Johnny Heineken leads KiteFoil GoldCup 2014 tour

Published on August 17th, 2014

The best Kitefoilers of the world from 15 nations traveled up the Engadin in Switzerland for the second stop of the KiteFoil GoldCup world tour on August 11-14.

The event took place on beautiful lake Silvaplana, St Moritz, a mecca for skiers in winter and at 1,800 meters above sea level, a stunning crystal clear blue lake that attracts world class sailing and windsurfing events and now kites.

The opening series saw 9 races for the yellow and green group on the Lake Silvaplana. Winner with seven victories is the vice World champion from the US Johnny Heineken. In second place is the actual European Champion and winner of the last year’s Engadin marathon Olly Bridge from Great Britain. At the 3rd Place finished Nicolas Parlier, France with the same score but less victory races.

The best woman is the current European Champion Steph Bridge from Great Britain. The Bridge Family is one more time really successful at that KiteFoil GoldCup.

Rain and no wind plagued the penultimate day, but the skies cleared and it started to look promising for some decent competition on the final day. But first the direction had to turn from the south-west to be able to set a course.

Unfortunately the wind didn’t switch around, so the race committee had to pull the plug. The previous results stick which makes Johnny Heineken winner of this second stop of the KiteFoil GoldCup across three continents.

“This event marked a big shift for the foil fleet as the big performance jump was not under the water but in the sky,” said Heineken. “Nearly everyone showed up with parafoil kites (gotta love not touching a pump all week), and those who didn’t wish they had! The wind on the lake seemed to cycle from 8-15 knots and my 15m Chrono was the perfect kite to cover this range. In the puffs the thing locks in and shoots forward without dragging me sideways, but it has the grunt to get me through the lulls also. And downwind…well…I passed a few people.”

The KiteFoil GoldCup now heads to what is expected to be a windier final tour stop in Townsville, Australia on September 25-October 1. Heineken holds a small lead going into the final event, but anything can happen in the tour standings which determine the KiteFoil World Champion.