Copa Kitley GWA Wingfoil World Cup Rio de Janeiro 2023
31 July-11 August
Discipline: Wave
Day Eleven: Friday, 10 August (GMT -3)
15.45 M final M Guenole v C Berzolla. Guenole lands the win and the crown beating Berzolla by a slim margin in a fight that went down to the wire. That certainly upsets the form books making it interesting for the final wave stop in Dakhla, Morocco. Join us then. That’s a wrap.
15.25 M mini-final Hugo Marin v Tom Auber. Now the final heats are 12 minutes. Marin gets a big win and the third podium step after outpointing Auber.
15.12 M S-F2 Cash Berzolla v Tom Auber. Berzolla makes it to the final after a head-fought with less than a point separating the athletes in the end.
15.00 M S-F1 Malo Guenole v Hugo Marin. Guenole just squeezes the win in what turned out to be super-tight heat and goes to the final.
14.45 M R4 H4 Tom Auber v Benoit Carpentier. Auber takes the win over Carpentier by a fine margin. That’s a surprise, though Auber has been surfing these small lefts well.
14.35 M R4 H3 C Berzolla v J Rattotti. Hawaii-based Berzolla is using all his surfing experience to read the waves and rack up big scores that got the better of the Big Air world champion 15.54 to 10.94.
14.25 M R4 H2 Malo Guenole v B Escofet. Guenole’s on fire and out of the gate fast with big scores in the waves. Guenole sweeps aside Escofet with a huge 14.90 total. The young Frenchman really seems to be in with a shout for the win in these smaller waves, where the classic surfers seem at a bit of a loss.
14.10 M R4 H1 C Roseyro v H Marin. This is starting to get serious as the big hitters go head-to-head. Marin sends Roseyro packing in a fairly low-scoring heat.
14.00 M R3 H8 W Brito v B Carpentier. Big heat this one. A rerun of the Cape Verde final where Brito took the title. Carpentier gets the win. Brito started slowly but then put some scores on the board that closed the gap to less than half a point. He lives to fight again in round four.
13.50 M R3 H7 F Novaes v T Auber. Auber takes the win with a clutch of solid scores on the board that helped his heat total to 13.17.
13.40 M R3 H6 J Rattotti v T Demanez. Big Air world champion Rattotti edges the win over Demanez in the waves.
13.25 M R3 H5 C Berzolla v M Auber. Berzolla get tow 7-plus waves scores that were too strong for Auber.
13.10 M R3 H4 B Escofet v O Buckingham. Escofet takes the win with a big 14.87 total that sent Buckingham out.
13.00 M R3 H3 M Guenole v G Pugliese. Surf-Freestyle world champion Guenole, a big surfer, goes big with the highest wave score of the day-8.37-to take the win, with a huge total of 15.77. Definitely one to watch.
12.45 M R3H2 V Martins v H Marin. Marin squeezes the win over Martins by 12.27 to 11.03.
12.35 M R3 H1 C Roseyro v N Cuyala. Roseyro just gets the win over the young Cuyala with a heat score of 12.40.
12.20 W final Moona Whyte v Nia Suardiaz. That’s a turn up for the books. Suardiaz wins convincingly over Whyte, who had been so dominant in their last wave finals encounter in Cape Verde
12.10 W mini-final Bowien vd Linden v Rocio Reigert. Van der Linden wins with a 11.10 heat score. Reigert was not too far off, with a total of 9.63.
M R2 H6 Charly Martin v Theo Demanez. Demanez gets the win over Martin with a heat score of 9.47.
M R2 H5 M Auber v H Lopes. Auber advances past the young Cape Verdean Lopes.
M R2 H4 L Schiel v O Buckingham. Buckingham takes it over the the young Brit, Schiel.
M R2 H3 G Pugliese v R Morais. Pugliese wins and Morais is out.
