Sébastien SALERNO speaks about the Luderitz Speed Channel
A video From Eric Bellande
Windsurfing World Record Attempt 2012: World Records broken !!
During the 2012 “Lüderitz Speed Challenge” 16 different nationalities will come together over 6 weeks.
This week France, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Turkey and Sweden have sent their representatives.
The first 2 days of this Windsurfing World Record Attempt have already created a communication buzz all over the world!
Antoine Albeau, who is currently – and has been for 20 times in the past – the World Champion in Slalom held the previous World Windsurfing Record of 49.09 kts (2008), has just broken it again today with 49.41 kts!
The fact that this close-to-50-knots record was set in only 38 knots of wind, makes us all see the possibilities of the next days with more serious wind conditions!
The Swedish legend Anders Bringdal, who lead the 1st day, broke the World Record in Windsurfing on Production board twice on day two – and he improved his national Record to 48.38 knots!
The Female World Record in Windsurfing was broken twice by Zara Davis who obviously enjoys the news concept and the new “Lüderitz Speed Challenge” channel! With 44.19 knots she is also the fastest Female British sailor.
Lena Aylin Erdil has also learnt how to go fast in a few runs, breaking the Female Turkish Record several times during the past two days, reaching 41.53 knots.
Farrel O’Shea has expertly defended his colours by beating the UK Record twice, ending with 46.15 knots!
Patrick Diethelm who holds the Italian Record is a double Record Holder. Sailing under the flag of Switzerland this year, he broke the Swiss Record with 46.29 knots.
The French rider Cédric Bordes managed to sail the exact time of the previous Windsurfing Record showing 49.09 knots!
The German competitors are on track and produced excellent times, alternating the record position among them. Christian Bornemann broke the German record in windsurfing twice during the past two days, and he currently holds it at 43.93 knots while Dieter Gerichhausen reached 42.92 knots, holding this record for a time during the day. Christian Benzing from “Chris Benz watches” reached a personal best with 40.33 knots, not far behind his fellow countrymen.
LUDERITZ 2012
The “Lüderitz Speed Challenge” 2012 is officially opened.
The ceremony gathered the members of the Town Council, the sponsors, the local committee, the inhabitants of Lüderitz, and the riders.
In a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, windsurfers attended the very first briefing.
On Monday, the Windsurfers went through their mental and physical preparation to become familiar with the canal !
With the arrival of Antoine Albeau, Alberto Possati and Cédric Bordes, the team is being assembled for the first week of the “Lüderitz Speed Challenge” 2012.
Full of Energy, The Windsurfing team is headed up by Anders BRINGDAL, who is spokesman for the group, which is promising. There is a feeling of “Unity and strength”…
Here is a list of riders:
Kiteboarding is in for the 2016 Olympic
CNN’s Mainsail looks at the origins of kiteboarding and speaks to its current champion.
CNN’s Mainsail looks at the close friendship and rivalry of kiteboarding’s top three competitors.
2012 Genetrix Origin V2 Kiteboarding Kite Review
The Kiteboarder’s video review of the 2012 Genetrix Origin V2 kite. For the complete review (including comments directly from our testers) on this and 52 more 2012 kiteboarding kites and boards, download the TKB 2012 Freeride Gear Review in the TKB Store.
Happy New Year 2012
Happy New Year from Team Genetrix.
Taro Niehaus – 51.64 knots – New South African record
Taro Niehaus of team Genetrix has set a new South African record of 51.64 knots, and Seb had 51.2. I’m not sure what Anders’s 500m average was, but he had another 50+ peak today (50.3 kts).
This is a phenomenal effort and well deserved; Taro didn’t hold back, which takes a lot of guts and confidence in your equipment and ability. It was not easy going out there, and despite this he came out unscathed and clocked the best speed so far.
Well done Lighty, I salute your achievement !!!
Strong wind is forecast until Sunday, so I’m sure the speeds will climb further.
Seb took a break over the past week and I have not doubt that he will dial it in before Sunday, which is forecast to be the strongest day.
Source: Basil Cambanis
http://www.speedkiting.org
New from Luderitz
The Hydra and Luderitz
23 October 2011
Today was a light wind day (in the 20′s) and marked the start of a new wind cycle. It was a great introduction for the riders to the new canal. The finishing area is wide and long, and instills the confidence needed to cross the finish at full speed. The depth is more than adequate, and we’ll test out windsurfers on it within a few days time.
