© IWSA/ Robert Hajduk: Luca Franchi takes the lead in the long race

It was a tricky, challenging long distance race that opened the competition at the Ad Ports Group Wingfoil Racing World Cup Abu Dhabi. The whole fleet, men and women, lined up on one start line for an upwind start. 

A year ago, upwind racing was still too difficult in this fledgling, rapidly developing board sport, but the quality of the equipment and the riders’ techniques have come on leaps and bounds since then. The wings are becoming more aerodynamic and the riders are getting fitter. 

IWSA/ Robert Hajduk: Flat water foiling in Al Mirfa

While the winner’s time in the long distance race was just 30 minutes, others in the fleet took a lot longer. And if you don’t think 30 minutes sounds very long, try holding your arms above your head for that length of time!

Reigning Men’s World Champion Mathis Ghio (FRA) found himself struggling to maintain pace on the upwind leg with some of his rivals. “I’m not used to using the harness yet,” he said, “so my arms were taking the strain all the way around the course. It’s not so efficient, not compared with guys like Luca [Franchi, ITA] or Mateo [Dussarps, FRA]. So I was losing a lot of distance on them during the upwind.”

© IWSA/ Robert Hajduk: Knowing which size gear to choose is always tricky

The downwind was a different story. “Fortunately the harness doesn’t help you at all on the downwind and I managed to get into the lead,” Ghio explained. His lead was a double-edged sword, however, as the riders struggled to locate mark No.3 at the bottom of the downwind leg. “I went past the mark and by the time I realised my error and turned around in the right direction, the others had gone past me.”

Ghio recovered to third place by the finish, but the race win went to Luca Franchi with Mateo Dussarps in second. Franchi was pleased with his opening victory in Abu Dhabi. “I’ve been training hard in my home town [Genoa, Italy], but it’s cold there and the water and the wind here is really warm,” said the teenager. “That was a hard race, especially the downwind when the wind went light and you had to keep pumping the board to keep foiling. There was quite a lot of weed too, so I was jumping to miss the weed.”