BROKEN TEETH, BROKEN VAN...BROKEN RECORDS!BROKEN TEETH, BROKEN VAN BROKEN RECORDS!Simon Pettifer and Jenna Gibsons record breaking road trip!Some trips seem cursed from the moment they begin. A cracked tooth, a van breakdown, a cancelled ferry and the constant fear of missing the best conditions had Jenna Gibson and Simon Pettifer wondering if they should turn around and head home. Instead, they kept rolling south and somehow turned one of the most chaotic road trips imaginable into one of the most successful, with both sailors smashing national records and Jenna adding yet another World Record to her incredible collection. They talk us through the highs, the lows and why sometimes the best stories start with everything going spectacularly wrong.Photos: Prince Of Speed / Jenna Gibson and Simon PettiferWINDSURF: How was the forecast looking in the build up to the eventand what was your goal?Jen: Its a month-long event, 7 June-7 July, but you only go down there when the forecast looks truly epic. Principe the event organiser sends out an email to his Speed Knights and you get your butt down to La Palme with only a few days warning. I had been on stand-by for weeks and was planning to fly with just one board bag, but actually the forecast was looking so good for the week after that I decided that if I drove down instead, I could stay a bit longer and get some high wind slalom practice in ahead of the PWA in Fuerteventura.Simon: I wasnt really meant to be going, but as soon as Jen decided not to fly, the plan then became; I would go with her to do most of the driving and keep her company, have a few good days speed sailing and fly back home to Bournemouth. The main goal was to get Jen to the south of France so she could break another record, she was going for the grand slam, Speed World Champ, 500m record and Mile record. My goal was to have fun testing my leg on a speed board, Id not sailed one since Luderitz and recovering from a broken ankle.WINDSURF: Tell us about the drama on you getting to the event with the van breakdown etc?Simon: We decided that I was going on Thursday night, so I finished work on Friday and we packed Jennas van, dumping out the big slalom gear and putting in the speed sticks, easy. We had dinner and while chewing some salad, yes salad, one of my back teeth just cracked and split, not super bad, but bad enough to not want to go to France for a week with tooth ache. Saturday morning, I booked into the emergency dentist- easy. While drilling out the filling in the broken tooth, the dentist suddenly stops and cursed not what you want to hear while in the chair of doom lol, turns out a load more of the tooth broke out, anyways an hour later I leave the dentist with a shiny new fillinghappy days.Saturday night, we decided to go and grab my spare 45cm wide speed board off Jim Crossley, just to be super organised. On the 25 min drive the engine warning lights started to flash and she went into limp mode at 9:30 pm, 11 hours before the ferry departs, aarrrghhhhhh. So, we call our local windsurfing mechanic Gav, who, being totally amazing, says, come round the house now, lets fix it. At 10pm we arrive at the garage, Gavin works his magic, but were all a little worried about the 10 hour drive the next day. Will the silver Boxer let us down again? We leave his house about 11:30pm, its all going to be fine hopefully. Although we did have a discussion about not going as we really didnt want to get stuck in the French countryside with a broken vanBut we decided to risk it and go.5:30am up at sparrows fart to drive to the ferry and on to La Palme. We got to the ferry in good time, its only a 10-minute drive lol. As we are waiting to board were feeling good. What else could go wrongright? Well apparently ferrys can break down too, who knew? You couldnt make it up, the ferrys broken, but drive to Portsmouth and were pretty sure youll get a spot on the 4pm ferry from there. some terrible language came out of my mouth, Jenna was appalled at my filthy potty mouth lol.This meant getting to La Palme for the warm- up day would be tough now. But thats OK Jen says, its only the warm- up day. After all the stress from the last 2 days I slept like a baby on the ferry. We disembarked in Caen and finally got on the road about 11pm. We drove for a few hours but eventually Jenna went to sleep in the back of the van, giving me strict instructions not to drive for too long. I find driving on the toll roads in France in the middle of the night super easy as they are empty, so I drove until 5:30am when finally I had to rest my head. Jenna got up at 8am and started to drive again.WINDSURF: Did you almost give up?Jen: I definitely almost gave up on going when my van broke down and if it wasnt for Simon having just booked the time off work, I probably would have. Having been on stand-by for weeks and it being towards the very end of the holding period, I thought that maybe we wouldnt get the wind this year and the record attempts maybe wouldnt actually happen this year, so in my head I was already just looking ahead to Fuerteventura