Help Us Bring Kiri To Cape Cod!

Last year, a lot of windsurfers helped us to bring Caesar Finies to the ECWF Cape Cod. It was absolutely fantastic to have him here - he put on a great show in the freestyle competition, often was way ahead of everyone else in the races, and gave great technique demos on the beach during the breaks.

For the 3rd Annual ECWF Cape Cod, which will take place at Kalmus Beach on September 19-20, 2015, we hoped to get another world-class freestyle to join the event. Our friend Myles happened to see Kiri Thode at an event in Aruba, and asked him if he'd be interested.

"Who is Kiri Thode?", you ask? Really? Kiri is one of the best freestylers in the world, and was crowned PWA Freestyle World Champion in 2013. He is currently ranked #2 in the PWA freestyle competition, and has a very good chance to win the world title again this year. Kiri also invented several "must-do" moves often seen in freestyle competition, including the Kono and the Kabikuchi. Here's a short video showing Kiri in action on Bonaire:
 
(There are a lot more Kiri movies on YouTube!).

When asked about coming to the ECWF Cape Cod, Kiri said yes right away - he is quite excited to return to Cape Cod, where he had some of his early successes (check the "Children of the Wind" movie!).

So we have again started a fundraising campaign to pay for Kiri's ticket and board bag fees. All donations are very helpful, even small ones! If you are feeling more generous, there are also a number of excellent perks, which include pictures with Kiri; signed event T-shirts; private lessons with ABK's Andy Brandt or Kiri Thode; a cottage rental on Bonaire; and many more. So please show your support for getting Kiri to the ECWF and donate!

We have already raised $560 in 6 days, and several enthusiastic windsurfer have offered to cover substantial parts of Kiri's expenses, if necessary. This means that we will definitely be able to pay for Kiri's ticket and board bags. If we should raise more money than needed to cover Kiri's expenses, the excess will go to the East Coast Windsurfing Association and help pay for the cost of organizing and insuring the event. The bill for the insurance alone is about $750; having the restrooms open costs about $200; and then we have additional costs for trophies, the event permit, and so on. We cannot recover these costs from the registration fees alone, which we prefer to keep low to encourage participation - instead, we rely on donations. Many thanks to all who have helped out in the past - and many thanks for thinking about helping now!