LIVETICKER DAY 1 (BRT | GMT-3)

Current discipline: Kite-Surf
Judging Criteria: Strapless Freestyle – 10 trick attempts, best 5 scores count from different trick families
Format: Single elimination – 8 minute heats / 3 minute transition
Wind: 20+ knots: Riders on 9 and 10m kites 
Waves: Flat water  

Note: This liveticker automatically updates every couple of minutes if ticker is online! You’ll find the live heats and ladders by scrolling down this page.

To check out the full scores and tricks in each heat, click here.

Wednesday 13th November
Report: Jim Gaunt

Podium quotes: 

Mitu: “So nice to be here and I have so much support, I feel so at home. I’m going to go for it in the double elimination!”

Camille: “I’m super happy to compete in such a great event at my home spot. Such a cool vibe on the beach!”

James: “Yeah mate, I’m pretty stoked. I had a goal to be on the podium, but I think some of these boys are going to be coming back with a vengeance.”

Airton: “You know how I feel man. It’s not easy to do the boogie loop, I’ve been trying for years and I did it today for only the second time. Somehow I did it in competition, it’s funny. I’ve been watching Aaron and Ruben do them and I really wanted to do it strapless. Congrats to everyone today and I’m super stoked for this win, woo!”

17.10 – Heat 19: Single Elimination Final: Airton Cozzolino (CV) V James Carew (AUS)

Both riders got off to a flier, Airton edging it on the first trick with an 8.17 for a board-off innovation the the judges are yet to name!

James racked up a couple of very difficult tricks in quick succession, including that radical switch toeside three of his. He then smashed out a massive kite loop rodeo.

The risk and height factor was higher than we saw in the mini-final and these guys well deserving of being in the final today. No crashes after 4 tricks: 22.87 to 24.91 to Airton. Close!

Airton continued to put numbers on the scoreboard, even when he wasn’t getting his usual height; his consistent ability to find the landings is why he is a four time world champion.

He popped for the 313, but didn’t find the momentum for the rotation, so just landed, turned away and would try again.

James rides with so much speed and power into everything. He was relying on height and power, but Airton had moved ahead to 33.48, but had two more trick attempts done than James. James had four crashes and could only afford one more, but he still had space for two more tricks in his five-trick score. He landed a big kite loop rodeo, but just ended up a bit in front of his kite, a 7.7 a fair reward.

James had a big back roll rodeo kite loop attempt, but didn’t make it.

We saw James post a 313 on social media this week, could he do one… and as I write that Airton landed one of the biggest 313s we have EVER seen. ANOTHER TEN POINT SCORE.

The crowd shouted for James. He still needed a fifth score. Ten seconds to go, James went for it and almost got it. He touched his toes down but was just pulled off the board with his kite high and landed right next to Airton! Airton went straight over to him to congratulate him. They high five’d in the water. Airton just loves it when his competitors try to follow him!

So it’s a single elimination win for Airton, but another great heat: 38.81 versus 29.74.

16.50: Heat 17 – Mini Final: Camille Delannoy (FRA) V Mitu Monteiro (CV)

A fight for third place in the single elimination, but there’s a lot riding on this for Mitu who is ranked in second and trying to fend off James Carew for the runner-up position on the end of season podium. James has made it to the final, so it’s important for Mitu to take this one to give him less to do in the double elimination.

Camille though is riding the best he has all season.

Three tricks each and both riders were over 20 points and no crashes. This was on between the F-One team mates. Camille just edging it 23.07 v 20.66, Camille’s best trick an 8.07 for a front roll tick tack.

Mitu went ahead after his sixth trick and still both riders were yet to crash, but Camille was one trick attempt behind. 31.22 to 29.

Mitu then crashed a back roll tick tack on his seventh attempt. Camille crashed his fifth trick attempt. Surely his score was still going to go up when he got his fifth score.

Two crashes each with three minutes to go but Camille was still to register his fifth trick score. Both riders landed back roll kite loops at the same time! Mitu’s looked more powered though… he really didn’t want to let James Carew take an advantage and was fighting hard… but that kite loop back roll took Camille into the lead as it was the fifth trick he was waiting for: 34.22 versus 32.62.

Mitu had one trick left… he landed a double front switch and then Camille moments later landed a double front tick tack (so an extra 180 in his board spin in the hands), scoring an 8.93. He was up to 36.06, Mitu on 33.05.

Camille wins and finishes third in the single elimination. Mitu is fourth: 36.06 V 33.05.

16.30: Heat 16B: SF2 – Airton Cozzolino (CV) V Camille Delannoy (FRA)

A rematch of both the Prea single elimination last year (that Camille won) and then Airton went on to beat Camille twice in the double elimination final and super final. Both riders broke the 50 point mark last year (but there were fewer trick attempt limits last year and more tricks counting)!

