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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.
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Day 2 showed a true battle of the generations, as the more experienced wingfoilers did their best to stand their ground as a whole new fleet of young riders came in to give them a run for their money.
Women: The strong levante started to kick in at the start of the women's quarter finals, reaching up to 25 knots. Experience in these tough Tarifa conditions, together with consistency proved to be key elements to advancing through this round. There were no surprises as all of our top seeded riders advanced through this round to the semi-finals. Nia Suardiaz, Paula Novotna, Flora Artzner and Bowien van der Linden all remained in the competition for an opportunity to take the win at this event. Bowien put on the best female performance of the day, with her toeside frontside 3 scoring her 5.30 points.
Men: There were some stand-out performances for round 2, particularly from the younger riders who showed amazing determination and capability in the strong, difficult conditions. Axel Gerard rode a great heat, landing a 6.30 point front flip that allowed him to advance to Round 3. River Moore, 14 year old local rider, lost a very close heat with Xavi Corr in Round 1, so for Round 2 he showed even more determination, closing his heat with an impressive backflip scoring 7 points and giving him the opportunity to remain in the competition for Round 3. The highest scoring heat of Round 2 went to Frenchman Bastien Escofet, who achieved an overall score of 8.30 for his spectacular front flip. Round 2 finished with an outstanding performance from one of the youngest local riders, Nathan Berger, who defeated Riccardo Zorzi with an unstoppable display of riding which included a massive frontside 7 scoring him 8.4 points and allowing him a well-deserved spot in Round 3.
The wind unfortunately dropped during the final heat of round 2, which will be continued tomorrow, as the levante wind is once again in the forecast for the coming days.
River Moore is a local 14 year old competitor who is competing at a World Cup event for the first time here at his home spot. "To compete here at my home spot is just incredible", said River. "The wind today has been tricky, and it definitely picked up throughout the day. I just missed out on my first heat, but in my second heat I was fully powered on my 3 meter wing, and managed to land my tricks. The thing with wingfoiling is that we have race and freestyle, and it's always fast no matter what. You can go high, the landings are awesome, and it's just a great sport. It's bringing a community together, joining people from kitesurfing and windsurfing together."
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.
The group that was to fight for the stage at the end consisted of Georg Egger, Martin Frey (Singer Racing Team), Martin Stosek (Canyon Northwave), Marc Stutzman (Canyon Northwave), Andreas Seewald (Canyon Northwave), Krzysztof Lukasik (JBG2 Cryospace) and Wout Alleman (Wilier-Pirelli). On the final climb, the race was blown up again by Egger's push. Only Frey and Seewald held on and it came down to a sprint of the three, which Frey won, while Egger came second and Seewald completed the all-German podium. With this result Egger took the lead and there was a radical change in the remaining top 10 places: Seewald moved up to second place, although he was already more than 3 minutes behind his compatriot.
In the women's race, the decision seemed to be in favour of Laura Daubermann (Trek Future Racing) after she had won the first two stages and had a lead of almost 7 minutes in the overall classification. But Janina Wust (Buff-Megamo) never gave up. The Swiss decided the race for herself and only Daubermann could stay with her. Not only did she miss the stage podium, but she also had to watch her lead in the overall standings shrink to just over a minute. With one stage to go, the overall standings are still completely open.
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'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.
Reigning world champion James Carew was dumped from the GKA Kite-Surf World Cup on the second day of the contest on Cape Verde in epic waves. The Australian, who had been hoping to land a third successive title, lost the final round of the day by only a fraction of a point to Cape Verde-based legend, Airton Cozzolino. The victory of Cozzolino, an Italian who calls the island home, drew wild cheering from the delighted crowds on the beach. But the celebrations were muted as the judges reviewed their scores because the heat had been so tight. Both riders, who have been training together, embraced as they came ashore. It was a sign of their mutual respect after a truly spectacular, 18-minute clash on epic Ponta Preta swells in the sinking sun. The tense drama, with the pair separated only by 0.13 of a point in the end, was worthy of a final. Yet, Cozzolino only has the privilege of advancing to the competition’s quarter finals where other Cape Verdean locals lie in wait.
The competition is set to move to the quarter finals stage for the men and women on Sunday, with hope of completing both finals.
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