Negotiations between IKA and WKT (former PKRA/VKWC) failed

[Toby]

GKA News:

Negotiations between IKA and WKT (former PKRA and last year called VKWC)
failed

1 gka.png (17.04 KiB) Viewed 4478 times

The GKA issued an ultimatum to GKA and WKT until the 15th January 2016 to
find a solution for their ongoing conflict. It is said to state that the ultimatum
passed without a positive result. Main reasons for the unwillingness by the
two parties to find a solution of the conflict for the advantage of the sport
are personal reasons between the acting persons on both sides.

The GKA received a comprehensive concept by WKT of a tour planned for
2016. IKA did not hand in a concept. The WKT concept is under examination
with the GKA now.

IKA as well as WKT reinforced to run a professional kite-tour each. In other
words: in 2016 two tours might run parallel at the same time. WKT is
sanctioned by World Sailing (former ISAF) to run a World Tour under special
event status. IKA is sanctioned by WS to execute a World Championship
event. Neither WKT nor IKA received the right by ISAF to call their events
World-Cup.

The GKA and its member companies will come up with a decision how they
will position themselves regarding their support of professional kitesports in
2016 until the 27th January 2016.

Until this date close correspondence will take place between GKA and WS
(former ISAF), the event organizers, the companies which are sponsoring the
majority of the riders and the spokesman / spokeswomen of the riders.

Regarding the World Freestyle Champion 2015 all results published are
under reserve. Concerning the IKA results it has to be clarified whether it can
be accepted that the results of the tour-stop in Skt Peter-Ording, the biggest
and most important kite-contest worldwide, can be left unconsidered for the
overall ranking. Besides all jurisdictional issues: in the opinion of the GKA and
its associated member-companies, leaving the results from Skt Peter-Ording
unconsidered is a disrespect to all riders, sportsmen and sportswomen.

Dr. Jörgen Vogt
Secretary General
Global Kitesports Association e.V.

[longwhitecloud]

more fails - what is the obsession with world sailing/isaf? completely ridiculous!

shame the pkra just couldnt stay at it was with no involvement from non kitesurfing entities that clearly don't have the first clue about a sport they know nothing about

This is what you have when people want to get involved for the $$$$ only, thinking reinventing kite traction sport history as sailing will make some kind of $$$ in someones pocket - sad...

for sure i see this as messing around the already struggling riders that put the effort in to compete worldwide

Kiteboarding needs actual kiteboarders running the show, and no involvement from sailing! It is unfortunate that people fell for the olympic carrot and listened to those whose prime motivation was $$$$ and not kiteboarding. Well that is what happens..

[Mossy 757]

Kiteboarding needs actual kiteboarders running the show, and no involvement from sailing! It is unfortunate that people fell for the olympic carrot and listened to those whose prime motivation was $$$$ and not kiteboarding. Well that is what happens..

As a lifelong sailor, I agree. ISAF has been a mess for years and if the rumors are true, it's a viper's nest of smokey room dealings and buddy-buddy business contracts. Sailors have been bitching about poor ISAF leadership as long as I can remember; this has less to do with sailors being involved and more specifically with the people who run ISAF. The International Olympic Committee does business directly with ISAF and has basically told the IKA "we don't want to hear from you directly, we want to hear from you through ISAF." I can't help but wonder if that was designed by someone at ISAF to make them relevant and keep them in the loop. Either way, there has always been drama between the national/international branches of the global sailing community, especially when the Olympics get involved. Just look at the limp-wristed response from ISAF to the IOC regarding the Rio water quality crisis for the upcoming games. Sailors have been hospitalized in critical condition due to known water quality issues at the venue and ISAF's response has been to essentially say, "just suck it up and deal with it."

Anyway...the official agenda for the upcoming annual general meeting was just posted on IKA's website...looks like the American Kiteboarding Association has proposed some great common-sense changes to the IKA to be voted on in Rome at the end of the month.

http://internationalkiteboarding.org/in ... ominations

One of the recommendations is for the IKA to completely halt all freestyle organizing and to contract the freestyle tour out to someone else (Virgin or similar). I think this is a great idea, 99% of the IKA's active membership are course racers who are trying to create a global foilboard racing discipline. The less IKA has to do with the freestyle events the better.

[Toby]

easy to block that...

