Finnish Kitesurfers Break World Record in the Baltic Sea
Tue 20th Aug, 2019 @ 4:00 pm
Three Finnish kitesurfers, Juuso Tilaéus, Otso Ahvonen and Pekka Rintala surfed 316 km across the Baltic Sea from Sweden to Finland, breaking the previous 279,46 km world record of simultaneous kiteboarding – Check this out!
Large waves of Baltic Sea and a journey of 316 kilometres challenged young sportsmen Juuso Tilaéus, Otso Ahvonen and Pekka Rintala this Monday.
The trio began their journey yesterday, on Monday 19th, from Sandhamn, Sweden at 07.08 am. They were aiming to surf across the Baltic Sea to Finland and break the world record of three surfers’ simultaneous kitesurf. Despite of the Baltic Sea’s challenging waves and extremely long execution time the three kiteboarders landed to Hanko, Finland on the same day at 8.23 pm
“This feels amazing! I am tired and my body aches but I am so happy at the moment. We wanted to show how far is possible to come with the power of the wind. And well, it took us quite far”; Juuso Tilaéus shared his feelings right after the record.
The journey across the Baltic Sea did not go quite as planned. In the beginning, there was a light breeze and it took a while for the kiteboard
ers to get into a better wind zone. Despite the circumstances the kitesurfers handled kites professionally, working with them until the end.
“First I was a bit nervous whether or not we could manage our way to Finland with this kind of wind. When the wind started to blow stronger I felt excited. Passing some landmarks kept me going. After that my body started to ache quite much so I just had to focus on surviving with the waves”, Juuso Tilaéus says.
Ocean and watersports mean the world to kitesurfers who just went through the physically challenging journey. All of them have been kitesurfing for years and Pekka and Juuso are co-founders of water sports centre Laguuni which is located in Espoo Finland. Behind all of their actions are communality and sustainable values[sr2].
The World Record came true with the help of Fortum.
“Congratulations to Juuso, Otso and Pekka for this extremely tough accomplishment. It was awesome to be making this World Record possible. And thanks to wind power, who brought men to Finland from Sweden”, Jussi Mälkiä from Fortum says.
For more information please contact Juuso Tilaéus, right here!
