The first day marked the start of a wonderful week as the competitors and
the people in Parnaiba were greeted by a bright, sunny weather. The mercury
averaged 34° Celsius with the side-onshore wind blowing from the east
averaging 14 knots. The waters provided a perfect setting to start the
men’s Freestyle trials which kicked off right on schedule after the
mandatory skippers’ meeting at 11:30 am.
The men’s trials started off at exactly 12:00 noon and ran eight heats.
Most of the competitors who went to the waters rigged their 11’s and
12’s due to the light wind condition. As the day wore on however, the wind
filled in enabling the riders to switch to their 9-meter kites. A 45-minute
break soon followed to allow time to complete the competition drawing. At
exactly 2:30 pm, Heats 1 to 8 of the men’s single elimination quickly went
underway followed by the first round of the women’s division.
Men’s Freestyle
Mallory De La Villemarque (North, France) won against Alex Soto (Cabrinha,
Dominican Republic) in Heat #1. The French rider won with lower kite
position and switch moves including a switched to regular KGB, raley
switched to regular mobe, late pass mobe, kiteloop slim and front mobe to
blind while the young Dominican rider landed a front mobe 5, a slim, 313,
blind judge with aerial handle pass and kiteloop handle pass. Brazilian bet
Reno Romeu (North) advanced easily into the next round, beating Italian
Lorenzo Giovanelli (Slingshot) in the same heat.
In Heat #2, Alvaro Onieva (Best, Spain) got an unsurprising easy win over
local boy Aladin Tiago Braga Ferreira (North) while another North rider Marc
Jacobs (New Zealand) got the same taste of defeat courtesy of Helio Cabrinha
Da Silva (Gokite, Brazil) in the same heat. Dutch champ Ruben Lenten
(Slingshot) meanwhile showed more powered riding, easily defeating EH rider
Emmanuel Rondon (Dominican Republic) in the third heat of the day. Michael
Schitzhofer (Naish, Austria) gave Tom Court (North, UK) his first taste of
defeat in Brazil who was not on form and crashed a lot of his landings.
Schitzhofer nailed a sent front mobe 5, 313, blind judge with aerial handle
pass, mobe and slim while Court was only able to land a mobe and hasselhoff.
Current world number two and world champion challenger Kevin Langeree
(Naish, Netherlands) meanwhile is all fired up once again, giving Ariel
Corniel (EH, Dominican Republic) an early taste of defeat in the start of
the 4th Heat. It took five judges with two scoring sheets each to get a
solid result of what was the best Heat of the day. The two riders, probably
the most extreme and energetic competitors on tour filled the judges sheets
with over thirty moves! In the end, it was Langeree who took the win,
keeping his world championship title hopes alive. This young rider from The
Netherlands landed a late pass mobe, mobe to wrapped, front mobe to blind,
double s-bend to blind with air pass and a double back mobe. Corniel on the
other hand, landed a tail-grab KGB, double s-bend to blind with air pass,
non-inverted slim and a 313 but overall, lacked variety and technical
difficulty. In the second round, Brazilian Jose Freires (Naish) bowed down
to a more experienced Petr Tyuskevich (Cabrinha, Russia).
In the 5th Heat, Spanish champ Cesar Portas (North) easily defeated the new
Best rider Julian Hosp (Austria) in their match in the first round. Hosp was
not in his usual form, struggling with a high kite angle and had to give in
to Portas’ powered and technical moves. In the second set, Tomas Teixeira
Gomes (RRD, Brazil) proved no match to the kiteboarding talent and
experience of Italian Alberto Rondina (Cabrinha) who easily advanced to the
next round.
Rui Meira (Naish, Portugal), having a recent rib injury did not kite today
and was supposed to meet Brazilian rider Carlos Morieiro (Naish) in Heat #6.
Sam Light (Naish, UK) had a light win against local rider Baique Bostq in
the second set. Bostq landed a 313, kiteloop handle pass and mobe 5 but
busted his kite later on in the heat, loosing to Light’s slimchance, 313
and kiteloop handle pass. Meanwhile in Heat #7, the young champ from U.S.
Virgin Islands, Madison Van Heurck (Naish) is on fire again and gave
Brazilian Pedro Bueno (North) a not so ‘bueno’ start by defeating him in
the first round. Van Heurck rode more technical moves combined with a very
low kite angle to take the win. Likewise, American Rocky Chatwell (Crazyfly)
got the same taste of bad luck, loosing to Victor Adamo (North, Brazil) in
the second set of the same heat who landed more and better moves. Chatwell
managed to land a kiteloop non-inverted slim but the young Brazilian had a
313, blind judge, mobe and kiteloop handle pass to pit against Chatwell’s.
Current world number one ranked Aaron Hadlow (Flexifoil, UK) easily defeated
another Brazilian rider Kleber Pinho (Slingshot) in their match in Heat #8.
Alex Pastor (Naish, Spain) likewise had an easy win against Russian Belmesov
Sergey (Liquid Force) who landed a slim, front mobe and regular to switched
mobe. Pastor however, nailed a mobe 7, slimchance 7, front mobe, KGB, and
switched slim to win the round.
Women’s Freestyle
Jalou Langeree (Naish, Netherlands) had an easy win against local gal
Samantha Marins (Gokite) in the first heat of the women’s division. In the
second heat, French Audrey Meyer (EH) stomped not one, but two handle passes
to take the win over another local rider Carol Homsi (North) who also went
for handle passes, nailing one but failed to land the other attempts. Meyer
also had more moves including kiteloops, rolls and raleys. In the second set
of the third heat, Wiktoria Boszko (North, Poland) beat Kari Schibevaag
(Ozone, Norway) with a raley to blind, front to blind and a raley to
wrapped. Schibevaag landed a krypt to surface pass and back to toeside with
surface pass. Susie Mai (Cabrinha, Germany) beat Victoria Soloveykina
(Russia, Cabrinha) in the fourth heat courtesy of a front to blind, back to
blind, raley to wrapped and downloop-kiteloop. Soloveykina managed to land a
raley to blind loosing with less variety and technical difficulty.
After the women’s heats, the competition was called off for the day at
around 17:00h and then most of the people at the beach took the opportunity
to free ride until sunset which set in at around 18:00h. Tomorrow’s press
and skippers’ meeting is set to happen at 11:30 am with a first possible
start at 12:00 pm for the continuation of the men’s single Freestyle
event.
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