Maxime Chabloz crowned 2026 Kite Freestyle World Champion
Maxime Chabloz returned to the top of the Kite Freestyle podium last weekend, as he claimed his second World Championships title in the discipline in Ilha do Guajiru, Brazil.
Maxime had already secured the title by qualifying for the final, but he topped it all off by also winning this final stop of the 2026 GKA Kite World Tour by less than three tenths.
After a third-place finish in Mexico and a victory in Germany, our Swiss rider wrapped up his season with an astounding and exciting performance, finishing on the podium at all three stops.
Maxime’s journey with F-ONE began 13 years ago, when he joined the Next Generation team at the age of 12. Over the years, his hard work on the water quickly paid off, as he became a three-time World Junior Champion. He claimed his first Kite Freestyle World Champion title in 2024, and kept himself firmly among the sport’s leading riders in 2025 as he finished third in the overall standings.
Now a World Champion once more, Maxime reflected on what this new title means to him, and gives us more insights into this competition and his 2026 season.
Maxime, congratulations for becoming World Champion for the second time! How do you feel?
I’m super, super happy. I’m still having a hard time finding the words. It’s pretty incredible to think that I’m a multiple-time World Champion, the first since Carlos Mario who I really admire. I’m also tying with Youri Zoon, one of my kitesurfing role models, so it’s really special and unimaginable, honestly. I’ve never won the same title a second time before.
Besides, winning here in Brazil also makes it even more special. It feels like winning “at home” to me. It’s a place that feels so much more familiar to me than Qatar in 2024, and especially with everyone on the beach, family, friends, fans… It was a great experience to get the title again, and winning the event was just the cherry on top.
Your family also traveled to Brazil to cheer you on at this competition.
Yes. My parents have always supported me throughout my career, throughout my whole life, so it was really special to have them there.
They actually really regretted not coming to Qatar, when I won my first title. Well, that’s on me. I’d told them not to come, because the year before, we didn’t have enough wind and the competition did not play out in full. So, there was a real chance again that the same thing would happen again. So I had told them that there was no need to come.
However, this year with the final leg being in Brazil, and with me being in strong contention for the title after the stop in Germany, I immediately told them, “You’re coming to Brazil now.”
Did you feel any pressure before this final leg, arriving in Brazil at the top of the leaderboard?
Enormous pressure, yes. I’ve rarely felt pressure like that. It wasn’t easy to manage. It was interesting because, the more the competition went on, the more things started going my way. But that actually put even more pressure on me to do well and clinch the title.
Firstly, Finn [Flügel, who was tied with Maxime for first place in the overall standings before Brazil] withdrew due to an injury. Then, my two other main rivals for the title were eliminated in the quarter finals. And then in my quarter final, there was an injury, so there was one less rider to compete against.
After all that, I just had to finish fifth in this competition to clinch the title, which meant third in my semifinal. It felt that the doors kept opening wider and wider. But, the more they opened, the more I felt like they were going to slam shut right in my face, that everything was going to come crashing down on me, and it would really hurt if it didn’t work out in the end.
On top of it, other riders rode really well and showed early on that they were capable of winning this event too. For example, Karim Mahmoud, who ended up being the only one left in contention for the title besides me. In the semifinals, he really started to show that he was capable of going all the way, and that’s when my stress hit an all-time high.
I really did make a few pretty stupid mistakes. I was really holding myself back, telling myself, “Well, worst-case scenario, I just have to finish third in the semifinals.” In the end, the title was already decided before my last jump, but I still had to land it to make it to the final, and I did.
I was able to compete in the final with a lot less pressure obviously, since the title was already in the bag, without letting up too much either. I narrowly won; I realized it’s never happened to me before to win two legs on the tour in the same year, so that’s pretty amazing as well.
How were the conditions throughout the competition?
The conditions were truly exceptionally difficult at times. I rode my 9 m² WTF?! Brainchild [still under development] in the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals, which is actually pretty rare for me. I think I’d only done maybe three sessions on the 9 m² in the last three years combined before this competition.
The spot was really choppy and it was difficult to manage, and the current could be very strong depending on the time of day. It really wasn’t easy. But these kind of difficult conditions also really build a lot of suspense. The strategies and end-results might have been completely different if the conditions were so-called “perfect.”
In any case, for me, the strategy was really to take it step by step, to get through each heat the right way, and to understand that, sometimes, you just have to do the bare minimum to move forward. It was really in the final that I was able to finally go all out.
Did you change anything in your training and preparation ahead of this season?
Not necessarily. I think I was very smart in how I managed my training and my time on the water, but at the same time, I was honestly really focused and ready to accept whatever came my way.
I’d taken some strategic training trips. For example, I came here to Brazil in September because I knew the wind would be a little stronger than it is now. I wanted to get a head start on my preparation, check out the conditions, and all that. After that, I took a two-week break because I knew that training too much before the competition wouldn’t be beneficial either.
I think every competition helped. Of course, I was very satisfied with finishing on the podium in Mexico because, given the conditions, anything could have happened. And then, Germany was one of the best competitions I can remember. In the final, I really managed to stand out and feel like I was one step ahead of everyone else.
It’s truly a special feeling when you feel like you’re really setting yourself apart from the others, and that it’s not just down to a bit of luck with the judging or a few tenths, but that you’ve actually managed to stand out and perform better than the rest. That gave me a huge boost of confidence heading into Brazil.
Ilha do Guajiru isn’t my go-to spot when I come here, but I had won the event there in 2020, the only one that actually took place there that year. So, I came here feeling very confident because of that too.
You were coached at this competition by Nico Delmas, who’s also part of the F-ONE team and who was on the Next Generation team with you more than 10 years ago with you. What was it like having him by your side?
Nico usually works with Finn, so when I found out that he wasn’t coming anymore, I asked Nico if he’d willing to coach me at this competition. It was really awesome to have someone on the beach helping me keep track of the scoring, giving me updates on what’s happening in the heat, telling me what tricks are needed and helping me figure out the best strategy to keep moving forward.
With the tricky conditions that we got, there were many times where you just needed a specific score to make it to the next round. And Nico knows exactly what I’m capable of. It’s in those situations that having someone like him on the beach, who knows and sees exactly which tricks score what, really helps. It was really cool to share that moment with him.
A champion in both summer and winter, Maxime now turns his attention to freestyle skiing, where he is also among the world’s elite. After claiming the title of World Champion in 2022 in that discipline, Maxime is set to make his triumphant return to the Freeride World Tour in 2027.