“Almost” French Champ! 2nd place. ;)
The French Champ just finished yesterday… It was tough, tough conditions, and the highest level I’ve seen at the French championship so far, that’s good. In fact some of the juniors became senior, such as Thomas Paris, and some guys from New Caledonia who are ripping also came all the way to France from their perfect spots…
It started at 8am with 8-9ºC, the wind was coming from a snowy mountain and gusts went over 55 knots so it had to be cancelled, no one could unhook nor do any trick. The next day it went down (30-40 knots) and we finished all single eliminations (senior, junior and ladies). I had some hard heats against Thomas Paris and Tom Hebert and had to give it all in order to advance, they both ride really well so I was happy to make it until the final against Seb Garat. This heat was ok for me, I ended doing my tricks at the end of the competition area and couldn’t really perform in front of the judges and the crowd, while Seb managed to stay up there and do his job… So I took the second place.
But I’m happy anyway, I managed to ride in this gusty winds and do most of the tricks I wanted to. Now it’s time to relax a bit, study and plan my winter trips fro some training and shooting.
Cable and French Champ…
Just had this amazing session at the cable learning a bit how to hit the sliders… I’m loving the 2.0 system and trying to get the right position while sliding. I managed to do some 3s over the roof so I’ll keep training to improve!! 
I’ve also had a few good sessions in l’Almanarre with my friends, the best spot I’ve ridden for trying some new tricks, it is really amazing, the setup is so perfect and you can choose where to go over 4 km of offshore perfectly flat water conditions… Hopefully I can get a few other sessions before it gets too cold. However I’ll leave to train somewhere warmer so won’t be too sad neither.
We drove together with my friend Will to Canet for the French Championship which will start tomorrow as we had no wind for the last 2 days… However we’ll have way too much tomorrow… 47 knots in the afternoon, 10ºC is announced so with the wind it might go down to 5 or something around. Will probably be the worst conditions I’ve been in, it’s near Leucate so crazily gusty too. However there’s some good people, I’ve never seen the French championship with that level, Tom Hebert and a few mates came all the way from New Caledonia, Seb is here, Louis Hutter, Thomas Paris, Forest Bakker and many more guys riding pretty consistently… We might not see the craziest tricks but it will be hardcore, I’ll have a good night and motivate the people on the water tomorrow. I need to find a 5m kite tho…
Boracayyyyyy Video!
This is the video of our trip in Boracay (Philippines) together with my friend Florian Daubos riding for Naish. It was surely one of the best trips of the year for me, we enjoyed a lot as you can see on the shots!! The lifestyle in Boracay is great and I’ll surely go back this year to enjoy the spot as well as the good vibes!
It took me more than a month to edit but I learned a few things and hopefully I’ll do some more. So this is my first baby! A bit of lifestyle, action, fun, etc…
here for Vimeo:
And Youtube:
Turkey, Gökova
I’m back home in France after spending 4 great days in Gökova, Turkey.
This spot is definitely in my “top 3″ list of the best kitespots: 90% of chances of wind, good lifestyle, food is amazing ( loved the breakfasts with 20 different types of jams), people is cool and friendly, the town is authentic…. It’s just a great place that I’d recommend to any kiter specially in Europe. Just 2-3 hours flight from most of the countries and from April to October the chances of riding are huge. It’s funny because if you check on Windguru you’d think it’s the worst spot ever, but the ventury effect caused by this huuuuge valley provides wind everyday from 10-12h to 18h.
The English crew ( Luke, James and Hannah) had staid there for 3 weeks and had built a slider for a little shoot and I had the chance to learn a bit. It was quite nice to put on my boots and hit some slider for a while, but I soon discovered how harsh and painful it can be… specially when not protected by the sides. I totally bent one of the irons holding the slider and ended with the biggest bruise I ever had on my leg. It hurts like hell, couldn’t walk for a day and my leg turned pink, red, purple and now it’s going for a bit of Yellow!! looks good though, got to be tough!!
I would like to thank the whole team of Turkish guys at Gökova, they all treated me very well and I really enjoyed the staying there, will definitely come back and train for a while next year.
I’ll edit a short video from my staying in Turkey as I have a bit of footage.
