IFCA WORLDS LEUCATE

Jenna Gibson on her win:

IFCA World Title n°5 - that feels pretty cool to say.

For a moment it looked like it was going to be a repeat of last year's World Championships in Turkey where we didn't manage any fin racing. However, France finally delivered on the last day with an early start for a light Tramontana wind. We managed three races with some great battles in an almost full PWA Women’s fleet.

I used 7.7 and 8.5 Warp_Fin with the 118 and 129 D/LAB Falcons. I hadn’t been sailing on the big kit over the winter, using mostly 6.2/98 and under, but the un-tested bigger stuff worked amazing straight out of the bag: the board flying perfectly and the big sails feeling light in the hands, just as I’d expected.

Really happy with my overall performance: clean starts, smooth gybes, consistent speed and most importantly keeping a cool head. Not too rusty considering a winter spent only in the UK, without the start/race practice of previous years. I have still come away with a few things to work on for the rest of the season ahead- but it’s looking good.

So nice to be back racing in these conditions again as it’s a bit more technical than the survival conditions we usually race in on the PWA SlalomX tour, which makes a nice change. So it’s just a shame we didn’t have a few more days of wind- but that’s windsurfing.

I'm staying in France a bit longer now, with a speed title to defend then onto the DefiWind (it will be my first time doing it on the fin, so I'm super excited)

Kasper Friis Nielsen after dominating the Youth Foil Slalom:
This winter and early spring, I trained daily to be in the best possible shape for the start of the season.

The first event took place in Leucate in southern France, a spot usually known for strong winds at this time of year. However, when we arrived, the forecast didn’t look very promising. Despite that, I spent as much time on the water as possible to be fully prepared for the competition.

The day before the event, the forecast was still uncertain, but in the end there was enough wind to foil every day. On day five, there was even enough wind to complete one elimination on fin.

I competed only in the foil youth men’s category, where everything went extremely well. I managed to win 4 out of 4 eliminations, which made me Youth World Champion.

Throughout the entire event, I used my biggest setup: the Duotone 8.7 Warp Foil 2026 sail. This sail is extremely powerful and allows for strong acceleration even in very light wind conditions, which made a big difference in such marginal weather.

Jordy Vonk about his double podium:

'What a way to kick off the season! I'm very happy with my performance on the water especially on the foil side.

I was hoping we were going to get 5 days of strong tramontana and therefor I put all my effort this winter on the fin, but that was not the case!

My Falcon_Foil 159 and Warp_Foil 8.7 still brand new when I went into day 1 of the competition and I guess it shows how good the gear is when I was straight so competitive. With basically all the PWA guys competing I'm super happy with the way I was sailing.

It was awesome that during the last day we still had a couple of hours tramontana to finish one fin elimination, I was aiming for more than a third place, but with only one elimination done it's been very tricky so I'm satisfied to at least take a podium place!

One event, two trophees: a big motivation and confidence builder to go to the next races!