KPWT Jim Beam Cabo Frio World Cup Brazil

by Peter Petersen

02 Sept – 11 Sept 2005

Promises of new rules for Brazil consisting of a waveriding format, a one day Wavemasters event and a total purse of USD30,000 all seemed good enough reasons to book a ticket and check out the latest in bikini-styles.

Herve Boure on a bomb

3rd leg of KPWT World Cup brought 36 kiters from 10 different countries to Cabo Frio which is two-and-half hours east off Rio de Janeiro. We were invited to a Freestyle/Wave event where, pending conditions, scoring would be in favour of waveriding. Or so we thought, because our race director Ian Young from Perth insisted on using the official rulebook, which was different to the info send to riders before the event. Typical KPWT confusion ensued as the race director stuck to the official rules (rightly so, I guess) and was not perturbed by the emails send to riders by the organizers. End result was a freestyle main event held in a wave environment, so if you used the waves you would score more…..

Brian (USA), Ian (Oz), Matt (NZ), Francisco (POR) and Jan (Ger)

Freestylers were happy and waveriders were bummed as it was now a freestyle event, but I was mainly there for the pure waveriding Wavemasters anyway so not too much changed for me.

Sunday was first day of competition and saw us complete a full round of Freestyle (in a wave environment) for both mens and women’s. Wind was side to side off from the left with a 2-3ft wave running onto an easy soft beach break. As per usual event sponsors requested contest site as close to town activities as possible which meant gusty difficult winds for competitors – on this day wind was ranging from 10-25knots in contest area with some serious shifts in direction thrown in. 3 km’s down the beach conditions were perfect…..The freestylers did the best they could and threw all the moves but it was obvious that the conditions were very difficult as landings were often sketchy and no-one was pulling fully powered moves. Surprises of the day were Micka Fernandes (current KPWT Champion from France) going out in quarters totally overpowered on his 8m RRD and Tiago Rocha from Portugal making the final on his Best kite.

Brazil...

Tiago pulled off a variety of tricks in each heat with total disregard for the conditions and was rewarded with a place in the final heat. Thomas Coquelet from France had worked his way through several top names, Charles Deleau, Antoine Jaubert, Antoine Auriol etc and was looking the man on form. In the final he pulled off big air passes whilst Tiago looked content just being there. I got taken out in first round against Brazilian shooting star Reno Romeo, and after trying to jump in those conditions my respect for what these guys are managing to do is considerable…

The girls were impressive too, in the end 11 year old Gisela Poulido of e’Spain took the honours – she is just incredible, kitelooping, flat 3’s and lots of variety.

Monday was spent looking at forecasts promising a bit of wind later in the week as a front moved in. Tuesday had a 15knot frontal wind blowing from the South and we decided to do a downwind speedcrossing. By the time we got to start, the wind was 8-10knots and the contest was dubbed Low-SpeedCrossing and it went ahead – as Ian said: ”It’s the same shit sandwich for everyone..” This sandwich was won by Ruben Salvador from e’Spain ahead of Charles Deleau and Pierre Romain. Pierre was ahead of Charles at the beach, but they had to sprint to a finish line, and whilst Pierre was standing around enjoying his second place, Charles sprinted past him and crossed the finish line. Not attending skippers-meetings can be costly…Gisela took women’s line honours.

Wednesday and Thursday was spent shopping and checking out the local sights, which included shopping in bikini street, a street dedicated to shops selling bikinis only – top entertainment!

Spectators

Friday had a promise of wind building during the day so we started getting amped for the Wavemasters as a 2m swell was to accompany it. We had gone to see the beach were Wavemasters was to be held, Massambamba, and it looked pretty awesome. More KPWT drama ensued as it transpired that Fred had promised sponsors action at the contest site everyday from midday + had arranged for local TV-crew to film second-round finals on the Friday. Jose Luengo, Herve Boure and I went to consult Fred as his undertaking to sponsors killed any hope of a one day Wavemaster event. Organisers final decision was that second-round freestyle would start Friday followed by wave qualification for a Wavemasters final to be held Saturday morning (as we had to back at contest site by noon – remember?). Saturday was last day of event so we were cutting it fine.

Second-chance (losers-round) freestyle was held in perfect waveriding conditions with 2-2.5m waves in perfectly sideshore wind at the contest site. Freestylers did their thing and 15yo Romeo of Brazil took me out again and then proceeded to take out everyone else as well, to score a final against Thomas Coquelet. Romeo was on fire and stuck everything, but Thomas matched him move for move. These guys were doing high handlepasses ending off with a kiteloop each time. First final went to Romeo much to the delight of the Brazililian crowd. To win the event Romeo had to beat Thomas again which he promptly went on to do. The crowd went mad, the frenchies were pissed and I had a good laugh as even the French contest director and photographer got a bit flustered. To make it all even more remarkable was that I see Romeo a couple of hours later with his hand in a caste (see pic) – he had broken his hand in the semi-final! And had still gone on to handlepass his way to a win a USD5,000 cheque– at 15 years old – bloody unreal…..!!!! Gisela also won her second final so now we have 11 and 15yo champs from Cabo Frio…anyone past the age of 20 with aspirations of a freestyle career will have to visit Toren for some pills.….!

