Just back from Tenerife, the surf contest was very well organised (as usual) and we were 9 SUPs (not too bad considering the bad wave forecast).
Waves were small, very close to the rocks and unconsistent… I won my 1/4 final and semi final but just before the finals the decision was made to call it a day as the waves conditions were getting really too bad…
Prize money and ranking points have been shared in equal parts between the finalists, they still made an unofficial podium based on the best results in the semi finals.
I’ve won it thanks to my 2 best scores in semi finals, stoked !

Back to Fuerteventura now…

Awesome race in the middle of Paris ; 10km on the Seine river in the heart of the Capital of France !
I’ve fallen at the start but managed to make my way up and I took the lead after about 25mn and won the race for the 2nd consecutive year, Gaetan Sene came 2nd and spanish Belar Diaz came 3rd ; you can check the replay at Mygeolive.com

In the afternoon sprint race on foam boards in the swimming pool of the Nautic, the kids were on fire, swimming pool and foam boards aren’t my best speciality but I have tried my best and I’ve also won this part of the event, congrats to Arthur Arutkin, 14yo who came second !

All in all a great, fun event !

Sunny sunday, calm wind and fun waves, all good for a SUP surfing session !

I’m leaving Fuerteventura on Tuesday to France for the Paris SUP Crossing Race, windguru says it is going to be cold, rainny and windy… I still have tomorrow to enjoy sunshine and blue warm water !

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.

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…

2 days to go before the Molokai2Oahu race…

Today is my last day of training, I’ve spent all week with Ekolu Kalama and his family, they taught precious things about paddling technique, paddling culture and hawaiian culture, we’ve been doing SUP, Outtrigger canoe and surf.

Conditions here are similar to what we can find in some places of the Canary Islands and even better, water is “tropical warm”, wind orientation is perfect for downwinds, food is good, this is a dream place for any paddler !