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2023 DÉFI WIND: FULL DÉFI

The 2023 Défi Wind was a classic full on Défi! A selection of racers talk us through their experience of one of the most hardcore windsurfing races on the planet.

Words – Jenna Gibson, Johan Søe, Sara Wennekes, Alice Read, Scotty Stallman, Andy Chambers, John Skye, Nico Goyard.

Photos – Défi Wind / Jean-Marc Cornu, Défi Wind / Jean Souville, Défi Wind/Louis McHugh.

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Nico Goyard – men’s winner

Most importantly a Défi starts with the crowd of windsurfers that makes all the magic of it! So the highs are clearly the nights and the lows are the days (joking)! Seriously though, I loved every part of the Défi, and the races are amazing in themselves. The starts with 1400 were particularly crazy and then the first reaches, full speed at 30 knots+ average were just soooo good. I couldn’t really think of a specific low time during the Défi, which really shows how good it was! I sailed only on a foil during the Défi with mostly the Phantom 71 Iris R Foil board, except for the last race I was on a 78 board, and using 4.5 and 5.5 RMk2 for the sails and the new Phantom Infinite with 360 wing for the foil. To be fair, I tried the foil only the day before the event as I was in Greece for the iQFOiL European Championships just before the event. I managed to get set up really quickly on the foil but, and it felt amazing straight away! I was happy with my settings after each race so I wouldn’t change anything. Starting at the bottom was a must, and I followed that strategy for my first 3 starts.

On the last one I started from the middle of the line for the challenge and that was really fun to have the rest of the best riders 400m. below me in front on the start line and trying to catch them up! Then the strategy on the second and third reaches was not as easy as we were crossing all the fleet coming up from a really wide angle, and finding a good route was always tricky. In the last reach we were diving below the fleet and going fuuuull send until the finish line. If I could do it all again I would party even harder! It’s such a shame that no other pros partied by the way, there should be a rule making parties mandatory for the top 50!

Johan Søe

This year was my second Défi Wind experience. Last year I sailed all the races on a fin board, ranging from sail size 7.1m to 5.6m, whereas this year I sailed all the races on my foil board. I arrived at Gruissan the day before the event started, and that was actually also the day I tried my smaller foil equipment for the first time. It took a few times where I had to go ashore to adjust it and get used to the small equipment, but in the end I got it tuned up pretty well I would say!

I would definitely say that the best moment during Défi Wind was winning the last race, after a mega close battle with Nico Goyard. It was a crazy feeling to cross the finish line as the first person out of more than 1400 windsurfers. I think I will remember that feeling for the rest of my life.

The first three races I sailed with my 4.8m Point-7 foil sail and the very last race I sailed with my 5.8m, as the wind had dropped a little compared to the other races. During all the races I used my 78 cm wide FMX foil board, together with my F4 foil where I used a front wing size of 375cm2. I definitely tried to adjust my equipment to be as comfortable as possible, as this is hugely important during such long races. I already learnt this in my previous Défi Wind, so I knew how to try and tune my gear before the first race.

For me, it seemed really good to start relatively low on the starting line and be one of the first to go. Especially with the foil, it’s no problem at all to reach the marks in relation to the wind. Besides that, I always tried to avoid any chaos on the course by either sailing above the rest of the windsurfers or below them. Of course this wasn’t always possible, especially at the last gybe mark you have to concentrate extra hard to find a good line around the mark because there are so many people.

To be honest, I don’t think I would have changed that much in hindsight. Of course, it would have been nice to have had a few more days to adjust and get used to my equipment, but luckily it was relatively easy to make it sail fast!

Sara Wennekes – women’s winner

Défi wind is an epic experience. Both for windsurfing, and enjoying the windsurfing bubble with thousands of people. For me, Défi wind is going back to the core of what windsurfing is. Being stoked to go out on the water in hardcore conditions and share that stoke with others. During the race itself the best moment is that feeling when you manage to start in time, right after the boat crosses. The most special moment is the one when you go around the first mark after the first reach and the horizon is just filled with windsurfers coming towards you.

