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Laci Kobulsky - The Mission: Aiming High

The Mission: Aiming High

Posito Martinez recently visited Colombia for the first time to take part in the first GKA event ever held there, in Salinas del Rey. It’s fair to say he was an immediate fan, loving the strong wind, which is just what’s needed for training Big Air – his new favorite discipline…

THEKITEMAG ISSUE #47
WORDS: Posito Martinez
PHOTOS: Laci Kobulsky and Lukas Stiller

I am known for being a freestyle rider and have been competing in freestyle for almost 10 years. But there are a lot of Big Air events coming up, so last year I started focusing on training Big Air as well and improving my talent in that discipline, and I’m really enjoying it. Last year was the first GKA Freestyle World Cup event in Tarifa, where I finished in fifth position. I’m so excited to go back again this year, because instead of being freestyle it will be a Big Air format. So while I am still training freestyle, I now need to focus on Big Air more and more. So it was great that the first GKA Freestyle World Cup event of 2022 was held in Salinas del Rey, Colombia. It is a really nice spot for kiting, with strong, stable and constant wind. For me it wasn’t the best spot for freestyle, but was amazing for Big Air. I was there for a month, and for almost 20 days the wind was super strong every day, around 30 to 35 knots, so was perfect for training Big Air. After the event, I visited Riohacha near to Cabo de la Vela for three days. It was a super nice place and also a good spot for kiting, but I went back to Salinas because the wind was much better for Big Air. 

“It was my first time visiting, and I can conclude that I don’t like Colombia… I love Colombia!”

Laci Kobulsky 1 - The Mission: Aiming High

The event itself was an incredible competition for me. I finished in seventh position, and although that wasn’t as high up the rankings as I would have liked, I enjoyed it a lot, particularly my fans, both in the water and out of it! The Colombian people were so nice. It was my first time visiting, and I can conclude that I don’t like Colombia… I love Colombia! It felt like my home Dominican Republic. Plus I ate a lot of Colombian food which was delicious! The only slight hiccup of the trip was when I first arrived with my brother Carlito Martinez – we asked someone for directions to the kite spot and the guy gave us the wrong address… we were lost driving round in a tuk tuk for almost an hour! Salinas has a lot of tuk tuks that you can use to get around, like in El Gouna. I find that it’s super fun to use that transportation to get to the beach.

The event itself was an incredible competition for me. I finished in seventh position, and although that wasn’t as high up the rankings as I would have liked, I enjoyed it a lot, particularly my fans, both in the water and out of it! The Colombian people were so nice. It was my first time visiting, and I can conclude that I don’t like Colombia… I love Colombia! It felt like my home Dominican Republic. Plus I ate a lot of Colombian food which was delicious! The only slight hiccup of the trip was when I first arrived with my brother Carlito Martinez – we asked someone for directions to the kite spot and the guy gave us the wrong address… we were lost driving round in a tuk tuk for almost an hour! Salinas has a lot of tuk tuks that you can use to get around, like in El Gouna. I find that it’s super fun to use that transportation to get to the beach.

I am now getting ready for the Tarifa competition. The wind is currently quite light in Cabarate so I am working on mental preparation, positive thinking and also training physically off the water. To gain some more kiting time, I hope to go to Tarifa a month before the event so I can get to know the spot better and train in the strong conditions there, which will give me the opportunity to be ready 100% for the competition. I hope to do CrazyFly Kiteboarding proud and would just like to say many thanks to them and Prolimit for supporting me in every competition I do.

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