I just received my new Vapor 2012! A lot of box arrived at home for the new season.

I tryed 8,6 and 7,9 yesterday on flat water with the new manta 71.These sails fit on the board with 40 cm fins. I personally prefer to use 7,9 on this board because of more acceleration. And keep the 8,6 for my manta 84 in lighter wind.

Today was an other storie: 35/45 knots full on shore in Marseille with a really technical chop. The 5,7 is quite stable and still easy to sail for this hard conditions.

First feelings with the new sails is good: they are more light on the hands with more low end than last year (and still perfect on strong wind), now I need to tune them 100%!

More test soon… In Maui this time…

5/15 knots off shore, hard to catch waves but fun…

Sick windsurfing movie!

I am now in Hossegor near biarritz for some days of surfing. Forecast was sick for here and no wind for 3 days at home so I take the road. I have done some really fun sessions here on good size of waves. I am actually dying because I am so tired, too much time on the water!.. Even if this sahrk was found yesterday on the beach!!! No more energie but I must drive back home for testing some slalom fins at the end of the week at home with Antoine Albeau.

So Far I was lucky to try already a lot of new 2012 slalom gear!! We have a perfect winter here, in south of france with wind non stop the last 2 months with waves and not so cold weather.

In my home spots, there is a lot of passionate slalom racers so I have all the gear from each brand to try. This is really nice for R&D to test products from other brand and see how my Tabou boards and gaastra sail work and hwo we can improve them continuously. Planchemag magazine also have all the new gear to test for his report.
So I am pretty happy with new manta 71 and 84. Boards have changed a lot this year (new rocker on the noze area, new outline, new straps positions and new cut for the 84). Boards have much more low end and are more fast on flat water (still really easy on chop like before).
I also tryed the new production vapor 7,9 and sail improve a lot! it is much lighter on the hand, speed is amazing on downwind and sail have better low end (bad point of last year). I am sure I can improve again the performances of it in low end by tunning it step by step.

I will have all my own gear during the next weeks and be able to train with it soon.
First Pwa event will be in May in korea because Vietnam event moved in November, so there is no ruch (last year I got my ail 3 days before the first event only!!).

I plan to go to Maui for some weeks soon…

Cette derniere étape de Six Fours fut venté. Nous avons fait une double élimination en vague dans 40 knots.

Je finis 5 eme en vague en naviguant avec ma 4,0 iq et avec da curve 79. J’ai aussi utilisé ma pocket 80 dans ces conditions on shore pour remonter au vent avec de la vitesse.

En slalom, nous avons fait 5 manches avec de longues heures d’attendes.

J’ai utlisé mes 4 voiles enregistrées, il y avait 6/7 vainqueur potentiel ici.

Finir 2 eme est donc un tres bon résultat meme si discarder 2 manches au bout de 5 manches courues (au lieu d’une seule comme en coupe du monde) ne previligie pas la régularité et ne me permet pas de l’emporter…

Il y a eu de bonnes réunions animées afin de continuer avancer sur le bon déroulement du tour 2012. Nous avons un tour avec un niveau incroyable niveau sur l’eau, des jeunes motivés et une certaine reconaissance.

Il faut continuer à pouvoir progresser sur ce tour pour performer en coupe du monde… tous ensemble…

Desormais un peu de repos sera le bienvenue car la saison fut longue mais enrichissante!!!

Grosse semaine de test en Sardaigne chez Peter Munzingler le designer en cette fin Octobre.

Tout le team Gaastra était présent, on a rencontré les boss d’Italica l’usine de mats pour échanger des idées ensemble.

Les nouvelles voiles semblent bien plus legeres dans les bras avec plus de minis.

Next soon.

