Sicily is a hidden gem in Europes kiting scene, it's not as well known as other spots like Tarifa for example but it is a special place.
First of all it's worth mentioning the trip to get there, usually the WCKA team fly into the destination from their home countries around the world, with all the different flight times and schedules it's rare that there is more than a handful of students on the same flight, but not this time! We traveled as a team from Dakhla to Sicily, which means 19 teenagers and 6 teachers all with at least one boardbag plus regular luggage all trying to check in for the three flight journey together, as you can imagine it was a little bit hectic, and just to add to the fun two of our team were on crutches after sustaining minor injuries but remarkably the trip all went to plan and all of our luggage arrived in Sicily with us.
We were welcomed to pro kite Alby Rondina and ready to get into our last few weeks, with heavy study loads to finish off our last assignments and prepare for the final exams we settled in quickly and got to work, for part of the team these were the last school weeks with 8 seniors set to graduate there were a lot of mixed feelings between excitement for the future mixed with sadness of coming to the end of the journey with WCKA.
Sicily is itself an amazing place to visit, with small villages and ancient churches in many villages it seems like time is standing still, but the truth is all the action is going down on the lagoon, many pro kiters have made this spot their 'second Brazil' and summer playground, every day we were on the water with familiar faces giving us the motivation to push ourselves even further. The wind was generally quite light, so plenty of 12m riding, I'm happy with that, until this trip I was not really a big fan of any kite bigger than a 9m but training in light wind was fun and good experience, all of us students would love to have perfect 9m weather every day but it is important to be able to land your tricks in all conditions if you aspire to compete. The Alby Rondina school also has a few kickers, so we had some pretty great sessions hitting them, motivation was high as many of the team would be heading to the Hood River in a few weeks to compete at the first Junior Jam.
Once exams were over it was time for the graduation ceremony for the seniors, a full year has gone by so fast, but there was not too much time to reflect on that as right after graduation we all headed back to the kite center to take part in the open section of the Italian freestyle cup, this would also be our final competition of the year.
The conditions were tough as the wind was light and quite gusty, but everyone gave it their best shot and laid down some good tricks, myself and Tom Seager made it through to the Semi Finals, that was the end of the line for me as I came up against Gianmarie Coccoluto but Tom want through one more round to the final, Tom finished in 6th place and I came in 8th overall, but both of us were pretty stoked with that since the riders that finished above us all ride on the freestyle or park world tours, it's nice to know we are getting closer to the top level.
After the competition everyone said their goodbyes and started to go on their separate journeys home, all of us left with a year full of amazing memories and many of us are already getting excited about the next school year!
