PKRA Riders Decide On New Rules

The PKRA World Tour process of voting for deciding new rules and procedures has ended and the PKRA riders using a democratic system, have come to the following conclusions for the three pending issues discussed at the earlier 2011 events.

1. New Freestyle seeding system

At the end of the PKRA France tour stop, there was a meeting where the riders evaluated the issue of the new ladder and seeding system. Everyone agreed that the new ladder worked very well, however, there was some controversy about the seeding system, including the number of riders who could enter into the main event.

The riders have decided the following:
The top 8 men and top 4 women will be prequalified and seeded accordingly in the second round of the ladder.
All remaining riders will go to trials as in the current system.
After the trials results, the top 4 men and top 2 women of the trials will be seeded accordingly in positions 9 to 12 for Men and 5 to 6 for Women. They will be omitted from the name drawing, getting the advantage of the seeding.
As a result this will spread all the best riders across the ladder.


2. New Freestyle Rule

At that same meeting there was a debate regarding the issue of the kite crashing after a trick has been landed. There is no current rule about this issue; therefore, the judges are making their own calls. In an effort to standardize judging, the PKRA believes a rule should be decided. The PKRA believes the riders should decide what the judges should do when this situation occurs.

The riders have decided the following:
If a rider lands a trick but did not control the kite throughout the execution of the trick resulting in the release of the handle bar and/or the crashing of the kite into water after landing the trick, the trick will be considered as a crash and will subsequently be ignored by the judges.

Vote Count: 42 in favor, 15 against.

3. Production Class Prize Money

2011 is a transition year for changing the racing fleet from an Open class to a Production only class in 2012. In Thailand, during the first Course Racing PKRA event of the year, some of the Course Racing riders requested that the prize money should be split between Production and Open class.

The final decision is the following:
The Course Racing Discipline prize money shall stay as the previous event of the year with the entire prize money going to the Open Class. Therefore there will be no prize money for the Production Class.

Vote Count: 33 in Favor 30 Against.