Just back from France where I took part in the SUP Race France National Championship.

2 races were scheduled, a “BOP” style race and a long distance race but unfortunatly, due to bad weather conditions, only the long distance race could be runned.

They set up a 15km downwind between Guethary and “La Barre” (north end of Anglet), wind was very gusty anywhere between 15 and 25 knots and a little bit offshore so runners weren’t too big but still fun and surfable.

I’ve raced on my 12′6 Nidecker All Water Race and used my Kialoa Shaka Pu’u, my main oponents were on 14′ and Unlimited boards so my goal was to win the 12′6 division and not finish too far away from the longer boards.

Alex Gregoire did a very good start on his 17′ and took the lead with Rico Leroy on a 14′ behind him and me in 3rd position.

As we started to surf runners I was expecting the longer boards that were behind me to catch up and Rico and Alex to be unreachable.

But in fact we started to make a gap with the rest of the racers and the 3 of us were going at a similar speed.

At that point I knew I was going to win the 12′6 division “No worries” as well as doing, at least, a 3rd place open, I focussed on having fun and link runners.

As we passed Biarritz, the wind dropped due and there was a weird backwash, Rico and I still managed to get some good glides and we passed Alex.

I was sure he would catch me up later but he actually never did.

Then the wind picked up again and about 3 km to the finish I had a good surf, linked several runners passed Rico, took the lead and…fell off…
got up again on my board, focused on what I was doing and.. surfed another perfect runner, reaching again Rico… and came another one, perfect again, linking several runners and took the lead, this is when I started to think “I really want to win this race”.

My experience from downwinds at home is the following : the fastest I wanna go…the slowest I go… I know it’s all about catching the best runners and getting the best out of them, not wasting energy paddling hard all the time and then have no more energy for the “extra dig” when the good runner comes… But when there’s only 2 ks to the finish and 1 very dangerous oponent just behind you it’s hard to keep this in mind…

Anyhow, I found kind of a compromise, paddling hard but not like crazy, focussing on getting the most of the glide out of each runner without taking the risk to fall off…
Rico would sometimes get very close but then he fell off couple of times, the last km was hard as there was a big swell coming perpendicular from the left, a little bit of backwash coming from the right, wind pushing from behind and I was getting no more surfable bumps…
Fortunatly the other ones neither… As I turned the 2nd pier to the finish I knew I would win, this is definitly the best race I’ve done this season, it’s not the first time I win with a 12′6 in front of 14′ and Unlimited, but it’s the first time I do it in front of so talented paddlers, I guess that my experience in downwind conditions paid off !

Results :
Open Unlimited :
1 Eric Terrien 1h31mn10sec
2 Rico Leroy 1h32mn04sec
3 Alex Gregoire 1h33mn16sec

12′6 :
1 Eric Terrien 1h31mn10sec
2 Bruno André 1h39mn55sec
3 Greg Closier 1h41mn29sec
A little bit of video here at 45mn10sec :
http://orange-sport.orange.fr/vod/cnosf/championnat-de-france-open-de-surf-1658.html