I still have a lot to learn … !!

Right after the BOP Dana Point it was time to SUP surf at the SUWT Huntington beach.

I haven’t been surfing a lot my 8′ during the racing season but after a couple of free sessions I was already feeling better.

At the end I’ve managed to go to round 3, missing the quarter final by… I don’t know how many points as they apparently had trouble with the computers so they havn’t been able to publish any of the scores…

Apart from that it’s been a cool event, everyone was ripping, congrats to Antoine Delpero for winning this event, and thanks to Tristan and the Waterman league for bringing the SUP Surf Stand Up world tour at Huntington Beach !

Yeah !

Once again, I finish in top 10 of the BOP, the most difficult SUP Race on earth, not only because absolutly all the top SUP riders of the world are here and want to take the top places, but also because it is a very technical race with bouy turns, breaking waves and sprints on the beach…

If I would need to choose only 2 races in the year it would be the Molokai2Oahu and the BOP Dana Point !

So yes, I’ve finished 8th, the best result for a European so far next to my 9th place in Hawaii in May, and I am really looking forward to keep improving those results in 2012.

thanks to SUPshop.de for the pictures :

Top 10 finishers :

1 Connor Baxter USA
2 Jamie Mitchel AUS
3 Danny Ching USA
4 Georges Cronsteadt TAH
5 Kai Lenny HAW
6 Travis Grant AUS
7 Slater Trout HAW
8 Eric Terrien FRA
9 Beau O’Brian AUS
10 Kelly Margetts AUS

Big thanks to Jean Luc Malfroid for letting me have a go on his Oc1 for this session on lake Geneva !!

Video clip

4 Races during the week-end and 4 wins !

Cool event on the Rhône river in the middle of Lyon, the 2nd biggest city of France.
We had fun weather conditions, sun, wind against the river current that created some “downwind like” condition when we were going upstream.

Results scratch (14′ max) :
1 Eric Terrien : 2,8pts
2 Gaetan Sene : 11pts
3 Didier Leneil : 13pts
4 Greg Closier : 14 pts
5 Renaud Noyelle : 21 pts
…

Congrats also to all the 12′6 riders with Thierry Kostka and Robert Teritehau who battled hard for the 1st place in there division.

I’ve just got my new FCS SUP Race boardbags, 12′6 and 14, on this picture the 14′ boardbag and the paddle bag at the Open Lyon SUP Race.

I’ve recently tried the Sorky earplugs, a little tricky to fit for the first time but it is a perfect solution to prevent surfer’s ear.

http://www.sorky-technology.com/

Another OC session in paradise !

It’s been nice to paddle outrigger those days after so many SUP sessions, back to Stand Up Paddle now, it goes slower but it feels good to be standing up again !

Thanks Frank for this OC training.

Paddling OC2 in Fuerteventura with Anita and Frank

4h56mn is the time it took me to cross the Kawa’i Channel between Molokai and Oahu during the Molokai2Oahu race…

I’ve been very lucky to be coached by Ekolu Kalama, Jerome and Choppie during the days before the race as well as during the race ; Aldo Tassara (look for Pure Digital Maui in Facebook) also followed us during all my trip and made beautiful pictures and video.

I’m now back in Fuerteventura, happy as I’ve just made a dream become reality, the Molokai2Oahu is THE Race I really wanted to do… And happy because I’ve done a good time, finishing 6th in SUP solo and in less than 5hours which is pretty awesome for a 1st crossing !

I wish I’ve had more time to train specificaly for this race as well as more time to train on the same board as I was going to use… I hope I can organise myself better next year…