Herve looking for a roll

By now it was 4 o’clock and we started the two one hour 10 man heats to decide which 10 riders would do the Wavemasters final Saturday morning. Conditions were the best of the whole week with relatively stable wind of around 20-25knots and plenty of decent 3-4ft waves pulling through. The 20 riders selected for these heats were also not without controversy as 30 guys had entered Wavemasters. Organisers pre-seeded 16 riders based on their previous KPWT participation/results. So 14 riders had a pre-qualifying session the day before in shit conditions which allowed 4 riders through. Luckily I had entered the contest in France last year, and that investment was now repaid as the other guys had to pre-qualify in 8-10knots and ½ a foot of waves….Anyway, the two final qualifier heats were made up by a draw which according to the race director was the fairest way as we didn’t have any comparable results to base a seeding on. Sounded fine until I reminded myself that we had been pre-seeded for the top 16 already – how had they done that if we didn’t have comparable results? So all in all a bit messy, but on with the action.

Micka Fernandes was a clear standout in heat 1, with clean lines, lots of speed and a 360 of the lip back into the wave he won heat one easily on his twin-tip. In heat two Herve Boure (2x Wavemaster World Champion), Jose Luengo of Spain (Tarifa Wave Champ) and some of the Brazillians, particularly Bernado Monteiro and Robert Rosemblit were looking like the guys to beat. Top five were to qualify but I felt pretty comfortable in the conditions and went onto win the heat which was cut short due to lack of light. I was well powered on my 11m and felt like I was kiting any good day at kitebeach in Cape Town. I was just going for the lip on every wave and whilst Jose was getting more airs, he wasn’t landing them too well.

Hats off to the judges, Matt, Jan, Neal and headjudge Francisco – they had been scoring heats for 10 hours straight and only managed to piss off the French.

Final of Brazil Wavemasters was on Saturday at Masambaba at 6.30am. Organisers decided two re-run qualifying heats to give riders a second chance so we’d have 2x 1hour heats and then a 1hour final. Wind was 45 degrees offshore and increasing in strength the whole time, guys in heat one started on 14’s and ended on 9’s. In heat two we were on 7’s. Conditions were tricky to say the least and we were back to the same shit sandwich for everyone as guys were getting pulled off the wave, thru the wave or stalled mid-bottom turn. Waves were insane, 2 -2.5m beachbreak madness breaking fast and hollow, super challenging as the wind hovered from 5knot hindenburger in the shorebreak to solid 35knots + out at the back. Micka Fernandes decided to stay on the beach whilst Herve Boure and Jose Luengo on surfboard strapped directionals were the only two managing to get some decent turns, everyone else looked like beginners. I realized that my board was way to short for the conditions as I’d stall as I ran out of wind half way down the wave. Highlights were a couple of guys getting small tubes and horrendous wipe-outs. I made it thru to the final mainly because of my win from the day before.

Herve showing his signature style

The final was now reduced to 40 minutes because we had to get back to the other beach and be party clowns for the sponsors, so getting waves was going to be critical with 10 guys and 2 girls out in conditions where the waves were beginning to back off. Jose and Herve had their wave selection dialed in and were still by far the best two riders, most guys on the beach would have given the win to Herve, but in the end the judges had 2 to 1 in favour of Jose. My wave selection was a disaster and in the end I came 7th . The riding on the whole was not very impressive as everyone battled with the conditions, some guys just made more of it. Some of the pics came out great as the waves looked epic in the offshore wind, but don’t look forward to the video, this was not a day for progressive riding.

Last event was hangtime back in front of crowd and sponsors at Praia Forte, wind was now solid 40knots, super gusty and 1-2ft windchop for ramps. Thomas Coquelet got 7.7secs and Phillip Richmond of the UK got wipeout of his career, knocking himself out and not knowing where he was until he got to the medical tent. Prize giving was held in front of a crowd of 20 people braving a 6 foot Tsunami sandstorm.

Jose Luengo getting ready for a wipeout

All in all a great experience, Cabo Frio is a lot warmer than the name suggests, the town is quaint and bikini-street is insane. The local organizers, race director and judges all did a great job and on the whole the set-up was really good. Fred has the unenviable task of pleasing sponsors, media and riders in, as always, unpredictable weather conditions and he has to be congratulated for managing to attract sponsors and try and squeeze in some wave action. Just don’t make incompatible promises to sponsors and riders – and please make sure that your rules circulated in press releases actually apply in the contest. Right said Fred.

Peter Petersen getting ready for his heat

Oh, and btw - not one rider was using bow kites.

Next KPWT stop is Perth for Gravity Games 6-9 October, then New Caledonia 20-27 November with final in Cape Town on 13-18 Dec.