Italy’s Francesco Cappuzzo won back-to-back FreeFly-Slalom world titles with a third place finish in the year’s final event in Brazil. At 27, Cappuzzo always knew backing up his first crown with another would be the hardest. But he praised the solidarity of Gong team-mates who pushed and drove the success. Ahead, and immediately after the season finale in Jericoacoara, Cappuzzo told Ian MacKinnon and Diogo Cardoso of his year’s odyssey and his plans for the coming season.
Question: How is it looking for you heading into the last even here in Brazil?
Francesco Cappuzzo: The same scenario different position for me compared to last year. All the [Gong] team, we pushed so much, that it brought me to the first win in Leucate. So, definitely that win felt like almost another world title. Since then, everything was kind-of easier.
Everything [the equipment] is performing pretty well. That brought me to another incredible win Fuerte. Basically winning every elimination and just having one final in the medal series format.
Coming here with two wins feels pretty awesome. I have some margin compared to some other guys on the back, but for sure, I have Julien [Rattotti] and Bastien [Escofet] at my neck. But at least we are part of the same same team, the same family. It would be a dream to have two Gong podiums at the end of this year.
Q: With the third place in Jericoacoara, you got your second title in succession here in Brazil? How does it feel?
FC: The hardest part is not to get that first world title, but to get the second one. Definitely now a lot of pressure went off. I would say the hardest event of the year so far and maybe of the last two three seasons. Because it came down everything to one heat.
‘One goal’
Basically, it’s almost worse when you need to not win. So, this morning I woke up at 4.30am with one goal. You need to go and do your best and it’s ‘you against you’. So actually my mentality today was much better. I still had a couple of issues, but I managed really well.
I made it to the final and the second world title consecutively. It’s still a dream. I think it will sink in after a couple of days, but for the moment it’s amazing. My adrenalin is so high. I can’t explain all the emotion.
Q: For you it’s been quite a journey to being a double world champion?
FC: Well for sure my background of windsurfing and kitesurfing has been something really special for me. It gave me the ability to adapt to new sports and all the different conditions as well. For example, we are here in Jericoacoara. I’ve been sailing and windsurfing and kitesurfing here before. So now in winging I can just keep some some part of it.
Q: How did you decide to make the jump to commit to wingfoiling?
FC: I’ve been winning a lot of things on the junior side [in windsurfing]. But the time where I was ready to push for podiums, Covid happened. Then wingfoil arrived. Actually I started to love wingfoiling because I like the feeling of starting a new sport from scratch, it’s something that really attracted me.
Then following the trends like Balz [Müller] and friends of mine came from windsurfing as well. I felt like I had to give it a go and try to push the sport, bringing all the innovation I was doing in windsurfing and kitesurfing—to help the sport to grow and to help people enjoy time on the water. So I took this as a mission. I feel like when you do stuff for love, and you are passionate, everything then comes along.
‘Push a bit’
Q: What was your first taste of wingfoiling success?
I started just for fun, to do some competitions and already on my first season on tour I was vice world champion. So I said, okay, well I’m there. So let’s try to push a bit more. That’s why the result came better last year and this year as well. Because I started to realise I’m there, I feel like the skills and even if I’m not a kid anymore, like all the kids now in freestyle, I feel like I have experience to bring and a lot of stuff to bring in this new sport.
Q: Tell us about your life and your plans for the coming year.
FC: I’m not a kid anymore. I’m 27 years old and I come from Sicily. It’s a beautiful island in the middle of the Mediterranean. It is where I grew up. I’ve been loving the water since I was a couple of days old. Back home I have the luck that my father is passionate, more than me. So now we built an incredible resort on the beach, same as here in Jericoacoara. We have a really good resort on the beach called Wind Resort. You can go there and have a real waterman experience.
Q: You life must involve a lot of travel and time away from home?
FC: Sure, it’s something amazing. I don’t regret it all. I feel like I’m one of the luckiest people on earth to be able to travel doing the thing I love. But on the other side you never have a fixed plan. You can never rely on your long-term plans. You need to be ready for everything. Anything can happen every day, every hour. You can get a call and say, okay, I really need to go there. We need to shoot that. We need to go train. You need to push at the limit and be ready for everything. That’s actually kind-of stressful sometimes because you really can’t plan or you cannot enjoy time with your friends and back home.
edit: Ian MacKinnon
images: Svetlana Romantsova
