Squabble among HK kitesurfing groups a downer for the sport

The future of the new Olympic discipline of kiteboarding in Hong Kong is up in the air, with infighting among three separate bodies all claiming to be numero uno and chasing a potential windfall of multi-million-dollar government funding.

The water has been further muddied with the International Kiteboarding Association (IKA), which includes Richard Branson as one of its Olympic ambassadors, having banned five Hong Kong surfers from taking part in any event worldwide.

"It is a severe penalty and a disgrace to the kiteboarding community of Hong Kong," says Jay Chau Hong-wai, vice-president of the fledging Hong Kong Kiteboarding Federation (HKKF). "They were banned two years ago and it still continues."

David Lai, Kevin Leung, Lau Chi-wai, Liu Cheung-foon and Owen Ko were all members of the Kiteboarding Hong Kong Association. In 2009, they organised a Kiteboard Tour Asia (KTA) event - which came under the umbrella of the IKA - and everything went off smoothly.

The trouble began afterwards, said Leung.

"It was a business matter, a commercial reason, which caused all the problems. We gave them HK$100,000 but they claimed we owed them another HK$10,000. It is over this small amount that we have been banned."

That was the first and last KTA event in Hong Kong and the five Hong Kong surfers are the only ones banned worldwide. And their bans may not have come to light if not for the fact that in May, the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) dropped a bombshell when it ditched windsurfing as an Olympic discipline and replaced it with kiteboarding for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.