Boards 2004 Trip to Isla de Coche New world speed record ...

Mondial du vent 2004 and anew world speed recordText and photo: Mathieu Turries / www.alohaphoto.nuThere were lots of people andvery much wind on the eighth”Mondial du vent” in Leucate,France. With 35-40 knots windthe first days where dedicated tokitespeed. 28 gladiators,including Sebastien Cattelan,Malik Bouchenafa, and MarkShinn…, were ready to giveeverything to beat Robby Naish’record of 38.47 knots! After twodays of competition, SebastienCattelan (Wipika) holds the firstplace with several runs around35 knots, but Sylvain Maurin(Takoon) has the highest singlespeed with 36.84 knots!With equally lots of wind on thethird day, the eagerly awaitedfreestyle competition took itsstart. Bertrand Fleury entertainswith unbelievable kiteloops.Unfortunately he has to retirefrom the competition after a sickkiteloop where he ends upbreaking to ribs...! Instead weget to see two amazing semifinals with Mark Doyle upagainst Etienne Lhote andFranz Orly against CharlesDeleau. There is an interestingcompetition between Charlesand Franz, who have twocompletely different styles withshort lines for Franz and longlines for Charles. In the end it isEtienne Lhote (F-one) andCharles Deleau (North) thatmake it to the final. DespiteEtienne riding really good withlots of style, it is Charles Deleauthat wins the final with very highjumps!La Tramontane, the local windcontinuous to blow on the forthday. The organisers decide togo for both Kitespeed andfreestyle. In the Kitespeed eventthe fastest runs are around 35,8- 36 knots, made by amongothers Mark Gondar (Takoon)and Raphaël Salles (F-one).In the freestyle competition weget to see impressive rides byLuciano Gonzales and Malik,but the big surprises come fromthe young generation withLeeshai Miller, Aaron Hadlow,Remi Branco (F-one), ThomasCoquelet (Cabrinha), and alsoKevin Sudrat (Julien’s brother)that pull off several really niceRaileys and several other wakestyle tricks.The weather forecast announceseven more wind fortomorrow…26