Peri Roberts Takes 2nd Place at the GKA Kite-Surf World Cup in Sylt

GKA Kite-Surf World Cup — Sylt 2021: For most people, leaving the comfort of their home country and moving to a foreign country not knowing what comes next seems scary, and frankly impossible. For Naish team rider, Peri Roberts, it seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity she could not turn down. In March, Peri left Australia with a one-way ticket to Maui, Hawaii – the kitesurfing mecca! She came to kite, train, and revel in the island life. With a summer of no competition and hours of training, Peri was more than ready to get back on the water and give it her all at the GKA World Cup and she couldn’t be more stoked to finish in 2nd place.

Peri left the warm beaches of Maui and traveled to the much colder beaches of Sylt, Germany to compete in the GKA Kite-Surf World Cup. Peri said, “I was so stoked to come back to Germany and compete in the GKA Sylt event. My first ever tour event was here in 2019 where I managed to score 4th place. This time around I made it a goal to equal that result and I guess I did two-fold. Besides the fact that I was freezing my butt off here in 16º C rainy weather with 40kts blowing all day, it was such a sick event.”

Peri competed on her Global and her Pivot. Roberts told us “I chose to ride my Global 5’2″ for the entirety of the comp. There were some steep sections on the waves and it was a heavy beach break, thankfully the Global sat perfectly in the pocket when I wanted it to and could jam into all the right sections. With its new lightweight construction and small build, the board doubled as a great strapless freestyle option for the mixed heat criteria. Pairing the Global with my 6 m Pivot, I had the perfect setup leading me to a podium finish.”

With a six-day holding period, the winds were looking promising over the weekend and the competition was fit into two days of action-packed riding. Peri said, “I waited on the beach for 9 hours the first day to run my heat and then started the following day at 7 am, but it was all totally worth it. Although it wasn’t a pure wave format, I enjoyed the challenge of strapless freestyle (with which I have a love/hate relationship) and was a little surprised to do as well as I did. Nonetheless, I’m stoked to have grabbed 2nd place, be back with all my world tour family, and be traveling for kitesurfing again. Feeling super lucky and blessed with all the love and support I have received. Waking up to see my ranking as #1 in the world was the most amazing feeling ever, and I’m going to revel in that for as long as possible.”

Congrats Peri — we can’t wait to see you continue to rock the competition!

Social

#NaishPivot #NaishGlobal #TeamNaish #NaishInternational #NaishKiteboarding #GKAKiteSurfWorldCup #GKA #Surf #Tarifa #NaishKites #Kiteboarding

FOLLOW NAISH

FOLLOW PERI

Photo Credit: Lukas Stiller