Derniere étape du tour, Sylt est une étape mythique et énorme. Toutes les disciplines du windsurf modernes sont présentes avec plus de 100 riders. Malheureusement il n’y a pas eu assez de vent durant les 10 jours de l’event pour avoir un résultats officiel. Dans les quatres 1/4 de finals en slalom pourtant validés, 4 gaastra etaient en tete mais on n’a pas pu aller plus loin dans ces conditions limites en 9,5.

On a cependant fait une compet de standup en relais par 4, on fini 1er sur le flat apres avoir manqué de réussite sur la 1 ere compet de stand up faite dans les vagues.

Je finis 16 eme à l’année ce qui est pluto un bon résultat vu le niveau mondial cette année!

Again a busy month!

4 days after the Pwa in Turquie, Ross Williams my team mate was back at home for 2 weks of testing and R&D. we sailed almost eveyday trying new shap with cuts or without, new rails, higher noze, new straps positions… It was a hard job to be sure about each point so we tesed all points several time with nice results.

Same for the sail, Peter Munzlinger sended us some sail and mast protos, and it seems to be on the good direction! We will received again some protos during Sylt and then we will go to Sardaigna for a final test in October. 

I also got my new wave board: Pocket trusther 93 and 85 + Da Curve quaster 91 et 79. I have sailed 3 times on them and they rocks.

Ross Williams also loved them and will compet next week in Pwa Danemark with these production boards when  almost all other riders have customs.

Now I will try to have some rest before the last worldcup in 10 days because i am really tired!!!

Check out the new Tabou windsurfing range. Great shapes, Great boards, Great designs…

video introuvable

For this 6 th event of the year, we have been back in Alacatie again.

It is a great place with flat water and wind betwen 8 and 20 knots normaly. But this year we had 2 days over 30 knots, it was super windy and I sailed on 6,4 vapor with manta 59 (32 cm fins) really powered up! The rest of the time I sailed mostly with 7,9 and manta 69 like in Aruba and 2 rounds with the new manta 85 evo 2 with 9,5.

We have done 11 races (2 discards) so it was a long week with a lot of actions. Normaly I don’t do so good in this place because it is flat and not so technical to sail, so a lot of guys can be fast. But this year I finished 13! I am pretty happy about this result.

Congratulations to Bjorn and Sarah for being the 2011 world champions!

With my team mate Ross Williams we also done some board testing and finished the Photoshooting of the 2012 freeride/freerace/race line of prodcuts begaun in Fuerteventura.

Now, I am on my way to home with my girlfriend to have some rest before some locals event and the big PWA final in Sylt end of September.

A super nice video from the Tabou/Gaastra team during the first 2 wave events of the world tour this year.

Enjoy it!

What about PWA Tenerife 2011? from Sophia Regerbis on Vimeo.

Fuerteventura was on fire!! For this 5 event of the year we had some great wind with somedays over 35/40 knots on the canaries island.

I was pretty confident on my small gear on Manta 59 with Vapor 5,7 and 6,4 (with 32 and 34 cm fins).

It was a tought fight until the last race, i finished 11 with some good finals.The hardest thing was to go full power on each race without pushing too much to avaoid mistakes. I get some good crashed!

Next event is in 5 days in Turquish, where with all the Gaastra and Tabou team we will also continue the 2012 photoshooting.

What a great event! 4 days of racing, 2 races per day on warm water with 20/25 knots. it was the 4th event of the 2011 tour, still 3 to do.

I used on each single race the same gear : Tabou Manta team edition 69 and Gaastra Vapor 7,9 with 40 and 38 fins.The wind was sometime hard to predict because the starting area was 300 meters below the beach with off shore wind but all races were sick.

The level is incredible, everyone need to fight form the quarter final to go on semi (top 4 advance from 8 guys on each heat).

20 riders can finish top 3 on a race, so racing was intense until the end. I done my best and I was suprise with my speed in this flat water (I prefer normay more technical conditions). I have done 5 finals and 1 winner. 

Next event will be in Fuerteventura in 3 weeks, cant’ wait to be there and use my 6,4 and 5,7 Vapor!