After several attempts, the final was able to start, but four riders went over early. Titouan Galea, Oscar Leclair, Ancor Sosa, and Camille Bouyer had to sail back to shore, missing out on the final race. This was a window of opportunity for the six remaining riders. The challenging wind conditions certainly did not make it easy, but Bastien Escofet managed to accelerate his way to the front of the pack and head into the final FreeFly section in the lead, pumping his way to the finish line to claim his fourth elimination win. Chris Mac Donald cruised through in second position, and Zane Schweitzer in third. Local rider Hugo Wigglesworth finished fourth, followed by Francesco Cappuzzo who went down due to a drop in wind but managed to somehow finish the course to claim the sixth position.
The final results for the men’s FreeFly-Slalom discipline are:
1st Bastien Escofet (FRA)
2nd Francesco Cappuzzo (ITA)
3rd Camille Bouyer (FRA)
The final results for the women’s FreeFly-Slalom discipline are:
1st Nia Suardiaz (ESP)
2nd Aimee Bright (NZL)
3rd Bowien van der Linden (NLD)
The mens final was a showdown between two of the youngest riders on tour. Our current World Champion Malo Guenole vs Chris Mac Donald. Both went trick for trick, with Chris opening with a 7.43 point Back Flip. Malo responded with an outstanding 8.63 point Front Side 7. Chris continued building scores, nailing a Front Side 7 and Front Flip, and just managed to steal the win from Mal by 0.8 points. An incredible final from two of the strongest athletes on tour.
The womens final consisted of two of our strongest riders, Nia Suardiaz and Bowien van der Linden were matched up for an intense heat. Nia achieved three solid scores and managed to gain an advantage over Bowien, allowing her to claim her first event win of the 2023 season.
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Jack Rieder (CAN) and Posito Martinez (DOM) were the two standouts of the Second Round and were among the riders that utilized the wave kickers the most. They also executed handle passes in both directions demonstrating excellent skill and a wide array of maneuvers. As they moved into the Third Round, a few athletes put on notable performances. Among them was Dominican Luis Alberto Cruz (DOM) blew everyone away with extremely massive back-to-back tricks, demonstrating control and height! He scored the highest single trick score of the day, managing a 9 for his Front Side 900 off of a wave kicker on the outside.
Carlos Mario (BRA) who took second place in Qatar has been in Colombia training for one month and is gunning for first place here in Salinas del Rey. He landed a Dum Dum 5 that was one of the highest scoring tricks of the day.
Men’s round four was the very close: Heat between Maxime Chabloz (15.93) and Francesco Cappuzzo (14.57). A scrappy fight for waves was separated by a marginal difference between two excellent front flips off kickers, in Maxime’s favour. But the most nail-biting heat, and perhaps most surprising result, given the predominant weighting towards wave riding, was the heat between Brazilian waterman and ex-windsurfing wave world champion Kauli Seadi, and French tour regular, Bastien Escofet.
Kauli had been first to take advantage with a good wave from left to right across the whole comp area early in the heat, before the two then traded good frontside waves. Six minutes to go in the ten minute heat and it was tight; 16.39 to 16.33 to the Brazilian. Bastien spent four minutes caught on the inside and had to paddle out past the shore break. He finally made it out and, with 90 seconds to go, landed a fully committed front flip that earned him a 7.23. He slipped into the lead while Kauli was caught on the inside and this was the best example of how the single freestyle trick could be used to make a crucial difference when wave riding more or less otherwise dominated proceedings.
The women were up first and Bruna Kajiya got the day started with her ever impressive clockwork style. But it was women’s tour leader and reigning world champion, Mikaili Sol, who hit the alarm for what was to come, opening her account with a huge stalefish slim 5 and then a 317 on trick four.
In the men's race, Manoel Soares had the chance to win his first world title. As the draw would have it, he faced second ranked rider Gianmaria Coccoluto in that quarter final, as well as Valentin Garat and a local ripper with a huge reputation, Erick Anderson. All Gianmaria Coccoluto could do at this event was keep winning his heats and hope that Soares would trip up before reaching the semi finals. Now it was in his hands, but even if he won the heat he’d need help from one of the others to push Manoel into third, and out of the competition. Coccoluto produced a performance for the ages. Attacking without fear, he ripped Taiba lagoon apart like never before. Soares led after two tricks, but started to slip as the Italian hit full beast mode, scoring two nines and then two tens in succession that sent goosebumps through the crowd and left the judges in awe. Having uncharacteristically caught a front edge on his third trick, Manoel started to look tense. He forced out a 319 and a 315 and then the backside 315 on his last trick attempt just wasn’t good enough to overtake in-form lagoon specialist, Erick Anderson, who went through to semis behind Coccoluto.
There are still three contenders for the title, but only two remain in the competition. Manoel now has to sit things out and wait to see if Gianmaria or Juan Rodriguez will win the event or not. Those two meet next in the semi-finals!
The journey for a later Freeride World Tour career starts with valuable points in the 1 and 2 star contests. The "bowl-like" wide face of the Wiedersberger Horn is described in the scene as the optimal terrain for fast, playful runs. In between you will always find one or the other cliff, which brings valuable points for the final result.
The women's final was hard to beat in terms of excitement. In the end, it was a battle between last year's world champion Mikaili Sol (USA) and the experienced Bruna Kajiya (BRA), which the Brazilian finally won with her mix of experience and style. Louka Pitot (FRA) did not have an easy task ahead of him in the men's final, where he was up against three former world champions Carlos Mario (BRA), Valentin Rodriguez (COL) and Gianmaria Coccoluto (ITA). In the end, the pressure seemed too much for the young Frenchman, so that Coccoluto and Mario decided the victory between themselves. Coccoluto was able to win the fight by a narrow margin of only half a point and thus starts his season as defending champion with a victory in Qatar.
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