Antoine Martin (JP / NeilPryde) raised his bar in 2019 when it comes to competition sailing. The 26-year-old has long been one of the most radical sailors in the world, but that didn’t always equate into top results. However, last season that started to change and after starting to the season with a 9th and then two top 5 results, Martin claimed his first win on the world tour at the prestigious Mercedes-Benz Aloha Classic, which saw him finish 4th overall for 2019. Now you can see Martin in action again, but this time at home in Guadeloupe.

Antoine Martin: “Two months ago in pre-season, I had to leave Guadeloupe for Ireland score a sick storm on a weekend with Thomas Traversa F3 and Pierre Bouras. On Thursday early morning I decided to do one last session thinking I was going to have a little boating with the friends on the home spot "warm before the big Irish cold haha". Despite the small conditions, in the middle I’m making a mistake of excess confidence in wanting to type a section far too late.. I fell into the wave and at the time of reception, I’m getting a double sprain of both ankles, one in bad condition leaving me No choice to stop windsurfing for a little while.. followed the COVID-19 with a global shutdown with the cancellation of all my projects and competitions in the near future which after all this bad news has earned a one week depression in my room during the beginning of the lockdown to grind black for a few days without wanting to do anything or plans for the future.. until I start putting up this video. As the editing I began to feel the adrenaline coming back inside me and allowed me to come out of my cave and realise how important our freedom was. Since I have opened up to other activities around the lockdown to wait and give myself the intimate motivation that windsurfing is and remains the most expensive.

I hope by this post and video that you will find just a little positive message that will allow you too in case of a difficult time to find comfort and stay motivated in every future action you will do.

PS: The voice and the message in the video comes from an interview of Will Smith talking about a motivation that fear of doing things. I thought it looked really like me and I hope one day if I get the opportunity I’ll talk about it with my own words in another video.

I thank Pierre for coming last minute to film these magical moments, Lena Combet for the photos, William Ferre for the crazy calibration, Romain Bernadoy for getting me back on my feet, the riders who helped me out of the water the day I hurt myself and all those who motivated me to move forward during the two months of recovery!

Now good luck to everyone and more than waiting for the end of the lockdown to go back to have fun on the water!!

Song: Joji – Run"

You can see Antoine Martin’s latest video, prior to injury, here. Everyone from the PWA wishes Antoine all the best with his recovery.