KTA Kiteboard Open & Green Tourism Festival Taiwan - A great success
by KTA on 30 Oct 2014
South Africa's Su Kay on her to winning the Womens Freestyle X / KTA. KTA
The Taiwan 2014 Kitesurfing Open & Green Tourism Miaoli was a weekend chocked full of music, performances and water sports action and a great inspiration to the local riders.
Taiwan: The Taiwan 2014 Kitesurfing Open & Green Tourism Miaoli proved to be an interesting event for the Kiteboard Tour Asia (KTA) to get involved with at the Longfong Fish Harbour beach front in Jhunan. As the KTA had been wanting for some time to bring an event to the renowned high wind shores of Taiwan, which is famous for its windy conditions 300 days a year and its attraction as a kiteboarding destination, they jumped at the chance to join the festival.
Lewis Crathern International Pro-rider and Guest MC said, 'Taiwan’s Kitesurfing open was a pleasure to be part of. This type of event which welcomes kite boarders of all levels is extremely important for the sport. The conditions here in Taiwan are some of the best I have ever seen in the world'.
SPOT Water sport Centre, long-time advocates of kiteboarding and all things related to water sport, were the hosts for this new and exciting event that took place in Jhunan in the county of Miaoli over the weekend.
The festival was staged for the Taiwan Tourism Bureau and Miaoli County Government by Sun Fish, an up and coming PR company, in conjunction with SPOT Beach Club, who was hosting and organising the supporting watersports activities, while the KTA focused on the kiteboarding side of the event.
The Festival’s aim was to bring together a number of environmentally friendly sports and activities for region and it worked well with a Solar powered music stage, trail walking and running competitions, the chance to try out surf, skim and stand-up-paddle all taking place alongside the main KTA Kiteboarding Open.
On show for the first time the KTA was carrying out a trial on a new freestyle format that combined Wakestyle, Airstyle and Big Air. Being dubbed Freestyle X, it allows the riders eight tricks per heat of which 50% are hooked and 50% are unhooked. The best trick from each category is then scored against the other riders to judge the winner. It went down very well with the riders, judges and the crowds who loved the big air moves alongside the handle passing. A further bonus was that more riders were encouraged to enter, because even if they were not so technical they still had fun showing off their best traditional maneuvres.
Not to be out done of course the TT racers also produced some intense battles later in the day, with the two fleets completing four races before the wind and the daylight began to wane. Although this was an international open and there was a good number of foreign riders, it is fair to say that the Taiwan 2014 Kitesurfing Open & Green Tourism Miaoli was predominantly a national event and for many this was their first time in full competition. This proved to be good in the sense that it brought the KTA back to its grassroots aim of getting more local riders into competitions and while for some it was a challenging learning curve, others made their mark and revealed the local talent that exists in the Taiwan Kiteboarding scene.
For the KTA Kitesurf Open in the end the international riders led the way. For the men Asian Champion Yo Narapichit Pudla (THA) and World Jr number two Christian Tio (PHI) controlled both the Freestyle X and TT events. Yo took the Freestyle X ahead of Christian with local rider Tzu Yen Chaung putting in a killer performance for third place. In the TT racing we saw a tie both for first place with Christian and Yo along with a tied third place between Yuan Min Xu (TPE) and Jay Ortiz (PHI). This was a situation we all fully expected to be resolved on the second day of competition, but sadly for once the never ending Taiwan wind was a no-show leaving the day one standings as the overall event results.
For the women Su Kay (RSA) held off the local challenges in both the Freestyle X and TT racing. Sadly although the Taiwan girls finished in high positions in the TT beating many of the male racers, they slightly misjudged the finish line leading to their scores being disqualified. However we are sure this lesson was well learned and next time they will be making sure every race counts. In the Freestyle X Su went head to head with Anni Tien (TPE) and Megan Chang (TPE), but managed to hold off the strong big air performance from Anni and wake style skills from Megan with a more rounded performance that the judges were looking for to take the category. The competition ended with Anni taking second and Megan third respectively.
A final feature for the event was the recognition and trophy awards for the top three overall Taiwanese riders. This was a perfect finish to wind things up for the home crowd who maxed out on their cheering and offered great encouragement and inspiration for local riders to participate in international open events. This is something that KTA supports for all competitions to foster local sport.