The hardest part is when you choose the wrong set-up or don’t trim the gear correctly. You already get really sore from the long distance, but when the gear is not set up correctly it’s just a painful experience. I used the same set-up every day – Future Fly Flying Camel 145-litre board, Severne HyperGlide 5 5.0 and Z-Foils – their racing foil with their smallest front and back wing.

During the event I focus on having a comfortable set-up. On the foil this means footstraps in the right place, harness lines forward and the sail flat! This is definitely different from when I do slalom racing and want all the gear on the right settings for optimal speed.  When I do some practice runs I make sure I can easily hold the gear for more than one hour. It should not be hard or heavy, as during the race you always start pushing. I also learned to jump with the foil because there was quite a lot of weed in the water that jumping helped clear!

With the foil there is quite some room to play with on the course because you can windsurf high angles. Mostly I looked for a spot on the start line where it was least crowded and had a more or less free line towards the mark. I guess it worked out quite well! If I could do it again I would spend even more time on my practice runs tuning my gear. Even though I had a really good set-up, I think I could still improve a lot on these specific ‘Défi wind’ conditions.

John Skye

A high of the Défi is definitely the rush of starting with sooo many people. It’s just such an amazing experience. It’s also pretty nuts when you are heading back through the fleet if you are in a reasonable top 100 position. Literally 1400 people heading straight at you. Before it was scary with only fins on the course, but now you have people flying towards you on a foil, massively overpowered and looking like they are about to either explode or cut you in half… or maybe both. The lows are normally at around 38 km., when my body is screaming for me to stop pushing, my back is aching and at one point I thought I could actually feel my hip joint grinding itself to dust… but then you stop pushing and just lose loads of places, so need to keep going! The same happens about 1 km. from the mark on each lap where you feel like you need a chiropractor to crack you back into an upright position to enter the gybe! Sometimes I feel like I come out of the gybe, and even though I am sailing on the new tack, my body is still stuck twisted in the opposite direction!

Gear

I was on full slalom gear, using the RRD X-Wing race sails and the X-Fire slalom boards, with my trusty F-hot carbon blades stuck in the back. I only took the small 90-litre board, which in hindsight was a mistake, especially as the wind for the windsurf part was actually relatively light. However 7.0 was my biggest sail and I know it works well on the small board normally. However when you add 1400 people to the mix and also a course that is very rarely perfectly cross wind, it becomes much harder. Maybe the top speed is a fraction faster, but it’s much harder to get out of trouble, and to be honest, unless you are leading, you are mostly trying to get out of trouble.

So the first race I went on 6.2 and the 90. I had a great start and good speed, BUT the wind had shifted slightly and it was a hard upwind leg, which on the smaller gear was a lot of work and I (along with half the fleet) had to put in a tack and kiss goodbye to a good rank. For the 2nd race I grabbed the medium slalom board from the RRD stand, shoved my favourite 36 cm F-hot fin in it and it was another story. Off the start line you have power and lift to get out of dirty water/air and drive upwind. It also has so much lift in the gear that it’s easier to take a break and still go fast. On the smaller gear you need to be pushing the whole time, whilst on the medium board I could sit and relax, change positions, twist the hips the wrong way for a bit, whilst all the time keeping a good speed. Unfortunately one of our riders saw my good results on the board and took it for himself, which meant I was back on the small board and my results suffered.

Going with the bigger board was definitely an effective tactic. It also allowed me to take different lines around the course. On the small board I was always worried about staying upwind, so generally hugged the shoreline, which is flat and fast, but a longer distance. There are also much more people to mess you up. On the medium board I was able to actually bare away after the marks and get out to sea in generally cleaner air and water, normally solo and a much more direct route from A to B, always with the knowledge that getting upwind at any point would be easy.

