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PATRICE BELBEOCH: FROM WORLD CHAMPION TO EXOCET CEO
PATRICE BELBEOCH: FROM WORLD CHAMPION TO EXOCET CEOPATRICE BELBEOCH: FROM WORLD CHAMPION TO EXOCET CEOPatrice Belbeoch broke Bjrn Dunkerbecks 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.Words: Patrice Belbeoch // Photos: Timm FleissgartenBACKGROUNDI 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 DAYSIndeed, 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 NOWBack in the days 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 TITLEThat year in 1996 we had only few events and they were mainly in Europe, so it was more my field. The Hawaiian sailors were struggling more in European waves, while us Europeans were also struggling on Maui because they were really good at that spot. I dont think you can compare the two. On Maui you can significantly increase your level just simply because of the amount of time you can spend on the water there, but the same could also be said for sailors who lived in the Canary Islands especially Gran Canaria so it was no shock that their level was always amazing as there is wind almost everyday day in Pozo.BOARD DESIGN & EQUIPMENTI have always been keen to understand why some equipment was faster than others, so from that point I always felt as though skill wasnt the only factor needed to be successful. It was also crucial to know your equipment, how to tune it and being aware of what changes to make to create improvements. From that perspective I became quite technical and I became involved with R&D for my sponsors in the early days.EXOCETExocet was establish in early 90s by Olivier Chretien, when he passed away, I kept using those boards on the tour and some designs were created for different brands. In 2000, I was getting a bit tired of travelling, and budgets were getting tight, so I positioned myself as an investor to launch Exocet into production and then a few months later I assumed the role of CEO.EXOCETS AMBITIONI believe Exocet have always been associated with innovation and over all this time we have designed some pretty timeless products.RANGEOur current range covers all the disciplines. I have been involved developing foil equipment, but we also have a race board that is still going strong. I think we have some really nice products such as our slalom board and crossover boards. One of my favourites is the Breeze as I really like the concept of wave sailing in marginal conditions with perfect waves and the Breeze really unlocks these conditions.R&DI create the base designs and then we run various tests with a panel of sailors who possess different skills to make sure we achieve the feeling and performance we were originally looking for. I am personally involved in the R&D process as well and I will test any component that has been designed or proposed.HOME BASE?I am located close to Brest in Brittany where we are often blessed with some great wave sailing conditions.WINDSURFER LT CONCEPTI didnt personally design that board, but I am supporting the project 100% as it is simple and affordable, which opens up the door for many sailors to participate all over the world. The Windsurfer LT is simple as its a one design class with only one sail and one board, which covers a wide range of conditions and people dont have to worry about changes as thats the purpose of a one design class. The class brings back the origins of windsurfing by allowing sailors to sail by weight group, which makes it very fair in any wind conditions.XO SAILSXO Sails was created about 10 years ago, the purpose was to have access to sails matching Exocets boards, nowadays the range changed a bit because Equipe Trading took over XO sails and Exocet, so my role now is to overview a wide variety of designs from Exocet, XO, Loftsails and Unifiber.FOIL RACINGIn my opinion wind foil and windsurfing are totally different disciplines and should never have been mixed up. It created a lot of confusion for many sailors. I personally like foiling a lot and I have spent quite a lot of time on R&D on it over the last few years and still today even. The thing that makes foiling really special is that you can sail in really marginal and patchy wind.FOIL TECHNICALITIESFoil is technically very tough and requires a lot time and effort on R&D both on and off the water. I feel like foil equipment development has reached a level these days that makes it suitable for any level of sailor. The level and speed that the racers are going now is quite impressive, but I still think it remain a bit extreme for the end consumer.TIME ON THE WATERI enjoy a bit of all types of sailing when conditions allow it, but I am wave sailing a lot less now because I suffered quite a few serious ankle injuries back in the day and I really dont want any more.OUTLOOKThe PWA should display disciplines that are closer to the main stream. In the early days the PBA did well by having riders sailing on longboards, although I personally think they should have kept the weight group format from other one design classes.Anyone who wants to learn to windsurf or wind foil should start on boards that use a daggerboard, but we have no champions sailing and promoting those type of products. On the other side of the scene the Windsurfer LT is probably the most sold racing board out there on the market. The right approach would be to check whyI think mixing foiling was a mistake and we saw lot of riders quitting the tour in the last two years and now we even have slalom with jumping over obstacles what rider does that on a normal day? I dont have a magic wand, but returning to the basics always works.BOARD DESIGN ENJOYMENT AND NUANCESThe high is when you have sailors enjoying a design and of course the low is the opposite! What attracts me to designing is when there is a project to work on that is totally new and it requires lot of thinking.The post PATRICE BELBEOCH: FROM WORLD CHAMPION TO EXOCET CEO appeared first on Windsurf Magazine.
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