Today, I'm going to present you a sport that isn't very well-knowned but that I love: Windsurf!!

First of all, we have to know that windsurf hasn't been created by one single person; in fact, most people thought about creating this sport by putting a sail on a surf board, but no one thought about applying for a pattent until a french man called Serge Loiselot did. He improved the sail by adding a sort of rudder to grap it and to steer the surf (this rudder will then be called "wishbone" because of his particular form of chicken bone).

The pratice of this sport began in Hawaii, where the conditions of sailing were optimal, but there was always a problem of stability; the first boards were not as stable as the ones that we use right now because for example of the width.

Now, there aren't any problem for sailing thanks to new shapes that allows us to go faster, to jump some waves and to get a really good stability.

All the materials are specific with the way you sail.

In windsurf, we can differentiate 4 sorts of sailing:

- the Formula Racing which aim is to go fast,

- the Slalom where you have to race between buoys,

- the Waves which aim is to jump waves by doing, if you can, freestyle figures like front loop, back loop...

- the Freestyle which is probably the most impressive way of sailing. You can do special jibe (fast way of turning in windsurf) like air jibes, duck jibes... And also little jump, always on flat water.

Now, to complete my article about windsurf, I'm going to show you a freestyle session an extraordinary windsurf champion of freestyle called Jose Gollito Estredo. In this video, he sails in Fuerteventura, a famous canarian spot !!

For your viewing pleasure:

Antoine D.

2nde E