Congratulations again Zara! Check out all the coverage from the Luderitz speed challenge here.

Zara's seat covers

Want to find out more about the Luderitz Speed Challenge, where Zara broke the women’s world speed record? Check out all the coverage on Boards here.

In more speedy news British slalom champion Ant Baker was showing off his 2013 North Warps this week; and speaking of showing off looks like the girls are having more than a little bit of fun in Maui here! We are sure yet more showing took place in the Liverpool SWA event last weekend too, check out the gallery  and report on the event from Tushingham team rider Jo Wright.

Other big news this week was that it looks like there will be another edition to the PWA calendar in 2013, with Cape Town hosting the final round of the PWA Wave World Tour!

And so we leave you for another week, remember if you ever have any great windsurfing sessions, images, videos or news from your local spot please send through the info to amy@boards.co.uk

Ross Williams in action, how well could he do in Cape Town 2013?

After so many records were broken many riders were hopeful that the last Thursday would deliver more wind that would enable the speeds to be pushed a little further, but unfortunately it was not to be. Yet this will surely go down as one of the best speed sailing competitions in history, with many record broken, many times, and of course the overall speed record not only being taken over 50knots, but over 52 by Antoine Albeau!

Here on Boards we have covered the event every step of the way, so to check out all the coverage just head here; posts include videos, interviews with Antoine Albeau and Zara Davis, images and of course details of even record broken and top speed reached!

We would also like to congratulate all the riders that took part this year, it has been incredible to see everyone pushing the top speeds and it’s certainly inspired us to get the GPS out!

Luderitz closing ceremony

Are you into speed sailing? Has the Luderitz competition inspired you to head our to your nearest speed course too?

Antoine Albeau and Cedric Bordes, tandem record holders. Image credit Eric Bellande.

Many sailors have raised the personal best speeds, with more national records being improved too. Bjorn Dunkerbeck is now getting dialled into the conditions on the canal, boosting his top speed up to 50.91knots….can he come closer to Antoine? Or even overtake him?

But Antoine just keeps going faster and faster, with his top speed still at 51.69 knots over 500m Antoine has now taken the two second top speed to over 100km per hour! This is an incredible 54.14knots over two seconds giving Antoine the fastest top speed in the world and the first person to take it over 100km per hour. Check out the full details on the GPS Speedsurfing page here. 

Anders Bringdal reflects on yesterday’s action on Facebook:

“Yesterday, Great day here in the canal. Antoine did what he does and smashed the 100 KM/h top speed. Pretty cool and is good to see. Bjorn also had a good day and came charging through.
I did not manage to find the grove and was slower.
Also managed to buss my self up a little more… sore ribs on my last run.
Now Thursday forecast looked good yesterday. Today it looks so so again.. We still wait for that stronger day as we all feel we can go faster.
Like we say in France, A-Fond”

Bjorn Dunkerbeck, looking to chase down Antoine's record.

So, it looks like there could be a couple of mellower days ahead on the canal, before potentially more records flying on Big Thursday, Boards will of course keep you updated, for now over on Windsurf Journal they have now released the first episode from the canal…

On day nine of the competition in Luderitz the competitors were treated to winds between 40 and 45knots, another great day on the canal and many sailors more than took advantage.

Antoine Albeau

None more so than Antoine Albeau, who increased the record time and again, finally resting at 52.05knots at the end of the day.

Anders Bringdal

Anders Bringdal followed with a new Swedish Record which is also Production board World Record : 51.45 knots!

Jurjen van der Noord

Jurjen Van Der Noord the Dutch Record Holder also went over 51 knots today, joining Anders Bringdal and Cédric Bordes, with 51.26 knots!

Bjorn Dunkerbeck the famous 41 times world title holder just joined the event today in the afternoon reaching 49.53 knots, he did this after only a couple of runs !

Martyn Ogier

Well done to Martyn Ogier from UK who recorded a speed of 48.21 knots (current British Record held by Farrell O’Shea with 48.82 knots) and to Martin Van Meurs from Netherlands: 47.95 knots who improved their best speeds.

Zara Davis

Zara Davis was back on the water today after a little injury:

“1st day back on the water today, after stitches in my leg five days ago. It was quite painful and I took it easy and only did 5 runs. Initially I was disappointed with my best run of 44.25 knots, then Pete reminded me my initial hope before I came was 43 knots and if I had been told before i got here that I was going to do 44 plus knots I would have been turning cartwheels. We are all getting a bit complacent for sure. The wind today was very strong but gusty which favoured the strong heavy guys. Big respect to Antoine, for his 52.05 knot run and pushing the record higher again. Lena did very well today with a 45.5 run she is getting quicker for sure. A huge well done to Nick V for getting in to the exclusive 50 knot club.” Follow more news from Zara on her Facebook page here.

Catch all the latest speed sailing news from Luderitz and beyond here on Boards.

You may also like to:

Read more from Antoine on Boards.

Antoine Albeau. Image credit PWA/JC.

But the question is how fast do you think he can go? Over 53knots? Over 55? Share your thoughts at the bottom of this post!

On Saturday 17th more records were broken as the riders in Ludertiz were treated to more fantastic conditions on the canal. Top news for the Brits is of course that Farrel O’Shea improved his UK record again to 48.82 knots, whilst Zara Davis took the women’s world record up to 45.83knots.

Zara Davis and Antoine Albeau

Before recapping on the full results Boards caught up with Zara Davis to find out more from the World record holder.

