All over the Place

As a matter of fact, windsurfing in Europe means driving around looking for a place with good conditions to sail in. Comparing forecasts on the internet, calculating fuel costs and driving time, calling friends to discuss about which spot works best - all these actions are common parts of a windsurfer's life. In the end, you can never be sure to have chosen the right spot. With all these forums on the internet where people write about the sessions they had, claiming to have had the best day ever you can easily get confused. Was it really that good on that particular day? Were the waves that big, the wind that strong? - No matter what - it's not about going where everybody else goes. It's all about enjoying your time on the water, be it a gusty 15 knots with loads of chop or a clean cross-off port-tack day with a 2 metre-swell. Sometimes it is better to relax. Some of the statements made in forums should be taken with a pinch of salt anyway.
This is what my sessions look like these days - average to marginal winds accompanied by sunny weather and mild temperatures. No waves, no big jumps - just windsurfing.

I feel that I am getting a lot safer with the standard switch moves. Getting safe on the more difficult moves is a different story though. Having started to properly do freestyle two years ago, I am still happy with what I have learned so far. It probably helped that I grew up sailing on a lake where we would do a lot of low-wind freestyle moves like heli-tacks and stuff.

All good things come to an end, as does my stay in Southern France. In just about 3 weeks I will be back in Germany. Before that, there is still one main event that is going to take place down here from today onwards. The Mondial du Vent in Leucate is a festival that features watersports. There will be an EFPT-Freestyle competition as well and I will try my best and compete. Let's see how it goes. I am motivated but I know that the level is very high. From what I saw in Leucate on Wednesday, everybody's on fire. I think it will be a savage event with loads of crazy moves and maybe some big crashes. At the moment the forecast does not look too promising but the event is still six days away so everything might change again. When I think of the stormy conditions we've had two days ago I am convinced that there will be wind. In the end, Leucate could be called France's high wind capital.

I am back in Istres now, waiting for wind and taking advantage of the good weather. Tomorrow's gonna be windy so I am happy to be able to sail. So long. Check out a little eslider that I nailed sometime around last week:

Eslider from Mathias Genkel on Vimeo.

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