M R2 H2 V Martins v X Corr. Martins advances to the next round while Corr is out. A little bit of a shock this one as Corr, 16, is a Surf-Freestyle star. But Martins has experience in the waves, and that’s what this contest is about-pure surfing.
M R2 H1 N Cuyala v K Verma. Cuyala wins and advances to round three.
M R1 H8 A Correa v O Buckingham v W Brito. Cape Verde victor Buckingham takes the win.
M R1 H7 L Lenz v T Auber v G Pugliese. Auber takes the win.
M R1 H6 J Rattotti v X Corr v H Lopes. Rattotti is first, Corr second and Lopes third. Rattotti to round three, and the others battle again in round two.
09.15 Good morning. We’ve moved to our alternate location again in the hope of getting a result for the wingfoil contests. We’ll continue with the men’s heats and then transition to the women’s final between Nia Suardiaz and Moona Whyte. The first possible start is 09.30. Stay tuned. Unfortunately, we don’t have Livestream today.
Day Ten: Wednesday, 08 August (GMT -3)
08.15 Good morning. The wingfoilers have been released for the day, with the idea they will get back to competition tomorrow.
Day Nine: Tuesday, 09 August (GMT -3)
16.00 That’s it for today. The breeze threatened to return but never built to anything contestable. Join us again tomorrow.
11.15 The AP flag is up as we await good conditions. AP flag, meaning “Answering Pendant” in maritime flag language, shows we’re on hold.
11.10 Reigert v Vd Linden in the mini-final.
11.00 W S-F2 B vd Linden v M Whyte. Whyte wins and goes to the final.
10.50 W S-F1 N Suardiaz v R Reigert. Nia Sauardiaz wins and goes to the final.
10.42 Bowien vd Linden v Leaticia Nakiri. Van der Linden takes and moves to the semi-final.
10.30 M R1 H5 N Cuyala v C Berzolla v T Demanez. Berzolla takes the heat surfing really fast and tight. He did a 360 with a cutback that was nice and earned 7.3 to win the heat.
09.56 W R1 H2 L Nakiri v R Reigert v M Whyte. Heat is in sequence. Twelve minute for each heat with a two-minute transition between the heats. Moona Whyte takes the heat. We’re hoping the swell picks up.
09.13 First up is going to be the women. Round 1 Heat 2. We’re hoping to start shortly.
08.40 Good morning. We just had the skippers’ meeting. First up is likely to be a few rounds of the Kite-Surf competition. Then the wingfoilers will get a chance to get on the water. Most likely the women will be up first, with the men’s heats opening later. We’ve had an early start to move to a new location to score wind and waves as time was running short in the 12-day competiton window. Stay tuned for updates.
Day Seven: Sunday, 06 August (GMT -3)
12.05 Brazil’s Vinni Martins, a Saquarema local, was surfing on Saturday in the big swell and described how the conditions fitted into the picture of the Rio de Janeiro break.
“Yesterday was a typical day in Saquarema in winter,” he said. “It’s often that we have swells like this. It’s very close to my home; this is where I usually come. We need to be lucky, but we’ve had some conditions lately.
“But it’s a typical day in Saquarema at this time of year, and that’s how it looks. You have to enjoy it, it’s beautiful out there. There’s a lot of energy. Let’s hope the waves combine with some wind and we can go kite-surfing and wingfoiling.
“The waves are a little bit smaller today and the forecast promises a little bit more wind, so we cross our fingers. It looks like it’s starting to pick up, so I’m optimistic about it. I think today could be a little bit easier for the wingfoilers because the channel is not going out so much. It’s a little bit smaller, so yes I hope the wingers can go. It’s a really nice day for winging, for sure.”
09.40 The skippers’ meeting is due to start shortly. It looks like we’ll have a tow-in foil expression session as we wait for the wind to build. The waves are slightly smaller than yesterday, so the wingfoilers may get back to competition later.
