While the women's world title race has already been decided, with Czech Paula Novotna being crowned world champion, the men's race is still wide open. With Balz Müller, one of the top favourites, not taking part in Taiba, Gollito Estredo, Malo Guénolé, Chris Macdonald and Xavi Corr are among the favourites to win the event and the overall title - they have all already won World Cup events.
A total of 33 men and 14 women will be competing in surf freestyle in Taiba. Taiba is considered a challenging spot for this discipline due to the rather unsorted and powerful waves, where wave rides and freestyle tricks count equally towards the score.
Taiba is not the easiest spot. The local repair shop had a lot to do in the days leading up to the event.
Xavi Corr's ambitions of victory were unexpectedly thwarted by Brazilian local Kauli Seadi, former windsurfing world champion in the freestyle and wave disciplines - Seadi sent Corr to the beach in round 1. By contrast, all the other favourites progressed to the third round with relative ease. The best impression was made by Frenchman Malo Guénolé, who not only has all the freestyle tricks in his portfolio, but also stood out with his extremely fluid wave rides.
As the wind forecast promises plenty of action in the coming days, the title race will soon pick up speed. And the freestyle ladies and the participants in the surf race discipline will also get involved in the action over the course of the week.
Tough duels are also expected in the surf race, with the New Caledonian Titouan Galea currently just ahead of the Italian Francesco Cappuzzo and the Frenchman Camille Bouyer. You can also find more information about the event HERE on the GWA website, all videos and news are of course also available here on a daily basis!
Stay tuned!
Manuel Vogel
Editor surf
