When the wind is not blowing there are other alternatives to keep enjoying the ocean and get some adrenaline… Stand Up Paddle is one of the best water sports and I love it so much because of it’s polyvalence… You can cruise around when there are no waves nor wind, surfing the smallest wave can become very funny and charging big waves is even better.

While on my Christmas trip to Guadeloupe (Gwada), I had the chance to get some really good swells for SUPing. Actually the best session I ever had. Probably not the first time I say that, and not the last, but being alone on my paddle at 8am with perfect waves coming in just for myself to enjoy for hours, offshore wind and 28ºC air and 26ºC when you crash,  can easily be resumed to the best session ever. I obviously would have loved to share the waves with some friends but this time it was just for myself. A Christmas gift  worth 10 years of gifts that not even millions can pay for…

Here a little video I have done for fun, and a few low rez pictures.

This is a video of the last months riding here in Southeast of France… just wanted to show the perfection of the spot l’Almanarre!! It is to me the best spot I’ve been riding in when the conditions are on your side… it looks like a huge swimming pool, with kilometers of perfectly flat water and offshore winds, any depth you wish and you can easily be by yourself… Even wanting to build a kitespot like that you could not make it that good!!!
Plus the spot is very often windy, almost like Tarifa, but the other direction of wind is kind of much harder. But it’s good to train in all conditions…
There’s also a bit of riding in Cannes, my homespot, which can get very good too and you get to see huge luxury boats sometimes, not bat neither, just to entertain your session!

Cheers!!

Here a few cool videos from comps and riding…

A great video of the KTA in Turkey which was a cool comp:

and a bit of cablepark 2.0 which I’m still learning to do… The vid is from our french team COR and was edited by Thomas Paris during the french champ in Canet en Roussillon:

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.

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…