Petr Pechi Pechacek : 172 km / 107 miles riding strapless in 6 hours // Strapless Kitesurfing

Pechi - Jesus - 172km in 6hours - Aruba

Petr- Pechi -Pechacek established a new record this saturday 3.11.1012 in Aruba, around 172km/107 miles, riding strapless (unofficial result).

Congrats mate !

Pechi is much appreciated here on straplesskitesurfing, producing very useful tutos. He deserves to be known and we take advantage of his performance to hand over to Pechi through some questions.

Can you introduce yourself, where are you from  ?

Hi, my full name is Petr Pechacek aka Pechi. Im 32 years. I come from Czech republic, but Im married and living on Aruba. Im sponsored by Crazy fly, SP boarding and Meatfly.eu

You were a teen ager when Czechoslovakia was dissolved. What was your life at this moment  in the early eighties ? Any thought about this ?

Well, the revolution was in 89, I was 9 years old and doing gymnastics. Politics didn’t mean much to me.  And they still don’t 😉

When did you start kitesurfing ? Do you practice other sports?

I started to play with kites like 12 years ago. Power kites, land kiting, than snowkiting and about 7 yars ago water. I started Strapless last year. I like all other board sports too mainly snowboarding snowkiting and surfing.

Pechi by Lucas Vogeltanz

Why and when did you move to Aruba, what is your current job there?

I moved here about four years ago after answering phone call. They were looking for kite instructors. So I came for 3 months, met my wife, than after two years we got married and Im  still here 😉

What or who motivated you to ride strapless ? Explain us your first time.

I came from inland country and surfboard was like magnet for me since I was little. But no place to do it there. Than I started to kite and I saw Mitu doing his things or Mark Shinn on a skimboard. Mind blowing! So when I broke my hand kiting and I couldnt hold on the bar doing handle passes… it was time to start strapless. I tryed it before, when the first time? I don’t remember, but my focus was on wakestyle.

You made a lot of tutorials for us (big up and thanks a lot !) What is your favorite maneuver and why? Which one are you trying to pull out now?

Each new trick is my favorite 🙂 But all time favorite propably jesus walk. Now I did lot of crashing on double backroll on flat water and some unhooked things.

This month you established the first record of the longest distance riding strapless with a kite. Tell us more about the conditions of your performance.

It was time to start new thing. It is the first record in strapless and I believe now that will come many more from other people. Conditions were not easy. The wind was not very strong, and very gusty. I had to use my Crazyfly sculp 11m. My first plan was to go around the Aruba island, but I had to change to B plan  and just staying cruzing offshore on one side of the island. I was still lucky, that the wind stayed , because 15 min after I finished it died completly. The hardest was when after about 3 and half hours, it started to rain and  wind died so, that it was hard just to keep moving. And than try to come back to the shore. There, the gusts were super bad. But made it 😉

Why such an idea, what was your goal? Who helps you to perform?

The idea came out of nowhere. Just wanted to do something new and fun. And promote the sport on Aruba. It is great for kiting here. We have wind and warm water all year around. Normaly I train alone, but this wouldn’t have been possible without all the team of people, who helped me to organize this event. Knowing, that I’m not alone helped me to push it further.

Pechi and the Aruba team.Shot by Igor Juricek

Records are all breakable, will you renew the experience ?

All records are breakable. I know, that someone will try to beat it. Than I will do it again and try to do more 🙂 Also I would like to do bigger distances and try to set another records. Starting to prepare it.

Anything to add ?

Big thanks to all my crew and people who supported me! It would not happened without them. Thank you guys!

Thank you Pechi we wish you to get the ratification from Guinness world records!

We stay tuned on your next tuto or record.

Watch again Pechi in the how to riding category : http://www.straplesskitesurfing.com/category/howto/howtoriding/

and some tricks in video here : http://www.straplesskitesurfing.com/2012/10/01/strapless-kitesurfing-aruba-at-boca-grandi-petr-pechi-pechacek-strapless-kitesurfing/

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