GKA Kite World Cup Tarifa: A waiting game for Freestyle division
by Jim Gaunt 3 Jul 04:07 BST
Hot spot, Valdevaqueros in front of the Bibo Beach Club - 2019 GKA Kite World Cup Tarifa © Ydwer van der Heide
The first double event of the GKA Kite World Tour 2019 season began today (Tuesday) at the Kite World Cup Tarifa, which will see both the Freestyle and Kite-Surf discipline riders compete throughout the week. Over 70 riders have registered, so it's a massive week at one of kiteboarding's most important hubs.
First order of business was registration for the Freestyle riders, which saw the field of 31 men and 10 women confirm their participation. Click here to see the Freestyle heavy hitters and new faces at this event.
The event livestream ran for an hour with host Jo Ciastula warming up viewers as the action looked as though it would get imminently under way. As the thermal winds however teased everyone, in the meantime we heard some psychological and training insights from some of the leading contenders for the Freestyle World Titles, including Pippa van Iersel, Stefan Spiessberger, Maxime Chabloz and Rita Arnaus.
Unfortunately day one ended with no action for the Freestyle riders but tomorrow is a new day (still with Poniente wind in the forecast), and the focus will switch to the ever entertaining Kite-Surf world cup riders, with their event registration taking place at 9 - 11am.
So, as this is a combined World Cup event with two disciplines, there are two live event pages and both have a new live ticker with real time text updates, so keep checking those to get yourself in the picture..
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