Airton has started his heats in the same way and this time stuck his front roll tick tack cleanly at the first time of asking. That’s ominous.

Five tricks in for Airton, on his 10m, no crashes and 33.2 points. Wow, so sharp. The slow-mo really treating us to the intricate details of all his tricks.

Camille on his 11m, going for power, getting pretty good scores, but carrying two crashes, but that’s ok, as long as he gets five good tricks from different tricks families from ten attempts – that’s what counts

We saw Camille was capable of a triple front roll last year and he’s landed two double front roll shuvits today already, so he could do it…

But Airton, still without a crash after 7 tricks, smashed out another 313, with a big smile on his face and cruised close to the shoreline to carve back out, waving at a dog. Unbelievable! A 9 point score.

But that wasn’t the end… he came in, popped hard, went to the skies, put the board between his legs, dropped his shoulders into a very inverted front roll and pulled his kite into a deep and powerful back roll. A massive boogie loop, strapless, powered, huge… that’s a very scary trick… and rightly gets a 10! Ridiculous. No crashes.

Airton’s top five tricks:
8.7 – front roll tick tack rodeo
7.93 – back roll tick tack
8.4 – Back roll tick tack flip
9 – 313 (frontside 3 – handless)
10 – Kite loop front roll rodeo (aka: Boogie loop)
44.03 points.

By the way Camille finished on a very fine 33.76, but Airton wins and will meet James Carew in the final – 44.03 points.

16.20 – Heat 16A: SF1 – Mitu Monteiro V James Carew

Mitu was under pressure on his third trick after two crashes with James already having two good tricks on the board. The Cape Verdean found his groove with a double front roll rodeo and then a massive floaty back roll to tighten the score.

This was always going to be a tight heat this all day long. James had already registered a backroll tick tack with a board flip and a back roll tick tack rodeo, ticking two big trick boxes with variations of a difficult move.

But Mitu fought on and managed to just stretch his finger tips to catch his board way up high and rescued the landing – so exciting to watch these big tricks unfold throughout.

26.5 to 22.3 in James’ favour and this is big match-up with both riders fighting for the second place on the end of season podium.

Suddenly Mitu was up to 28.13 to 26.5 with a double front roll. But then James came straight back with his best technical trick, a toeside front shuvit 3, right at the end, getting 8.6 and surely the tour’s most improved rider for the last two years took it!

James into the final: 35.1 against Mitu’s 28.13

Semi Finals:
Mitu Monteiro V James Carew
Camille Delannoy V Airton Cozzolino

16.08: Heat 14B: QF4 – Anderson Reboucas (BRA) V Airton Cozzolino (CV)

Even Matchu on the livestream says what Airton does is so complicated and takes some watching to really understand what he’s doing when he tried his front roll rodeo kite loop with a tick tack, crashing into chop.

The wind conditions are perfect for strapless freestyle but the chop just catching him out.

What can’t Airton do? His kite control is just so unbelievable throughout all the twists, turns and flips.

Anderson Reboucas was working hard, landing a back roll tick tack with a flip, showing a lot of hours of practice and practice paying off.

But it’s very hard to monitor what Airton’s doing because he does everything in his own way. Just when you’re writing him off for a crash he slips the board under his feet and rides away totally cool.

Double front roll rodeo with a tick tack and landing with a kite loop? Done.

Anderson only landed four tricks but ended up with an impressive 25.77 nonetheless, so it’s a shame he couldn’t stick a couple more big ones.

And you guessed it, a 313 at the end for Airton getting 9.57, highest trick score of the day. He’s into the semis.

Airton wins 31.33 versus 25.77

15.45 – Heat 14A: QF3 Pedro Matos (BRA) V Camille Delannoy (FRA)

These guys have both been sharp today, with Camille landing a double front tick tack, not seen in competition before, while Pedro has been stacking immensely high heat scores.

Pedro’s toeside 5 was fantastic, one of the hardest tricks on our at the moment, getting 7.83, but Camille had streaked up to 34.14 versus Pedro on 24.73. Pedro then made a back roll with a triple tick tack, which was crazy, but had barely any speed on landing and a big butt check.

Wow, Camille got another double front roll tick tack cleanly. The second time we’ve seen it now in competition. We saw him stomping triple front rolls last year to reach second spot on the podium and this year he’s tweaked the double front roll to at the board spin, and gets a 9!

Camille wins and goes through to semis, 36.64 versus 26.17

15.30 – Heat 13B: QF2 Mitu Monteiro (CV) V Reece Myerscough (CAN)

Mitu opted to go big with his 12m kite with other riders on tens, so he was going big, but not quite finding his usual flow. Three tricks took him up to 20.26 against Reece’s 13.77.

Reece’s innovative double back roll with a board flip at the end looking really good.

