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Displaying items by tag: Jenny Ridley

#KITESURFING - Northern Ireland's Jenny Ridley will be among those joining a kitesurfing clinic for people with disabilities in Athens, Greece from this weekend, as Surfer Today reports.

The five-day workshop at the Karavi Beach Club in Schinias will be hosted by Christophe Martin, developer of a special kiteboarding seat for paraplegic athletes.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Jenny Ridley has been learning to kite on land under the tutelage of friend Jason McGrugan who has worked with her to design a custom seat and board that will enable her to get on the water.

And she's promised to do just that in Greece this week, joining many other abled and disabled riders in the warm Aegean waters.

Martin will demonstrate the latest techniques developed to teach kitesurfing for people with disabilities. Those taking part will get a chance to go on the water using modified catamarans to show how accessible watersports can to be to everyone.

Surfer Today has more on the story HERE.

Published in Kitesurfing

Esailing & Virtual Sailing information

The concept of e-sailing, or virtual sailing, is based on a computer game sailing challenge that has been around for more than a decade.

The research and development of software over this time means its popularity has taken off to the extent that it has now become a part of the sailing seascape and now allows people to take an 'active part' in some of the most famous regattas across the world such as the Vendée Globe, Route du Rhum, Sydney Hobart, Volvo Ocean Race, America’s Cup and some Olympic venues too, all from the comfort of their armchair.

The most popular model is the 'eSailing World Championship'. It is an annual esports competition, first held in 2018 and officially recognised by World Sailing, the sports governing body.

The eSailing World Championship is a yearly competition for virtual sailors competing on the Virtual Regatta Inshore game.

The contract to run the event was given to a private company, Virtual Regatta that had amassed tens of thousands of sailors playing offshore sailing routing game following major offshore races in real-time.

In April 2020, the company says on its website that it has 35,000 active players and 500,000 regattas sailed.

Virtual Regatta started in 2010 as a small team of passionate designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs gathered around the idea that virtual sailing sports games can mix with real races and real skippers.