Thoughts after Leucate — or how I somehow ended up 1st in Masters at the first Parawing World Cup.
Two wild weeks in France are done. I was there with friends and my son (he was my caddy), competing at the very first PW World Cup, part of
@mondialduvent .
Full festival mode — wingfoil, windsurf, BMX, skate — but our race zone was off to the side in super light wind. Like… insanely light. Around 10 knots every day, steady, no gusts. Sometimes just sitting and waiting to get going.
Everyone came ready for 20–30 knots. Reality? 5.7 parawing all event, some guys even on 7m. I rode the biggest foil out there (
@axisfoils Fireball 1350), which helped a bit… but not enough.
Kids dominated. 60 kg riders on tiny foils just out-pumping everyone — upwind, downwind, didn’t matter. Even top guys couldn’t match that level of endurance.
First two races — disaster for me. One didn’t count (restart confusion), second I got stuck in turns with no wind, lines everywhere, pw falling out of the sky. Not a great feeling.
Day two: 9th and 6th. Overall 10th. Reality check — no chance against the kids.
Day three I relaxed. Just rode clean, focused on downwind with proper pack & redeploy. Finally a course that made sense: ~1 km upwind, then real downwind.
Finished 7th and 9th, moved to 9th overall.
And here’s the funny part: in Masters (40+) I’m 1st.
Basically only me and
@aljazvalic1 could actually race in those conditions. So yeah… I accidentally became World Champion. Two guys on the podium. No third place 😄
Event stats: 22 men — only 14 finished at least one race. Women: 9 riders — only 5 competed. Conditions were brutal.
Winners — French teenagers Tom Pansard and
@manondupe .
Huge respect to everyone — riders and organizers. They pulled off 6 races in almost nothing. The sport is alive.
Takeaways:
– train in even lighter wind
– improve pumping endurance
– get faster on all angles
– work on downwind with small foils
– learn clean pack & redeploy both sides
Next stop —
@cabaretewingfest in June. I’m in.
This is how a new sport starts. Join in 🤙
📷
@jimmy.phan.photography 
