PKRA Cabarete: Thursday, Day Three: Difficult Mangos in the Singles Finals

Posted Thursday June 28th, 2007

-Stacey Fonas

Beautiful morning. Wind turned on almost exactly at 1 PM: at 12:45, Bruna was about to pump up an 11, by 1 she was ready for a 7. Girls were up first, starting with Bruna and Karolina Winkoska. Bruna rode well, and advanced, as did Gisela over Angela, so in the finals it was again a fight between Gisela and Bruna. For the record, going into this event, Gisela is ranked #1, having won Austria and Italy. Bruna is ranked #2, having won Venezuela, and coming in second in both Austria and Italy.

Bruna, by her own account, had one of the worst heats of her life, but Gisela was having issues of her own ... dropping her kite, losing her board, and seeming to have trouble staying in the competition area. But what she did land was impressive: kite low, well-powered, solid landings ... it could have gone either way. With their usual flair for suspense, the PKRA Officials decided to wait until after the Men's Finals before announcing the winners. Cruel, I tell you, cruel.

Then it was over to the Mens. Ariel "The Little Mermaid" Colniel (DR) beat Mallory Delavillemarque, then it was Alex Soto (DR) against Alvaro Onieva, which was a very nervewracking heat. We don't want the other guy to do bad, we just want Alvaro to do better. Gavin and I were there on the beach ... I was filming, Gav had his camera out ... both of us willing him to land all his tricks ... Come on, Tiger! He was doing super well, landing trick after trick, when halfway through his heat, his board broke.

He motioned to Gav for his other board, landed a stylish kiteloop coming into the shore (on his broken board), took the non-broken board from Gav, and headed back out to complete the heat, winning it in what I think was a 4 to 1 decision from the judges. Almost immediately, he was back on the water in the Winner's Final, against Ariel Colniel. However, on his backup board, on which he's just not that comfortable ... it's slower, for one thing ... he was having some issues out there. Meanwhile, Ariel, on fire, was landing trick after trick after trick ... butt-checked maybe one or two, but I think he pretty much landed everything he threw, cheered on by the substantial Dominican peanut gallery assembled in full force at the water's edge.

According to Laurel Eastman ... who is announcing the event ... Alvaro had a very difficult "mango." I'm not sure what the Spanish word for "heat" is, but it's pronounced something like "monga." It appears that we're going for a decidely "fruit and vegetable" theme at the Cabarete World Tour. Last year during Aaron Hadlow's heat, she announced that the world "champignon" was on the water ... next year, who knows: the riders will be throwing double cucumbers with stylish coconut landings :)

Finally, it was all over, and Laurel called all the riders up to the tower (with a special request, to the chagrin of all the guys, that Bruna please wear her jersey ... "as much as we love to see you in your bikini, please ... all the riders ... wear your jerseys!"), and dragged out announcing the winners as long as possible. If Laurel ever decides to forsake kiting, she will easily be able to get a job on one of those reality shows where, each episode, they knock off one of the participants ... "and the final rose goes to ... well, we'll tell you in just a few minutes, after a short commercial break, from our sponsprs ... "

Finally, news ... quite good for Best: Bruna first for the girls, Alvaro second for the guys. By the way, this is the best Alvaro's done so far in the single eliminations this year. Up until now, he's been knocked out early ... in Venezuela, he was able to fight his way back, coming in second to Hadlow's first, but didn't have the chance to in Austria, when the wind died after the singles, and then finished 13th in Italy (although he DID manage to win the Slider Competition afterwards!).

So congratulations to both Bruna and Alvaro ... awesome job!

Results of the singles:

Womens: 1) Bruna, 2) Gisela, 3) Angela Peral, 4) Karolina Winkoska

Mens 1) Ariel Colniel, 2) Alvarito Onieva, 3) Alex Soto, 4) Mallory Delavillemarque

After that, they released the girls for the day, and the men went on to start the Doubles, but I came back, did some work, then took my kite for a very long swim, since ... most likely ... Bruna and Alvaro won't have to ride again until Saturday. But I just had a look at the results board, now that the day is over, and it looks like both Hadlow and Zoon have started to fight their way back. There's definitely going to be a lot of nail-biting going on during the Finals.