The La Palme POS World record attempt is over and it left the best till last!

Why do the wind Gods always leave the best wind till the very last day? The POS record attempt finished on the 7th of July and you will never guess when the 50+ knots winds arrived?

The event has been a massive success with subject to ratification by the WSSRC, 4 new World records and 11 national records with many of the Wingfoil and Windsurf records being beaten and improved day after day as the month progressed. Audrey Marieagnes for example who broke the Women’s 500m Wingfoil world record on the 16th for the 1st time, going on to up the 500m and the nautical mile records 3 times each with 30.99 knots for 500m and 29.40 for the mile and Richard Hobson increasing his British wingfoil record twice but had to go home so he could only watch from afar.

However It was the last few days that the big guns started to turn up. All subscribed and paid up riders for a record attempt can choose to turn up when they want and when the conditions suit them over the standby period and unless they were dying or had a damn good reason they were all there. Heidi Ulrich (Switzerland), Vincent Valkenaers (Belgium), Thomas Moldenhauer (Germany) Rob Douglas (USA) Cedric Bordes (France) all coming out of the woodwork for the Purple coloured forecast and they were not disappointed.

The wingfoilers were the first to put a score on the board in relatively light winds in the morning of the 6 July (35 Knots!) Audrey upping her 500m and mile World Records and Rob Douglas set a new USA record for the 500m at 32..47 knots then jumped on his kite set up and broke the World Record for the nautical mile, the man is a machine!

Then it was the turn of the windsurfers when the gusts started pushing over 50 knots on the afternoon of the 7 July. This location is not the fastest for 500m when compared to the canal in Luderitz, Namibia so they were all focusing on the Nautical mile hunting down national and World Records. Roger Ornvang (Sweden) despite sailing with a broken rib was the first national record to fall at 39.07 knots closely followed by Thomas Moldenhauer( Germany) upping his record to a very impressive 41.13 knots.

On this day Heidi Ulrich was the first to claim a World mile windsurfing Record which is also the outright record for any sailing craft over this distance for a woman. As the afternoon was drawing on, the wind became gustier and broader the boys started to hit some big numbers.

Vincent put in a big banker run, to up his National Belgian Record to 43.51k but was away from the world record held by Antoine Albeau at 44.12K.

So in the last few runs of the day Vincent, Hiedi and Cedric all gave it their all. Vincent was on fire and went past the start camera at over 47 knots on his GPS but 100m from the end of the mile had a massive crash and it didn’t count. Next was Cedric who had to slalom around a broken Vincent in the water and achieved the 2nd fastest windsurfing mile of all time with a 43.97k just 0.15 off the world record of Antoine. Heidi was the 3rd rider down and the last run of the day with a flying run but also crashed.

So with a bitter sweet ending and some amazing records achieved, the event left a few riders thinking of what might have been but that is Speed sailing!

Well done to Principe and Vanessa the organisers of the event, Pierre for staying out in rescue boat all day in tough conditions and all the other support crew and finally all the riders taking part and putting their skills and courage to the test.

Now on to Luderitz the 500m Nirvana in Namibia, starting 3 November to see who can come out on top!