Gabriele Steindl: Professional Kitesurfer & Freelance Writer - Action, Lifestyle & Travels

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Coole Boys und heisse Girls!

Event-Overview just before World PKRA Kitesurf Freestyle World Cup in Podersdorf, Austria, my second PKRA World Cup on home grounds. I was awarded the ‘Rookie of the Year’, felt strong and technically extremely advanced after a super focused winter training and set my aims high.

First stop on the PKRA World Tour in 2004 and it was good to meet the World Cup-family again. We were on standby for the first few days of the event but then on one of the last days the wind came up, yet again from the wrong direction for the spot where the event was held, thus judges had to be on a boat and us riders to cross upwind towards the middle of the lake where the heats where held. I should have easily won my heat if I would not have made a vital mistake right in the first 2 minutes: I wanted to show judges and competitors what I had learned over the winter and tried the hardest move in my freestyle-repertoire. Unfortunately I did not pull it off… my kite was in the water and due to currents simply wouldn’t relaunch for the rest of the heat. Thus ‘local Gabi’ was out in the first round, grrrrr stupid, trust me, I haven’t made the same mistake in competition since!