2023 Lords of Tram GKA Big Air Kite World Cup Barcares

“It’s all about that feeling on the way up: do you have the right takeoff, do you have the right tension in your lines, is it time to pull that loop and really send it around? So it’s just like, no different than a spaceship really—you’ve got to abort on the way up if it ain’t going no good on the way up, you’ve got to abort it.”

— Ruben Lenten

Overview

Location and Conditions: The Cold Tramontana Gale of Le Barcarès

Staged on the coastal lagoon of Étang de Leucate at Port-Barcarès just north of Perpignan, the venue is famous for the northwesterly “Tramontana” wind—cold mountain air rushing down from the snow-capped Pyrenees toward the warmer Mediterranean.
Because the competition takes place on the protected lagoon rather than the open sea, riders enjoy butter-flat to small-chop takeoff water even in 40+ knot cross-offshore winds, allowing for massive edge loading, 20+ meter boosts, and over 200 meters of hangtime distance.

Format and Competitors: One-at-a-Time Sequence Format

To prevent mid-air collisions in the compact takeoff zone and ensure accurate judging, heats utilized Lords of Tram’s signature “one-by-one sequence format,” with riders taking turns in the box on flag signals.
Each athlete had seven trick attempts, with their best three scores from distinct trick families counting toward a 30-point maximum total. Live Surfr. app telemetry displayed jump height, distance, and hangtime on the broadcast alongside commentary from Lewis Crathern, Megaloop pioneer Ruben Lenten, and five-time World Champion Aaron Hadlow.

The draw featured 24 men and 12 women.
The men’s fleet was led by 18-year-old reigning GKA Big Air World Champion and 2022 Lords of Tram winner Andrea Principi (Italy), 2022 World Championship runner-up Liam Whaley (Spain), newly crowned 17-year-old Red Bull King of the Air champion Lorenzo Casati (Italy, making his debut on Cabrinha kites), double-loop pioneer Giel Vlugt (Netherlands), 16-year-old Dutch prodigy Jamie Overbeek, legends Aaron Hadlow (UK) and Marc Jacobs (New Zealand), and French contenders Edgar Ulrich, Arthur Guillebert, and Clément Huot.
The women’s fleet was headlined by 18-year-old reigning World Champion Mikaili Sol, French powerhouse Angely Bouillot, 2022 vice-champion Zara Hoogenraad (Netherlands), Nathalie Lambrecht (Sweden), Francesca Maini (UK), and Karlie Thoma (USA / Hawaii).

Highlights and Epic Battles

1. Day 1: Angely Bouillot’s 9.00-Point Boost, a Disqualification Drama, and 50-Knot Abandonment
Day 1 (April 1) kicked off with the women’s division as winds rapidly escalated from 25 knots to 45–50 knots.
In Round 1 Heat 1, Mikaili Sol stomped an 8.03-point “Kiteloop Backroll” on an overpowered 6-meter kite to defeat local favorite Angely Bouillot.
Rebounding through Round 2, Angely Bouillot met 2022 World Championship runner-up Zara Hoogenraad in a quarterfinal firework display: while Zara Hoogenraad landed an 8.43-point “Kiteloop Backroll” (18.40 total), Angely Bouillot answered with a 9.00-point “Kite Loop Board Off” to advance with 21.26 points.
In another quarterfinal, Karlie Thoma suffered an accidental quick-release in a violent gust against Francesca Maini and was disqualified under GKA rules after receiving jet-ski assistance to retrieve her gear. Meanwhile, Sweden’s Nathalie Lambrecht held down an overpowered 7-meter kite to stomp an 8.37-point “Boogie Loop” against France’s Johanna Disdier, joining Mikaili Sol in the final four.

“That ‘boogie loop’ made my heat. Otherwise I would have been struggling. I was a bit overpowered on my 7m2. I don’t know how I managed to land it with so much speed, but it made my heat.”