The following 5 submissions are subject to prior acceptance by the AGM as urgent late submissions

13 American Kiteboarding Association Constitution Change
14 American Kiteboarding Association Constitution Change
15 American Kiteboarding Association Financial Audit
16 American Kiteboarding Association KiteFoil World Championships
17 American Kiteboarding Association Freestyle World Championships

[edt]

hold on a second, toby can you explain who the hell GKA is and why I care? Nefver heard of this jorgen vogt before. Is this the "GErman Kitesports Association" ? GKA? Doesn't seem to be affiliated with IKA or ISAF. Are these some random joes that just want a slice of the pie?

WKT is gonna do what they have to do. If I were them I would have had it up to here with IKA, ISAF, and now the GKA wanting to line their pockets.

[Toby]

true, GKA is also German Kitesurf Association.

But, this GKA, is the Global Kitesports Association.

They are an association of the main kite companies, like North, Naish, Cabrinha, Slingshot, Flysurfer, Best etc.

This is their mission statement:

It is the goal of the Global Kitesport Association (GKA) together with the Kite-Sport industry to support and promote the interests of all (professional) Kite riders.

To achieve this goal, the GKA advocates that kiting as a sport can be done in all countries in harmony with nature. This includes the feasibility of professional kiting competitions on beaches that are suitable for this purpose.
It is the goal of GKA to work together with all national associations of kiting as well as with the organizations of professional kite sports.

Further, the Kite sport industry aims to provide reliable information about market developments and to provide riders with a platform to achieve the goals of GKA.

Finally, the GKA has also set the goal of making kite surfing even safer through the development and implementation of binding safety-standards.

[edt]

i got you. It's the companies. I am down with that. I have to say there's no ozone and no liquid force so yeah have to wonder what the politics of this organization is. What is ACT AGENCY GmbH?

I think I'm gonna ignore this GKA thing for now because it has nothing to do with the riders it has nothing to do with the ISAF, it doesn't have all the manufacturers just some of them.

They do have Best so in a way they should be on the WKT side right?

[Mossy 757]

i got you. It's the companies. I am down with that. I have to say there's no ozone and no liquid force so yeah have to wonder what the politics of this organization is. What is ACT AGENCY GmbH?

I think I'm gonna ignore this GKA thing for now because it has nothing to do with the riders it has nothing to do with the ISAF, it doesn't have all the manufacturers just some of them.

They do have Best so in a way they should be on the WKT side right?

As far as I can tell, GKA are the good guys and pretty much represent the "freestyle kite manufacturing" brands. Ozone and Liquid Force don't have a huge presence on the freestyle tour, although they do have riders that compete. Much less than Cabrinha, Best, Naish, for example. Here's my plain language translation of the original GKA ultimatum:

"Dear IKA, please get your sh!t together and organize a world tour for 2016. If you can't do that, we're going to do business with the PKRA/WKT directly and cut you out of the loop."

Now that we're passed their ultimatum date (15 Jan) their latest press release indicates they're going to do exactly that:

"The GKA received a comprehensive concept by WKT of a tour planned for
2016. IKA did not hand in a concept. The WKT concept is under examination
with the GKA now."

So basically this "manufacturer's lobby" (GKA) is saying that they're taking their sponsorship money and brand recognition to the WKT exclusively because IKA didn't step up to provide freestyle tour leadership in a reasonable time table. I can only assume that the major riders are being asked to stay quiet by their brands so that the brands can figure out what the 2016 tour is going to look like...where the manufacturers go, the riders will follow.

[Mossy 757]

The following 5 submissions are subject to prior acceptance by the AGM as urgent late submissions

I know...that'd be some BS though seeing that they took so long to announce the AGM in the first place and didn't give member nations enough time to submit proposals. Look at the AKA's proposal number 13-15...it says exactly that, so they're asking the IKA to change the rules so that this sort of short-fused nonsense won't happen in the future. Proposal 14-15 then asks for the ability to do online voting or web-based meetings so that you don't have to buy a plane ticket to Rome just to voice your opinion to the Executive Committee.

Right now the ONLY way to get anything changed is to travel to Italy to vote in person. Hopefully that changes...if it doesn't, I hope Robbie Dean and the foiling crowd in SF make a clean break from anything related to the IKA and start something new.

[ALGOR]

Who caused all that mess????
Did you know that:
The ISAF (World Sailing) president is italian.
The IKA president is italian.
Can you imagine that?