11-times world champion, speed sailing world-record holder, Frenchman Antoine Albeau is at the moment the uncontested star of windsurfing. When a sportsman has already won 11 world championships, and has been dominating his contestants for years, what kind of fuel can make him move forward? Antoine Albeau's engine is powered by an amazing mix of adrenaline and passion that allows him to go even faster and to tame stronger winds and higher waves.

He certainly had won three world championships in 2007 speed, slalom and formula windsurfing, but he's far from being satisfied. While his opponents were training in the warm Hawaiian trade winds, the champion stayed in the cold European winter to take part in the Master of Speed, a private speed record attempt that takes place on a dedicated canal in Les Saintes Maries de la Mer (south of France).

The fastest Man on the Water
After two sessions (November and January) in which he improved his own performance to come near the record (48,70 knots; 90,19 km/h) held since 2005 by Finian Maynard (Virgin Islands), Antoine Albeau broke the speed sailing record on March 5th 2008. With 49,09 knots (90,91 km/h), not only he became the fastest windsurfer on the planet over a 500m long run, the sprint distance in speed sailing, but most of all the fastest sail-powered man as well (far ahead of colossal-budget boats).

Thanks to this performance accomplished in 100 km/h winds, his name is now inscribed on the wall of fame of the very British WSSRC (World Sailing Speed Record Council). This is a real achievement as only four windsurfers (Erik Beale, Pascal Maka, Thierry Bielak, Finian Maynard) had joined this very select club since 1972.

The next Dunkerbeck

11 world titles, the poshest sailing record, what else can he ask for? With such a list of titles, Antoine Albeau has become a legend of this sport, just like Robby Naish and Björn Dunkerbeck, the idols that he was cherishing when he was a teenager. Nowadays, the Frenchman is equal to those windsurfing myths, who were also collecting world titles. While the 80's had been marked by the supremacy of the American Robby Naish, and the 90's by the overwhelming domination of Spanish Björn Dunkerbeck, Antoine Albeau is definitely the man of the 2000's.

The Key to become a Champion

The world champion doesn't remember the first time he stepped on a windsurfing board. In his mind, he has always been windsurfing. In fact, this sport is forming part of his family life. His father, Jean-Marie, was one of the first windsurfers in France (competing at a good level) and created a windsurfing school on l'île de Ré. The likeness of Antoine Albeau and the other windsurfing legend Björn Dunkerbeck, whose parents also had a windsurfing school (Canary Islands), is outstanding.

Is this the secret to build a champion? Provided that passion is not killed... Along with his father, and since he was a teenager, Antoine was competing against the best French windsurfers on the national championships. Quickly, the “elders” knew that this young robust fellow would soon be one of the best, especially in rough conditions. At the age of 20, he was learning his trade in the world cup, observing the stars of these days, and collecting the experience that later he would need to get rid of these idols. But “even when he was in the top 20 of the world cup ranking, Antoine was coming back home and, sometimes, was passed by his father!”.

The French Elephant

Since then, he's a world-wide uncontested star of windsurfing. And because “speed” must be present within the familial genes, this could last for a long time. He also inherited the size of his father: 1,85m, 100 kilos and a powerful natural strength. Being a professional sportsman, he's doing some physical training, of course, but stays reasonable with body-building and watches his weight, because even if he possesses the best top speed of the slalom professional tour, this discipline also requires a certain agility to negotiate the curves around the buoys.

At the age of 36, Antoine Albeau dominates his sport and will probably dominate it for a couple more years. He has all the weapons to win: a flawless physique, self-confidence and an unwavering mental toughness plus the best equipment possible. The world champion is working with top brands. He's equipped and sponsored by some of the market leaders in board sports: Neil Pryde (windsurfing sails), Starboard (windsurfing boards), and Quiksilver (wetsuits and surfwear).

Windsurfing is a matter of feeling, but at this level of performance the equipment is very technical, which means that development work and fine tuning are consequential. Antoine spends a lot of hours on the water trying some new designs and validating the products that he will use for the competitions, and that later will be available in the shops.

Windsurfing is not Formula 1

Professional tour and technical mechanic equipment, we could almost draw a parallel between windsurfing and Formula 1, except that Antoine Albeau's contracts are not comparable to those of someone like Lewis Hamilton. He makes it clear: “There isn't a lot of money in windsurfing; it's hard to secure the future. You have to give a lot to get a little, but that's the way it is. If I look at my past, I can see a lot of years spent on the pro tour, mainly good memories, that's what's important.”

Sorry, but a windsurfing champion is not a suntanned lazy beach boy. The real life of Antoine Albeau is a succession of plane trips (with a minimum of 500kg of equipment to check in) to go to the competitions, interrupted by some time spent in his beautiful house in l’île de Ré (off the coast of La Rochelle). “Too rare” according to his wife Sarah, a beautiful English that he met on the tour when she was working for the PWA (Professional Windsurfers Association, the world tour organizers). “Three or four months in Hawaii for training and equipment tuning, three months at home, and the rest travelling around the world”, that's the annual calendar of the champion and his wife, who's organizing most of his trips.

His Versatility makes him unique

The prize list of Antoine Albeau is one of the most complete in the history of windsurfing. 11 world titles and an innumerable collection of national titles, he's the most titled European windsurfer, along with Björn Dunkerbeck. But the most impressive characteristic of Antoine Albeau is his versatility, because most actual top windsurfers are specialized in only one discipline. Let's take the current windsurfing world champions in wave or freestyle, they cannot consider getting through the first heat of a slalom event, and in fact they won't even try to participate.

On the other hand, if the conditions are adapted to the size of Antoine Albeau, he would definitely be a pretender for a victory in the wave discipline. Albeau stacked up victories in a variety of racing disciplines (slalom, formula windsurfing, speed, supercross), but he also won a world title in the discipline of freestyle (in which most contestants are half his weight). And his favourite “hobby” is still to “play” in the waves. Barely recovered from his speed world record, he celebrated windsurfing the giant waves of Biarritz, before he came back home and immediately went out for a stand up paddle surfing session.