Day Six: Saturday, 05 August (GMT -3)
15.02 The wingfoilers are released for the day as the kite-surfers are on the water.
10.55 Cape Verdean Wesley Brito, winner of the first GWA Wave event in Cape Verde, explained the situation at Saquarema this morning.
“The conditions for waves are amazing,” he said. “But the thing is, we have a lot of shore break. And we have some rocks here that makes a lot of current. We can’t pass the current with the light wind, which is offshore still.
“We’re now waiting until 3pm to check if the conditions change, if the wind changes direction and gets stronger, we can possibly try to go wingfoiling. If we’ve wind, for sure we can wingfoil in these waves. If the wind is strong enough we can somehow find a way to get through the swell to get outside.”
09.55 Good morning. We’ve got big surf this morning, but we’re waiting for the breeze to fill. The kite-surfers will most likely by on the water first, with the wingfoilers on standby until 15.00.
Day Five: Friday, 04 August (GMT -3)
08.00 Good morning. Race director Juan Antonio Aragón has called another lay. The breezes are light and to remain so for much of the day, and the swell is small. But the forecast for the weekend swell is big and the breezes are set to fill. Stay tuned and we’ll be back to the action tomorrow, with luck.
Day Three: Wednesday, 02 August (GMT -3)
15.47 The wingfoilers have been released for the day. We’ll back tomorrow with more action.
13.30 We are still waiting for the conditions to improve. But the decision has been taken to switch to kite-surf. The wingfoil competition is on standby.
09.46 Well, obviously that didn’t work. Now the plan is to continue with the men, complete the women’s contest and get as far as possible with the men’s competition. Right now the wind is quite offshore, but the forecast for later is better, though the waves are smaller than yesterday. Stay tuned for updates.
05.45 Good morning. With a slightly sketchy forecast for the next few days of the 12-day holding period, the race director is evaluating the conditions, to decide if there a suitable wind and waves for an early start today. We’ll keep you posted. The wingfoilers are likely to be up first to continue their battles.
Day Two: Tuesday, 01 August (GMT -3)
17.05 That’s it for today. Unfortunately the wind never returned. We’ll be back tomorrow with more action.
15.00 W R1 H2 14.50 Laeticia Nakiri v Rocio Reigert v Moona Whyte. Whyte won the heat in tricky conditions as the breeze faded. She still advanced the semi-final. The competition is on hold a for a time.
14.45 W R1 H2 14.30 W R1 H1 Nia Suardiaz v Bowien vd Linden. Suardiaz takes the win after selecting the better waves and riding with good flow.
14.15 M R1 H4 B Carpentier v B Escoft v R Morais. Escofet takes the win, with Carpentier close behind in second.
14.00 M R1 H3 M Guenole v L Schiel v F Novaes. Guenole takes the win to advance to R3, while Novaes puts up a decent score but has to fight in R2
13.45 M R1 H2 Charly Martin v Kiran Verma v Hugo Marin. Marin wins and goes to R3, while Martin and Verma battle in R2.
13.30 M R1 H1 Marius Auber v Vinni Martins v Clement Roseyro. Roseyro takes the win and goes straight to R3. Auber and Martins live to fight again in R2.
10.30 The plan is to run the wingfoil competition today. We’ll start with round one of the men, and then complete the women’s event. We’re waiting for the wind to fill in right now, though the waves are good. Stay tuned.
08.00 The plan for today is to have the skippers’ meeting for wingfoil and kite-surf at 10.00, with a first possible start at 10.30. The race director will decide which discipline to run first depending on how the conditions look. The Livestream is due to start at 10.00, with Jo Ciastula in the chair.
Day One: Monday, 31 July. (GMT -3)
17.10 Today was one for the Kite-Surf athletes. We’ll be back tomorrow.
12.55 The wingfoilers are on standby with a first possible start at 15.30.
12.30 The wingfoil skippers’ meeting is underway now. The wind is slowly filling in. The riders will hear which discipline will be up first in this double-header of Kite-Surf and wing wave.