‘The Kalpitiya Lagoon Challenge’ a success

Sri Lanka’s annual kitesurfing event, ‘The Kalpitiya Lagoon Challenge,’ took place recently in Kalpitiya.

Kitesurfing is one of the fasted growing watersports in the world. Kalpitiya has become one of the best places for the sport. The Kalpitiya Windsports Club has been instrumental in putting Sri Lanka on the map. With ideal conditions that are easily considered world class the future of the sport in Sri Lanka is very bright.   

Founder member of the Club Dilsiri Welikala, Leo Moret of Kitesurfing Lanka, Upul De Silva of De Silva Wind Resort; Fabio Ingrosso, Stef Decenciere of Sri Lanka Kite and Mondy Ciappina of Rascals Kite Resort took on the challenge to organise the event on 10 September on the Kalpitiya Lagoon. This event was sponsored by Sri Lanka Tourism.

Participants were from Australia, Belgium, Bosnia Herzogovina, Dubai, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Philippines, Poland, Scotland, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Switzerland.

Course racing is a competitive kitesurfing style that is similar to a yacht race along a course, involving both speed and tactics. Flags are used to control course racing events. Type of flags used may vary according to which organisation is holding the event. There is a possibility that this will be considered as an Olympic Sport in the future. The Course Race Event had 43 male entrants and 10 female entrants.

Winners of Men’s Open Course Event:

1. Anishka Dinel (Sri Lanka)

2. Mawfeel Khan (Sri Lanka)

3. Sachin Devinda (Sri Lanka)  

Winners of Women’s Open Course Event 

1. Aya Ohshima (Japan) 

2. Casey Fairhurst (Scotland) 

3. Maryne L’agrum (France)

The Hangtime Event is more fun in nature and is a crowd puller. Participants are required to spend as much time in the air hence the need to do big jumps and loops in order have more time. Usually the average for a good Big Jump is eight seconds. The Hangtime Event (Big Air Event) had 41 male entrants and six female entrants.

Winners of Men’s Open Hangtime Event:

1. Tobias Schubert (Germany) 

2. Mawfeel Khan (Sri Lanka) 

3. Mohamed Nasar Amjad (Sri Lanka)  

Winners of Women’s Open Hangtime Event  

1. Aya Ohshima (Japan) 

2. Casey Fairhurst (Scotland) 

3. Maryne L’agrum (France)  

A raffle draw was organised and the lucky winner of a brand Zian kite was Jeevan Rehan of Sri Lanka.

The event was well attended with over 300 local and foreign spectators. The Deputy Divisional Secretariat, Directors from Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, The Navy, Police, Local Government Authority and clergy also attended the event.   

There was huge support given by the local boat operators association and elders of the village. Most prizes for the event were sourced from the village. There was zero plastics tolerance at the venue – no plastic bottles were used and dispensers were used to distribute water. Waste management was looked into, in fact two new installations for waste collection and its dispose were initiated.