Alexandre Rouys - Brisbane 2016
Raceboard World Championship 2016 in Brisbane Australia. A championship to dream about, Brisbane, Australia's east coast, not far from the coral reef. As we were able to follow on http://www.ausraceboard.org/, with resources commensurate with the event, including live tracking and daily video reports, the regatta was beautiful in terms of the spot, the weather and the number of participants. Far away, too far away, for French racers to make the trip. Nevertheless, in the list of competitors featuring the flag of each nationality present ... a blue white red stands out! Alexandre Rouys! Alexandre Rouys? ... obviously a stranger to raceboarders in mainland France. A local windsurfer who saw the light and opened the door? No, a real windsurfer ... from almost 2000 km away in New Caledonia, a mecca for windsurfers in the French Overseas Territory. New Caledonia has often produced great international champions such as Laurent Gauzère, Manolo Barlet, Jean-Louis Colmas, Michel Quintin and the living legend Robert Téritéhau, not to mention the more recent Goyard brothers, who are turning out to be very strong.... in funboarding and Olympism.
Still, our Australian friends are "showering" us with photos of this championship, and CAL1 alias Alexandre Rouys is often in the limelight and even seems to be in the picture. What's more, he's a real eye-catcher, dropping the "wish" to raise his hand to the photographer, always with a smile on his face. In the whirlwind of Thursday's 30+ knots of wind, Alex is still smiling downwind in a 9.5, while the others have their arms outstretched and their tongues hanging out of their harnesses. In 14th place overall, Alex didn't just make the cut.
Hi Alex, .... the amazing Alex! Can you introduce yourself to the metropolis that's discovering you from 20,000 kms away. What do you usually do in windsurfing and other sports, obviously not raceboarding? You look pretty sharp physically.
My background is in waveriding, but it's been a while, 2 years already, since wave sessions in Caledonia have been rare, due to the inclement weather and the difficulty of crossing the lagoon in 25 knots to reach the precious reef waves.
I've diversified into Stand up paddle Race and Wave and more and more into windsurf slalom because it's so easy to do! I want to prove that even if you can't go for medals at 70kg, you can still have a good battle with the heavies!
Raceboarding is getting a second wind in Europe, including France. Are there any raceboarders in New Caledonia?
There are raceboards in NC, but they're becoming rare! The oldest member of my ACPV club still practices raceboarding for pleasure. He's the one who lent me an old raceboard (Phamtom 310 - 18kg) stashed at the back of the club to train before leaving for Australia and Brisbane. I was able to make 3 outings beforehand due to a very busy schedule in the weeks leading up to my departure.
Including preparation for the LMA race, a 23 km downwind paddle race which took place at the end of October and where I finished2nd ahead of Tomo from Japan. We achieved a very good score, finishing the race in 1 hour 41 minutes.
What led you to cross to Australia and embark on a Raceboard World Championship?
I also sail, "real sailing" with a crew of 9 on a sydney 38. We did the Groupama race this year, a 500 nautical mile Olympic banana in 6 days of calm around Caledonia.
I'm looking forward to these upwind regattas, with tactics and strategy! I learned to windsurf on the Mistral Olympiques with the federation's promotional sails and then with the Olympic sails when I was a teenager. After that I got back on a raceboard when I did the tour of New Caledonia in 2011. 5 days of raceboarding at 8h a day and 5 days of formula to complete the tour or a 10-day journey.
And it's true that I'm always keeping an eye on what's going on in the Pacific in terms of snowboarding events, so when I saw the world raceboard championships just 2 hours from home, I said to myself "why not me"!!! 🙂 a few emails, a few questions and a few exchanges with the organizers, and here I am, on the adventure!!!
I'd like to highlight one thing in this world championship adventure 🙂 !!! Because arriving early and participating like that, it lacked spice in the idea!
So I suggested to Lilou Granier (IFCA European Champion - 18 and IFCA World Champion - 16) from the same club, if she wasn't interested, to come and do her first wave tacks at a competition 2 hours south of Sydney. And here we are, off to Sydney with Lilou and Lilou's mom, just 4 days from the world championships.
Wave initiation for Lilou and wave equipment training for me on Friday at the Gerroa spot.
NSW Wavesailing Association- Alexandre Rouys
Saturday saw my first qualifying round, which I won in difficult conditions, and Lilou placed2nd out of 3 girls. On Sunday, the weather promises to be perfect and it's a Gerroa ON FIRE that wakes up at noon with the arrival of Scott Mckercher at the registration desk! We meet again in the semi-finals, which I win by a landslide, before finishing this marvellous competition in 4th place in the final, an event won by Scotty. Lilou came3rd out of 3, with her head full of images and a desire to get back out on the waves as soon as possible.
And that's when everything gets complicated... 3 days of wave sailing and now we have to get back on the road to Sydney and then fly to Brisbane (1h30 flight).
Monday morning get up at 4am... plane at 6am... the airline refuses to take my Raceboard rig, mast too big. I finally manage to catch a flight at 07:30 for an arrival at 08:00 (time difference)... start of the race at 11:00!!!! It's hot, it's hot, but I believe in it and I'm going for it! Time to pick up the rental car, load it and drive for 30 minutes.
All that's left to do is get the new sail from the organization, stick on the numbers and mount the straps and we're good to go!!!! We'll be at the starting line in a minute! Yes, it's a crazy week ahead ahahah !!!.
Pretty comfortable on your board, always clean to see on photos and videos, even rail starts backed up to the max, everything on the fin. It doesn't take you long to adapt? Is raceboarding difficult?
Adapting? It's still windsurfing... one sail, one board, apart from the colors, the concept remains the same! I'm convinced that doing several different things helps you progress in the other "it's still gliding".
Raceboarding becomes difficult when you're no longer competing on equal terms with different equipment! And it's true that I suffered a lot for having come with an old soft mast lying around in my garage. I should have rented the rig with the organization's SLAKE masts, which were very good! When the gear is aligned correctly and set up properly, raceboarding is just too good!!! Totally 🙂 🙂
Is lowering the daggerboard with the front hand in 25 knots after a heavy downwind run going to make raceboarding history? Filmed and photographed, nobody missed it! Huge.
Ah, this daggerboard thing, it's quite a journey at the end of every downwind leg! It's true that you need to be used to it and have a good hand, or rather a good foot, to be able to take it down without it getting out of hand, and to do it quickly too ... so it's true that taking it down into the wind by hand was quicker and easier for me 🙂
Thank you for this interview
Alexandre Rouys - Brisbane 2016
Alexandre Rouys - Brisbane 2016
Photo credit: International Raceboard Class and @Jason Hale
Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/RaceboardClass/?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/nswwavesailing/?fref=ts
