Switzerland’s Maxime Chabloz won his first Qatar Airways GKA Freestyle Kite TwinTip World Championship in Fuwairit. The battle went down to the wire after a season-long duel with Arthur Guillebert over three events: in France, Brazil and Qatar. Chabloz, 23, told Rasa Iselionyte and Diogo Cardoso of his mixed feelings going into the final round on equal points with his leading rival with everything still to play for in the title stakes.
Question: What does it mean for you to win the title?
Maxime Chabloz: It’s my life’s achievement to win this title. It was the ultimate goal and in a way I have thought for a long time, what’s next? What if I win? What’s gonna be the next goal? And I haven’t found any equivalent goal yet. I’m just satisfied with that and obviously it doesn’t mean I’m retiring.
Now, I’m only 23. I have a lot ahead of me and I’m super excited for these years. Now this goal is achieved, I just want to have fun. I wanna please my partners, please myself; go out there and win several more events, maybe win another world title, maybe not. But it doesn’t really matter at this point.
Q: So, before the season started, who did you think would be your main rivals?
MC: I thought the fight was gonna be with [Gianmaria] Coccoluto, with Carlos “Bebe” Mario. Obviously Arthur [Guillebert] is always in the back of my head. I wouldn’t say he was the main character that I was afraid of.
I think this year the level has been really high. We’ve seen crazy progression from a lot of young and talented riders, like Matteo [Dorotini], [Karim] “Kimo” Mahmoud, Finn FlΓΌgel. And so many other riders have have shown such insane progression this year.
βPretty painfulβ
Q: How did you feel in the competitions?
MC: In Dunkerque I was very confident. I was excited for the competition because the forecast was pretty good. I did really well in the whole event. I was really focused on doing what I had to do. I wasn’t taking unnecessary risks. I was just doing the job and then obviously in the final Arthur Guillebert just clinched it. He went away from me on the last trick, which was pretty painful.
In Brazil I wasn’t expecting both of us to be in the final again. I was very confident about making the final. I wasn’t so sure about taking the win. But I had a call with my mental coach a little bit before the comp. And she really put me in the right mindset. She asked me: ‘do you think you deserve it?’ The answer for me was, ‘I’ve put in the hours, I’ve put in the training, I have done everything I can do to go ahead and win. Eventually I was in the final with Arthur again and it was a really, really tight final.
We all did pretty good, considering the pressure. I just managed to clinch it from him by 0.2 points, or something, which was a huge relief for me and a huge, huge moment. Winning an event in Cauipe lagoon is every freestyler’s dream.
βMission to beat himβ
Q: Heading to the finale in Qatar you were equal on points with Arthur, but ahead on the tie-break rule. How did you view that?
MC: Coming to Qatar I had very mixed feelings. We know the conditions here; the wind can be pretty gusty or it can be not windy at all. I had a little bit of good feeling that if there wasn’t going to be any wind, I would win the world title.
But on another hand, it made me also feel like I had everything to lose in a way. If there’s wind, there’s a competition. I’m at the top and now you can only go down when you’re at the top.
I didn’t care what ‘Kimo’ and Finn were doing [in the final]. I only had my eye on Arthur. My mission of the day was to beat him and no-one else. Whether I was second, third or first, it didn’t matter. It was only about beating Arthur. So I’m super stoked.
Q: Before your win in Brazil, you had a run of second places. What were your thoughts on that?
MC: I had massive doubts of myself. Whether I was able to win an event. Whether I was able to win a world title. I always knew that I could do it, but I never knew if my time was gonna come. There is so much more that comes into it than just being ready. You need the stars to align. When you get a lot of second places, it’s so difficult to keep believing in yourself. If you believe in it then one day the stars are gonna align and it’s going to work out. It’s like when you flip a coin, it’s 50 / 50. Sometimes it turns out heads, sometimes tails.
edit: Ian MacKinnon
images: Samuel CΓ‘rdenas
