GKA Airgames in Leucate

Annelous Lammerts at GKA Airgames Leucate

The competition season started this year in Leucate with the Mondial du Vent hosting the big air world cup in Leucate, the first tour stop of the GKA Airgames. Leucate is known for the very strong Tramontana that blows around 300 days a year. Last year I remember flying away with my 5.5m Chaos, so it doesn’t get much better for the big air discipline.

I arrived a day before the competition started and the wind was perfect for a warm up session. In the morning I was really powered on 11m and in the end of the day the wind was perfect for big jumps on my 7m. Registration for the event was in the evening and unfortunately we saw that the forecast wasn’t looking really promising for the following 6 days of competition.

The next few days were very unlike what we are used to from Leucate, 3 to 6 knots of wind and 25 degrees Celsius. Every afternoon there was a short moment of 8 to 12 knots which I used to go for a little foil session. I was definitely happy that I took the Double Agent foil to Leucate, because thanks to the foil in combination with my XO Switchblade I could still ride almost every day.

During the weekend we could choose to do a tow up show. The riders were getting pulled behind the jetski with a 25m rope and like that we could do big jumps without any wind. I did a few tow ups and it was for sure an experience to fly like that, but some riders managed to do some crazy high jumps and mega loops, like this board off megaloop by Arthur Guillebert!

Unfortunately for the first time in 20 years they didn’t finish with any results from the Mondial du vent, but this definitely means that next year the wind is going to be crazy strong again! 

PHOTOS BY PIERRE BOURAS/ANNELOUS LAMMERTS