17 NOVEMBER 2012

Windsurfing World Record Attempt: Day 6

EVEN MORE RECORDS TODAY! 5 WINDSURFERS OVER 50 KNOTS!

Today Antoine Albeau, after having smashed the 50 knots barrier several times reached 51 knots twice, ending with the best performance of the day and registering a New World Record in Windsurfing: 51.69 knots

Anders Bringdal, our Swedish representative was battling with Antoine a long time over the 50 knots. Both of them reached 51.34 knots at the same time! He improved the Swedish record as well as the World Record on production boards with 51.34 knots.

Patrick Diethelm who kept the pace these past few days also broke the 50 knots barrier, finishing with the New Swiss Record: 50.49 knots.

Jurjen Van der Noord, who opened the day, joined the 50 knots club reaching 50.41 knots

Cédric Bordes reached 50.17 knots after being close to it for the 1st part of the day.
Farrell O'Shea improved his British Record today with 48.82 knots.
Mark Grinnell from South Africa and Matthias Rottcher from Namibia were still fighting for the African Record in Windsurfing, improving both of their National Records in the discipline: 
Mark: 48.86 / Matthias: 47.34

Zara Davis from the United Kingdom, who is the actual Female World Record Holder in Windsurfing was followed by Lena Erdil from Turkey improving together: Zara: 45.83 / Lena: 45.74

Christian Bornemann who has broken the German record in Windsurfing is now getting closer to the National Multi-discipline Record (46.26 kts) with 46.18 knots followed by his countryman Dieter Gerichhausen who has also improved his speed today with 44.69 knots.

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16 NOVEMBER 2012

Windsurfing World Record Attempt: Day 5

Conditions were looking good today from  the beginning but the wind was dropping after all, letting riders testing their equipment before the « stormy » forecast wich is  announced for the future.
Mark Grinnell  managed to increase his South African Record in Windsurfing  with  47.79 knots as well as Jurjen Van Der Noord, the best performer of the day, who has smashed the Dutch record on the very 1st run with 48.45 knots !

Martin Van Meurs, the Dutch founder of the gps-speedsurfing.com, who has just joined the attempt, reached 47 knots today (the 2nd fastest speed in windsurfing for Netherlands).

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13 NOVEMBER 2012

Windsurfing World Record Attempt: Day 4

After the promising previous days, everyone felt that the 50 knots barrier break cannot be far.
Today was the 4th race day, and marks the day that mythical 50 knot barrier was smashed !
Records kept tumbling almost with every run this afternoon, and some of the speeds still need to be confirmed by the Time Keeper.

First, the Swedish Record Holder Anders Bringdal broke the 50 knots barrier twice, with 50.41 and then 50.46 knots improving the world Record on Production Board as well !

After that Antoine Albeau surpassed Anders' performance with 50.62 knots recovering his position of World Record holder in Windsurfing, which was also shortly held by Cédric Bordes in the afternoon with 49.66 knots.

Zara Davis has also improved her World Record in Windsurfing with 44.92 knots and also Lena improved her Turkish Record with 43.81.

The record on Tandem has been also broken (1 board / 2 sails / 2 riders) with 38.12 knots!

And lots of other National Records were smashed!
Mark Grinnell from South Africa and Matthias Röttcher from Namibia were successively improving their national records which they had already broken earlier during the day. 
Mark: 46.49 kts and Matthias: 46.69 kts.

Jurjen Van Der Noord, the Dutch competitor who has just made his first runs today broke the Dutch Record with 47.53 kts.
Patrick Diethelm has improved his Swiss Record and is the 3rd time in the Windsurfing world as well with 49.71 knots!
Nick Vardalachos from Greece and the British Farrell O'Shea improved their record.
Nick: 48.84 kts and Farrell: 48.21 kts.

Christian Benzing who was battling with his German fellow countrymen, broke the German Record in Windsurfing with 45.57 knots.
This incredible day has now gone into the windsurfing history books.The world's windsurfing community was waiting for a "come back" in Speed Sailing. The goal of the 2012 "Lüderitz Speed Challenge" was to work on that point and offer the best conditions to finally break this mythical barrier. We can expect even better results during the coming days.

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8 NOVEMBER 2012

Windsurfing World Record Attempt: Day 3

Even though the forecast has announced only moderate wind, riders were really motivated to hit the gusts again today!
The atmosphere was unusually peaceful - this group of competitors are really enjoying the conditions and the event, without hesitating to put their hands into the sand to help achieve the common objective: break records.

The current speed windsurfing Namibian record holder Matthias Röttcher watched the event in the media and decided to take his 4x4 across the desert to join us early this morning and take the chance to claim a new record! After testing the channel he improved his existing record of 41.44 kts to 42.32 kts.

Windsurfers from all over the world are following the event and are starting to realize that the Luderitz Speed Challenge is one of the biggest opportunities for them to be in the speed sailing limelight together with boats & kitesurfers.
The international support to riders and organisers is unbelievable. Encouragement from all corners of the world is streaming in.

On day 3, Zara was again the 1st to jump into the water, and it is paying off: thanks to her we open the race every day by celebrating a new record, and thereafter it does not stop!

Antoine Albeau was leading the day with 48.57 kts but Anders Bringdal went further with 48.60 kts, improving the World Windsurfing Record on production board, and claiming the new Swedish Record.

Dieter Gerichhausen again beat the German record in Windsurfing with 44.01 kts, but – like yesterday - was followed by Christian Bornemann who was faster still, ending with a new German record with 44.41 kts.

Their German team mate Christian Benzing went faster in less wind today and come closer with 42.81kts!
Patrick Diethelm went faster in less wind with 46.55kts, improving his Swiss Record from yesterday.
Lena improved herTurkish record with 42.6 kts.
Cédric Bordes managed to reach the 3rd best speed of the day with 47.83 kts.