The wind was very gusty today, and the Genetrix kites helped prevent unnecessary accidents due to unforeseen gusts and lulls mid-run. They handle gusts like no other and have the biggest depower range, which makes them ideal for Luderitz.
The best average speed was 45 knots, with peaks just less than 50 knots. The wind is expected to blow stronger tomorrow, so let’s see what speeds the new canal can yield.
“What I found is there seems to be a lot more wind towards the end of the run, but time will tell when it blows stronger. Getting back to the start was done by either beating back upwind in the lagoon and walking the rest of the way, or catching a lift on the back of a bakkie. The timing system worked flawlessly, so we’re all set for the big day to see what speeds are possible”.
Source: Basil Cambanis www.speedkiting.org
www.luderitz-speed.com
Slider, island style
Kakula with Vic & Nick
Congrats to all Participants and Organizers
GENETRIX IS FIRST TO 55 KNOTS – NEW WORLD AND NATIONAL RECORDS ALSO SET IN NAMIBIA
The Luderitz Speed Challenge has finally come to a close. Congratulations to all the competitors, the organizers, sponsors and Sebastien Cattelan for making this event possible. It wasn’t always easy to please everyone but in the end, the new course proved to be a winner making speeds of more than 55 knots attainable for the first time ever.
12 national speed records were also achieved, and 7 of them were set on the Genetrix Hydra!
Catman was the first one to break the 50 knot sailing speed record in 2008 which was taken from him by Alex Caizergues 24 hours later. History almost repeated itself in 2010. This time around, Catman was the first to reach 55 knots and again became the fastest sailor in the world on the Genetrix Hydra with 55,49 knots (102.6 km/hr). But only an hour later Rob Douglas edged him out by 15 hundredths of a second and managed to set another new world record of 55,64 knots, taking it back home to the US. Congratulation to Rob for being the fastest man.
Seb remains the new speed sailing record holder of France and Europe! Congratulations also to Charlotte Consorti for being the first woman to reach speeds over 50 with 50.43 knots.
GPS analysis of a run
A video of Seb Salerno analyzing his GPS run of 50.25 knots:
He enters the run @ 50.56 knots, goes up to 53.11 and keeps his speed between 52 and 53 knots until the last leg. By the end of the run the wind drops and water entering into the channel from the surrounding creeks and rivers slows him down.
Source:
sebsalerno.com
The behind the scenes
Keeping the channel free from sand is a full time job as the tide fills it back up. The digger is working overtime to keep the channel functional at low tide for windsurfers as well, as they need more depth than kiters. The good ol’ Murphy, as in law, occurred @ 7:30am, with 4 hours to work in the channel before the tide came in: the entire chain on one side of the digger came off. A Sunday morning in a small desert town in Namibia, in the middle of nowhere, a 500kg (1,102 lb) chain came loose and sunk to the bottom of the world’s fastest speed strip. To recover and replace the chain took the better part of 3 hours. Everyone was very disappointed as the team was making good progress in having the channel ready for Tuesday’s Big Wind forecast.
By 1:00 pm, the chain was back on, just in time to get the digger out of the water before the tide came in. Monday was a long day for the Luderitz team as they had to get the digger out early to finish the job and still have to put in a few hours of training before “Record Setting” Tuesday.
Let’s hope the long and arduous work of using long wooden poles, attached to the seabed by rope tied to buried tires, can act as the chop killer. This will create smoother water, allowing riders to achieve the high speed they all came here for.
Source:
xeleratorkiteboarding
luderitz-speed
zaradavis
First results.
Martial, the designer from Genetrix Kites, has arrived to coach Sebastian and Sophie. He brought some new prototypes for the Hydra and on Monday there are more prototypes arriving. Next week looks promising. Extreme wind conditions are forecast for Tuesday. Last minute preparations are underway so that the channel will be ready when the winds hit Monday or Tuesday. Breaking the sailing world speed record has never been closer.
Already the first day’s “training” session yielded impressive results at Luderitz where 3 new national records have been set.
