Julien Sudrat et Tuva Jansen vainqueurs de l’étape vendéenne

• Englis version : Wind, waves and results !

Right after the skippers meeting at 8am, the wind gets stronger and everybody moves to the start area. We put the equipment in the Toyota cars of the organization. At 11.30 am the Race Direction launches the start procedure of the winner bracket. The wind is established at 16 knots and some good sets of waves come up.

The first heats go on without a problem, very fast and from the first round onwards, we have a few surprises. Some leaders of the Kiteboard pro World Tour like Richard Boudia, Bertrand Fleury or Cédric Le Bourgocq will have to go through the looser bracket. The two semi-finals are outstanding. Guillaume Mariani from Nantes, 3rd on the KPWT 2003 and Julien Sudrat, 2001 KPWT World Champion, fight hard ; Julien is qualified for the final. In the 2nd semi-final, the frenchy Jérémie Eloy is against the Australian wave rider, Felix Pivec, who performs great moves and finally wins. The two finalists are both experts in waves : Julien against Felix. Julien is just amazing on the water and wins easily. In the looser final, Jérémie Eloy rides better than Guillaume Mariani and finishes 3rd of the Winner bracket.

Around 4pm, it is time for the women to have some action. In the first semi-final, Tuva Jansen from Norway has to perform against the Canadian, Daphnée Laliberte ; on the other side, Fabienne D’Ortoli rides in front of the surprising Gisela Pulido, 10 years old. In the final, the fight between Tuva and Fabienne is very tight . Tuva really improves since last year and she appears to be better in strong wind than Fabienne.