BVI TOURIST BOARD CONFIRMS PRO RIDER KRISTIN BOESE FOR BVI KITE JAM

Tortola, British Virgin Islands (November 17, 2009) - The British Virgin Islands Tourist Board announces that famed female German pro rider Kristin Boese will participate in the inaugural BVI Kite Jam taking place March 1-5, 2010. Kristin is renowned with bringing kite boarding to the masses with media presence in major global magazines. Kristin has also motivated many female kiters to join the sport, and continues to do so.

Born in Potsdam, East Germany in 1977, Kristin grew up behind the iron curtain. As one of the best students in her school from year one Kristin soon showed interest for all different kind of sports and ended up playing semi-professional handball (a very popular team sport in Europe) under a strict eastern German trainer for 12 years of her youth.
 
When the wall broke down Kristin saw the chance to break free and, while she first started a commercial education in Berlin in 1997, she soon started to discover sport to be her passion.
 
In 1998, she started both windsurfing and mountain biking but her love for the water was stronger. Kristin attended a windsurfing instructor license course two years later and started working as an instructor during her summer holidays while studying at university in Berlin.
 
In summer 2002, Kristin spotted her first kite boarder along the beach of the windsurf centre Kristin used to work for; he caught her attention straight away and the rest is history. A few months later, she left the big city behind and was on her way to Fuerteventura, Spain to work at a kite and windsurf centre and to hone kite boarding herself.
 
Since then, her kiting career has taken off. She won the German Kitesurf Champion title in the following two years and took 4th place in the Professional Kiteboard Riders Association (PKRA) world ranking in 2003. Big success was close, and she claimed Vice World Champion in 2004, and then cinched her first PKRA Freestyle World Champion title in 2005. Many titles in all different disciplines have followed since.
 
BVI Kite Jam will be a five-day event aimed at building awareness of the destination to the international kite boarding community and will highlight BVI as a Mecca for this growing sport.

“Having a pro rider like Kristin Boese join this event puts us on the map in the world on kite surfing,” says Myron Walwyn, Chairman of the BVI Tourist Board. “We look forward to welcome Kristin and other pro riders to the British Virgin Islands and helping them discover why Natures Little Secrets is the new centre of the kite surfing world.”  
 
For more information and to register for the event, please visit www.bvikitejam.com.