Praia do Forte – Cabo Frio – RJ – Brazil
2 /10 september 2005
Freestyle & Wave – Wave Masters
30,000$ prize money

Gisela Pulido and Thomas Cocquelet winners of the 1st freestyle elimination of the Jim Beam Cabo Frio Kiteboard World Cup!

Beautiful day to kick off the Jim Beam Cabo Frio Kiteboard World Cup, 3rd leg of the 2005 KPWT in Brazil. Indeed, the spot of Praia do Forte has offered us great weather conditions : sunny blue sky, white sand and clear water, but above all some very strong wind, blowing side-off shore with an average strength of 30 knots.

Nothing less required to directly launch the main freestyle event, composed of a 26 men and a 7 women competition boards, within which a variety of riders, both in terms of nationalites – 12 countries represented - and styles – we have the pleasure to host some of the best pro international wave riders and freestylers.

The all of them gathered this morning at 10 am for the first skippers meeting. No sooner had the general competition guidelines been detailed that we started with the first men ladder, composed of 16 heats of 2 riders, among whom 6 riders directly qualified for the second round : Mickael Fernandez (FR), the present KPWT leader; Antoine Auriol (FR) and Charles Deleau (FR), 2nd equal in the world ranking; the italian Stefano Maselli, ranked 4th, Thomas Coquelet (FR), ranked 5th, and Ruben Salvador (SP), 6th place of the overall 2005 KPWT ranking to date.

Despite the harsh conditions Рgusty wind reaching some 40 knots! Рwe went through the first round quite smoothly. Among the winners of this round, some french, like S̩bastien Garat (FR), Pierre Romain, Herv̩ Bour̩ and Antoine Jaubert. They will meet the brazilian leader Guillerme Brandao and his compatriot Reno Romeu, Tiago Rocha and Nuno Figueiredo from Portugal and the spanish Jose Luengo, newcomer on the KPWT this year.

The secound round was somewhat more epic, and brought many surprises : Indeed, the KWT leaders were eliminated by outsiders, starting with the 2004 World Champion Mickael Fernandez who had a hard time face to Sébastien Garat, with 45 knots of wind during his heat, then it was Charles Deleau’s turn to get eliminated by Ivan Vergel, before Stefano Maselli defeat face to Jose Luengo, and in the end Antoine Auriol was eliminated by Tiago Rocha.
Pierre Romain, Hervé Bouré and Antoine Jaubert also made it to the quarter finals, but we have to admit that this round proved even more difficult for all the riders who were really destabilized by the gusty and strong wind that didn’t enable them to perform all their tricks as smoothly and technically as usual.





And this lasted all along the day to the final; Sébastien Garat and Thomas Cocquelet finally eliminated Pierre Romain and Jose Luengo; Hervé Bouré will on his side meet Tiago Rocha during the semi-finals.

To conclude, the good surprises of the day basically came from Tiago Rocha and Thomas Cocquelet, who made their way to the winner final; They both managed to perform high and smooth jumps, yet Thomas Cocquelet showed more powerful and won the final.

On the women side the story was not that easy neither; We had some 7 women for the first round, the spanish Noelia Nunez, present leader of the world KPWT ranking being pre-qualified for the secound round.
Three Brazilian women, Carol Freitas, Bia Lopes and Vanessa Soares, where representing their country, but the brazilian current N° 1 Carol Freitas was the only to reach the semi-finals, during which she lost face to Gisela Pulido. The young spanish rider was indeed in one of her best day : despite the conditions she pulled some good powerful tricks and her constancy finally brought her the victory during her heat vs Julie Simsar. On her side, Julie the franco-turkish rider who won the last KPWT stage in Turkey eliminated Noelia Nunez, who met Carol Freitas and won during the loser final.

Freestyle first elimination men ranking :
1st : 1000pts Thomas Cocquelet (FR) - Cabrinha, Sooruz, RSC, Julbo, Axel"Air
2nd : 800 pts : Tiago Rocha (Por) - XKLAM, Bestkiteboarding, Gheisa
3rd : 700 pts : Sébastien Garat (FR) - RRD, Cool Tracks, Mystic, Axel Air
4th : 640 pts : Hervé Bouré (FR) - Takoon, Jeep, Reef, Sola, Smith, Sport away

Freestyle first elimination women ranking :
1st : 1000pts Gisela Pulido (SP) - Airush, Rip Curl, Shapes, Dakine
2nd : 800 pts : Julie Simsar (Tur) - Flexifoil, Kronic Kiteboard, Dakine
3rd : 700 pts : Carol Freitas (Br) - Oi, Vandals (Wipika),Redley, Zoobees, Kaenon
4th : 640 pts : Noelia Nunez (SP) – Airush, Nomad, Nikita


Thrilling programme for tomorrow as well, with the Wave Masters session most riders are longing for, and that will take place in the famous wave spot of Massambaba, where the forecast is announcing wind and waves for early morning.