Start

The start is the real killer though. I had 2 out of 4 good starts, breaking through the front line, finding clean air and then it’s just plain sailing, at least for the first 3-4 km. Get a bad start though, even if it’s just 1 row back, and it’s a real struggle to get away. You just move from wake to wake and really need to be MUCH faster than the rest to get past. My tactic was to look for an empty part of the line, normally middle to low, and then hang back sort of in the second line of traffic. Then when you spot the boat, try to find a space in the line to ideally fly through it full speed while the rest are still trying to accelerate. But get it wrong and you are stuck in the 2nd row going nowhere. Get it really wrong and you can’t even plane… then you lose 4-500 places in 10 seconds!

If I could do it again I’d take a medium board with me and/or not let the team rider take it from me! Also maybe do a bit more fitness work beforehand just to be able to push longer. I had 1 race that after 37 km I was dying and I just thought, “Why am I doing this?” I was fighting around the top 50 place and there was no way I was catching the guys ahead, so I just thought I would ease off a bit. Then suddenly at around 39 km., with the finish line in sight, about 10 guys all appeared around me and flew past, losing about 10 places in the last 500m. At that moment I was thinking it’s pretty unimportant, but then when you see how close the ranks are at the end, it would have made quite a difference.

Battles

I finished 67th. Very unremarkable, but.. it was 15th in the fin only class overall, 1st UK rider in the fin class and I think 2nd UK overall behind Scotty Stallman. So not too bad. But actually in the end it’s the little mini battles you have that make it fun. I was fighting a lot with my friend Mikkel Asmussen in pretty much every race and he became my personal battle. I finished 2 positions ahead, which is just nuts considering there are 1400 people, and he was obviously gutted!! However it’s not really the result that matters. There is 1 winner really, 3 on the podium and for the other 1397 it’s simply the sense of achievement. I guess it’s like running the London marathon. Not many people go into it with any hope of winning, but just completing it, or maybe finishing ahead of your mates is actually what it’s all about. I can’t wait for next year, even if I will probably take a physio with me!!

One funny moment was when we were on the stage presenting the latest RRD boards and sails. I was trying to explain how durable our new wave sail was and wanted to use our top French team rider as an example, Baptiste Cloarec. I am terrible with names, especially foreign ones, and with all the stress of the hundreds of people listening I had a brain freeze. I knew his second name began with C and as I racked my brain it suddenly came out as Baptiste Croissant! Everyone burst into laughter and the presenter then ripped into me! At the time I was dying, but looking back all I can do is smile!

Scotty Stallman

Défi was epic! I have never experienced anything quite like it!! The set-up, briefings and racing is something really quite different to any other event out there. For me, Défi Wind has been an event I’ve wanted to do ever since I started windsurfing, so regardless of the result, it was going to be a tick off of the bucket list!! One of the best moments during the racing was getting to the first mark in the top 30, and gybing round to then see 1400 windsurfers coming straight at you, a very surreal moment that shows windsurfing is definitely not dead! A lot of passion and excitement all in one place. Out of the four races, three went really well, all with top 30 finishes, however on the fourth race I got caught up in a collision on the start line which was far from ideal and a little scary to say the least! Luckily no one was hurt and no kit was damaged. This did mean though I spent this race chasing back to the front after starting right at the back. This was frustrating for me, however it did reinstate the fact of how big this event truly is. Weaving through all of the competitors to get back to the top was pretty cool, everyone was in control, taking their own line and enjoying the last race of the event. It also meant I could keep an eye out for mates, and give them a little wave as we crossed paths.

Solid

We were very lucky as we had 10 days of tramontana wind over the event period that meant we had solid racing every day! As with everything in the water sports world right now, foiling was always the choice of kit when we were racing. I took my 4.8m Vapor Air and 81 cm wide Air Ride Plus for the first three races, along with my F4 foil equipped with a 375 cm2 front wing. If I was racing on the PWA with this set-up, I would have a slightly bigger front wing to cover some lulls in the wind, however Défi Wind is more about speed, and not so much turning around, so going small on the foil was a must!!

