Last week the 1st Formula Kite Kitefoil European Championship took place on Poetto Beach in Cagliari, Italy. This European Championship is the first championship that the Formula class does on the kite hydrofoil, switching over from the ‘classic’ raceboards, which has now become an official Formula class, which means the competition is done on official serial production equipment.
Most of the competitors arrived early to train and prepare for the event. The FLYSURFER team consisting of Florian Gruber, Adrian Geislinger, Marvin Baumeister-Schoenian, Martin Dolenc, Simone Vanucci and Blazej Ozog found gnarly offshore conditions with over 30knots the days prior to the event training overpowered on the 9m SONIC FR. To get used to the conditions and get up to speed with each other.
When the official event started it became a bit of a battle of survival during the races with very gusty and shifty winds (we saw 60 degrees wind shifts on the race course). Lots of times the racing was a bit of gamble when choosing the right shifts and gusts around the course. The team fought hard on their 11m SONIC-FR kites which were stable and strong in the demanding conditions.
The whole FLYSURFER team made it into the Gold Fleet and continued to improve their rankings every day. Florian Gruber and Martin Dolenc seemed to handle the challenging conditions the best showing some very good results and performances.
The last 2 days of racing finally provided the normal Sardinian summer seabreeze and everybody was relieved to have stable winds using 15-18m closed-cell foilkites. The SONIC FR performance was especially good in these winds and the team put on a great show with some tight battles and solid results in the Medal and Gold Fleets.
Overall the event was a great success for FLYSURFER Kiteboarding with good results and a great vibe on the beach for the team and with 5 FLYSURFER riders in the overall top 11. Marvin Baumeister was crowned European Championship in the Master (>35) class and Martin Dolenc becoming 2nd in the Junior (<18) category, and 5th overall, we congratulate them and the rest of the team for their solid performance!
Now everybody is preparing for the upcoming events in Gizzeria, San Francisco and Mauritius. We look forward to more racing!
FORMULA KITE & KITEFOIL MEN OVERALL
1. Maxime Nocher (MON)
2. Olly Bridge (GBR)
3. Florian Trittel (ESP)
MASTER
1. Marvin Baumeister (GER) – FLYSURFER
2. Ivan Doronin (RUS)
3. James Johnsen (DEN)
U 18
1. Toni Vodisek (SLO)
2. Martin Dolenc (CRO) – FLYSURFER
3. Tomasz Glazik (POL)