New Zealander lands back-to-back crowns amid tougher Big Air competition
New Zealand’s Hugo Wigglesworth won consecutive Hydrofoil Big Air world titles in Sylt, Germany. The 19-year-old acknowledges the level of the discipline is rising rapidly, but for now his focus remains on Big Air Twin-tip. Ahead of winning the Twin-tip Red Bull Qualifier in Taiwan that books his Red Bull King of the Air spot, he told Ian MacKinnon he is sticking with the foil kites he used in the Twin-tip Big Air finale in Mykonos and hopes the judges will give of recognition he feels they deserve.
Ian MacKinnon: Congratulations. You won the GKA Hydrofoil Big Air World Championship, making it back-to-back titles. How does that feel?
Hugo Wigglesworth: Yes, thank you. I feel it’s made my year a success, because I’ve not won anything on the Twin-tip side [so far]. I’ve been struggling on that side. This time round it was a lot harder. The level from the top 10 riders was definitely raised hugely. I had to bring many more new tricks to the competition to get the win.
It makes it more special to do it the second time around. I felt the first title, it was my first event and it felt almost too easy. This time round it feels better because it was much harder to win.
IM: Still, you did seem to have a healthy lead on the scoreboard in many of the heats?
HW: I felt I had the upper hand in many of the heats. Everyone else has the potential to get the scores that I was getting, but I think I was executing a little bit better. It was mostly about the height I was getting, and the take-offs, because I had some extra speed.
IM: Do you feel the other Big Air riders are taking the Hydrofoil discipline more seriously?
HW: I’m not quite sure, to be honest. I was mostly training in New Zealand beforehand. For me, I devoted about as much time to it as the previous year. I put away my twin-tip for about a month and a half before the [Hydrofoil] Big Air comp. I really focused on getting the five tricks that I was going to do in the comp.
IM: Would you like to see more Hydrofoil Big Air events for the world title?
HW: Definitely. Maybe three or four would be pretty cool and if we can have it in 20 knots, which is not too much to ask, we can put on a pretty good show where the twin-tip riders would struggle to put on a good show in that amount of wind.
IM: Would you like to see Charles Brodel [six-time Hydrofoil Big Air world champion] back on the competition scene?
HW: That would be pretty cool. It would definitely help push the level of the other riders and maybe help grow the discipline. He was at the Cold Hawaii Games [in Denmark, in September] doing pretty well. Again the judges didn’t really reward him. Even though he was going higher than anyone else he lost the heat somehow. It’s hard to judge a hydrofoil against a twin-tip. But if he came to Hydrofoil BIg Air events for the GKA that would be cool.
IM: In the twin-tip Big Air finale in Mykonos you used a foil kite. Do you think it gave you an advantage and did you get the recognition you deserved?
HW: I think it gives me a slight advantage. But there are advantages and disadvantages from a foil kite. I think it needs to be recognised on a more level playing field. The advantage is not massive, because it’s more difficult to use. I don’t think I was fully recognised with what I was doing in Mykonos. But I’m going to stick with it for the future.
I think the judging was quite different from [Lords of Tram] in France, where height and distance were rewarded. In Mykonos the emphasis was on explosive kiteloops, perhaps because of where the judges were sitting. In Mykonos they were straight downwind of the riders, whereas in France they were looking from the side. Don’t get me wrong, the judges are doing an amazing job and it’s always going to be hard. But I would say literally all the judges have never looped a foil kite and understand how challenging it is. So it’s hard for them not to have some subconscious bias to the gear they’ve used.
IM: What are your plans for the rest of the season?
HW: I going to Taiwan shortly for the Red Bull Qualifier, which will hopefully get me into the Red Bull King of the Air. Kota is definitely my focus for the rest of the year.
images: Lukas K Stiller