Alberto Rondina

Ciao,

Only 4 days after the end of the event in Morocco we met up again for the 2nd stop of the Pkra Wolrd Tour in the south of France, the little town of Leucate.
It’s always challenging going to places with such different conditions and weather temperature..it does feel like going from summer to winter in a week time!

The Mondial du Vent its the biggest windsurfing-kiteboarding event in France, which has been going on for ages thanks to the cool location of the event and of course the strong Tramontana wind, that comes thru the mountains all the way from the Atlantic Ocean.

The offshore wind came in strong as usual, with gusts over 35knots..but luckily the weather was nice and we had sunny weathar almost everyday, so everybody could stay on the beach to watch the event!

I started off the singles riding my 5.5m, the smallest kite I have,  even if the wind was really gusty, especially in the morning. I had a few good heats against Kevin Langeree, than the Dominican Corniel and then the semifinal against my little buddy Liam Whaley who has beaten Zoon in the previous round. I then went into the winner final with my friend Alex Pastor. Unfortunately I got a hole of wind at the start of the heat and had to swim with my kite for at least 2 minutes Alex got 1st and I was stoked on my 2nd anyway!

The wind got a bit lighter for the Double eliminations. Actually it was changing so much during a heat, you could started off on a 9m and sometimes you might be struggling to go on a 13m! Youri had an amazing day, winning 7heats in a row in those hard conditions and climbing up all the ladder all the way to my heat. I went out on my 13m to be sure to stay close to the beach, even if I was pretty overpowered during the strong gusts. I was fresh and pumped for this heat, I had a few powered slims, backmobe, 315, grab KGB…and I was stoked on keeping my 2nd place!!!
The wind then just went nuts, It dropped almost completely before the heat and then it picked up like crazy! I started off on an 11m and then I had to switch to the 9m, cause it was just too much. I risk it a bit too much in this heat, I had a couple good tricks but i could’t stick the landing well…and Alex killed it, as always!

I’m still super happy on my result, also because its my first 2nd place finish ever in a Pkra event! I had three 3rd places last year…but i was still missing a 2nd! Well, now 1st place is missing…that would be another big dream coming true!

Leucate was also the first event for this year with full live streaming coverage, with english and french commentators during the whole comp and prize-giving with over 25.000 hits! The new scoring system make the contest way easier to follow also from your computer, so don’t miss the next one!

I’m off to Mexico now, for a Pkra freestyle exhibition! Then I’ll have 2 weeks of training before the next big event in Holland in middle May!

Ciao!
Alby

P.S. check out all the picture from the event on my facebook page!