Zara Davis

Boards: How much faster do you think you can go? Do you think there’s potential to take the record even higher now?

Farrel O'Shea

After a successful King and Queen of the wind events the EFPT went behind the scenes to find out more from competitor and event organiser Adam Sims. Another event we have heard a lot about this week in the SWA Wet Dream Four….Play; with this event passed and the Northern Monkey event this weekend there is a lot going on in SWA land. Check out all the latest student windsurfing news and features here.

The other big news this week of course cam from Ludertiz, where all sailors have been increasing their top speeds day on day. Zara Davis and Farrell O’Shea have both broken records, but the top news is that Antoine Albeau and Anders Bringdal both broke the 50knot barrier. Find out more about Antoine, including some words on the record from the man himself here.  With more promising forecasts around the corner, we will continue to follow all the action in Luderitz, fingers crossed more records will be broken in the near future.

We finish up the news this week with a video from Juice Boardsports and their recent demo at Fraisthorpe beach.

Video from Antoine’s run released!!!

And an awesome video from the day from Jurjen van der Noord!

Anders Bringdal smashing 50knots on a production board!

There was some confusion in our previous report over the official times from Anders and Antoine, but here is the official report from the Luderitz Speed Challenge team:

After the promising previous days, everyone felt that the 50 knots barrier break cannot be far.
Today was the 4th race day, and marks the day that mythical 50 knot barrier was smashed !
Records kept tumbling almost with every run this afternoon, and some of the speeds still need to be confirmed by the Time Keeper.

First, the Swedish Record Holder Anders Bringdal broke the 50 knots barrier twice, with 50.41 and then 50.46 knots improving the world Record on Production Board as well !

After that Antoine Albeau surpassed Anders’ performance with 50.62 knots recovering his position of World Record holder in Windsurfing, which was also shortly held by Cédric Bordes in the afternoon with 49.66 knots.

Anders Bringdal. Image courtesy Luderitz Speed Challenge.

Zara Davis has also improved her World Record in Windsurfing with 44.92 knots and also Lena improved her Turkish Record with 43.81.

The record on Tandem has been also broken by Antoine and Cedric Bordes (1 board / 2 sails / 2 riders) with 38.12 knots!

And lots of other National Records were smashed!
Mark Grinnell from South Africa and Matthias Röttcher from Namibia were successively improving their national records which they had already broken earlier during the day.
Mark: 46.49 kts and Matthias: 46.69 kts.

Jurjen Van Der Noord, the Dutch competitor who has just made his first runs today broke the Dutch Record with 47.53 kts.
Patrick Diethelm has improved his Swiss Record and is the 3rd time in the Windsurfing world as well with 49.71 knots!
Nick Vardalachos from Greece and the British Farrell O’Shea improved their record.
Nick: 48.84 kts and Farrell: 48.21 kts.

Christian Benzing who was battling with his German fellow countrymen, broke the German Record in Windsurfing with 45.57 knots.
This incredible day has now gone into the windsurfing history books.The world’s windsurfing community was waiting for a “come back” in Speed Sailing. The goal of the 2012 “Lüderitz Speed Challenge” was to work on that point and offer the best conditions to finally break this mythical barrier. We can expect even better results during the coming days.

Follow the Ludertiz Speed Challenge here on Facebook. 

Plus check out the great album from World of Windsurf here. 

Here’s a brief round-up this week’s news.

The Luderitz Speed Challenge has been going off with records being smashed left right and centre. A certain Frenchman (Antoine Albeau) is currently leading the race to 50knots. Check it out here

The Centaur King Of The Wind event wrapped up with Davy Scheffers taking top honours. Full report here

Mr and Mrs Skye are now proud owners of a small child called Lily. Story here

An unfortunate tragedy hit the NE windsurfing community this week when one of our own passed away while enjoying his passion. Stay safe out there!

We reported there could be a reverse decision regarding the RS:X Class and Olympics. Stay tuned for more on that one. Check out the story here

And finally to finish thing off this week, here’s a mellow vid from El Medano.

Enjoy the weekend!

According to reports all manner of records keep getting blown out of the water with plenty of action going down, but it was the Frenchman who stole the limelight with his fantastic performance.

You can bet your bottom dollar though that the other competitors will be hot on his heels – eager to get their slice of the pie.

For regular updates check out the Facebook site here

AA Smashing Records In Luderitz

The wind was shy at the beginning of the morning, but from 12 am it started to increase gradually to reach 30-35 knots. Zara Davis (female windsurfer from the UK) showed straight away that she meant business and that breaking records was what she was here for! She improved with each run, reaching the British Female Speed Sailing Record (38.28 knots established by a kite surfer) ending with 40.95 knots on a 500m average, which is a new world record for windsurfing on production board (female). STILL NEEDS TO BE RATIFIED BY THE WSSRC. Lena Aylin Erdil followed suit and, still getting used to the speed sailing techniques, she reached 39.06 knots to establish the Turkish Female Record for the first time. STILL NEEDS TO BE RATIFIED BY THE WSSRC.

All the competitors were excited to take a few runs in the channel, testing their equipment and getting ready for good strong winds that are expected tomorrow.

Some of them have increased their best speed:

Christian Benzing: now 38.27 knots (was 35.26 knots)

Christian Bornemann: now 39.72 knots (was 39.11 knots)

Cédric Bordes also reached almost his best speed today: 45.09 knots (his best: 45.96)

We ended the day with the Swede Anders Bringdal reaching 46.33 kts.

Flying down the course in Luderitz!

Check out more images here