63 riders from 26 nations gathered to battle in KiteFoil GoldCup Italy

by Ian MacKinnon on 14 Jul 2016 The globe’s fastest kite racers limbered up on the warm, smooth waters of southern Italy in gathering breezes, hours ahead of the first act of the International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) World Championship series.

Sixty-three riders from 26 nations gathered to do battle in the KiteFoil GoldCup in Italy, the first of four scheduled tour stops in the fast-developing “open” hydrofoil discipline, with enthralling racing set for the four coming days.

In a taste of what is to come the 55 men and eight women — all good friends on the beach and bitter foes on the water — tested their latest equipment for sheer speed, and upwind and downwind angles.

Informal knots of racers pushing hard sped around the bay, demonstrating the scorching speed of the kitefoil class and signaling the mouth-watering action bound to unfold over the forthcoming series in forecast building winds.

Among the riders a keen sense of anticipation was also building, eager to see how new and faster iterations of kites, boards and foils will perform. Similarly, all are aware that skill levels and speed across the fleet is tracking a dramatically upward trajectory, even since the European Championships in Sardinia barely two months ago.

The crowds that will gather on Hang Loose Beach at the weekend to witness the scintillating finale of the GoldCup medals series will inevitably be treated to the spectacle of foilers hitting more than 30kts on reaching finishes metres from the shoreline.

The venue framed by Calabria’s sun-drenched rolling hills is a big draw, with riders turning out in greater numbers every year. Hang Loose Beach’s popularity makes it a fitting place to kick-off the tour, proceeding to upcoming stops set for Turkey and South Korea, with the champions crowned in Qatar.

With all racers concentrating solely on foiling, rather that split efforts and training on now-defunct course boards, the gap between the top riders is closing. It promises an exciting and engrossing competition with little room for error.

“At the end of the day we’re seeing that the guys who were top on the race boards are now at the front on foils,” said Spain’s Florian Trittel (Elf/KFA). “Olly [Bridge], Maxime [Nocher] and Rikki [Leccese] are right up there. It’ll be a tough fight with everyone just getting faster and faster.”

Keen to eke out any marginal advantage, most competitors now race on kite lines as short as 15 metres, even on large 15m and 18m foil kites, that afford even more extreme upwind angles. Equally, many have turned up with stiffened hydrofoil masts as long as 1m 10cm, enabling the most acute upwind courses.

“No doubt everyone’s getting faster,” said Austria’s Adrian Geislinger (Flysurfer/Levitaz). “Everyone knows that if you don’t pull off every tack and gybe, you’re out of the race. You don’t have to make them perfect, but you do have to make them.”