and thinking more about slalom. Also, if my van was going to need major repairs, I could do with saving the money! But Simon was all in, and if stuff was going to go wrong, at least Id have some good company.WINDSURF: How frustrating was it when you were driving down knowing the conditions were firing?Simon: We had no clue that we were missing a good day on the water. The forecast was just for it to be a nice gentle warm up day. Principe is normally pretty good with his local knowledge and forecasts, anyway there was nothing we could do about it, I wasnt even competing anyway ha-ha. So, we finally made it to La Palme and drove straight to the beach. Damn it was really windy, looks like were actually going to get on the water for a warm up, awesome.Principe greets us with his huge smile and the news that warm up day was truly great, so great in fact that Heidi has broken her previous world record and Cedric has also broken the world record, Gunnar has broken the German record and Vincent the Belgium record which was great But of course we heard that all too familiar saying, You should have been here earlier it was epic its gone patchy now, with big holes down the course, and also the tide has gone out so its gotten too shallow. Well that sounds ideal. Had Jenna missed her chance??WINDSURF: When did you get the chance to do your first runs?Jen: When we arrived at 2pm, everyone was sitting on the beach, saying how the speeds had slowed down and the tide had gotten too low to get down the course. But of course, we were super eager to get on the water anyway, even if it was just for those warmup runs. After all, the big winds were yet to come.After getting rigged and letting the tide come up a little, we made it onto the water at about 4pm. Having had a few run-ins with the sandbanks in the past, I was keen to just find my bearings on the speed course. The biggest concern for me isnt the depth along the shore-line, but the underwater islands that lie a bit further out, that can leave only a very narrow strip of water deep enough to the clear with the 21cm fins between the beach and the sandbanks.On a 500m course, there might just be the one or two sandbanks that you need to be aware of, but over the nautical mile, there are so many its hard to keep track of. Especially with the lack of landmarks along the beach, you get a bit disorientated about how far along the speed strip you are, and whether that sandbank youre sailing towards at 40 knots is the one you need to hog the beach on or make sure to sail further out at.I must have gone up and down the full mile 3 or 4 times, stopping every 100m to check the depth. With the tide still much too low on the first few passes, it shook my confidence a bit. Luckily the wind was very square, so it meant sailing back to the start was super easy, and I could check and double check my depths. I then tried Simons tactic of following behind someone, but kept getting unlucky by following the wrong people, as most were only doing 500m runs and shooting out to sea to stay clear of the first big sandbank.It wasnt until over an hour later that I got my first full run of the mile, still pretty apprehensive, 37knots, not bad. Next one with a bit more confidence, but a pretty tight angle, 39 knots. At this point I found out Simon had broken 40 knots so I knew my next move follow him down the course. The run started out great with a big gust, but halfway down we hit a lull, as is quite common on such a long run and Simon pulled out of the run. I stopped just behind him, but it wasnt until it was too late that I realised that I was on an epic run, with a max speed over 3 knots quicker than the run before, if I could have just finished the run, who knows what the time could have been. On the way back up to the start, Principe says they are closing the course, they had been there since 5am and the conditions just werent as good as they had been. I told him what had happened and begged for 1 last run BAM 40 knots and the last run of the day.Simon: La Palme is amazing, incredible wind strengths combined with super flat water and a massively long beach makes it the best beach anywhere for the mile attempt and also great for speed sailing in general.But its not like West Kirby or Lderitz, at these spots you know where youre going pretty much, Kirby in particular, yes you can hit the wall, but youre not hitting the bottom. At La Palme there are sandbanks which move after each storm and when the winds on shore so when the tide gets too shallow, more caution is required.So, with the water super shallow we decided to take it easy, rushing down the course now could have catastrophic results, hitting a sandbank was a very real possibility. I asked Jenna to take it easy please, and she proceeded to sail down the course stop, check the depth and repeat this process several times. I didnt quite do the same. I did a couple of runs 500 700m long and sailed back up.Then I saw Cedric Bordes beach start and decided to follow him, for sure he knew the depth I thought. Turned out to be good and although I wasnt full