On the 20th of September, 2015, nearly 500 kitesurfers from 19 countries battled it out in a race from Germany to Denmark and back. The international kitesurfing scene had never seen anything like this: Racers took over Niobe beach of Fehmarn this Sunday to take on the challenge of surfing the toughest kitesurfing marathon in the world. Never before had more kiters competed in one race including the current Guinness World record of 352 participants on Hayling Island (UK). The participants of the Red Bull Coast 2 Coast crossed the canal of Fehmarn over to the Danish coast and back. After the biggest mass start a kitesurfing marathon has ever seen, amateurs and pros, racers and freestylers, made their way from Niobe beach to Rødbyhavn, Denmark. Early on, the top kiters managed to separate from the bunch and crossed the 500-meter wide canal before the rest of the field did so. The strategy from here on out was to sight the buoy, surf around it and head back through the strong waves and swells to the German coast as fast as possible.
Results Red Bull Coast 2 Coast:
Men:
1st: Florian Gruber (Germany), 01:06:20
2nd: Jannis Maus (Germany), 01:06:59
3rd: Rolf van der Vlugt (Netherlands), 01:11:24
Fastest woman:
Katja Roose (Netherlands), 01:23:17 overall 7th place