Air Hunters Italy: aerial surfing contest. Here’s how it works

Aerial maneuvers with the board are among the most requested and complex: here is a format to encourage jumping on the waves

Francis Sessa

Among the most difficult maneuvers in surfing: the aerial. That is, when the wave is used as if it were a ramp: a real jump, to then land in the water. Maybe after a spectacular maneuver in the air. Impossible for the judges, in these cases, to remain indifferent: not surprisingly, when you manage to complete a aerial you collect points. Air Hunters Italy is the new contest that focuses only on aerial: a challenge but also an incentive, to try and take risks. Also because the Italian surfing movement is still lagging behind from this point of view.

THE AERIALS IN ITALY

The idea is therefore to stimulate the growth of the movement also through contests of this type. There are few Italian surfers able to complete aerials and the possible reasons can be different: the waves, the preparation out of the water, the technique, the role of the coaches. It can be said that the father of the aerials, in Italian surfing, is Nicholas Bresciani: he will be on the contest jury, together with the Air Hunters staff.

An aerial by Edoardo Papa. Photo by Thomson Photo

THE FORMAT

The contest will not take place “in presence”, using a now common saying, in times of smart working and ways of interacting remotely. To participate, you must send videos of your aerial maneuvers which will be evaluated by the jury. In Levanto then, on the occasion of the Spring Wave Party scheduled from 1st to 30th April 2023, there will be the award ceremony. In Italy it’s time to give yourself to aerial, also to bridge the gap with the rest of the world. Such a contest can be an important step, even just to get used to it.


ttn-14