chat the whole way down the course it was a great run, super smooth, no crashes and according to my watch 40.7kts over the milewow really did actually break the British record on my first attempt ?I was absolutely ecstatic, until I saw Jenna, who promptly gave me a huge bollocking for not checking the depth like she was doing and pointed out some scary shallow spots with no water that I had apparently just sailed straight overfair enough I suppose! Shes the clever one not me lol. To be fair later in the evening another rider did tell me that Cedric was not the one to follow as he is crazy ha-ha.. all good.Meanwhile Jen did her thing sail check .she pulled out of a few runs either because of a hole or because she wasnt happywe did one run togetherwhich I pulled out of because I wasnt happy with the speed she stopped as well, later Principe had stern words with Jenna, according to him it looked like a huge run ooops.Then once Jen was happy with the run and knew where she wanted to go, confident with the depth she let rip on a few attempts. Now I cant actually remember which of the runs she broke the record on, I think possibly the second but at some point I saw her with a massive smile on her face and knew shed done it again.Im still amazed that it went down like this. We were absolutely shattered after all the bad luck wed had, we rocked and smashed it, both of us together, I cannot tell you how happy this made us both.Time to get to the campsite and get some very much deserved sleep. The next day was forecast light winds giving us time to rest up for what was meant to be the day, Big Wednesday!WINDSURF: What are the conditions like at the venue and how different is it from sailing speed in Lderitz?Jenna: Most obviously one is open water, just a beach that happens to have the luck of the Tramontana hitting it at the right angle. The other is a ditch dug out with an excavator and lots of shovels, placed exactly at the best theoretical angle for maximum speed, and best positioned to make the most of the funnelling effect from the dunes on either side of the flat plane. One is in the south of France, with every convenience you could want just down the road and the other is in the desert miles away from everything.At Lderitz the start is so important, waiting for a gust thats the right direction and strength, to jump onto the board, getting in the straps as fast as possible so you can set up for the corner and into the forced slingshot, but thats the hard part done, and then you follow the sandbags as close as you dare and hope none of the huge gusts push you too far off your course, or the lulls make you drift up into the sandbags.At La Palme you still wait for a gust, then you beach start, no jump, then you sail upwind a little towards the beach and do a gradual bear away onto the course, theres no slingshot as such, no banana runs as Principe says. You have to change course for Sandbanks sometimes, and you choose how close to the beach you want to go, often the safest path is super close to the beach, like 1-3m away as there is a narrow deeper section of water there before it starts getting shallow due to sand build up from the Sandbanks.Lderitz is generally much broader, meaning that in the start box you can be stacked, almost out of control, but as you go round the corner a lot of the power disappears and the sail goes light in your hands. La Palme is a tighter speed run, especially in its flat conditions.The last difference for me is the finish, La Palme you can finish whenever you like, at a comp theres a buoy or flag, after this sheet out bear away carve into wind step off, smiles all round. Lderitz you have a finish box which is tiny, if you dont stop super-fast you will sail straight into a wall of very hard sand, also its choppy and shallow, as far as Im aware most injuries at Lderitz happen while trying to stop from 50 to 0 kts in about 3 seconds.BOTH have excessive amounts of sand and small stones that batter you all day long!WINDSURF: How did the rest of the week pan out after your opening day?Simon: We arrived at the beach Wednesday morning to loads of wind gusts in the 50 knot area, sand flyingwas it time to rig the 5.2m? It was definitely a goggles day for me, honestly you would not believe the amount of sand in your eyes, ears, hair and other places at the end of a day here.Although the wind was a lot stronger than the Monday, it was from a much broader angle, so swell was coming through and was a lot choppier and despite the strong wind, there were massive holes on the course, so not amazing conditionsobviously this doesnt stop a group of speedies from trying.Everyone was going for runs, lots of pulling out but getting back to the pump station to try again.At times the wind was extreme, on one of my attempted runs I beach started but as I did so the water just went white and frothed it picked up me and my gear and slammed me back into the water ha- ha I got back up and did a run.it felt really fast, but that was just because it was so wild, massive gusts I couldnt make the most of as I was so overpowered, in