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7 NOVEMBER 2012

During the 2012 “Lüderitz Speed Challenge” 16 different nationalities will come together over 6 weeks.
This week France, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Turkey and Sweden have sent their representatives.

The first 2 days of this Windsurfing World Record Attempt have already created a communication buzz all over the world!
Antoine Albeau, who is currently - and has been for 20 times in the past - the World Champion in Slalom held the previous World Windsurfing Record of 49.09 kts (2008), has just broken it again today with 49.41 kts !

The fact that this close-to-50-knots record was set in only 38 knots of wind, makes us all see the possibilities of the next days with more serious wind conditions! 
The Swedish legend Anders Bringdal, who lead the 1st day, broke the World Record in Windsurfing on Production board twice on day two - and he improved his national Record to 48.38 knots ! 
The Female World Record in Windsurfing was broken twice by Zara Davis who obviously enjoys the news concept and the new “Lüderitz Speed Challenge” channel! With 44.19 knots she is also the fastest Female British sailor.

Lena Aylin Erdil has also learnt how to go fast in a few runs, breaking the Female Turkish Record several times during the past two days, reaching 41.53 knots.
Farrel O’Shea has expertly defended his colours by beating the UK Record twice, ending with 46.15 knots!
Patrick Diethelm who holds the Italian Record is a double Record Holder. Sailing under the flag of Switzerland this year, he broke the Swiss Record with 46.29 knots.
The French rider Cédric Bordes managed to sail the exact time of the previous Windsurfing Record showing 49.09 knots!

The German competitors are on track and produced excellent times, alternating the record position among them. Christian Bornemann broke the German record in windsurfing twice during the past two days, and he currently holds it at 43.93 knots while Dieter Gerichhausen reached 42.92 knots, holding this record for a time during the day. Christian Benzing from "Chris Benz watches" reached a personal best with 40.33 knots, not far behind his fellow countrymen.

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6 NOVEMBER 2012

The wind was shy at the beginning of the morning, but from 12 am it started to increase gradually to reach 30-35 knots.
Zara Davis (female windsurfer from the UK) showed straight away that she meant business and that breaking records was what she was here for!
She improved with each run, reaching the British Female Speed Sailing Record (38.28 knots established by a kite surfer) ending with 40.95 knots on a 500m average, which is a new world record for windsurfing on production board (female).
STILL NEED TO BE RATIFIED BY THE WSSRC.

Lena Aylin Erdil followed suit and, still getting used to the speed sailing techniques, she reached 39.06 knots to establish the Turkish Female Record for the first time.STILL NEED TO BE RATIFIED BY THE WSSRC.

All the competitors were excited to take a few runs in the channel, testing their equipment and getting ready for good strong winds that are expected tomorrow.

Some of them have increased their best speed:

Christian Benzing: now 38.27 knots (was 35.26 knots)
Christian Bornemann: now 39.72 knots (was 39.11 knots)
Cédric Bordes also reached almost his best speed today: 45.09 knots (his best: 45.96)

We ended the day with the Swede Anders Bringdal reaching 46.33 knots.

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5 NOVEMBER 2012

Today, 20 knots of wind allowed some riders to try the channel. The lack of speed allowed them to just make it through the channel for the very first time. Interviews were held with NBC TV.
Tomorrow the forecast looks promising for the 1st competition day.

Zara Davis on first training day

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4 NOVEMBER 2012

Le « Lüderitz Speed Challenge » 2012 est officiellement ouvert.

La cérémonie a rassemblée aujourd’hui les membres de la Mairie, les sponsors, le comité organisationnel local, les habitants de Lüderitz et les riders.
Dans une ambiance détendue et conviviale les windsurfers se sont retrouvés pour le premier briefing.
Au programme, ce lundi,  pour le Team Windsurf : mise en place physique et mentale afin de s’imprégner du canal.
Demain, avec l’arrivée d’Antoine Albeau,  d’Alberto Possati et de Cédric Bordes, l’équipe sera au complet pour la première semaine de la Tentative de Record du Monde Vitesse à la voile.
Plein d’Energie, le Team windsurf « drivée » par Anders BRINGDAL, porte-parole du Groupe, est prometteuse. Une atmosphère où l’ambiance palpable pourrait se résumer par : L’Union fait la force.

The “Lüderitz Speed Challenge” 2012 is officially opened.
The ceremony gathered the members of the Town Council, the sponsors, the local committee, the inhabitants of Lüderitz, and the riders.
In a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, windsurfers attended the very first briefing.
On Monday, the Windsurfers start their mental and physical preparation as they become familiar with the canal !
With the arrival of Antoine Albeau, Alberto Possati and Cédric Bordes, the team is being assembled for the first week of the Lüderitz Speed Challenge” 2012.
Full of Energy, The Windsurfing team is headed up by Anders BRINGDAL, who is spokesman for the group, which is promising. There is a feeling of “Unity is strength”…

2012 INTERVIEWS !!!!

Van der Noord Jurjen - ALBERTO POSSATi - ANTHONY CHAFFRON - NICK VARDALACHOS - Hennie Bredenkamp

Lena Erdil - CHRISTIAN BORNEMANN - Björn Dunkerbeck - MARTYN OGIER - Alexander Goncharov

Patrick Diethelm - Christian Benzing - Antoine Albeau - Wolfram Reiners - Cédric Bordes

Dieter Gerichhausen - Boris Vujasinovic - Humberto Torrinha

2012 WORLD RECORD ARTICLES. PLEASE SELECT THE ARTICLE THAT APPLIES TO YOUR LANGUAGE:

English Article
French Article