Surf Today Windsurfing

Julien Quentel and Maëlle Guilbaud have taken out the 2017 Défi Wind Caribbean, in Bonaire.

The event opened with winds in the 25-knot range. A total of 45 windsurfers completed three 20-kilometer races in the flat and blue Caribbean waters along Te Amo beach, from the airport to the marina.

The second edition of the Défi Wind Caribbean was blessed by the local weather conditions. Bonaire is located 40 miles aways from Venezuela and offers consistent trade winds all year-round.

Windsurfing is a water sport that combines characteristics of both sailing and surfing. The windsurfer uses the wind to propel a board forward under his feet and skim across the water.

For many, windsurfing is sailing in its elementary and most enjoyable form - a flexible triangle-shaped sail mounted on a board.

The 20th-century recreational activity has its origins in the Polynesian water crafts. Fishermen and sailors used a small sailing boat and sail to navigate the Pacific Ocean water in an upright position.

High wind and no-wind conditions are common in windsurfing. Learn how to cope with the extremes.

It happens all the time. Whether you're a recreational windsurfer or an accomplished competitor, sooner or later the wind will always play a trick on you.

In other words, it's never good to be underpowered and overpowered. It leads to frustration, fatigue, and sometimes injuries and dangerous situations.

Boujmaa Guilloul has taken out the 2017 Pistol River Wave Bash, at Gold Beach, in Oregon.

The event got underway for the eighth consecutive year and, fortunately, there was enough wind and waves to crown champions across five divisions.

In the women's competition, Canadian windsurfer Jennifer Carlisle traveled 1,000 kilometers from Vancouver to steal the show. She got the biggest waves and applied critical turns that earned her the trophy.

Kiran Badloe and Patricia Freitas claimed the RS:X titles at the Sailing World Cup Series final, in Santander, Spain.

The 2017 World Cup Series is over. After winning three regattas in a row, Badloe reached the medal race with a comfortable 16-point advantage over his direct opponent Louis Giard.

"I was either going to sail my own race and go for the win or cover the French guy. I had a pretty bad start, so I had to tack off, but from there I sailed my race which enabled me to be at the top of the fleet," explained Kiran Badloe.

Vincent Langer has been crowned the 2017 Formula Windsurfing world champion, in Sylt, Germany.

It was one of the most exciting Formula Windsurfing World Championships of all time. The organizers ran 14 races, and nine sailors were able to win a race.

The event was part of the Multivan Summer Opening 2017. Four windsurfers entered the last day of competition knowing that they still had a shot at the world title: Vincent Langer, Steve Allen, Sebastian Kördel, and Alexandre Cousin.

Morgan Noireaux has taken out the 2017 Barbados Waterman Festival, in the Caribbean waters.

The second stop on the 2017 International Windsurfing Tour (IWT) season got underway in the land of Brian "deAction" Talma, the uber active waterman and event organizer.

Despite the tricky weather conditions, the IWT team was able to conclude the competition and crown champions. The final day started with torrential rain and violent squalls but ended with sun, smiles, and waves.

Windsurf is where you find it. And sometimes the only thing you need is wind. Just ask "Pat & Mat," the two plasticine characters from Central Europe who gave windsurfing a new purpose.

"Pat & Mat" was a popular stop-motion animated series that debuted in Czechoslovakia in 1976. The two handymen quickly conquered the European spectators with their clumsy, yet funny behavior and the show spread across the world.

Each episode created by Lubomír Benes and Vladimir Jiránek involved challenges that Pat and Mat tried to overcome with several tools and innovative methods.

The 2017 Défi Wind was saved by the bell. After three days of waiting, windsurfers were finally able to get their equipment in the water for a figure-eight race.

Although it was not the famous Tramontane wind, fifteen knots were enough to get the participants sailing in the open ocean.

The windsurfers on foils started strong right from the start, but Julien Bontemps was clearly the athlete to beat. He crossed the finish line ahead of Thomas Goyard and Ludo Jossin.

Antoine Albeau accelerated to victory at the 2017 Catalunya PWA World Cup, in Spain.

The French rocket, 44, proved he will not be distracted from his world title goals by putting out a commanding performance in the warm waters of the Mediterranea Sea.

This time, the winds allowed eight races, and Albeau won three. In the foil division, he took three out of five bullets.

Jono Dunnett plans to be the first windsurfer to sail down Europe's Atlantic coastline.

