Both Nick and Jesse changed kites in that semifinal, but their North prototypes do not have the sizes shown on them, so even though I was close to them right on the water I could not figure it out, I'm guessing it was only a meter difference. And it was not obvious it made any difference to their riding. Nick just did not seem to be on his game. While no surprise given they are friends and now on the same team, it was very sporting near the end of the heat that Nick offered Jesse a high-five knowing Jesse had won the heat, and Jesse returned the favor in the air. The crowd loved it.
Longwhitecloud, if you want to score mostly by technicality, of course Liam did well, although he also crashed several of his attempts. But seems to me that's what the world circuit of freestyle is for, this is different. Mark Jacobs in the "expression session" before the semifinals was similarly bold and technical (and also on the inward tack), doing a backroll board off right on the beach, but only landed the fifth attempt, even wiping out a spectator with his kite on one failed attempt. While the crowd was appreciative enough of these efforts (and it helps now to know that Liam is goofy footed, perhaps partly explaining why he did most of his tricks coming towards the beach), he simply did not get much air on them at all. And the graph above shows clearly that the meter near the beach recorded up to 36 knots during the competition, and I can assure you it feels even stronger out on the water. So while not as nuking as it can get here, there was enough wind for the competition, it was the waves that were lacking, no really good ramps, and mixed up short intervals, making launching difficult. And yes, Jesse took the Mystic Move-of-the-day prize.
So I'm with Plummet on this one!