The taste of final day glory on a ‘Super Sunday’ of cross discipline kiteboarding competition in front of a packed Valdevaqueros beach at the Bibo Beach Club was oh so close… Tarifa you tease!
After five frustrating days of competition, taunted by low lying cloud which pushed back the thermal winds, or voodoo local effects playing hocus pocus right in front of the race director’s eyes, athletes arrived at the beach this morning and were greeted by a very different scene: clear skies and the Poniente blowing.
Over 80 riders registered for this event, one of only a few truly cross-discipline official World Championship events ever seen, and with such strangely absent conditions this week, there were a lot of heats to get through. All riders were on the same page though and accepted a slightly shortened format for their heats in order to fight collectively for a result.
The event flew through the afternoon heats, seeing both men’s and women’s freestyle and men’s kite-surf strapless freestyle on the water, often switching from one discipline to the next in back-to-back heats. It was a real optical feast of kiting on the beach!
Demo zone
Maxime Chabloz continued his impressive charge towards the title this year, achieving the highest Freestyle heat score of the day, which was second only to Adeuri Corniel’s opening heat tally of over 34 on day four.
Cross-pollenation of riders – Kite-Surf rider Jan Marcos Riveras gives Freestyler Adeuri Corniel advice after watching the heat scores on the livestream.
Pippa van Iersel and Therese Taabel actually made it to the women’s Freestyle final on Sunday, but as the wind dropped just before the second semi-final ran, sadly for them, with only 10 riders in their competition, as they hadn’t eliminated over 50% of the competitors, the result doesn’t stand.
Hard lines for Pippa van Iersel and Therese Taabbel who made it to the final.
Of course, they had already reached a final result for the women’s kite-surf strapless freestyle back on day three, with Carla Herrera-Oria claiming back-to-back event victories and moving ahead in the championship.
Women’s official Kite-Surf strapless freestyle podium.
The kite-surf men had reached the quarter final stage before Sunday began. They managed to get through two quarter final rounds, won by Simon Joosten and Mitu Monteiro but the result rocks back to the quarter final stage, and is an official result with shared points for the top eight, due to the number of competitors eliminated.
Kite-surf men quarter finalists
Race director Juan Antonio Aragon is all too aware of how the World Championship point system works and, up against an incredibly tough time frame in the end, with a drought of normal conditions at this time of year in Tarifa, by hook and by crook, have an official points result for both men’s disciplines and the women’s kite-surf strapless freestyle.
That time on Friday night, with the way the forecast was looking, they’d have taken that! So… onwards and upwards!
Local star Liam Whaley was looking good for a home town take down.
Feeling the squeeze – Stefan Spiessberger
The top finishing riders crowded on to their respective podiums and, just after GKA Secretary General Joergen Vogt had completed an ear-piercing rendition of Happy Birthday to Mitu Monteiro, event organizer Jaime Herraiz took to the mic to thank everyone.
“What can I say? Of course we’re a little disappointed with the wind this week, but you guys know me, and know that I like a challenge. So we will be back bigger and stronger next year and Tarifa will always have a place for all of you. Good luck with the rest of the world tour and we look forward to welcoming you all back!”
Airton, round 2 Men’s strapless freestyle, day 4
It really has been a strange event. Tarifa has been a loyal venue for the GKA and it has always provided truly classic moments. Airton Cozzolino delivered a real heat of brilliance on Thursday, a memory to hold on to.
As Jaime went on to conclude, “We won’t let the wind beat our spirit!” The wind brought everyone together and they saw a really united atmosphere this week, with riders like Carlos Mario riding a strapless surfboard alongside Mitu Monteiro. The two codes of expression-based kiteboarding disciplines came together and shared the emotions of competition together.
Mitu Monteiro and, yes, Carlos Mario!
For sure the athletes will all leave as a tighter unit and who knows what the future holds? Will we see world class Freestyle riders training hard to compete in two disciplines next year… in order to become the ultimate kiteboard rider? Don’t put it past them!
What we do know is that the current Freestyle riders will be back in action at Sotavento on Fuerteventura, Spain from 19 – 24th July for round four, before heading to Bel Ombre on the beautiful island of Mauritius, where we’ll see another double discipline event go off with Freestyle and Kite-Surf (wave discipline), from the 6th – 15th September!
Here’s a summary of how far we reached in Sunday’s competition after a busy, vibey day at Valdevaqueros:
Women’s Freestyle Semi-Finalists
Pippa van Iersel
Therese Taabbel
Pauline Valesa
Maureen Castelle
Claudia Leon
Paula Novotna
Nathalie Lambrecht
Mikaili Sol
Men’s Freestyle Semi-finalists (Official Result)
Gianmaria Coccoluto
Luis Alberto Cruz
Adeuri Corniel
Maxime Chabloz
Jerome Cloetens
Stefan Spiessberger
Liam Whaley
Carlos Mario