My tactic was to go as small as possible on the sail/board/foil combo to make it as easy as possible to sail on the course when going for 35 kilometres plus non-stop!! This definitely worked for me, well, off the start line it did, but as the race goes on and more and more people are sailing in the same area, you do feel a drop in the wind, so its always a good idea to keep your options open and make your set-up as powerful as possible to push through the last parts of the race when the wind gets a little lighter!!

I finished 25^th overall. If I could do it all again, I would take another look at my starts, it’s definitely a key part of the race if you want to get out to the front of the pack early!! I was starting a little higher up from the pin end (where the boat would first start), but all of the best boys were starting exactly at the pin. Once the boat had passed me, those boys had already covered a fair bit of ground and it made catching them that bit harder!

Andy Chambers

Défi was such an epic experience for me! I’m not going to lie though, it was very challenging, especially physically, and I would consider myself a pretty fit person, especially windsurf fit. However it turns out that pretty much everyone is in the same boat! The nice thing about the Défi is that anyone can do it in their own time without being made to feel bad if they take a really long time to complete a race. The next race doesn’t start until the last person is checked in, back on the beach. There is such a positive vibe around the whole event and everyone is made to feel very welcome and encouraged to race. Being on the water with 1400 other windsurfers is pretty amazing, even just to look from a far, and then when you are in the middle of them it’s absolutely mental!

Exciting

The high points for me were definitely just being on the water with that many windsurfers most of whom wanted to get a good start and really give it a good go, so we were all pushing on the start line and on all the runs so that made the races very exciting. Then seeing people you know from home or that you met in the previous race and having your own race with them is super fun. Best moment was definitely overtaking or ‘rolling’ some of the slalom racers on my freeride gear!

Low points were definitely the physical element, especially my legs. The front of my shins fatigued from pulling up on the footstraps and also the quads on my back leg from pushing against the fin meant I had to take breaks while sailing, by not pushing and just standing up. Also in the evenings I was really struggling to get my shin muscles to relax. It really didn’t help to motivate me to do more races and to keep pushing. Worst moment was getting a bit stuck on the start due to hundreds of people upwind all going too early which left me in a big wind shadow. 

Freerace

I was using a Goya Bolt 97, which is a Freerace board, so a mixture between slalom and freeride, kinda like a sporty freeride board, and a Goya Mark 6.2 no-cam freeride sail. Also I had a smaller fin as it was pretty windy, and over such a long distance you don’t need a big fin to push on. The combo worked great for me, as it was all very light and comfortable. So I could still go fast and gybe easier due to being more comfortable and in control. That’s the beauty of the Défi, you can do it on whatever equipment you want and still do reasonably well. I saw a huge range of gear doing it – the latest and greatest foil racing and slalom gear, full on wave gear, retro gear from the 80s and even a couple of longboards. Lessons learned from my side are to be a little bit more powered up as that is a good thing because you can get through the holes in the wind caused by hundreds of other sailors and you can get upwind to the flatter water quicker to make things easier and faster.

Tactics

I had the added advantage of sailing around with my work colleague and friend Alex Guyader, who has done a few Défi’s and Olympic campaigns, so just before the first race we noticed a wind shift and decided to start closer to the beach, which really paid off as hundreds of people had to tack to get to the first mark as they all started too low. My tactic in general was to get as close to the beach as possible, which can be risky with the sandbars, but I figured that I wanted the cleanest wind, so had to be the furthest upwind and also take advantage of the flat water where I could really just concentrate on going as fast as I could.

If I could do it all again I think I would always start closer to the beach and just push more on the start line to make sure I am in cleaner air. Also I would consider wearing booties to save my feet getting destroyed, which also would help a bit with the impact on the bottom of your feet which you really feel due to the board chop from 1000 people. Getting my legs stronger, especially on the front of my shins, will definitely help me be able to push for longer. I’d take a foam roller or massage gun too!