reality it was only a 39 something mile.The run after was way better. this time the gust came, Heidi went first no one else went so I started doing my run, it was weird because I could see whenever Heidi hit a lull 100m ahead of mebut somehow, I wasnt hitting them. The mile gives you plenty of time to think about your sailing lol. Somehow I was making it down ok, then as I could see the finish in sight Heidi hit a huge lull.she bore away to try and keep her speed but it was too big and she slowly carved up into wind ending her run just short of the finish, I managed to sail through the wind lull and keep going, but 100% Id slowed down a lot and thought the run was ruined, I had to double take my GPS watch 41.28kts for the mile wow Id broken my own record could it be true?On the van ride back up the other two sailors were talking about the conditions not being the best.I got a PB super stoked.Back at the start I spoke to Jen to find that she also had upped her game, wow this was truly amazing.Some other guy called Antoine also managed to beat the new World record, on his GPS watch he had 45.5kts for the mile. Unreal speeds from the goat of speed sailing.The day ended with Heidi, Antoine and Thomas all hitting the sand bar and crashing although they were all fine, the course was shallow and way too dangerous to continue, Principe closed the course and went home to await the video timing results.Jennas speed got downgraded to a 40.13kts on the mile, still a new World record.My speed got downgrade to 40.56kts but still had increased the British record. My 2 sec Speed on the run had been 44.7kts with a 500m speed of 43.5kts.Antoine got his speed downgraded to 44.97kts by the video timing, also another new World record.To be clear the video timing is King it times our speeds on the course between 2 set cameras, and its all ratified by the WSSRC, they have a commissioner at the event, so its all official, our GPS units measure the speeds everywhere, the reason the speeds get downgraded is because they werent on the official measured out course. For example, my speed was way better at the beginning (before I passed through the start camera) and the end was shockingly slow. Principe asked Mike George to check one of the tracks and 100% you could clearly see the speed trickling away as the finish camera approached, but before the first camera the run was on fire.Jen: With it already windy first thing, and the wind only due to pick up, I headed out at 9.30am to try and catch the lighter bit of wind, as, if the forecast was correct, it would be too windy for me on my 5.2m once the full wind kicked it. At this point the angle was good, but wind holes on the course meant you couldnt make it the full way down, and you would go from overpowered to falling-in backwards in a second.I only successfully made it down the mile twice that day, with lots of failed attempts. But the attempts paid off as I seemed to catch the last sailable run before the wind turned and went nuclear and the course closed due to dangerous conditions- this final run- my record run, I held on through the chop but I definitely thought to myself that I didnt want to do another one of those again!Although the course opened up again later that day, I didnt go back out. I had been hit by day two of a cold that ended up lasting a month. I stayed on the beach listening to reports from the water and although Antoine managed some amazing record runs that afternoon, the feedback from the masses was that I was better off on land. After hearing the reports of all the crashes into the sandbars, I think I made the right decision for me. Extremely happy to have broken the record again, but unfortunately the celebrations were limited to cough syrup and an early night. Not so glamorous, but there was more wind to come and we thought that was just the beginning.Somehow this amazing forecast just didnt give us the flat waters needed for speed. Thursday turned out so broad that, despite sitting and waiting patiently, all that was managed was a short high wind slalom session with the boys who were preparing for Fuerteventura. The final day was a lot lighter than expected, and with breaking waves rolling onto the course. When youre sailing at those speeds along the beach, theres nowhere to go when the water ramps up in front of you, so once again, a bit of a disappointing day for such a promising forecast. We didnt let it completely go to waste as we still spent time on the water. But thats speed sailing we are so reliant on perfect conditions to break records. Well be back next year to see whats possible.WINDSURF: What gear did you use for the record runs?Simon: Jenna used a 5.2m warp and me 5.5m, both 45cm wide Duotone Falcon D-Lab boards powered by F-Hot assy speed 21cm Fins made in the UK!WINDSURF: How did you celebrate?Simon.I would like to tell you that we got wrecked and had a big party, but that couldnt be further from the truth lol. What actually happened was a lot tamer. There were still possible big days ahead, so we had a barbecue and went to bed early to try and