THE CHALLENGE
Kitesurfing championships were fledgling events in the early years of the sport. Kitesurfing was an extreme sport, but it had very little financial backing – its competitors were amateurs or lived off their personal sponsorships from new-to-market and adapting-windsurf suppliers. In 2003, the Extreme Academy, at Watergate Bay, Cornwall was fast becoming known as the home of kitesurfing in Britain, but its appeal was only for 6months when the winds blew – it wanted to grow with this sport and wanted to stretch its reach to optimise the seasons in Europe – what better way to do this than to take on organising the European Kitesurfing Championships and hold it in Tarifa, Spain. But the Extreme Academy was a beachside business led by a man with big ideas – how would they do this!
LOCATION:
UK (Cornwall), Spain (Tarifa), Australia (Darwin, Perth, Cairns, Brisbane)
THE SOLUTIONS
Liz was the Extreme Academy’s event manager for all their corporate functions and locally held surf and kitesurf competitions at the beach.
It was my responsibility to scope a budget for delivery of the event in Tarifa, Spain, including any fees/prize money that would be due to the competitors. We had signed an MOU with Euro Kitesurfing Federation and it was clear that financially we were responsible. We scoped a series of different levels of sponsorship for the event and set to work securing an event name sponsor, social event sponsorship, and sponsors for other hardware and equipment as required. We then organised the event and its social program in Tarifa, Spain. Tarifa, Spain is known as the wind capital of Europe, with its consistent trade winds blowing 5 out of 7 days. Despite this, it was like our MC jinxed the event by stating this as he welcomed competitors, spectators and sponsors to “the wind capital of Europe”. The wind blew for the first day of competition – but that was it – one day of heats was not enough for a result. It would make the event an anticlimax, but the wind had let me down many times before at our kite events in Cornwall and we still had to ensure that our sponsors were delivered the exposure included in their package level – so we had our contingency plan ready. We set requirements for the competitors to ensure they were ready for competition at a moment’s notice. They were required to have their gear ready to hit the water at the event director’s call. We ran beach volleyball and stand-up paddle boarding competitions with the entrants to provide stimulus, spectator entertainment and a focus for the media photographers’ capturing the event. The evening social events were a huge success as the competitors weren’t exhausted from competition, so promoters were grateful for the informal networking opportunity the socials provided. On the fifth and final day, it was sad dividing the EUR20,000 prize money evenly amongst the competitors, but the small fee contribution at least covered their costs to attend and ensured the first Euro Kitesurfing event finished with plenty of smiles and goodwill.
OTHER SPORT EVENTS: British Kite Surfing Association (BKSA) Annual Competition; Red Bull Local Hero 2003; KiteJam 2004; English Surfing Federation Longboarding Competition; ZapCat Racing; Isles of Scilly Kite Crossing record attempt – for the Extreme Academy, Watergate Bay Cornwall, UK; Corporate Golf Days; Energex Family Fun Day (3000pax); Telstra Play Antibullying program with NRL/AFL/ALeague.
