Wingfoil World Tour Taiba, Brazil Day 01 and Day 02
Day one and Two at the GWA Wingfoil World Cup Taiba 2022, Brazil. This is the final event of the year on the Wingfoil World Tour for both disciplines Surf-Freestyle and Surf-Slalom. The World Champion Titles left to be decided these days in Brazil.
Paula Novotna won her first world title already before this event.
41 men and 14 women are signed up for the event. Let’s get ready for a few action packed days at the Wingfoil World Tour Taiba.
What happened so far?
Highlights Wingfoil World Tour Taiba, Brazil Day 01
The men’s surf-freestylers were first to play and the other fleets were released for the day. Full focus turned to the shoreline and one of the most challenging competition environments seen on tour this year.
As this is the final round with the world championships on the line, there are a number of grudge battles to come, but the early rounds saw the higher seeded riders mostly proceed safe and sound directly from round one into round three.
In Balz Muller’s absence at this event, the tour’s second ranked rider, Venezuelan highly decorated windsurfing world champion, Gollito Estredo, holds the points lead and will be aiming to fend off the advances of riders like Malo Guenole, who has the best chance of catching him.
The French teen put on the performance of the day in round one, making his intentions clear by showing an incredible comfort in the conditions. Malo really does have the full riding package of progressive wave riding and aggressive freestyle.
Christopher MacDonald’s chances of taking the title are a little more complicated, but if either of those two guys trip up, the young American will always be ready to take advantage.
Highlights Day 02 Wingfoil World Tour Taiba, Brazil
Seven of the eight men in the upcoming quarter-finals hail from France (or New Caledonia in Titouan’s case) as Gollito makes a shock exit. Scroll down to to also read about the start to the women’s contest that happened late on day two.
Rejoining the contest at the round three stage, every heat on day two was a battle to stay in the competition. Once again we had solid wind and waves that made for heats of high energy and entertainment.
Nerves were tested with several important moments in the men’s surf-freestyle championship throughout the day.
Malo blasted through round three with the highest heat score of the day (23.93) against Luca Gasperini.
It was all eyes onto Malo’s heat. If he lost, Gollito would already be World Champion. As the tour leader looked on from the beach, Malo came through a few wobbles on early waves to once again dominate the heat in both wave and freestyle performance, posting a heat score of 20.23 that was second only on the day to his own round three heat tally.
But the biggest news of the day is that tour leader Gollito Estredo was then ejected from the competition at the end of round four.
Getting stuck on the inside against Clement Hamon didn’t help Gollito’s score as the French 14 year-old took advantage of the Venezuelan’s mistakes.
Estredo must now sit on the sidelines and hope that Malo Guenole will not make it to first or second place in the event.
Should Malo only make it to third place, the title will still be Gollito’s.
Women’s Freestyle kick-off
The day ended with the women finally getting on the water after a long wait to get through their round one heats.
Flora Artzner got the women off to a flying start with some beautifully fluid wave rides to achieve a commanding win. Nia Suardiaz then nailed the highest score of 19.07 in the following heat.
Bowien van der Linden also won before Paula Novotna – who is already World Champion; cruised through her heat to close out another amazing day of action here in Taiba.
The winners advanced to round three, while the second and third placed finishers will ride again in round two.
Words, Images and Videos by GWA Wingfoil World Tour.