Mitu decided to drop down a kite size with a couple of minutes left, still on half the points that Airton got in his first heat, but fortunately for Mitu Reece was crashing more than we’ve seen him do recently… and there it was, on the right kite size, Mitu immediately slipped into gear on his 10 metre getting a 7.3 for his double front roll. He’s carrying a slight foot injury, but he’s managing his performance and making it through!

Mitu wins and is through to the semi final, 32.89 V 17.04

15.20 – Heat 13A: QF1 Simon Joosten (BAR) V James Carew (AUS)

The afternoon wind filling in nicely now and these two going very high indeed. A big back roll tick tack flip gave him a 7.67 and was his third scoring trick on his fourth attempt and then a 7.5 scoring big kite loop rodeo put him on a healthy 28.41 versus Simon’s 18.66.

So a lot to do for Simon by that point and already only had two attempts left. Could he get two 5 point scores? He went for a kite loop board off, he got it, but in the meantime James landed a big back roll tick-tack perfectly, moving further ahead to 38.07 average. That’s big and second only to Airton in the last heat.

James wins 38.07 to 27.89

15.11 – Quarter finals coming up! 

Last heat of round two
15.10: Heat 12B: Airton Cozzolino (CV) V Pedro Afonso (POR)

Whoa, he’s been here a couple of weeks and it shows, Airton landing a backroll tick-tack and then a front roll tick-tack, shooting up to 13.8 from two attempts. Second attempt at another huge front roll rodeo into a tick tack, he landed on top of a bit of shore break but just cruised through it. The way his tricks unfold through the sky is just unbelievable.

Several times he came scorching in super hot after a kite loop and where others would have exploded, Airton somehow rides it out on his back, still in touch with the board. He managed to juggle the board while still flying so fast through the air off his kite loop.

And to seal the deal he landed his very special 313. Incredible even if he was in bindings. A 9.23 for that one.

Pedro meanwhile had a 14.2 from three tricks, including a nice back roll tick-tack, but had to push too hard on his kite loops and had six crashes, meaning he reached ten trick attempts.

Airton just kept pushing higher and higher and more and more powerful. His awareness, balance and bravery is something else. He never just does enough to go through. He just loves to put on the show!

A massive 40.34 to Airton versus 14.2 for Pedro.

15.00: Heat 12A: Emmanuel Sousa (BRA) V Anderson Reboucas (BRA)
A big Brazilian battle with two riders who you’re probably not familiar with, but Reboucas has been with us all season. Sousa was so impressive at this event last year, coming from Paracuru he has some great moves.

But in the end Anderson barely put a foot wrong, slowly building his heat as this new ten trick limit requires, waiting until the end to really push the big ones. A 6.04 back roll flip his high score on his second trick, but this was a rapid fire heat with both riders up to ten tricks still with two minutes left in the heat. Anderson’s eleventh trick, a huge and powerful back roll kite loop didn’t count as was outside of the ten tricks.

It was close at the end!

Reboucas wins 21.66 V 21.12

14.50: Heat 11B:Jan Marcos Rivers (DR) V Camille Delannoy (FRA)

Jan Marcos fighting for the overall podium on tour (ranked 4th) had a struggle against last year’s runner-up in Brazil, Camille Delannoy.

JMR executed his usual inverted huge front rolls, but Camille’s double front roll tick tack got a 9.0 – biggest trick of the day. The Frenchman found his form again here after a disappointing season by his standards with some injuries.

Camille kept everything tight and threw in a little variation on a back roll kite loop by making a one footer. Another front roll tick tack rodeo took him up to 37.7 versus 20.63, where it stayed, with JMR taking a few big kite loop tick tack attempt crashes.

Camille wins 37.7 to 20.63. 

14.40 – Heat 11A: Pedro Matos (BRA) V Alan Trancard (GUA)
Although Pedro’s heart is in the waves, and’s he’s a new school slayer, his step up this season to a big variety of moves has been amazing. Powerful and stylish, his tick tack board spin, flips and rodeo variations stacking the points for him during his high airs – something that Alan couldn’t keep up with, though he did show some super stylish, tweaked and floaty back rolls before an impressive front roll board off with a tick-tack and a flip right at the end.

You can just see how well riders are performing in these windy, smooth conditions.

Pedro’s front roll shuvit is nicely locked down and taking only one or two attempts each heat to get. With some minutes still to go he had the highest heat score so far of 35.96 with three trick attempts left.

35.96 victory for Pedro versus 24.14 for Alan.

14.30 – Heat 10B: Mitu Monteiro (CV) V Luke Millard (AUS)
So good to watch Mitu Monteiro glide majestically around a massive tip over tip back roll, staying inverted for so long, showing why he is the original master of strapless.

