The Resort Group operates five luxury resorts on Sal Island in Cape Verde, with a construction pipeline of 6,500 rooms. Completed in May 2011, Melia Tortuga Beach Resort was the company’s first Cape Verde project. Since its launch, the resort has enjoyed unprecedented success in the tourism industry, demonstrating consistently high occupancy levels and winning awards year after year.
Having pioneered the archipelago’s luxury resort market, The Resort Group is an award-winning developer credited with transforming Cape Verde’s tourism industry. The organisation has been recognised with numerous coveted industry awards, having been founded by Rob Jarrett in 2007 with the overall goal of showcasing Cape Verde’s mesmerising natural beauty. Melia Tortuga Beach Resort & Spa, The Resort Group’s first resort, has been recognised by the World Travel Awards as the leading hotel in Cape Verde for five consecutive years, as well as being the proud recipient of Tui’s Family Championship Award in 2018.
This article will look at the Qatar Airways GKA Kite World Tour, one of the world’s most celebrated kite surfing events which stopped off at Cape Verde from 16 to 25 February 2024.
The island hosted the world’s most prestigious and challenging kite surfing event, setting the stage at the world-famous Ponta Preta beach, which is renowned for its windy conditions and amazing waves. With a total prize purse of €20,000, the event’s men’s category was won by Airton Cozzolino, who was defending his title from the previous year. Defeating friend and rival Mita Monteiro, a fellow Cape Verdean.
Kite surfing is a discipline that challenges even the most experienced surfer. With completion schedules set a month in advance, it can be challenging for organisers to accurately predict whether there will be sufficient waves for pure surfing contest. Challenged over a series of strapless-freestyle events, pure wave and mixed format events, depending on conditions, the Qatar Airways GKA Kite World Tour has been curated to adapt to a range of conditions, enabling it to go ahead whether there are waves or not.
In pure wave events, surfboard riders are judged on their ability to surf the wave. A key element of the judge’s scoring criteria is wave selection. Selecting the best wave enables the rider to showcase their skills, providing the longest rides on the steepest faces.
Once the entrant is riding the wave, judges award points according to their commitment. Riders therefore aim to make the riskiest turns just as the wave breaks, since it is at this critical section that the wave is at its steepest and at its most powerful. Snapping off the lip of the wave with the greatest verticality requires the most skill and is rewarded by judges accordingly.
Another element judges assess is rail-to-rail surfing as riders link their turns all the way down the line. Competitors use the power of the kite to race around close-out sections of waves, waiting for them to open up once more so they can continue their ride. The ability to link wave sections and maximise the ride is a crucial factor in the judge’s scoring. Riders can also increase their style factor by incorporating aerial manoeuvres on the wave faces.
Widely recognised as one of the world’s top kite surfing destinations, Cape Verde has been proud to host numerous historical water sports events over the years, welcoming some of the world’s most celebrated athletes.
The GKA Kite World Tour is expected to return to the Sal Island in Cape Verde from 13th – 21st March 2025.
