Evgeniya Kotlyarova (34) and Lyudmila Polyakova (25) from Russia have done long distance kiting for years, but this is their first VAKE. These girls don’t cheat with the preparations; lately they have slept in a tent once a week to get used to it!

Even though Helle Løvseth and Ida Sollie grew up in a part of Norway with hardly any snow, these women have fallen in love with kiting on snow. Team One Hit Wonders is not the most experienced team in the competition, actually half of the team has never competed, but they have both spent most of their lives outdoors in the mountains or on the sea, depending on the season.

Meet Bjørn Kaupang and Remi Meum in Team Haugastøl! These guys have a lot of competition experience and championship titles on their merit lists. However, VAKE will be a totally different challenge for both of them and they are participating in VAKE because they find competition format to be interesting.

Maxim Maximov and Kirill Litvinov from Sverdlovsk in Russia are Team Sky-Country. That might be a new name for our audience, but they are both experienced kiters. They competed in VAKE 2012 as Team Ural, and finished as number eight. This year their friends, Sergei Maltsev and Viktor Suvorov, are representing Team Ural.