Our French NorthSails / Fanatic slalom rider Pierre Mortefon impressively underlines his great form with the victory of the biggest windsurf race in the world with 1200 participants. At the 2015 Défi Wind Gruissan Pierre won 3 out of 4 races with incredible performance. Fully powered in 50knots plus he showed superb form on his small Warps. Congratulations Pierre!

Pierre´s race report:

„I just had an awesome week end with my Victory at the DEFI WIND in Gruissan – France .

To summarize quickly, The Defi is simply the Biggest windsurfing event in the World, with 1200 riders registered and more than 10000 passionates on the same spot, all the windsurf elite from the 30 last years was there to compete all together with all the amators. And i just took the victory of it after a big fight during the 4 races with some unbelievable conditions and some wind up to 130 km/h. I still not believe it, it’s really incredible for me to wind this event on the spot where i learn windsurfing…

The event started on thursday without any wind during the registration. But as soon as the skipper meeting was done a huge Tramontana came on the starting line. 1100 people on the line but only 300 at the finish ! the 800 withdrawals can show the difficulty of this first race of 40km with some gust up to 55kts. It was a good entry for me with a big fight with 2 others riders but i managed to get the victory of this first race ! On friday, we raced one more race with some lighter and easier conditions but with a shorter course to permits to all the amators to come on the water. After a really good start, it was a new race victory for me for this race of 20km. On saturday morning, when I arrived on the spot, I had a special feeling , something happened. The wind was super super strong, as I had rarely seen. I prepared the smallest sail possible and I went on the water. A new race was launched, I never raced with such a strong wind … The gusts were up to 120km/h, a real défi. This time I finished 2nd just behind the multiple World Champion A. Albeau. It was a really hard course and it was really hard to stay in the board and super important to avoid the crashes. For sunday, the forecast said lighter wind and we get the perfect « Défi» conditions, all the amators can race with us and it was a big sharing ! During the briefing, the race director announced the program : 1 race. So after some calculation, I knew that I have won the event because with 1, 1 and 2 + the discard , no body can beat me even if i didn’t go on the water ! But I really want to finish well the event and keep the domination. I was a bit late on the beach preparing my stuff but i took a really good start and i flew until the mark number one and jibed it on the lead, winning the last race give me such a good feeling. 3 races victory and 1 second place, hard to make it better. When I went out of the water I didn’t really realize but when I saw all the people on the beach applauding I was super super happy !!!

I am still in the cloud but I am really really happy to begin my season like this and I wanted to share this experience with you. I already thanks my parents for all they did, big thanks to my partner North and Fanatic which give me the best racing equipment and all my sponsors to permit me to train everyday to get this kind of result ! thanks all and big congrats to all the riders !

The season just begin and this week end i am off to Britanny then Costa brava for the rest of the World Cup ! „

Find more info here: http://bit.ly/1AdGkOh

Pics: Windmag, Bernard Biencotto and Jean Souville