'Kitesurf': the alternative plan being taken to the beaches of Cartagena

Cartagena is a vibrant city, full of movement, culture and interesting plans to discover. This is undoubtedly one of the aspects that increasingly attracts thousands of national and international tourists, who come to La Heroica wanting to enjoy its fabulous infrastructure, as well as its beautiful beaches.

The destination is so popular that today, in the midst of the economic recovery of the tourism sector, severely affected by the pandemic, the city is beginning to expand to new frontiers that invite recognition in other facets. Indeed, and in search of new adventures in the Bolivian capital, Infobae Colombia arrived at Manzanillo beach, where the ktesurf school, Pure, is located, founded by Kristina Barberis, a Swiss woman who was captivated by the practice of sport in Colombia and built up the courage to start with her own company seven years ago.

“I've been in Colombia for 10 years, I came to Cartagena because I wanted to learn Spanish and kitesurf at the same time, in December and January, which is the best windy season here. The story is that I fell in love with someone who was setting up his own school, so I went to Switzerland, quit my job and came to help him with the editing. But the relationship was difficult and after three years we broke up and I was like: what am I going to do now, I'm going somewhere else to start a school? but I said, I can do it alone and that's when I rode Pure Kitesurf”, says Barberis with a fluent Spanish and even with a tone typical of the Colombian Caribbean coast.

It is not surprising that in the end she ended up as much in love with Colombian beaches as she is with this sport, which consists in the use of a traction kite or kite, which pulls the athlete, who is fastened by a harness, so that he can slide over the water using a board. A practice that at first glance looks very fun, but that requires concentration, but above all, a great desire to overcome itself. Something that Kristina surely experienced when she started this academy, which today is one of the most positioned in Cartagena.

“The start was difficult because it is hard to find a place where we can operate, where to store the equipment. I was in a hotel downstairs first where they accommodated me but after two months they didn't want more because we are bringing sand and not many customers, so they told me it didn't work for them. So I kept my equipment where a native here in Manzanillo and operated from there. Then I tried to set up something on the beach that wasn't possible for me by law, but then I rented a little house down there where I already had my own school,” he recalls.

This is how he arrived with his idea at Zion Beach House, a hostel that is also of Swiss nationality and that has become a haven of fraternity in the middle of the beaches of Manzanillo, where more and more hotel projects are being built that show the potential of this place, without crowds, something not to believe in the crowded Cartagena.

There, Pure has an exclusive space where its high-quality equipment remains and that is the basis for instructors who teach on site. Some of them are local, but others come from other parts of the country and even the world.

“Welcome those who want to help, we have an assistant who we give free classes to learn how to be an instructor,” says Barberis and says that he also works with Nativo Kite, which is very close to there, in La Boquilla, and where they have a wide catalog of instructors.

As for professional competition in sports, something that was in trend in Colombia due to the passage of the World Kitesurfing Championship in early March in the country and which took place on the beaches of Santa Verónica in Atlántico, for now it is not something that Pure has considered, but it would certainly be interesting to develop it.

Without further ado and after having done a class where the impression of the sport was fantastic, but she also left lessons such as the need for discipline and concentration, Kristina points out that although her audience is specific and she believes that many foreigners arrive because her channels are in languages such as German and English, she is very grateful especially with Colombians, since, according to the nationals, their lives were saved during the pandemic and from that moment on it also receives many curious or sports fans who come from different parts of the country.

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