My overall ranking was 86^th, 3^rd UK Sailor and 2^nd UK sailor on the fin! I really think that all windsurfers should go and experience the Défi. It’s an amazing event that is superbly organised. You really feel like you have achieved and been a part of something very special. It’s a great atmosphere on and off the water too. I will definitely do it again next year and hopefully with some more UK windsurfers! The Défi shows the true windsurfing community at its best.

Jenna Gibson

This was my first Défi Wind, what an awesome experience on and off the water! At times I would forget I was racing as I just kept trying to soak it all in. The only way I could snap out of the freeride mode I kept returning to was if I locked onto a target to chase down. If something happens like you fall in or stop foiling, which happened to me many, many times, you can just start a new drag race with someone else. So even the worst experiences don’t end up being so bad. The post windsurf buzz you’re surrounded by when you come off the water makes you hyped for going back out, no matter how tired you are.

I only foiled throughout the event, using my Fanatic Falcon 170 (81 cm wide) with my smallest F4 foils (420 front wing), and both my 5.4 and 4.6 Duotone Foil Warps. There was one windy race where I considered using the fin, but when I compared my results on the foil to the results of the guys I sail at home on the fin with, I decided I was better off sticking to the foil, despite it not being what I would usually use in those winds. I don’t normally change things during events, as I try to stick with what I’m used to, especially so at Défi – 40 km would feel a lot longer if you change something in your set-up and accidentally make it more uncomfortable!

After hitting a sandbar on the foil last year and breaking my shoulder, the thought of running aground terrifies me. So I made sure to keep out to sea in the deep water. It actually turned out to be an amazing tactic anyway; it gave me clearer air, less turbulent water, less people to weave around and a more direct line to the mark.

I will definitely be doing Défi again! I think for next time I need to be more prepared for foiling in those winds and even windier! The foil had such an advantage on the starts, with shifting wind, and at the gybes. The more prepared I can be for high wind foiling, the better. That being said, I would absolutely love to do some races on the fin. We sailed on the fin in some stronger Tramontane winds before the event started and racing in those conditions would be epic!

Alice Read

This is my third Défi wind and I have loved them all. I have had a different experience at each one; with the first, I was ill, so spectated (still amazing), the second I did it on the fin and this is the first event where I did it on the foil. One of the best bits is definitely being on the start line and just taking a moment to look around at everyone, and knowing that everyone is there to celebrate the sport of windsurfing. It really is incredible to see the range of equipment used, and the abilities and ages eager to give the race a go. Another best moment was meeting up with some of the guys from the club that I grew up learning to windsurf at! As I have now moved away, this was quite special. I wouldn’t say I had a worst moment, but definitely a tiring one; I empathise with the fins sailors! In the first race I was using a very small wave sail on the foil that made it difficult to go on a tight reach.

This meant I needed to tack a couple of times to make the first mark, and really pump! I was learning as the event went on, as it was my first time on the foil. I quickly realised that I needed to start at the bottom of the line where the boat started to get a good start on the foil. I wasn’t ready to battle it out with the guys just yet, so I stayed just above in clear space. My gear consisted of a race / slalom foil and board, a few small wave sails and then one 5.5 slalom foil sail. I used the wave sails for the first two races with my medium front wing, and then changed to the slalom foil sail for the second two races with the small front wing. This was the first time using the small front wing, which was fun! I’m super excited for the next Défi wind. I’m definitely going to be more confident with using a size bigger on the sail, as I didn’t realise how big the wind shadow can be when you’re in the mix with everyone! My final placing was 155 out of 1400!! For the categories I was 7th woman and 3rd woman foil. I was super proud of my results in race 3 and 4 where I achieved a 2nd and a 3rd overall woman! Bring on the next Défi Wind!