Tuesday Update – GKA Leucate – Wind Coming Round On the Lagoon

Here: Afternoon update as of 16.00
Further down: Overall event update from earlier today

16.00pm: We were so close to starting you can feel it. There was potential for contestable conditions all day and as yet we’re still looking at about ten knots of wind out on the lagoon here in Leucate, though at times it was gusting a bit more. Some riders got excited enough to pump up and try a few runs.

In any case, if conditions improve enough to be able to make a start today or not, the livestream and some of the race crew are busy moving to prepare at another spot, Port Leucate. The event will definitely run from there tomorrow and Thursday in the stronger southerly conditions that get blocked by the headland here in La Franqui, Leucate. There is still hope for the remaining few hours today, though… 

Good morning everyone on Tuesday 24th. 

This is day four of six in the GKA Freestyle World Cup Leucate event window and we have entered the more serious wind forecast period. Heavy rain overnight fell as predicted and continued through dawn in the early morning. Combined with the surging waves pushing over the sandbank, we have a superb lagoon for potentially brilliant freestyle conditions.

The skipper’s meeting was scheduled for 7am as there was potential for the southeast wind to be in already – however, the reality was a very light wind from the northwest (Tramontane) direction. The wind has since switched to the forecast southerly, though remains light. 

STILL HOPEFUL TO START TODAY

The forecast for the next two days looks good, however, as we are now over halfway through the event period Head Judge Mallory de la Villemarque has announced a reduced heat format to ensure that when the action begins it will be possible to reach a result as efficiently as possible. Here are the details: 

STANDARD FORMAT 

The standard format for the 2019 GKA Freestyle World Cup events is that there are (usually) four riders in a heat who take it in turns to do one trick. Each rider is allowed seven trick attempts in their heat and their four highest scoring tricks from four different trick families count towards their score.

A big screen on the shoreline shows the score for each trick and then shows what the next rider needs to take the lead / win. 

Each rider will have one minute to do their trick, with a countdown timer showing on the big screen. Read more about the 2019 Freestyle events and heat formats here. 

REVISED STRUCTURE 

– The heat ladder will become a single elimination, rather than a dingle. There will still be four riders in the first heats; the lowest two will go straight out of the competition. The top two from each heat will progress. 

– Riders will take it in turns to do their tricks, but they will only get six attempts instead of seven, with their four best tricks counting. 

– As the wind direction is changing for Wednesday and Thursday and looking strong for those days. In anticipation of that the livestream crew have had to set up at a new location to be able to broadcast on those days, so although there will be no livestream today, there will be a superb highlight video if action commences!

Of course all updates will be rapidly firing up on the website and GKA Freestyle social media channels – Instagram / Facebook. 

The official Leucate event page with all assets, images, videos and more is here. 

Men’s New Ladder

Women’s New Ladder

See all the registered riders here.