Gizzeria lands two major foil events as global delegations arrive

Hang Loose Beach will turn into foil racing’s temporary capital in early July, with the 2026 Formula Kite Youth Men’s European Championships set for July 1-5 and the 2026 WingFoil Racing World Cup Gizzeria-Calabria following July 8-12. Calabria Diretta News said delegations from five continents were already arriving, a sign that the Calabrian venue is drawing the kind of international field that makes a world-event assignment look inevitable rather than ambitious.

The first stop carries real competitive weight. The International Kiteboarding Association lists the Formula Kite Youth European Championships as confirmed and says 50 World Sailing ranking points will be on offer. The official notice of race names Hang Loose ASD, the IKA Formula Kite Class Association and the IKA KiteFoil Open Class Association as organizing authorities, with the venue fixed at Hang Loose Beach, SS18, 45, 88040 Lamezia Terme CZ, Italy. The wingfoil stop is just as loaded: the World Cup calendar places Gizzeria-Calabria as the fourth stop of the 2026 series, with a €10,000 prize pool and World Sailing Special Event status in a circuit that crowns the annual Open WingFoil Racing World Champion.

That combination explains why Hang Loose keeps getting the call. Gizzeria has already shown it can stage high-level foil racing in conditions athletes trust, and the 2025 Formula Kite European Championships there were run in steady thermal breeze rolling in from the Tyrrhenian Sea across the Calabrian coast. That same event featured 11 titles across age groups, underscoring how the site can handle both a broad youth program and the pressure of championship racing without losing its edge.

The local push is bigger than sport alone. Circolo Velico Hang Loose is working alongside IKA, IWSA, World Sailing and the Italian Sailing Federation, turning the back-to-back events into a federation-level operation rather than a one-off beach meet. Calabria is also using the run of competition to promote tourism and sustainability, linking the foiling calendar to environmental projects, marine protection and community-facing initiatives.

For athletes, the appeal is obvious: a venue with repeat-tested wind, a packed official calendar and a path from youth racing to world-cup pressure in the same stretch of coast. For Gizzeria, the payoff is even clearer. When Hang Loose Beach keeps landing major assignments, the Gulf of Sant’Eufemia gains more than a race course, it gains credibility as one of foil sport’s most dependable stages.