Words: Tris Best. www.otc-windsurf.com, photos by: Jean Souville / N Graziano

Just take a moment to think of the windsurfing events that you’ve read about or seen and thought to yourself: “I wouldn’t mind doing that!” The National Windsurfing Festival is a good one for starters ... or maybe something a bit more exotic like the HiHo in the Caribbean? But no other windsurfing event quite reaches the scale of the aptly named Defi Wind, which literally translates as ‘Wind Challenge’.

With hundreds of competitors on the start-line, a 40km course ahead of you and the strong Tramontana blowing the winter’s accumulation of cobwebs off your slalom gear, there’s nothing quite like being part of what is easily the biggest windsurfing race in the world. Other than marathons, what sport sees this many enthusiasts battling it out over this kind of distance?

To mark the tenth anniversary of Defi Wind, Event Organiser Philippe Bru and his team pushed the entry numbers available up to 1000. One thousand windsurfers all racing at the same time ... the thought’s almost as unimaginable a number as the country’s fiscal deficit!

The draw to be part of such a phenomenon was too much to bear this year, so Team OTC (Tris Best, Dan Macaulay and Roger Clark) took the pilgrimage down to Gruissan, France to be part of the London Marathon of windsurfing events. This is their guide to a good Defi – how to endure the challenge with enough energy in reserve to enjoy the massive parties laid on each evening!

Book in advance. Despite the number of places for the event being high (and set to increase again for 2011) the number of applicants is also very high, so make sure you reserve your place as soon as registration opens. We registered last December, which then gave us a month to get a doctor’s certificate to the organisers, confirming that we were fit enough to take part. Perhaps sounds a little silly, but you begin to understand why when you’re rounding the top mark for the second time, with your legs burning and 10km still to go.

Take enough stuff to entertain yourselves on the journey down through France. The drive from Caen to Guissan was around 11 hours with three quick pit-stops along the way. Being quite simple people we found our source of distraction with Dan’s ‘Beautiful Game’ – the fabled ‘Farmyard Vehicle Game’. Unfortunately there are too many rules to list here – suffice to say, winning this challenge almost became more important to all of us than Defi itself! Told you we were simple folk...

Be ready in time. The event runs for four days, from Thursday to Sunday, with one race on Thursday afternoon starting at 3.00pm and one race on Sunday starting around 11.00am. Friday and Saturday boast two races each – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. An hour’s countdown to the start of each race is given on the beach, and it’s then your responsibility to get out to the line in time with the correct kit. And with each race taking roughly 45-50 mins, this means that you could be on the water, sailing on big kit in overpowered conditions, for some time. Hydration is therefore essential. We all opted for the use of Camelbaks, which offered some liquid relief as we were blasting along, making other racers green with jealousy. A wee smile and nonchalant nod at your rival as you suckled on your rubber teat of joy was often enough to break them and get past!

Don’t underestimate the forecast. Basically, as with most windy spots, there is a local effect so when Windguru suggests a NW wind (the prevailing Tramontana direction), you can pretty much treble whatever strength they give! On day one it forecast 8 knots and we got 25. The wind throughout this year’s event increased each day, to the point that on the Sunday the forecast suggested 20knots and we got blown away in 60knot plus gusts! Man-mountains such as Andrea Cucchi (ITA-1), Anders Bringdal (S-10) and Pascale Toselli (who destroyed the field in the last two races) were on 5.0m race sails and 75L slalom boards. If you have small kit ... bring it!

Be prepared. The races themselves are a massive amount of fun, but they are pretty long. Each one consists of four legs of a 10km course, and sailing in a straight line for that distance can result in a bit of leg burn. Now, I’m the greatest hater of gyms, so I wouldn’t suggest putting yourself through a programme of torture to pump your legs up, but perhaps get on the water beforehand and do a few extra-long runs just to get used to sailing a fair distance on one tack.

Don’t let the thought of expenses put you off – in real terms it’s not a very expensive event to do at all. This is how much it broke down for us per person, with three in a van:

Event entry: £140
Ferry: £120
Fuel and toll roads: £98
Breakdown cover / necessities to drive in France: £30
Accommodation for four nights: £36
Food and beer: £85

So the total is £509, but you get €50 (roughly £40) back if you hand your rashie in at the end of the event. For an unforgettable windsurfing event, that’s pretty good methinks.

Don’t be put off that you don’t have full-on slalom kit. Whilst none of us had never seen so many guys on full-race equipment, they were still outnumbered 4 to 1, I reckon, by others on normal rotational wave / crossover sails. And believe me, in this sort of race you can still be very competitive on standard freeride kit – I lost count of the number of times I was sparring for a place with a guy on a normal rotational sail! There are some fast sailors out there...

Don’t get too annoyed at the start. I think I tried every conceivable method of getting a clean start (pin-end, boat-end ... middle of the line), yet still got bogged down in the doldrums every time, despite the start-line being a kilometre long! Several hundred people upwind of you all pumping to get going does funny things with the wind. Get a good start though, and the view behind you is something to behold.

Don’t leave your rashvest at home! Each competitor gets a yellow rashie, which has your number on, so that when you go through the finish gate they can mark you off. Roger accidentally left his in the apartment, resulting in a mad dash back across Gruissan to retrieve it in time for the race. Similarly there is a signing in and signing out system for each race. Don’t forget to sign out before each race, or you’ll be racing for an hour without any idea of how you finished!

Don’t miss the 2011 Defi Wind! If this year was anything to go by, it’ll be mammoth – and word on the street is that there may be an extra hundred places next year. We drove back to the ferry port, tired and still a bit awestruck by what we’d just done. The event is just spectacular ... no other word to describe it. Come and be part of it.

For more information visit Defi Wind’s website at www.defiwind.com.

We didn’t do the two last races, as the wind was a constant 45 knots, gusting 65 – we hadn’t packed small enough kit, we were chicken ... plus a-million-and-one other excuses where those came from!

Roger Clark: “After two years of no wind this event really did live up exceed my expectations, following my first successful Defi Wind in 2007. The tenth Defi Wind went off – 1,000 competitors racing on flattish water (that many windsurfers creates a lot of chop) in windstrengths that we dream about here in the UK made it truly epic. It was a serious endurance event. Each race was over a 40km distance and completed in around 50 minutes, that’s a 30mph average – now to build up some serious brownie points with the wife so I can go back next year.”

Dan Macaulay: “The Defi Wind event was insane this year! When you're on the water it’s completely overwhelming. The scale of everything is almost too much to take in - so many competitors, so much wind. You're going flat out at 35knots and it just feels like you're standing still because there's so many sails around you. With over 80km of racing per day it's a super-tough event both mentally and physically, but there’s nothing else like it. I’ll be going back again next year for sure.”