La Loteta Cierzo Festival 2023: a spectacle of wind and water
Images 📸 @seakitepics
The Aragon Kitesurfing Championship was held this weekend at the La Loteta reservoir, on the beaches of Luceni, as part of the Cierzo Festival 2023. This event brought together more than 40 competitors from different parts of Spain and was a huge success with both the public and the participants.
The championship was held in two categories: race foil and wingfoil, which are the newest and most spectacular forms of kitesurfing, as well as the ones that require the least amount of wind. Race foiling involves riding a board with an underwater wing that allows it to rise above the surface and reach high speeds. Wingfoiling is a variation of race foiling in which the athlete carries a sail in their hand, allowing them to better control the wind.
The sailors had to cope with highly variable wind conditions, which tested their skill and endurance. On Friday, a strong north wind allowed for the training session, but on Saturday, the wind weakened, allowing only four races to be held. On Sunday, there was not enough wind to compete, and the championship was declared over.
Kitefoil and wingfoil participant
Images 📸 @seakitepics
The Aragonese dominated the race foil category, demonstrating their skill and experience in the sport. The podium was made up of Patrick Saury, Pedro Serrano, and Emilio Piqueras/Daniel Eito, who easily defeated their rivals. Here's a photo of the podium with a proud Emilio Piqueras on his first achievement.
Images 📸 @seakitepics
Highlighting the presence of the KAI CLOTHES movement and its tent with products handmade with recycled material, the anecdote came when KAI raffled off a €250 voucher for material from its online store KAICLOTHES.COM and when doing the raffle, they said the competitor's number was 5, just mine, coincidence or not, obviously I didn't want it and it was raffled off again winning the Emilio Piqueras prize, being thus according to his words "uh, wow that's good dude"
Images 📸 @seakitepics
In the wingfoil category, the winners were Hodei Mendive (Basque Country), Javier Sánchez Perea (Catalonia) and Alex Jurado (Aragon), who demonstrated their skill and balance in this new modality.
Among the participants, the Aragon wingfoil champion, Alex Jurado, stood out, as the only representative of this discipline in the championship. Jurado is a pioneer of wingfoiling in Aragon and has been the driving force behind the sport on the beaches of Luceni, where he has managed to create a community of Aragon enthusiasts. I'm very happy to have participated in this championship in La Loteta. It's been an opportunity to introduce wingfoiling in Aragon and to share experiences with other athletes. Talking about equipment and this new sport with other riders helps me improve.
It was a very fun and exciting race, although also very tough due to the wind conditions, with how hard it is to pump in every breeze that there was during the race. I'm proud to have achieved third place, but even more so to have represented Aragón in this new sport. See you on the water 🤪🤙 Now sponsors will not stop calling me to represent their brands and products in the Wingfoil sector 🤣💦
Images 📸 @seakitepics
The Cierzo Festival 2023 was an event organized by the La Loteta Kitesurf Club and the Aragonese Sailing Federation, with the main sponsorship of Ambar and the support of the Government of Aragon, the Zaragoza Provincial Council, the Ribera Alta del Ebro Region, and the Luceni City Council. The festival's objective was to promote kitesurfing as a sporting, tourist, and environmental activity, as well as to raise awareness of the La Loteta reservoir as an ideal destination for water sports, both wind-related and non-wind-related.
Foodtruck Terrace in La Loteta
Images 📸 @seakitepics
I hope that those who shared the Cierzo Festival experience with me this year will decide to return next year; and for those who haven't had the opportunity yet, I encourage you to reserve a space in your calendar for the exciting 2024 event.
Daniel Eito LET GO OF THE KITE BAR FOR GOOD, COME BACK AS SOON AS YOU CAN TO CONTINUE SHARING MOMENTS BY YOUR SIDE 😘🤙
