The desire for waves is always great, and so, having seen a good mistral forecast, I returned to Coudouliere, in France, where I had not ridden for a really long time.

 

Windsurfing, report: Coudoulière, Six Fours, april 2025

 

French baptism for my newly camperized van, after having inaugurated it in Sardinia last month. And it went well right away. My Ford Transit is really equipped with everything I need, to enjoy these trips in complete freedom. I think we are only at the beginning of a long series of beautiful adventures.

Moving straight to the report of last Thursday's session, I must say that the Coudouliere showed many faces during the day. When I arrived at the spot, around 10:00, the wind was nice and strong and there was no shortage of waves. Wind well oriented from NW, side on on the spot. Pleasant spring temperature (5/4 wetsuit without the need for a beanie).

 

 

 

I then rigged the Goya Guru X Pro 4.2, and set the JP Magic Wave Pro 89 as a quad, with the K4 Leons in the center, as I always do in on/side on conditions. By the time I got into the water, the wind had quickly dropped, allowing me only a few minutes of fun... It was really unpleasant to see that those who had gone out early in the morning had enjoyed it with small sails... I avoided getting tired unnecessarily, and quickly got out of the water.

Back at the van to eat and drink something, after an hour, I realized that the wind was growing again. I rigged the Guru 4.7, and went back into the water, to stay there until about 2:30 pm. It was a tiring session, due to the instability of the wind. The NW wind, if it is not strong, comes in a bit in gusts at the Coudouliere. Decent waves at alternating stages. I kind of forgot how to surf waves with onshore/side on wind. It usually happens to me when I come back from South Africa....

TT, Thomas Traversa, reminded me of the right tecnique, when I was filming him around mid-afternoon, sitting at Cap Negre, while I was resting a bit. It took me a moment to recognize him (with his hair cut, and a nice wide-brimmed hat on his head). But his style and his radicalism are unmistakable. I was amazed by the amount of waves he caught in a short time, by the speed he came out of the bottoms, by the slashed cut backs (often closed with a taka), and by his ability to quickly upwind while planing, with his usual low-volume board (about seventy liters, I think) and small sail. It also made me want to go back to Tabou Da Curve. See my slidegallery, to admire him and the others in the water at that moment.

The moment I took the photos and videos was clearly the moment of the day when the spot offered the best conditions, with a steady, strong wind, and always with a good direction from NW.

So I decided to forget about the tiredness of the morning sessions, I rigged the Guru 4.7 again, and I went back to the water around 5:30 pm, with the Jp set as a thruster with the standard fins, to make it faster. I enjoyed a good end of the day, with few riders in the water, even if the wind had dropped compared to mid-afternoon (but at 7:00 pm some local guys were still enjoying a sunset session, after a day of work...). I finally did something good.

I closed my games around 6:30 pm, and I calmly disarmed, enjoying the sun and the heat of the Coudou parking lot. I then moved to Sausset Les Pins, to spend the night in a nice parking lot by the sea, with the van, hoping for another day of windsurfing at Carro, the next day.

Unfortunately, on Friday the Carro gave wind only until mid-morning, and a practically flat water surface that some enjoyed with freestyle and slalom equipment (in addition to the usual wing foils, now present in good numbers also at Coudou).

 

The wanting for waves has just increased....

Ciao. Fabio

Click here, to enjoy the slidegallery shot at La Coudouliere