‘DéfiWind de Gruissan’, is the original ‘DéfiWind’ event and doing a ‘Défi’ has become a must do on windsurfing bucket lists. Seasoned ‘Défi’ dude John Skye and first timer, Karo van Tonder take us behind the scenes of the world’s largest windsurfing race with their ‘DéfiDiaries’!
JOHN SKYE
I opted for a relaxed start to my Défi2019 with a mid-morning flight. It’s always fun checking in with gear and this time I had a few extras to deal with - proto sails for the team, including some massive foil sails, that rolled up were around 3 meters. I somehow persuaded the check-in staff that what I had was 1 windsurfer and that each bag was around 25 kg. Thankfully as they rolled down the oversize baggage belt she didn’t notice that they were both closer to 50 kg!
At the other end, I was hoping for a smooth exit, but that was not to be. I have had the same experience in Barcelona before, that windsurf gear (especially big race stuff) doesn’t come up the standard oversize belt. Instead, they send it up a special lift. The problem is that most of the staff don't actually know this. So after waiting nearly an hour, I took matters into my own hands and went to investigate, only to find 2 lift engineers working on the broken lift. They confirmed they had seen my bags at the bottom but had no idea how long it would take to fix. I wandered off to try to find help, but then eventually saw a lost looking airport worker trying to find out what to do with 2 x 50 kg bags that he couldn’t move. I quickly grabbed them and got on my way.
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