Hi everyone,

Kitesurf races are becoming more and more popular the last 2 years as it’s so great fun and accessable for most level riders. Our Team rider Tam organised a downwind race from Tahiti ending up at his home island of Moorea after a distance of 40km! Tam took 1st on his Radical speed board in only 1h 2min – that’s a proper average speed!!!
Congratulations to Tam and everyone who made it.

Read on for his words below…

Over 40 kitesurfers have gathered to race 40km in open sea from Island paradise Tahiti to joint sister island Moorea. Organised by Moorea kiteboard club in extreme weather condition, strong wind (30kn plus) and 3meters waves.

The race is a down wind course; going with the wind is a real challenge. It is really hard to keep the kite in power without over speeding and no edging with the board. Strait down! Such races are great to compare flying quality of kites. For that race I choose to be over powered with the 11m Edge II and an asymmetric speed board. The technique is simple 40km looping the kite and playing with the great depower when feeling over speeding. It was incredible to be able to control so much power on my 11 edge2 in so much wind, never loosing contact with the water. Searching for the best line in open sea to not fight the waves but going with them, catching the next one after another. I was going faster than the wave speed in open sea. Thanks to my Edge II that made it possible.

It was almost effortless and after only 15minutes I had a comfortable advantage over the other riders.
Only 18 riders manage to finish the race. A few of them got tangle lines (kite inverted) after crashing the kite in the water, others lost their boards and couldn’t body drag back up wind. My 11m Egde II  allow me to finish the race in 1hour and 2minutes. 12 minutes in front before the second.

Here are the results with the times for the 3 best:

1) Tamatoa Gillot 1h 02mn 15s
2) Moerani Marlier 1h 14mn 08s
3) Nicolas Quintana 1h 16mn 11s

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