Luke Millard was up against it from the start as Mitu was up to over 20 points pretty quickly. A double front roll to switch ending things very cooly for Mitu for a 7.07.

Mitu wins 30.46 to 13.73

14.20 – Heat 10A: Reece Myerscough (CAN) V Kiko Roig (ESP)
Reece said he had to land every single trick in his book! 

He says this tighter ten trick limit is more difficult because sometimes it takes him a couple of attempts to land his hard tricks. So while it’s good for the tight competition, it does mean that perhaps the drive to go for innovative trick attempts is less appealing.

Kiko gave it everything and scored a really big 31.2 (second biggest score of the day), including a 7.23 for his front roll tick-tack. But Reece powered to the highest score with 32.26, taking the win on the buzzer with a double front roll, ticking that category for him.

Reece: 32.26 wins against 31.2 for Kiko.

14.15 – Heat 09B: James Carew (AUS) V Graham Harney (CAN)
Best heat of the day so far!

Graham landing clean tricks. Rodeo flips and kite loops. Graham performing to the absolute top of his level!

James though just going massive! Surely the most improved strapless freestyler in the last two years. The back roll tick tick flip was huge and clean but the shut at the apex is just sublime and huge.

James had some big crashes from kite loops and even blew out the seam on his board shorts!

James by far the higher ranked rider but started crashing on two front roll shuvits, Graham overtook him halfway through the heat.

The slow mo’s really showing the calmness at height for James as he re-adjusts his grip on the board before flipping. Gonna be a great event in that respect for slow mo’s, but in the closing moments Graham 23,57 ahead against 20.9. James with just one trick attempt left.

James came in right at the end of the heat, big back roll with the shuvit then put the board between his legs, took his hand off (so it moves into the rodeo category and will count as a new trick) and lands smoothly. He’s through to the next round by the skin of his teeth, but congrats to Graham Harney on what must be his best heat of the season. In the end that last trick got a big 7.73, scoring 28.63 for James to 23.57.

14.00 – Heat 09A: Simon Joosten V Nicola Abadjiev
A battle of huge floaty and controlled front and back roll variations. Barbadian Simon Joosten once again showing his kite loop control and super clean landings. Nicola rode one of his best heats all season, but misses out 26.03 to 22.96. 

13.49 – START OF ROUND TWO 

13.30 – Single elimination round one complete: 

Heat 07a saw Francesco Cappuzzo go out surprisingly to local Emmanuel Sousa, before in Heat 08a Anderson Reboucas completes his first full year on tour with a good win on this first day in Prea against another Brazilian, Francisco Dionatan.

Heat 08b wrapped up round one with Pedro Afonso from Portugal claiming a arrow 11.22 to 9.4 win over Kelton Lopes from Cape Verde.

13.00 – Further updates from heats 03b through 06b:
Young Spaniard Kiko Roig took out multiple windsurfing freestyle world champion Gollito Estredo from Venezuela. Kiko with an awesome front roll tick-tack, a key move on tour, setting the tone for him.

Australian Luke Millard benefitted from his opponent Moroccan Mohammed Mansour going beyond his ten trick attempts before the end of the heat and only having scored 7.04 for his five best tricks.

Brazilian Pedro Matos (ranked 5th) had the best performance so far against Italian Luca Gasperini, gaining a high heat score of 29.82, including some epic tricks: front shuvit, double back roll tick and top of the tree a switch stance double front, getting an 8.27.

Alan Trancart who lives down the road in Icaraizinho was pleased to go through against young Cape Verdean hotshot Arsenio Dias, who suffered through the tight trick limit and was quickly tricked-out on 20.54 points; Alan pushing through with a commendable 23.06 total.

Domincan hero Jan Marcos Riveras stormed through heat 06a against local Marcos Araujo with his typical high altitude ease.

And does anyone remember who won the single elimination last year and eventually finished second overall at the end of the event? Yes, French rider Camille Delannoy whose family lives right here. He’s doing it again against Brazilian Rafael da Costa (who had a great event last year) and after a difficult year on tour this year with injuries Camille landed a series of high scoring moves, including two of his trade mark double front rolls. He finished on 24.2 for the heat versus 19.9 for Rafael.

So the winners are through to round two, the losers of those heats will be back when we start the double elimination for a second chance.

11.45 – Winning their first rounds heats so far, Simon Joosten from Barbados demonstrated his continually big and smooth back roll variations before fellow tour regulars Nicola Abadjiev, Graham Harney and Reece Mysercough also followed him through. Really notable was a very special double back roll from Reece which is new, and with a really stylish whip through his second roll. 

10:50am – Good morning everyone and welcome to Day 1 of the GKA Kite-Surf World Cup Prea 2019. The livestream is about to start and the men’s single elimination heats soon after. Scroll down this page for the stream, live heat scores, ladders and more!