Kite surfer Gavin Broadbent smashed the existing New Zealand national record: 44.51 knots – the previous record being 40.68 knots.
Swedish Windsurfer, Anders Bringdal broke the Swedish National Windsurfing record. The existing record was 41.96 and his official recorded speed was 42.9 knots.
Australian Kite surfer Tim Pumpa was the 3rd competitor of the day to set a new national record. 40.72 knots. The previous record was 33.94 knots.
All new records are still to be ratified by the World Speed Sailing Record Council (WSSRC).
1st – 44.51 Gavin Broadbent
2nd - 44.09 Rob Douglas
3rd - 43.97 Alex Caizergues
4th – 43.00 Anders Bringdal (Swedish National Record – windsurfer)
Source: http://www.speedkiting.org
http://www.luderitz-speed.com
A few of the riders were getting quite comfortable in looping the kite while passing the finish line. I must admit respect for them; this separates the boys from the men.
Source: Xelerator Kiteboarding
Lüderitz Speed Challenge 2010 – Oct 4th to Oct 31st
The 4th Event, World Record Attempt in Speed Sailing.
Speed Sailing has become an international inter-disciplinary sport. For many years an ongoing
challenge existed between Windsurfers, Hydrofoil boats and Kite Surfers to smash records
The event is held under the scrutiny of the World Speed Sailing Record Council (WSSRC) and the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). As such, it conforms to the WSSRC rules and allows for international validation of national, continental or world records established during the event.
Sebastien Cattelan became the 1st sailor to break the 50 knot barrier in 2008 with 50.52 knots. Alex Caizergues then improved this to 50.57 knots the very next day.
Alex Caizergues managed to improve this to 50.98 knots in 2009, just shy of the 51.36 knots outright record set by Hydroptere.
The objective for the 2010 edition of the Lüderitz Speed Challenge is to reclaim the outright world record set by Hydroptere.
Genetrix Team Vanuatu
Here is a slide show of the activities one might expect coming to Vanuatu with the team Genetrix.
Marco in Vanuatu
Video by Marc Antoine Martin
Another Great Kiteboarding Session at Kakula Island — Featuring GoProHD & KiteHero Mount
Check out Team Genetrix on another great day of kiteboarding at Kakula Island, Vanuatu. Unfortunately, you can’t quite see the friendly dugong (aka manatee) who showed up to say hello to Marco. For information on our kites, check out www.genetrixkitesurf.com.
Kakula island during the 7.8 quake today
Marco, Thierry, Tom and Pablo were all on the water when a 7.8 earthquake hit Vanuatu today. As the ground was still shaking and Marco was kiting by, he though we were joking. They couldn’t feel anything being on the water. The island was laterally bending and warping under our eyes with burst of sand being lifted off of the beach and blowing away with the wind. It was surreal. The Island of Kakula is about 20k closer to the epicenter.
You can read more details here: By KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press Writer – Tue Aug 10, 3:32 am ET
Kakula Island Session (now in HD!)
Watch Marco, Julien and Victor rip some huge airs in this video we shot over the weekend at Kakula Island resort, a private island kiteboarding paradise in Vanuatu. We took over all of the island’s 5 rooms and even had a few folks sleeping in tents and couches, but no one complained because the conditions were great and everyone was cool.
Checking out Pango point for surf
Dropped off Paul Lang at the airport today. It was great having him around.
Took Julien and Marco to check out the surf @ Pango point. The wind was there, 27 knots, but unfortunately straight onshore, the waves were sloppy, and the launch spot sketchy — exposed reef all around to the water line.
Be the boss of time!
Took Julein, Marco and Paul to learn a bit about the custom of Vanuatu. Be the boss of time, not the other way around is the Vanuatu way.
Arrival of the froggies
Picking up Marco @ 9:00 this morning after his 40 hrs flight to get here from France. He will not have time to rest. Direction, Kakula as soon as we pick him up. Julien gets in this afternoon from Tahiti. Lazeini will pick him up and join us.
Paul Lang Samples the Goods at Kakula Island
The team’s first trip to Kakula Island introduced Paul Lang of The Kiteboarder magazine to the wonders of kiting in Vanuatu. The wind was cranking, and Paul selected an 11M Genetrix Origin as his kite of choice.
