Local Star Mangiarotti Wins Rip Curl Air Show In Hossegor

Guillaume Mangiarotti night boosting at the Rip Curl Air Show

CAPBRETON, France (Saturday, August 14, 2010) – Guillaume Mangiarotti (Hossegor, FRA), 20, has won the ASP Europe Specialty Rip Curl Air Show pres. by Renault in Hossegor last night, the local star grabbing USD 4000 for his flying performance after defeating runner-up Naum Ildefonse (Biarritz, FRA) in the final.

Mangiarotti, a longtime ASP Pro Junior competitor and progressive surfer, took the best out of the two-foot shore-break waves breaking at Hossegor’s Central beach in front of thousands of people cheering the unique  jet-ski tow-out show at night, topping big names Tim Boal (Anglet, FRA), Frederic Robin (Capbreton, REU), Indonesian star Dede Suryana (Bali, IDN), Abdel El Harim (Rabat, MAR), Pablo Gutierrez (Santander, ESP) big wave charger Benjamin Sanchis (Hossegor, FRA).

“It’s great to surf in front of thousands of people at my home break and I am super happy I won,” Mangiarotti said. “We don’t get much opportunity to do tow-out surfing and eventhough the conditions were small it was just a great event. I had so much fun and to finish first makes it really special.”

Used to tow-in surfing whenever Hossegor’s world famous big wave spot of La Nord turns on, Mangiarotti was at ease behind the machine using his experience to find the best launching ramps and take-off for some spectacular moves.

“You just want to let go any possible trick when you are left with that much speed and I tried to push my limits but land my tricks as well,” Mangiarotti said. “I hope this kind of event happens more often because it is different and popular.”

In second edition and with once again an impressive crowd coming down to the beach despite the tricky conditions, the Rip Curl Air Show delivered its fresh contest format with a mix of music and spectacular surfing, the explosive cocktail adding another great asset to surfing’s action-packed summer leg in Europe at the moment.

“It was a successful edition again and the surfers gave their best to deliver an impressive show,” event manager Arnaud Decarne said. “We’re already looking at changing a few details and make sure we step-up again for next year but we are definitely very happy with the result and it’s great to see all the surfers and crowds enjoy the thing that much.”

While the ASP Star and Prime Series are currently raging in Europe, the Rip Curl Air Show brought a variety of world-class surfers – competitors, free-surfers, big wave chargers – to Hossegor’s beaches giving French summer crowds a different pro surf spectacle.

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