Father of a certain Antoine Albeau, Jean-Marie had a front row seat for the world record run for speed sailing on the 5th March at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Passionate windsurfer in his own right, but acting as coach and caddy for the day (but what a day !) he talks us through his view of an emotional day !

"Another challenge successfully met. We’ve started to get used to big moments in life like this. Every time we say this must be the best he can do in his sporting career he goes one better, and the Albeau clan is ever happier.

A few days before, I had an email from Antoine saying "Dad, I get into Paris at 8.00am and we need to leave for Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer by 4.00pm at the latest. Get the van and equipment ready, we need to be on the canal at 7.00am to rig and tune the equipment !!!". Luckily, nothing ever phases us and everyone in the family is well used to this kind of general mobilisation and the brouhaha of battle. I said to myself : "Here we go again, another one of these mad jaunts like the jetski trip round Cotentin and all the way to Paris", but I was really well motivated for it ! So his mum and I forget about our rheumatism and get on with it… Time to help out our "baby" again.

7.00am 5th March, there we were at the spot with enough wind to blow the Camargue bulls clean away, and our fingers frozen worse than the minus 10 you get in the mountains. Antoine makes his first run, he’s super motivated. I could feel at that moment that something was going to happen that day.

A few runs later, Pascal Maka said to me :  "Antoine just set the best speed in the world : 49.04 knots. But it hasn’t been checked yet. It’s got to be verified." I made him say it again, I didn’t dare believe it. I told Antoine and he went off very happy for his next run. Then 10 minutes later Pascal Maka came over to see me and said : "Antoine is the new world record holder with 49.09 knots !" I turned round to Antoine and at that moment I got one of the best presents you can ever have as a dad, Antoine’s huge ear-to-ear smile that always comes at big moments like that.

I went mad, phoning everyone, the family, friends, but they all already knew because they’d all been following it live on Windsurfjournal.com since the early morning. Our mobile phones almost exploded under the volume of calls and texts. It was completely mad !!! Although there wasn’t much visual to look at, they were all at the heart of the action with that Windsurfjournal.com excellent livecast commentary.

Then I looked up at the sky and in the clouds I saw the whole thing again, all the competitions in all the 4 corners of the world. And now our son had become the fastest man in the world under sail power. I had tears in my eyes. A month before a magazine had run a front cover saying "Antoine Albeau : 10 world titles, and what next ?"… I thought of another one : "Antoine Albeau, fastest man in the world, and what next ???".
 
This record and all the other titles he’s won have been earned the hard way, endless hours of work, of serious attitude, of loyalty and sacrifice on his part. What a journey he’s made from his first ever French championship title at Port Camargue when he was 13. The family has been supporting him one way or the other for the last 25 years…

I’d like to congratulate all the participants at this event, all the riders who didn’t have a caddy or assistant, to the women riders who I really felt for in those terrible inhuman conditions and icy cold temperatures at the spot that day, with gusts measured up to 65 knots.

I’d also like to thank all Antoine’s sponsors who have had faith in him all along : NeilPryde, Starboard, Quiksilver, Ford Lease Auto Vital and Deboichet. Without them none of it would be possible. And thanks to Philippe Canto, his physical trainer-physio-friend-supporter.

And thanks too to the media who were present, who finally came to understand that windsurfing isn’t simply a summer beach game, it’s a sport apart full of high intensity and emotion, difficult but also accessible and great to watch. Maybe that will help windsurfing to change the media’s perception of it, and it will no longer be a "poor relation" water sport."

Jean-Marie Albeau