Crossing the 60-knot mark
Alex Caizergues, four-time world kitespeed champion, is the fastest man on the planet in kitesurf?! Since 2017, it has held the world speed record on this medium at an average speed of 57.98 knots (107.3 km/h) on 500 mètres?! And he hopes one day to get closer to the absolute speed record of 65.45 knots, held since autumn 2012 by the multihull Vestas Sailrocket 2.
He will therefore try to reach 60 knots on the next edition of the Salt and Speed - the world speed record on the water in kitesurfing -. This 7th edition will take place from November 1st to December 11th in the Bouches-du-Rhône, on the spot of Salin-de-Giraud. In 2018, the weather conditions did not allow the experiment to be attempted.
Learn to recognize the Mistral
Material and physical preparation
This year, Alex and his team took the opportunity to further improve his equipment. " Last year, we had worked a lot on the equipment, notably by developing a brand new box wing. Further improvements have been made in this area. We have therefore made further progress by focusing our work on the hydrodynamic flows of my board and on aerodynamics as a whole. Helmet, helm system... everything has been designed to minimize friction in the air as much as possible."
The athlete also focused on physical preparation, as he explains. "So far, I admit that I had a tendency to rest on my achievements. This season, I worked with a trainer at the Institut Saint-Martin Sport in Marseille. Together, we target muscular power, cardio, endurance, sheathing, balance, recovery... My prerogatives were to avoid redundancy and therefore boredom, but also to make sure that people could push me into my last corners."
Good weather conditions
To be able to beat his own record, the kitesurfer must have adequate weather conditions. And if the physical or material is being prepared, this is not the case with the weather. " There is obviously one parameter that we do not control, and that is the weather. To try to get past this famous 60-knot barrier, it is necessary, first of all, to have favourable conditions. That's the basis. Then, you have to be able to exploit all the good sequences of Mistral and don't waste them," explains Alex.
If he does not control it, he will nevertheless try to optimize the record conditions, thanks to a weather monitoring system. Four sensors will be deployed along the Salin-de-Giraud Canal.
"Thanks to these tools that did not exist or were not affordable two years ago, we are clearly taking a significant technological step forward. We are of course obliged to deal with the constraints of the site, which is not supplied with electricity, for example, but this will allow us to make the most of the good gusts, both in terms of strength and direction. We hope to benefit from a real "plus" in terms of performance."
