Kiteboarding is a surface
water sport combining aspects of wakeboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding,
and gymnastics into one extreme sport. A kiteboarder harnesses the
power of the wind with a large controllable power kite to be
propelled across the water on a kiteboard similar to a wakeboard or a
small surfboard, with or without footstraps or bindings. Kitesurfing is a style
of kiteboarding specific to wave riding, which utilizes standard surfboards or
boards shaped specifically for the purpose.
Tabuhan island in
Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia is a sports tourism destination for
Kiteboarding. There was held Tabuhan Island Kiteboarding Pro 2015, as a Kiteboarding sport for tourism, followed by
55 participants from 20 countries.This event is the second time carried after
last year.
Why Tabuhan Island,
Banyuwangi is the best spot for kiteboarding? Because the wind speed around the
island reach 20-25 knots constant throughout May to October. This wind speed
was very good to play kiteboarding. Moreover, the sea around without waves.
This year Kiteboarding held
22 to August 23, 2015. Dozens of participants came from various countries, like
the United States, Brazil, UK, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland,
Russia, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand,
Singapore, and China. This competition parade a number of styles in
kiteboarding such as freestyle, free-ride, downwinders, speed, course racing,
wakestyle, jumping, and kitesurfing.
Some kiteboarding world
champion like Dan Sweeney (Freestyle Kiteboarding Champion from Australia),
Narapichit Pudja (Runner-up World Champion and Asian Champion Race Race), and
the Niklas Langseth (Champion Freestyle Kiteboarding Sweden) competed in the
Tabuhan Island Pro in 2015.
You can join here, to the Tabuhan island to play kiteboarding
especially in May - August. Co-Host Tabuhan Island Pro Kiteboarding, Jeroen van
der Kooij said that in here, is the better place to play kiteboarding than
Bali. While in Bali, clear Van Der Kooij, the wind hardly ever blows at speeds
above 15 knots.
How to get to the Tabuhan
island ? From Banyuwangi city takes about 20 minutes to get to Bangsring Beach,
one of the departure point to the Tabuhan.From Bangsring beach, you can go to
Tabuhan island only less than 25 minutes using tourist ships operated by local
residents.