Mondial du Vent PWA World Cup
With the close season coming to an end it’s time to look ahead to the 2015 PWA World Tour, which will begin slightly earlier than originally scheduled after intensive efforts between the PWA and the event organisers of the 2015 Mondial du Vent came to fruition, guaranteeing an explosive and spectacular start to the new calendar as the elite of the male freestyle world prepare to take centre stage between the 20th-25th April in Leucate, France, which is one of Europe’s premier windsurfing destinations.
Leucate is located in the South of France - approximately 130km southwest of Montpellier. During the winter Leucate has a population of about 11,000 people, but during the summer months this figure rises to around 80,000 - with many arriving to take advantage of the golden sunshine, pristine white sand beaches and of course the famous Tramontana wind which whistles down the Pyrenees Mountains - sometimes in excess of 60 knots - to transform Leucate into a windsurfing paradise. The wind is so reliable and frequent here that there are around 300 windy days a year.
La Franqui is the specific location where the Mondial du Vent will be hosted as the top 48 freestyle sailors prepare for their first battle of the season. Expect to see more explosive moves than ever before as the nuclear winds and flat water provide the perfect arena for the latest power moves to be thrown down.
The Start of the Title Defence
With six world titles to his name, as well as being the reigning world champion, Jose ‘Gollito’ Estredo (Fanatic / North / MFC), will undoubtedly come into the first event of the year as the man to beat. The Venezuelan excels in howling winds, which is reinforced by the fact that he has captured victory in Fuerteventura for the past three years, so Leucate could prove to be another stomping ground for the King of freestyle. However, he will face a stern test from the usual suspects such as the vice-world champion Steven Van Broeckhoven (JP / NeilPryde), 2013 world champion Kiri Thode (Starboard / Gaastra), the aspiring youthful talents of Amado Vrieswijk (JP / Severne) and Youp Schmit (99NoveNove / Avanti) and of course the legendary Frans brothers - Tonky (Tabou / GA Sails) and Taty (Starboard / GA Sails / Mystic / MFC).
The French will also be hoping to take advantage of home waters with Anthony Ruenes (Tabou / GA Sails) leading the charge together with Adrien Bosson (Fanatic / North / Maui Ultra Fins), Nicolas Akgazciyan (99NoveNove / Point-7 / AL360) and Julien Mas (JP / Avanti) to name a few. Of course there are many more names who could play a pivotal part in deciding the outcome of the opening event, but we’ll take a full look at them in the full event preview, which will be available over the weekend.
For now here’s a short interview with event organiser Pascal Maka:
PWA: Hi Pascal, the Mondial du Vent became a PWA Freestyle World Cup late in the day - How did the event come to happen?
PM: “It is a while I want to have a PWA freestyle event, I thought about it inside our team in November… After we organised a WindMeet freestyle event with French sailors with a purse of €5,000, I wanted to go further…Then PKRA started to be funky… New management, with new staff not knowing the discipline and dealing or trying to deal with organisers… Process has been very slow and hopeless…Then on top of that a problem between federations happened, ISAF/IKA/FFVL/FFV as well, finally victims were organisers and riders..so VKWT got scared about a situation they did not even understand…so I proposed to come to my idea of November to get PWA back to Leucate.”
PWA: How you feel about having the PWA coming to join the Mondial du Vent?
PM: “I feel great as a windsurfer who has competed a lot on the PWA World Tour, and also I have been judge u-in FS and Wave, and race officer as well.”
PWA: What we can expect from the event?
PM: “We can expect a super good vibe like we used to have here with PWA and windsurfing. This freestyle world cup will be a great new start, I wish we can go further for 2016 as well… Live streaming, €35,000 and 160,000 spectators.”
PWA: You can tell us a little bit about Leucate?
PM: “Locally we have 7 windsurfing/kiteboarding shops, 7 kite schools, 4 windsurfing school, Julien Taboulet windsurfing school, you will visit the spot, because we should have a party over there. It’s a perfect spot for windsurfing and freestyle, with a ramp, and teens coming to learn freestyle… the wind here is called the Tramontana, which blows around 200 days a year, and then we also have onshore winds as well with some waves rarely, but some good sessions… We have the sun when the wind blows which is great to practise, we have many different spots for different levels…spots with shallow waters perfects for families… Camp sites, repairing services. The water temp is around 15 degrees in March and already 18 degrees these days… a good place to be for fun and sailing in the sun and high winds…”
PWA: Thanks Pascal, we can’t wait to join you in France very soon.
Don’t miss any of the amazing action by tuning into www.pwaworldtour.com between the 20th-25th April. Here you’ll be able to follow the majority of the freestyle action as it happens via the PWA live stream and live ticker. It promises to be a spectacle you can’t afford to miss. Who’s your money of for the first event of 2015?