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JORDY STARTS THE SEASON ON A HIGH
AT THE FIRST FRENCH SLALOM CHAMPIONSHIPS
After spending the winter in Tenerife, training with the TWS Pro Slalom Training, on the drive home Jordy Vonk scored an epic forecast in the South of France and decided to stop off in Marignane / Le Jai for the first AFF Slalom competition and test himself against the best of the French.
The infamous Mistral blew hard for the entirety of the contest, something Jordy has always dreamt of competing in. With both fin and foil divisions on the line up, due to the extremity of the conditions, only one foil round was completed with Jordy finishing 2nd, whilst some fierce battles went down on the fin with Jordy taking the win over the Frenchmen on their home turf!
We caught up with Jordy about the event and what's new in the racing gear this season...
»The Frenchies are known to be fast so it was a great opportunity to see where I’m standing compared to those guys!«
Jordy, how was it to be back racing again after all the winter training?
Racing on the TWS slalom course is good training, but doing an official race always feels a bit different! I got lucky scoring a good forecast driving back from Tenerife and decided to stay in France and do the AFF. The Frenchies are known to be fast so it was a great opportunity to see where I’m standing compare to those guys!
The PWA have split the fin and foil again for 2024, what developments have happened with our equipment to make sure it is the best for both divisions?
I think for us not much had to happen to stay strong in the fin division, our gear has been good for years and upgrading our performance with the D/LAB construction boards simply kept us at the top of the game! Most of the focus went to the foil side as we knew we had performance to gain there. It was a shame we only ran one foil elimination in France, but the first signs of the sails' performance are looking very good and I’m excited to race more on them the next couple of events.
How was it to be racing in such crazy conditions? What gear were you using?
It was honestly the most windy racing I’ve ever done. I heard about this place delivering crazy conditions and have seen amazing videos about it so I’m happy to have finally experienced it myself. At the peak the gusts were over 50 knots was simply insane! I was using the 5.0 and 5.8 Warp_Fin with Falcon_Fin D/LAB 99 + 32cm fin.
Photos by Photosport Normandy