get a good nights sleep in the van / oven, the heat was incredible, we ended sleeping under towels we had soaked in the cold shower. Jenna then developed a sore throat and cough which is passed on to me, so by the end of the event where we did all go out for a really nice meal with all the other competitors we felt pretty crappy.Jen. Yeah, like Simon said, we were ever optimistic for another super windy and flat day perfect for the mile where we could both up the records even higher. Combined with the fact that we both felt crap with a cold virus thing celebrating would have to wait.We did stop on the drive home and had a lovely meal together at Simons favourite Chinese buffet.WINDSURF: Whats next?Simon: With there not being any slalom events in the UK this year and the wind deserting us for the two scheduled fun slalom 8 events the UKWA had planned, normally it would be Weymouth Speed Week in October. But this year I think Im going to go to Germany in September to the German speed Championships, its on a big lake apparently Ill be needing a weed fin or two, but I am assured by Gunnar Assmusen its going to be fun and I do love a German sausage. After that straight to Denmark to support Jenna at the IFCA slalom Europeans, maybe Ill give it a gowho knows. Then back for Weymouth Speed week, the home of speed sailing and the best event on the planet, there are rumours of a couple of big names coming this year, so it should be amazing.Jenna: Well, Ive just had the craziest slalom event ever in Fuerteventura, some extreme conditions, which were punishing for everyone. Like Simon has said, I am going to Denmark in September to compete in the IFCA Euros, with a stop off enroute to go to the German championships with Simon. After that also Speed Week to end the year. Sadly there is no Lderitz this year, but training goes on for me. I would love to be the first lady to get a 50kt 500m and that is one of my goals for the future.Who else was impressive ?Simon: Hard one, theres a stack of impressive people at these events. The big guns Antoine Albeau, my French buddy, will he ever stop breaking records? In all honestly, I dont think he will, he is determined and relentless, he continues sailing when others stop, the mans a proper legend. The day he broke the record he sailed till he crashed, hes that determined to go faster and faster, big respect.Heidi Ulrich, did you know she smiles while speed sailing? Like, a huge, happy smile, she works super hard, always checking the course and pushing hard, absolutely fearless and again a very impressive windsurfer.Cedric Bordes, world record holder and another man that pushes so hard, always tuning gear to get more and more speed, is a clever windsurfer who really knows his stuff.Gunnar Asmussenthe mighty German speed machine, he is on the brink of great things Im sure of it.Vincent Valkenaers, of course he is always super fast, with his slightly unique stance he uses ever bit of power the wind sends his way, without doubt he an impressive speed sailor.Thomas Moldenhauer smashing out speeds fearlessly crashing and not caring, also supporting speed events and helping push windsurfing.Roger Orvang, the big Swedish Viking, always smiling, pushing hard on the speeds and supporting speed events for years.Principe, working relentlessly on The Prince of Speed events, these things dont just happen, there is politics involved, permissions to get, roads to build, timing to sort out, officials, forms to claim records, media, results the list is endless as is his passion for speed and his speed knights, (thats what he calls the sailors).These are some amazing people, and its great to meet up with them several times a year, everyone gets along, speed is an individual event, everyone wants a PB, ok for some people that PB is a world or National record, but for everyone is a lot of fun.PRINCIPEOrganising a speed event isnt just about finding the financial resources to support it, obtaining the necessary permits, securing political backing, and so onTheres more to it than that its an introspective journey in search of ourselves and our physical and mental limits, to push ourselves to the very edge and sometimes even beyond whilst maximising our potential.This requires a deep understanding of ourselves. This work on ourselves becomes the key to opening doors we didnt even realise existed. Organising a speed event is not just about having the wind and achieving results its about following my riders, supporting them and helping them find their strength and turning their potential into action.Those eyes, those moments are what give me the strength to fight to keep this dream alive and to stay on my feet for 15 hours a day, whether its 40 degrees or 3 degrees with 50-knot winds.Id like to thank all my Speed Knights for giving their all and leaving nothing to chance.I would like to thank all the sponsors and local institutions: La Palme, the Aude department, the Cte du Midi and the Occitanie region.Forever SpeedPrincipeThe post BROKEN TEETH, BROKEN VANBROKEN RECORDS! appeared first on Windsurf Magazine Online.