Kiteworld Magazine | The original international kitesurfing magazine

WORLD KITEBOARDING LEAGUE – NEW CALEDONIA DAY FIVE

Day 5 at the Aircalin Kitesurf Pro saw the completion of Men’s Round 3, Heat 7 and 8, as well as the mini final. This means that both Men’s and Women’s finals will both be run tomorrow.

The day started off with slightly lighter wind conditions. The race director wanted to ensure that these Men’s heats were run in optimal conditions so the start was slightly delayed until we had the best wind possible.

Heat 7 saw Alex Pastor from Spain and Youri Zoon from the Netherlands dominate the heat with many doubles. The both went back and forth from 1st position to 2nd position by landing KGB5’s,317’s, Backside 7’s and Heart Attack 5’s but Youri managed to edge his way to the top and take the win. David Tonijuan also showed some perfectly executed tricks, landing a nice Heart Attack, Hinterberger 5 and Crow Mobe 5. This positive result gave him a spot in tomorrow’s final alongside Pastor and Zoon.

Heat 8 saw local rider Arthur Guillebert show some great riding, with a wonderful home crowd to support him on the beach. Carlos Mario from Brazil put on an outstanding display, showing us all exactly why he is currently in that number 1 position. He landed 6 double handle passes for his heat including a Backside 319, which didn’t have the cleanest landing, so lost points, but was extremely impressive non the less. He landed three tricks that scored over a 9 in this heat, the highest score we have seen during the event so far. New Zealand rider Marc Jacobs will also be joining him in the finals alongside Set Teixeira who initially struggled during his heat and crashed his first three attempts, but then managed to regain territory landing a Slim7 and 317.

The Men’s Mini Final saw Stefan Spiessberger, Jerome Cloetens , Val Garat and Antoine Fermon battle against each other, but it was Stefan Spiessberger who landed a big 317 as well as a nice grabbed Slim5and Backmobe 5. This gave him 7th place overall for this competition, followed by Antoine Fermon who was very happy with his 8th position at this event. Jerome Cloetens put on a solid display of riding throughout the day giving him 9th position, and Val Garat 10th.

Tomorrow will be a big day with the completion of both the Men’s and Women’s finals. Live Stream will be running as from 12 midday, so tune in to see our interviews with all of the finalists and some fantastic live coverage of the heats. This will also be the day for the crowning of this year’s World Kiteboarding League 2016 Champions, so be sure not to miss it.