The Qatar Airways GKA Kite World Tour provides a platform for the world’s best riders to push the limits of kiteboarding, but also shines a spotlight on many outstanding local riders who can dominate the world’s best spots.
Brazilian Sebastian Ribeiro has given us several high 9 point scoring waves in his career. His round five heat performance was once again from the top drawer, with two high 9s.
However, it was perhaps Mohamed-Ali Beqqali who delivered the individual high performance of the day as he fought back impressively through the losers round 4 to meet Gabriel Benetton in round 5.
Beqqali’s free-flowing frontside rhythm is so in tune with this break, it was simply too much for the Brazilian’s lack of water time here.
βDropping down to the 9 gave me much more freedom. I could finish my turns, and tweak the turns. Yeah, I’m stoked.β explained Beqqali on the livestream. βYeah with the hightide the wave changes and sometimes breaks more on the inside. You see the waves coming from far and you have to pick that middle one that has enough space and that creates that beautiful wave all the way through.β
Beqqali and Ribeiro were among a handful of riders that included Airton Cozzolino, James Carew, Matchu Lopes, Reece Myerscough and others, who combined instinct with ability to accelerate hard around the long, mushy middle section to link up Westpoint’s rolling and then suckier end sections.
In other words… they were ripping.