— Nathalie Lambrecht

During Women’s Semifinal 1 between Angely Bouillot and Nathalie Lambrecht, gusts nuking close to 50 knots forced the race director to abandon competition for the day on safety grounds.

2. Day 2: “King vs. King” and Giant-Killings by Luca Ceruti and Baby Shark
Action resumed at 8 a.m. on Sunday (April 2) with the full men’s draw and the conclusion of the women’s event.
Reigning King of the Air champion Lorenzo Casati endured a chaotic start to his day: after spending 10 minutes frantically searching the beach for his missing King of the Air helmet before his heat, he suffered an unexpected mid-air quick-release malfunction 10 meters up on his new Cabrinha gear—kicking his board away to land safely on his feet in the water.

Round 3 delivered back-to-back upsets and classics:
In Heat 5, Italian young gun Jeremy Burlando faced South Africa’s Luca Ceruti (who had boosted a 21-meter jump in Round 1). Although Jeremy Burlando led late with a 17-meter boost and a “Contra Doobie,” repeating tricks from the same family left the door ajar. Trailing by just under a point on his seventh and final attempt as the wind briefly lulled and flattened the water, Luca Ceruti stomped a high-speed “Double Kiteloop to Blind”—replacing his 3.73-point low score to snatch a buzzer-beater upset into the quarterfinals.
In another major Round 3 upset, lightweight Brazilian charger Josué “Baby Shark” Ferreira knocked out Dutch favorite and recent BAKL Cape Town winner Cohan van Dijk.
Heat 6 delivered a generational “King vs. King” duel between 17-year-old Lorenzo Casati and five-time World Champion Aaron Hadlow. Aaron Hadlow matched the teenager move-for-move with a “Megaloop Board-off” and “Contra Loop Double Front Roll” to trail by just 0.8 points going into his final attempt, where he thrilled the crowd by going for a mid-air “Megaloop KGB” handle-pass—crashing on landing as Lorenzo Casati survived by 0.7 points.

3. Men’s Quarterfinals: Dutch Protest Drama and Liam Whaley’s 8.40 Buzzer-Beater
In Quarterfinal Heat 1, 16-year-old Jamie Overbeek (who had logged a 20.8-meter, 116-meter distance, 8.5-second flight in Round 3) edged fellow Dutchman Giel Vlugt; a post-heat trick-family review briefly flipped the live advancement bracket in Giel Vlugt’s favor before judges re-verified Jamie Overbeek’s victory.
In Quarterfinal Heat 2, Frenchman Edgar Ulrich stomped a massive final-attempt “Contra Loop” to take the lead, leaving Spain’s Liam Whaley needing a 7.56 or higher on the final jump of the heat. Catching a booming gust, Liam Whaley threw a full-speed, kite-level “Double Kiteloop Backroll” for 8.40 points to eliminate Edgar Ulrich at the buzzer.
In Quarterfinals 3 and 4, Lorenzo Casati defeated Luca Ceruti, while Andrea Principi—who set a Surfr. record with a 232-meter distance, 18-second flight during the event—eliminated Josué “Baby Shark” Ferreira.

Show Detailed Competition Results (Spoiler Alert)

“Oh man, I don’t really know what I’m feeling yet. My heart’s been beating fast for the last hour, too much Red Bull and adrenaline, but it’s been a really crazy ride, man. Like honestly, the last six months have been super tough for me. I’ve kind of been putting so much pressure on myself… I was pretty burnt out. I didn’t really ride much the last month. I had a couple of good training sessions before coming here and I just came in with a really relaxed mindset, not putting any pressure on myself and just trying to have fun, and it worked out. I’m super stoked.”