The British windsurfer believes it will take him two years to complete the 9,320-mile (15,000 kilometers) adventure in European waters. His planned route includes around 20 different countries.

Dunnett, 43, kicked off his solo and unsupported journey at Grense Jacobselv, in Norway's Barents Sea, on May 16, 2017. He expects to conclude his "Windsurf Round Europe" project near the Russia/Ukraine border, on the Black Sea, by May 2019.

Paul Hengstebeck is a windsurfing veteran. Back in the 1970s, he was one of the first filmmakers to capture the early days of the Original Windsurfer.

"The Wonderful Wacky World of Windsurfing" is a hidden gem that should be watched by sailors of all generations. You'll laugh and be amazed at what you'll witness.

The 17-minute movie produced by Hengstebeck invites us to take a trip into the good old days when gear was something you built, not something you bought.

Julien Quentel and Sarah-Quita Offringa have taken out the Fly! ANA PWA World Cup, in Japan.

The world's best slalom windsurfers returned to the Land of the Rising Sun for the first time in 24 years, and the fans were there to cheer them up.

This time, the hydrofoils were the weapon of choice in light wind conditions. Quentel, 30, pushed harder in the starts was aggressive around the marks - the strategy paid off.

Boujmaa Guilloul has taken out the 2017 Morocco Spot X, at Moulay, in Morocco.

The second stop on the International Windsurfing Tour saw some of the world's best wave sailors competing in the waves of Morocco's Atlantic coastline.

Moulay is a famous windsurfing reef break located 30 minutes north of Essaouira. The spot gets a side-shore wind that blows almost all year-round.

Louis Giard and Zofia Noceti-Klepacka have been crowned the 2017 RS:X European Windsurfing champions, in Marseille, France.

The event attracted 265 senior and youth sailors, and the final day of races saw the new competition format take over - 12 windsurfers in the quarters, six riders in the semis, and three windsurfers in the final.

In the Senior Women's division, the ultimate six-minute race put Klepacka against Stefania Elfutina and Hei Man Chan.

Amado Vrieswijk and Vincent Langer have taken out the first of stage of the 2017 IFCA Grand Prix Series, in Neusiedl am See, Austria.

The International Funboard Class Association (IFCA) has revamped its game and is attracting new riders with a four-stage pro/am format and stops in Austria, Italy, Croatia, and Mauritius.

The first event had shifting wind conditions, but sailors were able to compete in the necessary heats to crown champions. It was also the first stage of the season for the European Freestyle Pro Tour.

A group of Japanese windsurfers and scientists have teamed up to develop a gadget that will track and analyze sail handling.

The Japan Windsurfing Association, Fujitsu, and Lapis Semiconductor Co are testing an Internet of Things (IoT) based device equipped with an accelerometer, gyrometer, and geomagnetic unit that can simultaneously record GPS and data across nine-axes.

Project Windsurfing Lab attaches the sensor to a windsurfing sail and transforms the sailor's behavior in the water into visual 3D models and graphs of the movements of the sail.

Levi Siver has become the first ever person to go snow windsurfing in a mountain.

The sailor from Maui, Hawaii, went windsurfing in the snowy slopes of Rishiri, a volcanic island located off the coast of Hokkaido, in Japan.

"The concept came from an imagination of taking the windsurfing feeling out of its element and bringing it to the mountains, and significantly recreate the same sensation in the snow," reveals Levi Siver.

Despite the tricky wind conditions, the Aruban windsurfer was able to raise the women's trophy at the Ulsan PWA World Cup 2017, in Jinha Beach, South Korea.

The gods of the wind decided they wouldn't cooperate with the opening event of the PWA World Tour season. After five days of waiting, the men's event was canceled, and only the women were able to race for podium positions.

"I'm feeling more relieved that happy, actually. Jinha is a tough place because you never really know what you're going to get. Today, the wind unexpectedly picked up really strong and then kept going up and down," explained Offringa.

Louis Giard and Zofia Noceti-Klepacka have taken out the gold medals at Sailing's World Cup Series in Hyères, France.

The French RS:X windsurfer continues his winning streak with another solid performance in home waters. Despite a shaky start, Giard kept his composure and improved his results throughout the regatta.

"It's another win for me after Miami. It was a tough week with difficult conditions, but I'm super happy to win this classic Olympic sailing event for the first time," explained Giard.