KTA – Taiwan Kitesurf Open & Green Tourism
Results are final as of 13:01 on October 19, 2014
Men
Sailed: 2, Discards: 0, To count: 2, Entries: 52, Scoring system: Alternative Low Point System
| Rank |
Jersey |
ful name |
Nat |
Flight |
Gender |
CT |
TT1 |
TT2 |
Total |
Nett |
| 1st |
74 |
Christian Tio |
 |
green |
Men |
|
1.0 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
| 1st |
48 |
Narapichit Pudla |
 |
yellow |
Men |
|
1.0 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
| 3rd |
81 |
Yuan Min Xu |
 |
yellow |
Men |
|
2.0 |
2.0 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
| 3rd |
55 |
Ortiz Jay |
|
green |
Men |
|
2.0 |
2.0 |
4.0 |
4.0 |
| 5th |
52 |
Kevin Shen |
|
green |
Men |
|
3.0 |
3.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
| 6th |
40 |
Fu Yuen Fang |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
3.0 |
4.0 |
7.0 |
7.0 |
| 7th |
1 |
jiun Hsu Kang |
|
green |
Men |
|
4.0 |
5.0 |
9.0 |
9.0 |
| 7th |
60 |
Hung Teng Lee |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
4.0 |
5.0 |
9.0 |
9.0 |
| 9th |
87 |
chien wen chen |
|
green |
Men |
|
5.0 |
8.0 |
13.0 |
13.0 |
| 10th |
77 |
Kuo Fa Shih |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
6.0 |
8.0 |
14.0 |
14.0 |
| 11th |
79 |
Jose Carlo Jose |
|
green |
Men |
|
6.0 |
9.0 |
15.0 |
15.0 |
| 12th |
18 |
Tony Kao |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNF |
2.0 |
55.0 |
55.0 |
| 13th |
14 |
Jason Tsai |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
4.0 |
57.0 |
57.0 |
| 14th |
76 |
James Lu |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
5.0 |
58.0 |
58.0 |
| 15th |
97 |
Po Chuen Chan |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
5.0 |
53.0 DNC |
58.0 |
58.0 |
| 16th |
58 |
Yves Gabriel Gourvennec |
 |
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
6.0 |
59.0 |
59.0 |
| 17th |
45 |
Min Chang Hang |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
7.0 |
60.0 |
60.0 |
| 17th |
43 |
Yu- Chao Wang |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
7.0 |
60.0 |
60.0 |
| 19th |
71 |
Mariel Candava |
|
green |
Men |
|
7.0 |
53.0 DNC |
60.0 |
60.0 |
| 20th |
41 |
Hu Lan Shien |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
59 |
TANG WANG YU |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
19 |
Neo Chen |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
12 |
lung Kuo yang |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNF |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
42 |
Shen Hsieh Tuen |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
80 |
Shu Yu Kuo |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
63 |
Vito Chang |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
28 |
Zen Wen Re |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNF |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
2 |
chia hua Liu |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
6 |
yu ming Yang |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
51 |
Eric Chang |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
3 |
Tzu Yen Chuang |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
47 |
Ping-Lien Shih |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
61 |
Jens |
 |
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
54 |
Pedro S Javier |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
4 |
Chuang Chih Yuan |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
53 |
Yen Cheng |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
57 |
Paul lu |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
94 |
Alex Chen |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
69 |
Huang Shu Kung |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
38 |
Wei Ting Tsai |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
92 |
James Tsai |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
91 |
James Wu |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
30 |
Cheng Feng Yu |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
7 |
Marcus Lin |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
85 |
Wen Hsang Cheng |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
93 |
Shuang Chuan Chou |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
26 |
Fuo Kuo Chang |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
35 |
Michael Steen |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
99 |
Awang Lin |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
95 |
Jonathan Lin |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
64 |
Xavier Yen |
|
yellow |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
| 20th |
50 |
Kevin Lai |
|
green |
Men |
|
53.0 DNC |
53.0 DNC |
106.0 |
106.0 |
Woman
Sailed: 2, Discards: 0, To count: 2, Entries: 7, Scoring system: Alternative Low Point System