Professional Windsurfers World Cup Sylt

Ok, I made it to Sylt, and have been amazed at the number of people who come each year to this cold and windy resort town. It is a bit like Whistler, but the attraction here is the beach. There are huge tents with beer and seafood being served, and a real party feeling. At night it is hard to walk through the tents due to the dancing/singing crowds, it has a Octoberfest party vibe going on!

The day I arrived, the wind shut down, so they had a tow-in windsurfing session. It was clear that the freestyle sailors were thrilled to show off in front of the hundreds of fans lining the beach. Check out the second half of this PWA video to see how tow-in windsurfing works.

Over the last two days I've bumped into a lot of the major names in windsurfing, some of whom I've met over the years.

Tonky Frans from Bonaire always has a huge smile for his Canadian friends.

Tonky all smiles!

We also have a Canadian on the world windsurfing tour, Philip Soltysiak is ranked #5 in the world right now. I met him on the beach, and he is very nice. It sounds like I am the only Canadian fan here.

PWA Website link to Philip Soltysiak

I met Bjorn Dunkerbeck and got an autograph from the 15 times world champion. He is a great ambassador for the sport and seems to continue to enjoy competing (and winning) every time he goes out. I found the last copy of his book "The Search" in a bookstore in town, and had him sign it.

Me with Windsurfing Legend Bjorn Dunkerbeck

I also bumped into a very nice young Danish sailor we met on the HiHo in 2009. A nice small windsurfing world.  Hopefully there is wind tomorrow and some racing to watch.

Interesting windsurfing retail observation.  There are no shops in Sylt that sell gear anymore.  The German websites (and Deutsche Post) are so good that the one local shop only sells wetsuits and clothing.  Quite different from the number of good shops in southern France.

#7 Le Jai on the way to Sylt PWA Worlds

So Monday was my day to start the drive up to the PWA World Cup in Northern Germany. But as I was having a nice farewell lunch with my wife, I got an email saying there was wind nearby. Never leave wind to find wind, so I got a nice kiss goodbye, skipped dessert, and headed for a quick session.

6.2, fully powered and then some. Did some upwind and downwind 360 attempts, 5 more vulcan attempts, and another flaka and shove it experiments. I mounted my GoPro and got a few photos and a video.

Then I started driving 900 km north so I can see some professionals do their thing in Sylt.  More driving tomorrow.

My first experiment with video...

Smiling!

Le Jai, A beach dedicated to Windsurfing - NO SWIMMING!

Road Trip to Sylt!

#6 Brutal Beach with the Family

The wind reports were solid, and the weather nice, so the family decided to come check out the waves at Brutal Beach with me.  Everyone liked the drive through Sanary sur mer, a 4 flower town, meaning it is very scenic.  This is the edge of the Cote D'azur, and there are palm trees lining the main street.

We parked, and while I was rigging, Phillip and Katie were already heading out on their boogie boards to play in the waves.  The local guys were rigging 4.7s, but I chose my 5.4 as there seemed to be a lot of lulls.  Indeed, the wind was light for the first 40 minutes, and then kicked in big time.  I actually contemplated sailing right across to the island I could see in the distance (Isles des Embiez?).  Judging by Google earth, I was half way there on my longest run out.  Vulcans #61, #62 were lame, and #63 had way too much altitude.  Tried another couple of "shove-it"s too.

I came in after 80 minutes, right after a big sobering catapult fall. Might wear my helmet more. The family was just finishing up lunch in the restaurant and had been watching me sail the whole time. Very cool. They were raving about the altitude and hang time I'd had on a few of my jumps. I went out for another session and Geoffrey took pictures, see below. We got back in the car and the kids still made it to the party they were invited to. A nice day in all.

#5 Le Jai - Marginal Wind

Ok, the wind was supposed to build to barely planing levels, and so I headed down to Le Jai. Direct from the house it is 26 minutes. Not bad. There were more people out than the last session there when it was really windy, but it was a Saturday afternoon too. Rigged up the 6.2 for the first time. The club there seems really popular:  http://transjai.free.fr/accueil_leclubnautique.htm

I got planing 6 times in an hour.  Moves, I tried a few. Tried Vulcan #60, and slid sideways which felt nice.  Tried to imagine myself doing a flaka and a shove it - that's a ways off. Did lots of upwind 360s in the non planing winds.  Spent a lot of time practicing slogging switch stance. Conditions were such that I could go out in a shorty, which is nice for late Sept.

