Reflections after Open de France

Author: Jon Mann

So its been a few weeks since the Open de France (recap video) in Morgat, France, where I placed 24th out of 53. First off, despite not being a racer (isn’t that what you’re meant to say when you don’t do well in races? Just kidding) I’m stoked to have met my target of the top 25 (just). The event was amazing, it was well organised and the vibe was great with foilers from all over the world stoked to share some bumps.

The Event

I’ll quickly summarise the event with a rough day by day summary (it’s also worth noting that due to a massive swell and the practicalities of running safety with 60 foilers, Friday and Saturday were bay runs):

Thursday evening: Opening ceremony with all the various riders from all around the world being introduced and saying a few words about what they were looking forwards to the most (in short: stoke and good bumps). 

Friday: Riders meeting first thing. Easy morning due to the wind coming in the afternoon. Loaded up the vans and headed to Lanveoc for the start of the first run (about 15km to Landevennec). Light wind so I opted for the Art Pro 1201. Good call for me, I had an ok start and managed to gain some places over the run. Loaded up the vans and headed back to Morgat for the end of day recap / debrief. 

Saturday: Riders meeting first thing. Loaded up the vans and headed to Roscanvel. The wind was forecast to be stronger so the event organisers extended Day 1’s run to start 5km upwind. Despite the stronger wind, the start was close to shore with little fetch. This added a challenge for the start with small bumps (verging on flat). I opted for the Art Pro 1121 which was the right choice for the race for me, but struggled a bit to get started in the smaller bumps / almost flat start. 2-3k in, the bumps got really nice and I managed to do some damage limitation on my poor start again gaining some places over the course of the run. After the race as before, we drove back to Morgat for the end of day recap / debrief followed by a screening of Olivia Piana’s film about her amazing world record DW run highlighting the environmental damage along the coast of Portugal as a result of unsustainable development practices. 

Sunday: Riders meeting first thing. The massive swell that had meant we did bay runs on Friday and Saturday had finally subsided a bit and was around 2m (ish) with a 10 second period so despite the lighter wind (10-15 knots) that meant we could do an ocean run. We piled into the boats (about 10 boats) and drove upwind 10-15km to be dropped in the water for the start. I opted for the 1201 due to the lighter wind which in hindsight wasn’t the best idea. I struggled with the start not being used to these conditions, but found myself paddling up on bumps that I could have also paddled up the 1121 with and once up the 1201 didn’t allow me to tap into the ocean swells as well when they came by. I had a pretty poor start anyways, and the field was pretty spread due to a lot of people struggling with the start, so when I was up I just enjoyed the run in the sunshine (didn’t gain or lose any positions). It was nice to finish in Morgat itself, meaning we could go straight into the closing ceremony after the race. 

So the biggest win of this event for me was the community. It was cool to finally meet face to face with so many people who I’d already been speaking to on instagram as well as all the new connections with people from all over the world. Being able to foil together, share notes, discuss setups and the various conditions we all downwind in at home was a great learning experience. I’m really glad that the organisers offered accommodation for the week prior to the event (for those that opted to take that option) and going forwards I would highly recommend people who want to go next year to consider heading over early to get some fun runs in the 3-4 days prior. 

So what were my key takeaways:

  1. My paddle up ‘on demand’ sucks. The way the top guys (notably the top 5) just shot off at every start was impressive. The classic question arises around gear. But to be honest, with the gear I had in the 3 races (7’7” x 20” Appletree skipper and Axis Art Pro 1121 or 1201) I really didn’t have an excuse for not getting up quicker. I think people are often too quick to blame the gear instead of accepting their own shortcomings. I’ve always been one to casually wait for a nice bump to paddle up and then go, so my new focus area is to try and paddle up as fast as possible.
  2. I should probably ride my ART Pros a bit more. I love the Spitfires. They are so fun and so surfy, but in France in order to have a semi decent speed without pumping myself to death I opted for the ART Pro’s as they can carry speed for longer and the metres / pump gained is better. This meant I was riding unfamiliar foils (especially the 1201, I never ride it other than flatwater starts) which definitely didn’t help. Note: for fun runs in bays / lakes I will still take the Spitfires, but for the racing aspect the art pros are just more return on investment (in this case investment = energy you put in).
  3. I’m not that slow. Once on foil, I found myself making decent progress and caught up and overtook a decent number of people ahead of me on day 1 and 2 (bay run). 
  4. My ocean paddle ups need work. Day 3 exposed a big downside of downwinding on the North Sea. Light wind, and decent ocean swell (the north sea does not have fast bumps). Not being used to that made it hard, and my laid back approach to waiting for a nice bump didn’t really work too well. So once again, paddle up needs improvement – then to add on to that, needs improvement with smaller foils, to then allow you to tap into the speed of the ocean swell.

So what have I/will I change(d) in my downwinding since:

  1. Trying to paddle up faster. Waiting less for the ‘best’ bump
  2. Committing to ART Pros on the North Sea. The 1121 is now my light wind foil and I want to try and get the 1051 to be my comfortable all rounder (which is a position now held by the 1121). My first outing with the 1051 was promising and I managed a good string of splits between 2:11 – 2:20 / km. 
  3. Downsizing my foils, to work on actually paddling harder. This also has the added benefit of forcing me to focus on carrying speed. This includes running smaller spitfires on the lakes. The emphasis remains the same, faster lines and maintaining that speed. 
  4. Going out on the North Sea in a wider range of conditions. Light wind, side onshore wind, you name it. I need to commit to it in order to address the lack of Ocean run experience. The wider the range of conditions I can expose myself too, the better I can become and should put me in good stead (especially when combined with the drive to try and use smaller foils). 

So that’s my reflections on the event, massive thanks again to the organizers and also to Axis foils and Appletree Surfboards for their support too. With my switch to riding the ART Pro’s a bit more I’ll write an updated ‘Quiver Reflections’ blog as I feel that it needs its own blog instead of being combined into this one. Also, I’m going to try and post a bit more consistently, maybe once every 2-3 weeks and as always, let me know what you think and happy to answer any questions (easiest via instagram I think).