GKA KITE-SURF WORLD CUP CAPE VERDE

The season opener of the Qatar Airways GKA Kite World Tour kicked off with the Kite-Surf discipline. The tour was once again back in the mythic break of Ponta Preta, on Cape Verde’s Sal island. The 2023 Kite-Surf world champions – the Cape Verde-based Italian Airton Cozzolino and the US’s Moona Whyte – were among the 24 men and 12 women from 12 nations eager to fight for glory in the perfect, peeling right-handers. Ponta Preta delivered some of the best conditions seen in competition, a two-meter swell that generated double and triple head-high faces and steady cross-offshore breezes. On day three of the competition the promised swells really kicked in.

The men’s competition hit its stride among the pulsing sets. Brazil’s Sebastian Ribeiro set the bar high when he won his Round 3 heat, netting the biggest wave score of the competition – 9.80 from 10 – and took his total 19.33 out of a possible 20 for two counting waves. Ribeiro was unable to repeat the feat in the following quarter final and was knocked out. Last year’s winner in Ponta Preta, Cape Verde-bred Matchu Lopes (ESP), also made a surprise exit in the quarter final. He was sent packing by his friend and mentor, fellow Cape Verdean, Mitu Monteiro, who at 41 only competes at this one event. The women had to wait until day four for their opportunity, but were blessed with similarly epic conditions.

PHOTOS LUKAS K STILLER

France’s Charlotte Carpentier has been training Cape Verde for months and it showed in her fast-improving wave game. In the third-fourth place run-off she lost out by only a fraction of a point.

Moona Whyte is the reigning and four-time world champion. In her semi-final she scored the biggest waves of the competition to that point, a 9.40 and 8.83. In the final Whyte cut loose in the last few minutes and clinched the win with two perfect 10-point waves.

Former Kite-Surf world champion Capucine Delannoy only just squeaked into the final. She put some good scores on the board in the deciding heat, including a big 7.50 in the intimidating sets. It was enough to give her the second podium place.

For the Swiss rider Camille Losserand the world cup was a story of fine margins. In the semi-final she just missed out on a place in the final by a hair’s breadth. But in the fight for the third podium place, on her last ride she just got her nose in front to take third overall.

1 Moona Whyte 2 Capucine Delannoy 3 Camille Losserand 4 Charlotte Carpentier