Achievements
|
|
- ^ = unofficial
Katja Roose | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 March 1981 |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Occupation | Professional kite surfer |
Katja Roose (born 27 March 1981) is a Dutch female professional kite surfer.
Playing with wind and water is something Roose grew up with. Her parents took her out sailing when she was just three weeks old. [1] At her first body drag experience in 2001 she was hooked from the start. [1] When she started competing, she wasn't ambitious at all and was already happy to be performing. [1] Instead of being a "nobody" she seemed to have a talent for the sport. Within a year she had sponsors for her kites, wet suits and other clothing. [1] She won the gold medal in the freestyle kiting competition of the 2003 Dutch Championships and took part in the 2004 King of the Air competition in Ho‘okipa, Hawaii, United States, her first international event, finishing fourth. [1] [2]
In 2005, she competed in her first PKRA World Tour organised by the International Kiteboarding Association. [1] She fully focused on the competition circuit and within three tour events she claimed a top five ranking, which she kept until the end of the 2005 season. [1] At the same time she studied Technology and Policy at the Technical University of Eindhoven. [1] She combined the PKRA World Tour season in 2006 with finishing her Master's degree. [1] After her studies she wanted to combine her professional kite surfing career with a job outside of sports. [1] She took a job offer from KPN, a Dutch telecommunication company and she focused on a new discipline in kite surfing, speed kiting as it is easier to train for in the Netherlands and because it has less competitions during a year. [1] In Lüderitz, Namibia she set a new Dutch women outright speed record, meaning that she is the fastest Dutch women powered by wind on the water. [1] With 39.56 knots (=73.3 km/h) average over 500 meters she is faster than windsurfers, kite surfers and sailors. [1]
After two years of freestyle and two years of speed kiting it was time to focus on yet another new discipline. [1] Course racing was a fast-growing discipline and has the opportunity to become an Olympic sport in the future. [1] She had always liked to combine speed, tactics and upwind skills, but the opportunity to overtake opponents and to aim to keep them behind got her really excited. [1] In 2011, she wanted to completely focus on her kite surfing and she decided to take a four-month sabbatical. [1] This paid off in a successive way as she won plenty of competitions including European Championships, North American Championships and PKRA World Tour Championships. [1] She finished 2011 as the number one in the World rankings. [1] In 2012, she won her first World title at the slalom discipline, finishing in front of Caroline Adrien and Kristin Boese. [3]
In 2013 Roose was on Pingtan Island in China where record breaking prize money and free accommodation had brought in 120 international competitors for the KTA final including local poster girl Chen Jingyue. Roose, the Thai Kitefoiler Fawn Jantawan and Kathrin Borgwardt made difficult competition throughout the week but Roose beat them. [4]
|
|
Kiteboarding or kitesurfing is a sport that involves using wind power with a large power kite to pull a rider across a water, land, snow, sand, or other surface. It combines the aspects of paragliding, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and wakeboarding. Kiteboarding is among the less expensive and more convenient sailing sports.
Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the Californian aerospace and surf culture. Windsurfing gained a popular following across Europe and North America by the late 1970s and had achieved significant global popularity by the 1980s. Windsurfing became an Olympic sport in 1984.
Aaron Hadlow is a professional kiteboarder who has won the Pro Kiteboard Riders' Association (PKRA) World Championships five times.
Pingtan Island or Haitan Island is an island of Fuzhou off the east coast of mainland Asia in Pingtan County, Fujian Province, China (PRC), south of the complex estuary of the Min River. It is the largest island in Fujian and the fifth-largest island administered by the People's Republic of China.
Kirsty Jones is a Welsh professional kitesurfer and pioneer in the sport of kitesurfing. She is a three-time British Kitesurf Champion, three-time Kitesurf World Wave Champion, and two-time Master of the Ocean Champion, and holds world records in long distance and solo kitesurf crossings.
Kristin Boese is a German female kite surfer. In 2009, she was shortlisted by the International Sailing Federation for the ISAF World Sailor of the Year Awards.
The International Kiteboarding Association (IKA), is the only kiteboarding class inside the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). The IKA class rules fall in the category of a development class.
Bruno Sroka is a French kitesurfer. Born in Clamart, Sroka began windsurfing when he was two years old. In 1998, Sroka arrived in Brest and took up kitesurfing, intrigued by the new sport. He had a successful career and went on to achieve many titles, becoming a three-time World Cup champion. Sroka also broke several milestones in the sport: he became the first to kitesurf the Cape Horn in 2008 and from France to Ireland in 2013.
Julien Kerneur is a French professional kite surfer. He is sponsored by Ozone Kiteboarding.
Maxime Nocher is a French professional kite surfer.
Rolf van der Vlugt is a Dutch professional kite surfer.
Caroline Adrien is a French professional kite surfer.
Christophe Tack is the 2014 World Champion Freestyle Kitesurfer.
Ruben Lenten is a Dutch professional kite surfer who has won the Red Bull King of the Air in 2005.
Bruna Kajiya is a Brazilian professional kiteboarder. She is a six-time Vice World Champion and a three-time World Champion Freestyle in the World Kiteboarding League (WKL). In 2018, the WKL was replaced by the Global Kitesports Association (GKA) which became the official Kite Surfing World Title organization. In 2019, Bruna was the GKA Vice World Freestyle Champion, giving her her sixth Vice World Championship Title. In 2016, Bruna was the first woman to land a "Backside 315", a trick that combines a 540 degree rotation and double handle-pass.
Gisela Pulido Borrell is a Spanish kitesurfer. In 2004, she became the sport's youngest world champion, at age 10. She has subsequently won multiple world titles.
Wing foiling or wing surfing or winging is a wind propelled water sport that developed from kitesurfing, windsurfing and surfing. The sailor, standing on a board, holds directly onto a wing. It generates both upward force and sideways propulsion and thus moves the board across the water. The recent development of foilboards, which plane very early on a hydrofoil fin and thereby lift off the water producing low friction, represent the ideal complementary hydrodynamic platform for wings.
Mikaili Sol is an American-Brazilian professional kiteboarder. She has held the title of Global Kitesports Association (GKA) Freestyle World Championship four times: 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022 and the GKA Big Air World Champion three times: 2018, 2022 and 2023. She is a seven time World Champion at 18 years old.
Stephanie "Steph" Bridge is a United Kingdom kitesurfer who became the World Formula Kite champion five times between 2009 and 2016. She is the leading figure in the "Team Bridge" family.
Benyapa "Fawn" Jantawan is a real estate agent and an Olympic kite foiler from Thailand. She was the silver medallist at the 19th Asian Games in 2023.