FROM WORLD CHAMPION TO EXOCET CEO

Patrice Belbeoch broke Björn Dunkerbeck's wave domination in 1996 to become the PWA Wave World Champion. We hear from the Frenchman about his background, his early interest in equipment development, taking over Exocet and his overall outlook.

- Patrice Belbeoch

BACKGROUND

I left school pretty early on and then joined the PBA Tour in 1986, my first time on a windsurf board was in the summer of 1982. I got pretty hooked on the sport very quickly and then it was clearly the sport I preferred besides other sports such as track and field and basketball, which I had a decent level at too! I did some local races back in 1985, and my first PBA event was in La Torche back in 1986, I did fairly well and was offered a contract with Mistral.

HIGHS & LOWS?

For me traveling around the world to sail in amazing places was a high. Of course the low side of it was the nightmare of travelling with so much gear all the time. I would say that gaining several titles - both nationally and internationally was also very fulfilling.

THE OLD DAYS

Indeed, back in the day the tour was well funded, the windsurfing scene was also thriving with many big brands being involved. I would say it was easier to secure events as we had multiple disciplines that would allow us to sail in really light wind too. For a lot of sailors, the overall ranking was the most important so I was training for all the disciplines, I never really saw myself more as a racer than a wave rider though.

EQUIPMENT - THEN VERSUS NOW

When I was on tour there were no restrictions on equipment and we were not limited to production boards or sails, the tour was the forefront for new R&D. I can see that for many years now the tour has been shrinking a lot. I think it started to go downhill when the race board discipline was dropped from the tour as from that time onwards we needed a lot more wind to sail and secure events, so it became more and more risky for organisers in terms of guaranteeing a result.

WORLD TITLE