— Liam Whaley

■ Men’s Semifinals & Mini-Final: A 5m Gamble, the Italian Derby, and a 13.4m Freefall
In Men’s Semifinal 1 (Liam Whaley vs. Jamie Overbeek), Jamie Overbeek opened with a 19.1-meter, 125-meter distance “Megaloop Late Backroll Board-off” before gambling on a kite swap down to a tiny 5-meter Ozone Enduro to hunt for doubles. Liam Whaley stayed composed, linking an 8.27-point “Double Kite Loop Board Off” and an 8.13-point “Doobie Double Loop” to book his spot in the final.
Semifinal 2 pitted Italian rivals Andrea Principi and Lorenzo Casati against each other. After Lorenzo Casati took an early lead with a quad-rotation “Contra Loop Front Roll Board-off,” Andrea Principi ran to the beach to size up to an 8-meter kite—immediately launching a 15-meter high, 120-meter long, 11.7-second “Contra Loop Triple Frontroll Board-off to One-Footer” and a secondary-lift “Megaloop Late Backroll Rewind” to overhaul Lorenzo Casati.
In the Mini-Final for 3rd place, Jamie Overbeek stomped an 18.7-meter “Contra Loop Triple Backroll Board-off,” while Lorenzo Casati suffered his second accidental quick-release of the day—detaching from his kite 13.4 meters in the air and freefalling straight into the lagoon. Though uninjured after kicking his board away, the jet-ski rescue ended his heat, handing 3rd place to Jamie Overbeek.

■ Women’s Semifinals & Final: Mikaili Sol Defeats Local Hero Angely Bouillot
In the re-run women’s semifinals, Angely Bouillot defeated Nathalie Lambrecht in Semifinal 1 and Mikaili Sol defeated Francesca Maini in Semifinal 2 (with Nathalie Lambrecht claiming 3rd place in the mini-final).
In the one-on-one Women’s Grand Final (Mikaili Sol vs. Angely Bouillot), moderating winds tested both riders’ gust selection. While Angely Bouillot boosted a 12.9-meter “Megaloop Late Backroll” before crashing a final-attempt double loop in light air, Mikaili Sol cleanly ticked off three distinct trick families—including a one-handed “Megaloop Board-off”—to claim the opening victory of the 2023 Big Air tour.

■ Men’s Grand Final: Tactical Kite Sizing and a 9.37 Double Loop Give Liam Whaley Revenge Over Andrea Principi
The Men’s Grand Final (Liam Whaley vs. Andrea Principi) was a direct rematch of the 2022 Tarifa Big Air World Championship final.
As the late-afternoon wind turned lighter and gustier, 2015 Freestyle World Champion Liam Whaley dug deep into his bag of tricks—opening with an unhooked “Kung Fu Handle-Pass” before boosting a 13-meter “Megaloop Late Backroll Board-off” to put an 8.40 and an 8.60 on the scoreboard.
Mid-heat, tactical kite management decided the title: sensing the lulls, Liam Whaley came in to size up from an 8-meter to a 9-meter kite, whereas Andrea Principi gambled on sizing down to his smaller double-loop kite.
On his seventh and final attempt, a fully powered Liam Whaley launched into a horizontal, kite-level “Double Kite Loop Board Off” for 9.37 points—the highest single trick score of the day—and a 26.37 heat total. Moments later, an underpowered Andrea Principi crashed hard attempting a double loop on his final run, giving Liam Whaley redemption and the 2023 Lords of Tram crown.

“I feel pretty good, even if I feel bad. I arrived in second place. It burns a bit because I did all the competition pretty good. Then in the final I just missed the right gust. But I’m still happy. It’s still second place.”

— Andrea Principi

[Men’s Division Final Results]
1st: Liam Whaley (Spain) — 26.37 pts
2nd: Andrea Principi (Italy)
3rd: Jamie Overbeek (Netherlands)
4th: Lorenzo Casati (Italy)

[Women’s Division Final Results]
1st: Mikaili Sol (Brazil / USA)
2nd: Angely Bouillot (France)
3rd: Nathalie Lambrecht (Sweden)
4th: Francesca Maini (UK)

Search Aliases: 2023 Lords of Tram GKA Big Air Kite World Cup, 2023LordsofTramGKABigAirKiteWorldCup