Awesome report Isaac
Sounds like you got better as the race wore on! And 50knot gusts wow!! I would have thought it was close to un-sailable. Congratulations and enjoy the rest of your trip

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seanhogan said..
epic !!
Congrats for going round twice !!

I was reading the french reports and hoping you were safe !!
Seems at 7pm 17 sailors hadn't finished and there had been 15 ambulance trips including 4 guys with broken ribs

1. Pierre Mortefon
2. Nicolas Warembourg
3. Diony Guadagnino
4. Antoine Questel
5. Alexandre Cousin
6. Pierre Moretti
7. Antoine Albeau
8. Suisse non identifié
9. Cyril Moussilmani
10. Andrea Cucchi

I take it this Pierre fellow is fairly handy on a slalom board then?

A2 7th??!!

When I last saw them sailing last year Pierre was really fast. Up there with Toselli/Van der steen and A2

Seems Albeau had a crash.
Funny to see those "legends" overpowered in 5.6/5.8
Bjorn didn't fall but wasn't happy with his 5.6, he said : "tomorrow is another day" (mind you I can say that too...)

Pity for our New Cal rider Nicolas Goyard who was 5th at he first marker but destroyed his rig in a massive crash... Had to walk back close to 2 hours carrying his gear in 40 knts...

Would be interesting to find what size sails the top guys were using?


To be good enough to finish the race on a 5.6 m in 35-50 knots is impressive.


Reminds me of the time Blair did the Ledge on a 10 metre in 18-25 knots.


And managed to somehow muscle his way to the finish line.

From Diony's Instagram..

"Super close to win the first race of the Defi Wind but ended up 3rd place! Super HAPPY! Wind was HEAVY, 6.0 sail and my @AHDboards SL2 Slalom"



Proves all round talent is found on a freestyle board!

bjorn 5.6
A2 5.8
cucchi 5.6 will rig 5.0 today :-)
P koster reflex 5.6 but gave up
winner P Mortefon 5.2 + 79 L


Most girls on 4.0


Julien Quentel


A2 overpowered at the mark




Moussilmani before he gave up

Does anyone know if they enforce the over early rule, I noticed quite a few people started before the start boat went past?

second race to begin in a few minutes with gusts at 60 knts....

Wow looks like Pierre Mortefon won the 2nd he's on fire.
Think AA crashed before the finish looking at the live play.

1 st Pierre Mortefon
2nd Antoine Questel
3 rd Nicolas Warembourg

14th May 40k race.

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vando said..
Wow looks like Pierre Mortefon won the 2nd he's on fire.
Think AA crashed before the finish looking at the live play.

Can you post a link to the live play?

Anyone know whether Anders Bringdal entered this year? Think he was high up in the placings last year.

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seanhogan said..
second race to begin in a few minutes with gusts at 60 knts....

Apparently, all entrants were told at briefing that forecast was for 65 knot winds and to only use wave sails!

Mortefon in control:

Just saw the video from the kite defi, looked like carnage with tangled lines. Don't understand how the hell they are able to race kites under the best circumstances not even something as mad as the defi and adding the new foils to boot. Madness!!

Did anyone need rescuing?

Anders entered, he gave up on the first race but finished the second.

As for A2 looking at the live feed it looked like he beared away too much and had to do a tack to cross the finish line.
He was in a fierce battle with Finian M

That live tracking is quite awesome, just pick your favourite and watch them perform.
When I saw Bjorn loose distance I picked warembourg. Very interesting system.

Isaac did well !! He finished 92nd on this race. Now 127th overall !!!

complete listing
www.windmag.com/media/D%c3%a9fi%20Wind/2015/infos%20officielle/General_prov_vendredi.pdf

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terminal said..
14th May 40k race.

Isn't that last year?

Thanks for the great report Izymiester and congrats!! Well done!!!

So "Defi Wind" is short for "Definitely Windy"? I'm surprised no one has drowned in those conditions considering the number of sailors,well done to the organisers.

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Mobydisc said...
Did anyone need rescuing?

Racers were apparently told at day 2 briefing (with forecast winds up to 65 knots!) that if they needed rescuing, then it would only be the racer and not their kit being rescued!

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GazMan said...

Mobydisc said...
Did anyone need rescuing?

Racers were apparently told at day 2 briefing (with forecast winds up to 65 knots!) that if they needed rescuing, then it would only be the racer and not their kit being rescued!

Yes this was true! a bit of a worry if you broke something or hurt yourself

This looks like an amazing part of the world for flat water windsurfing. Besides sailing off the beach there looks to be many big coastal lakes from looking at maps of the area. There are a fair few utube videos showing how windy it gets there too plus there are beautiful snow capped mountains inland. I would imagine the local food and wine would be great too.

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Mobydisc said..
This looks like an amazing part of the world for flat water windsurfing. Besides sailing off the beach there looks to be many big coastal lakes from looking at maps of the area. There are a fair few utube videos showing how windy it gets there too plus there are beautiful snow capped mountains inland. I would imagine the local food and wine would be great too.

Having spent ten days there in 2008 for the Defi, for a total of one hour's windsurfing, I can tell you a lot more about the local Languedoc wine and food than about the windsurfing

Like all of France, it's beautiful!

Race 3 starts in one hour

live feed : live2.dotvision.com/live?guid=97032560-0b8c-4c35-8649-4a0a93fc508e

full on atm !!

Crazy winds today! Short race again half the course. My start watch must have been knocked on 8:35 and I clicked about 5 minutes before the start and headed off out to the line. I borrowed a 5.1 reflex 2 sail, with a 400 sdm 90 mast. Patrik 92 with a 30.5 carpenter fin.

I was well positioned on the the start line with a out 24 seconds to go as I could see the countdown on another sailors watch. I was off and on the plane but got a big lull about 15 seconds and sunk the board and was waterstarting when the boat went past. My best start yet haha.

So I took off stuck in the pack and well behind the leaders. I was in the messy waters of many wave sailors and slowly making my way though hugging the sandbank. The first gybe mark was chaos and the wind was mental! 45 knots easy and everyone was in the water! I was hugging the bank.and about to go around the back but I was cut off by and out of control simmer and fanatic sailor and had to bail. I was way too far upwind for the gybe and now has to walk my gear out on the sandbank to get a reasonable angle in 45 knots and to go downwind of everyone in the water swimming.

I hugged the bank back to the second gybe on the beach near the start and came out clean and back again for second lap along the sand bank. Now I was flying! I could lock in and power down the course with some boat wake breaking made it a bit of a worry to come unstuck and get flighty.

On the second lap entering the turnaround mark for home I managed to go around the mess but fell in the insane winds and waterstarting away twice as my right arm was weak and tired.

I hugged the Bank for half the leg and started heading for the finish out to sea on a good line bearing off a few times to not make it too deep at the end. Was a much more committed and fast run and was happy with my speed. Need to get a better start and get out of the the mess.

Here is a picture just after the race



Antoine won ahead or mortefon

I may have been top 100 again.

There is supposed to be another race but the wind is crazy now so will see. Was predicted to drop slowly but it's doing the opposite. Such a powerful natural force this tromantana

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AUS4 said..

terminal said..
14th May 40k race.

Isn't that last year?

Yes - sorry about that - I thought the 15 was for 2015.

I'll see if I can delete it.

Nice going Isaac. Keep it up and keep us updated!