Défi Wind

About this organization

Défi Wind is built around one idea: put everybody on the same start line. Since 2001 the event at Gruissan has grown into the biggest windsurfing race in the world, with more than a thousand riders setting off together, and the Défi Kite carries that format over to kiteboarding. The course is long downwind legs along Plage des Chalets with the Tramontane blowing through at full strength. A mass start of that size is closer to a road race than a regatta. The front of the fleet is world-champion pace and the back is club sailors, and both cover the same distance in the same wind on the same day. Gruissan sits on the Languedoc coast, where the Tramontane is the wind that defines the season. Entry, the schedule and the class rules are published by the organisers.

Why this profile is here

Most kite racing is a small fleet on a short course. Défi Kite is the opposite, and that is why it earns its own entry here: it is the one start line where an amateur and a world champion sail the same leg. The profile exists so riders can find the organisers, not so KSO can resell the event.

Common questions