be the city of Leucate, located in the southwestern coast of France.

 

From April 12 to 18th, more than 50 world-class kiteboarding athletes from all over the world will be competing at the renowned Mondial du Vent, the most prestigious kiteboarding event in Europe. This is the first time that the PKRA World Tour competition will be held in France and the addition of Mondial du Vent to the ever expanding realm of the PKRA solidifies the Tour's credibility as having the best kiteboarding events in the world.

 

More than 160,000 people are expected to grace the event with a full week of fun-filled and exciting kiteboarding and windsurfing actions.

 

The best kiteboarders in North and South America, Europe, Australia and other parts of the world will be battling it out for a chance at the €45,000 purse and will be competing in three disciplines - Freestyle, Course Racing and Long Distance.

 

Freestyle is an exciting kiteboarding discipline where riders are rated by a full panel of international judges based on technical difficulties and hard core style. Course Racing brings the best kiteboard racers in the world challenging each other in a series of racing events on a preconfigured course.

 

In the Long Distance event, riders start in a pack and race to the finish line in a format of 20 kms.

 

Reigning Freestyle World Champion Aaron Hadlow (United Kingdom) and last year's runner-up Kevin Langeree (Netherlands) are once again expected to give an all-out performance for a shot at this year's world championship title.

 

Also among the roster of world-class professional kiteboarders competing at the second PKRA tour stop this year will be Alvaro Onieva and Cesar Portas who both hail from Spain, Rui Meira (Portugal), France's own Etienne Lhote, Sebastien Garat and Florian Daubos.

 

Current long distance world champion Bruno Sroka, Kitespeed world record holder and French kitespeed record holder Alexandre Caizergues, as well as Fabienne D'Ortoli and Sjouke Bredenkamp will be competing for the Course Racing and Long Distance events.

 

PKRA World Champion Gisela Pulido (Spain), Jalou Langeree (Netherlands) and Bruna Kajiya (Brazil) are also expected to compete in the women's freestyle event.

 

The Mondial du Vent 2008 is organized by the Office de Tourisme de Leucate in partnership with the Professional Kiteboard Riders Association.

 

SOURCE: Extreme Elements