Fractured Governance in Kiteboarding

Prevessin-Moens, France (July 19, 2015) – The International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) has revealed that the contract between IKA and the Professional Kiteboard Riders Association (PKRA) has been terminated. All World Championship rights for all kiteboarding disciplines including Freestyle, Big Air, Wave and Slalom immediately revert to IKA.

The IKA is an International Class Association of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) – the only class for kiteboards – and among its responsibilities is to manage the global administration of the sport and combining world events into one unified ranking.

Neither PKRA nor its new ownership, currently known as Virgin Kitesurf World Championships, are able to conduct any further World Tour events after the conclusion of the event currently taking place in Tarifa.

Following the acquisition of PKRA by new ownership, PKRA changed the branding of its competition, and continued to conduct competition events under this brand, in material and persistent breach of the existing contract.

The IKA has attempted since September 2014 to reach agreement on a new contract that would enable PKRA to, among other items, conduct competition events under its desired branding. However despite these repeated attempts, PKRA failed to both rectify their consistent contract breaches or agree a new contract.

The IKA recently served PKRA a final formal remedy period of 28 days in which to rectify their consistent breaches of the existing contract. After receiving no response from PKRA that were capable to remedy the breaches, the IKA has no legal option but to terminate the contract.

IKA continued to attempt to negotiate the contract as it believes a successful agreement would have been in the best interest of riders internationally; by securing higher media coverage of events, greater prize money and an enhanced international profile for the sport.

Background
The extinct contract between IKA and PKRA stated that the PKRA was able to host events that count towards the IKA Kiteboarding World Rankings and IKA World Championship titles in individual disciplines.

Following the announcement made in August 2014 that new investors had purchased the PKRA and the PKRA wished to alter this agreement for events, the IKA in good faith continually attempted to negotiate a new contract with the PKRA to cover this development.

The new contract was necessary in order to recognize the new ownership, support the new ownership’s desire to secure exclusive rights to the World Championship Tour for existing disciplines such as freestyle, and support exclusive rights to additional disciplines such as wave, slalom, big air and the overall title.

A new contract would also have enhanced fairness, transparency and independent judging for riders, with the aim of avoiding conflicts of interest between tour owners, brands, judges and riders. Additionally, the new contract would have required improvements to the newly introduced PKRA scoring and qualification systems, which the IKA is aware have created significant dissatisfaction amongst riders.

Further, the new contract would also have ensured the tour’s successful rebranding as the “Virgin Kitesurf World Championships”.

The IKA is hopeful that all stakeholders can work positively together to achieve the best outcome for the sport. The organizers of the upcoming events, namely Fuerteventura and St. Peter Ording, have been contacted following this announcement.

The IKA assures riders that with the PKRA now not able to conduct World Tour events, the IKA will secure a seamless and continued world tour for all riders.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.internationalkiteboarding.org

Sanctioned Tours
Kiteboard Tour Europe – http://www.kiteboardtour.eu
Kiteboard Tour Asia – http://www.kiteboardtour.asia

Recognized Programs
Kiteboarding for Girls – http://www.kb4girls.org
Kite Kids – http://www.kitekidstour.com
KTA Race Centers – http://www.kiteboardtour.asia/race-centers/

Source: IKA

Editor’s note: We are not expert on this situation, though it looks similar to how ISAF oversees all class associations. Only ISAF can permit any class to have a world championship, and that permission comes with requirements. ISAF is relying on IKA to administer the PKRA, which now appears to not be following the needed requirements. Our guess is that PKRA can still run events, but none of them can infringe upon ISAF Regulation 25.1:

“ISAF approval is required for any event that is described as a World Championship, uses the word “World” in the title of the event, or any of the promoters, organizers or any other organization officially connected with the event, represents or holds out in any way that the event is a World Championship or does the foregoing in such a way that the event is reasonably perceived to be a World Championship.”