There's a strange attraction to indoor windsurfing that nobody can deny. Who wouldn't want to give it a go? Thousands of fans all lined up alongside a pool, each cranked up to the maximum, and that's not even talking about the wind fans! The crowds were jammed in to the Accor Arena in Paris for the 2016 Indoor de France, and nobody went home disappointed.

The windsurfing competition that wowed the world back in the 90's came back in 2016, with a few of the old faces coming back to do battle with the new kids on the block. Kauli Seadi, Robby Naish, Kai Lenny and Antoine Albeau were all in the same pool together at one point, each oozing stoke for the crowd, and truly looking appreciative of the experience to windsurf indoors once more.

Not just their first time in the pool, but making a first, was the team from Horue who showed up to the slalom racing with a custom made (very shallow) hydrofoil! With just enough room to get up and foiling down the pool, they became the first sailors to ever hydrofoil on a sailboard, indoors. Granted, the whole appeal of foiling is cruising on long tacks in silence, not battling to get up on the foil amidst the screaming fans just upwind, but it's a pretty cool thing to see.

Also cool, was the kicker competition. Yep, a kicker, ramp, jump, you know what we're talking about - for windsurfers. The idea is simple, slide down a ramp at the beginning with a slot cut out for the fin, race across the pool, and hit another ramp with a slot cut down the middle. Do your trick off the end, and try not to go flying off the end of the pool. The result is spectacular, and sometimes the crashes are too!

Watch the footage of the first ever hydrofoil to go windsurfing indoors, plus some of the other action during the slalom heats during the 2016 Indoor de France.

#News #Windsurfing #Naish