Earlier in the week, we were watching TV and there was a "cribs" type show and it was featuring Robby Naish's house and him putting a skull and crossbones sticker on his new Porsche Panamera. There is often kiting and surfing and windsurfing on the adventure sports channel on TV here. And in the French windsurfing mag Wind, I found a link to a live windsurfing conditions site: http://www.winds-up.com - I'll be using that to get better forecasts in the future.

#4 Le Jai - Etang De Berre

Perfect.  Had the weekend with the kids, and have friends coming to visit on Tuesday. Monday's forecast looked good - and it delivered as promised.  I headed to the nearest launch to the house, Le Jai is 27km away. Apparently good when it is NW, despite questionable water quality.  It is basically at the end of the runway at the Marseilles airport.

I got there at 10:30, and watched a lone sailor ripping on what seemed to be a 4.5. As I rigged my 4.7, a nice guy emerged from his RV parked at the beach and suggested I rig smaller as it was gusting to 30knots (at least that is what I understood of his French). Oh well "le 4.7 c'est mon plus petit" was all I could say. I was fully powered and took quite a while getting used to sailing small gear again.  I definitely like the shorter harness lines and smaller footstraps that I've set up. Sailed for 2 hours, covered 45 km.

MOVE OF THE DAY - downwind 360 on a wave face, gybe, backwind the sail, keep sailing backwinded on the wave, then tack and continue in the original direction. Yelped out loud with glee when I did my first one. See GPS plot below.

No wind due for the next week or so.

GPS Track of Downwind 360 on a Wave Face

The trees tell a story

23 Degrees C, 25 knots, Sunny

More Windsurfers at Decathalon

Ok, I'm fascinated by this Decathalon big box department store. The one near us in Bouc Bel Air is enormous, and has its own health club, tennis courts, outdoor stables, park etc. Interestingly, they let the kids ride skateboards, zip sticks, bikes etc. around inside, and no one cares (or seems to get hurt).

We had to go and get a waterproof bag to store my car keys in when I'm sailing. These new cars with their electronic anti-theft keys mean you can't just put it on a string around your neck like the old days. I did have a nice Ford Taurus once with a keypad lock; that was handy...

Here is a shot from one end of the Decathalon, with the windsurfing section way at the end of the aisle.  I read somewhere it is 6,000 square metres, (60,000 square feet), that is a big store!

Decathalon Windsurfing Retail

#3 Brutal Beach - aka Six Fours

Another good day predicted by www.windguru.cz and www.windfinder.com. So where is the best place in a Northwest wind?  I took a chance and headed to the ominous sounding Brutal beach. It was much better than the name indicated. A nice beach with small pebbles, with a sandy bottom in the water. The local guy rigging next to me said there are no hazards. So I rig on the sidewalk, and have a really nice 4.7 session. Some of the big swells reminded me of those big swells at Doug's Beach in the Gorge, the ones you can turn down the face on, ride clew first in the other direction, and then head back in your original direction. Only one pathetic Vulcan attempt, #59 I think.

Windsurfing near a very civilized place!

How nice is this for a Launch?

#2 La Caveau - Fos

Ok, finally, I've got my gear, and there is a good wind report.  I've been using www.windguru.cz and scoping out the options.  Looks like for a SE wind, the best place is Fos sur la mer.  Drop the kids at school, come back to the house, pack a lunch, load up the car and off I go.  Turns out to be howling when I arrive, and I rig my 5.4.  I could have been on a 4.7, but had a great first session on my gear.  I sailed 32km according to my GPS.

My sailing is a bit rusty, and I'm not sure I like the big freestyle setting on the footstraps in the waves.  I do like my new fixed length harness lines, which don't jam up as much as my old adjustable ones (that I never adjusted anyway.)  There were around 40 sailors out, with a number of good front and back loopers.

There is a nice club there in Fos, with showers and washrooms, which I only discover after.

The local shop helped me with recommendations for later in the week, when it is supposed to be NW.  My French is really terrible but they were nice, also getting me set up with a shorter mast, since I'm hoping to be using my 4.7 more frequently.  Back in the car, I make it to the school in time to pick up the kids, but the car is pretty full inside since I don't have a roof rack yet.

Fos was a lot nicer than it looks in this photo

Another view of Fos, Pretty nice onshore

Back and Forth, 32 km total, 39 km/h typical top speed.