Penultimate stop of Kite-Surf tour falters in light winds in Brazil as athletes battle with the conditions
Copa Kitley GKA Kite-Surf World Cup Ibiraquera 2024
19β26 October, 2024 | Ibiraquera, Brazil
The first exchanges of the GKA Kite-Surf World Cup Ibiraquera in southern Brazil got off to a faltering start as light and fickle winds played havoc with the schedule.
On a stop-start day at the iconic left-hand beach-break, the wind refused to play ball and just two heats of the opening round of the men’s competition were completed.
The 24 men and 14 women, from 10 countries around the world, have journeyed to Ibiraquera for the Kite-Surf discipline’s fourth and penultimate stop on the Qatar Airways GKA Kite World Tour.
The Ibiraquera call is vital for those with title ambitions and comes ahead of the final stop, which is also scheduled for Brazil, at PecΓ©m, next month.
After no action on Day 1, the Race Director Juan Antonio Aragon eventually got the opening rounds of the men’s competition away after a some delay on Day 2.
All-Brazilian face-off
Even with an eight-day competition window, the forecast for the coming days is not promising and Aragon opted to press ahead in an effort to gets as far as possible on the opening day of action.
Spain’s Matchu Lopes, the winner of two stops on last year’s tour, was up in the first round. He was struggling on his 12m kite in the light airs and the heat was abandoned and eventually restarted.
Lopes needs a good showing after several weak performances saw him out early in the previous two stops. But even after the restart, Lopes could not find the waves he needed and ended up second, going to Round 2 to fight for survival.
The Reunion Island’s Charly Martin (FRA) fared better and put good scores on the board for his two counting waves from 10 attempts. It was enough to give him the heat win and take him straight to Round 3, ahead of Brazilian Douglas Juliani.
The second heat was an all-Brazilian face-off, with world number three in the rankings, Pedro Matos, up against Artur Morais and Leonardo Grangeiro in set waves that were still few and far between.
Slight upset
In a bit of an upset, Matos was unable find any good waves and ended second by less than a point. He will have to go to the second round and fight to progress along with Grangeiro, while Morais has the luxury of heading to Round 3.
A third heat, with big guns Sebastian Ribeiro (BRA), Nicola Abadjiev (BUL) and France’s Hugo Marin, a top wingfoil wave rider, will have to wait for another day when it was abandoned for lack of wind.
The forecast for the coming days looks better and the winner of the last two events, in Germany and in Morocco, Australia’s James Carew, is keen get on the water in a spot he knows well.
“Yeah, I love this place,” said Carew. “It reminds me a lot of Australia. It’s super-wild and the ocean’s really raw. You get really good conditions. But it’s my first event ‘backside’ for a long time. I’m excited for something different. I don’t feel any pressure except for what I put on myself. I want to win. I’m here to win.”
Join us when the action continues here.
words: Ian MacKinnon
images: Svetlana Romantsova
Event information
- Location: Ibiraquera, Brazil
- Dates: 19β26 October, 2024
- All event information here.
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Spot Info: Ibiraquera
Ibiraquera has a sandy beach-break that behaves like a point-break. An island in front of the beach shapes the seabed to make perfect right-handers that break about 200 metres off-shore. The swell can be big, from 1 to 2.5 metres, that provide big faces all year round. But the best months are September to March. The sandy bottom means there are no hazards or rocks downwind.
Weather
Ibiraquera in October has a mixed, mainly dry climate. The air temperature during day can be between highs of 27Β°C and lows of 20Β°C. The water temperature is warm, so a shorty wetsuit or board-shorts and lycra is all that is needed. Sunrise is approximately 05.30h and sunset is 18.30h.
Wind
In October the wind blows 22 to 25 knots, predominantly north-easterly, but it can come from the east, south-east and south.
