It’s down to the third day of the event in the beautiful beach of Sotavento and the sun was out once again, warming the competition area. The mandatory riders meeting commenced at 12:30 pm with the strong wind showing no signs of dying down as it packed a sustained speed of 25 – 30 knots. There was a large crowd gathered at the beach cheering for their favorite riders.

Event director Olaf Van Tol went for the continuation of the men’s heats. After more than an hour, the wind slowly died down so the competitors were really struggling to stay upwind in the competition box. The men’s heats lasted until about 2:00 pm so the event director announced a short lunch break while waiting for the wind to come back. After an hour, the wind picked up again but not as strong as it was in the morning and the heats were continued. The riders went on their next larger size kites but it didn’t take long for them to switch back again to their smallest kites as the wind continued to pick up. The day wrapped up around 4:30 in the afternoon.

This phenomenon literally happens every year during the competition where there is at least one day where the wind almost dies down to a point where it’s almost impossible to kite. A little later, the wind picks up speed again and comes back to its full strength or even stronger. When this happens, the wind is super gusty and very hard to kite normally let alone to do any tricks.

After the day’s events, some of the riders decided to stay out on the water to train along with a few judges who also hit the water on kite or windsurf equipment and took advantage of the wind conditions. By 8:00 pm, the wind had almost completely died down.