Downwind Fun at the Vendée Gliss 2019!

Last weekend the Vendée Gliss race burst into life again on the French Atlantic coast. This year the Vendée glisse had the honor of being a prize winning waterman event, as well as a stop on the Eurotour. This years waterman event gave the chance for competitors to win a ticket a free Air Tahiti Nui plane ticket for both men and women winners, presented by TotalSUP for both male and female winner.

Photo Georgia Schofield

The weekend was crammed full of great performances. In the down wind / long distance race the elite paddlers put on a show. Fiona Wylde and Titouan Puyo left the Vendée as winners of the long distance race.  Susak Molinero and Paolo Marconi  RRD teammates both took the win in the  technical race. In the waterman event Pauline Lesther and Joseph Gueguen won the Waterman Challenge. Both are on their way to Huahine in French Polynesia, next November to compete in the Watermana 2019 final! Sandrine Berthe, French based waterwoman and Fanatic France team rider was competing at the weekend. The waterwoman gives TotalSUP the full low down of the event!

Hello Sandrine, great weekend at Saint-Jean-de-Monts, did you have any goals going into the competition?

My goal was to win the ticket that was offered by Air Tahiti Nui and TotalSUP for Watermana 2019. However, I also wanted to test myself in long distance SUP race on the Saturday. I did the race  because I just returned from a trip to Tahiti where I took part in two stages of the Waterman Tahiti Tour but also the Air Tahiti Nui Royal Race Paddle and Air France Paddle Festival (note: Sandrine finished in 4th place). Unfortunately, I was sick Friday so I couldn’t start the downwind race on Saturday morning.

 This was your first time at the Vendée Glisse event, can you tell us more about the event?

The organisation  was great. It is difficult in SUP racing to get to the right timing, logistics. It is especially difficult to move so many athletes and to get them started, this weekend everything ran like a Swiss clock. Congratulations to the organisation!

When we arrived on Friday, the weather reminded me of  November, with lots rain and wind! At the briefing we were introduce to the course and all the details,  especially the organisation to get to the starting point. There were a hundred athletes and as many boards to get to Ile d’Yeu for a 22 KM downwind all the way to Saint-Jean-de-Monts. It wasn’t just SUP racers, but also in prone and SUP Foil.

For accommodation, we got together with the Tahitians and other athletes who also came for the Vaimiti and Errol Maoni event, Titouan Puyo, Vincent Guillaume, Ty Judson and Médéric my husband. It was great to meet and share all the experience together!

Every one was ready for the event,  the  MC really got into the races and the enterainment vllage was great throughout the weekend. So for all the finishers, the public formed a line of honor and encouraged the athletes, it is the perhaps the best event where I saw the most spectators. They were lucky to be treated to the experience of seeing so many internationals who were present including Arthur Arutkin, Mickael Booth, Ty Judson, Olivia Piana, Titouan Puyo, Annie Reickert, Yuka Sato, Fiona Wylde.

So how was the long distance on Saturday?

On Saturday the rain had stopped. The boat trip until the departure was quite rough for the participants, the conditions at sea were difficult. Right at the beginning of the race, the wind was perfect, we had up to 15 knots well oriented,  but we also had to contend with a cross swell (+/- 1m 50cm) making life a bit complicated.

The many big battles on the water even though throughout the race and with the distance  the riders were scattered on the water. So at times it was  difficult to know for sure everyones positioning. In the mens race, Titouan Puyo and Arthur Arutkin were neck and neck  for a long time, before Titouan Puyo took the race by the scruff of the neck and won with a good lead. It was good to see Boris Jinvresse in 5th place, meaning that there were 3 French paddlers inside the top 5. The two Australian paddlers Michael Booth and Ty Judson came in at 3rd and 4th. In the womens race it was the downind specialists who dominatedd American paddler Fiona Wylde claimed 1st place, followed by Britttany based paddler Amandine Chazot and Hawaiian Annie Reickert.

The race also featured SUP foilss. There were two newcomers  present.  Titouan Galea won with a time of 2h 04 minutes. Eric commented that  “We had little visibility (throughout the race), I actually got lost, I ended up swimming 30 minutes crosswind to get back to the edge of the field (apparently  this also happened to Titouan). Foils go faster than the SUPs, so being out in front it was less obvious the location of the buoy than on a SUP” . Médéric Berthe (Fanatic SUP) raced in the prone divisioe. He was little disappointed to be the only participant, he did however a great race considering the training period that he had.

The Sunday Technical Race Sunday morning was the technical race with many less international riders who had mostly moved for the Long Distance and the weather was much lenient than the day before. The east wind has allowed to have an interesting water for this technical course. I did not register on this race, preferring to focus my energy on the waterman event.

Can you give us a run down of your ” Waterman Challenge”?

Twenty particpants took place in the Waterman, including 3 ladies team and a relay team. The races were done in the following order: 1 KM of swimming, 4 KM  prone, 4 KM in running and finally 5 KM SUP.

The water was cool (14 degrees). Jurgi Zulaika (swimming specialist) and Pauline Lesther (Triathlete) had a good start and took a good lead after the first discipline. For my part, I’m more of a runner than a swimmer. Once we got to the prone part of the race the pack sorted it self out. I’m remained in pursuit of Pauline. Joseph Gueguen took the lead in the pack before starting the running. He maintained his lead until the finish, pursued by Mathieu Jolivet who impressed on the sand.