Many people have asked me this question since the idea first took root among others at the end of 2024, when I was completing my sailing instructor training. Others still ask me today. And if you are reading this, perhaps you are also curious to know ?

The story is simple, beautiful and natural. The wind, the winds, have accompanied me in my passion and leisure activities since my teenage years, and have also enabled me to enjoy 15 meaningful years of professional life.

I discovered windsurfing in the early 90s and immediately fell in love with it, first for the freedom of being alone on the water, then for the sensation of gliding once you reach planing speed, and finally for the challenge of pushing yourself beyond your limits in difficult conditions. At that time, I also sailed with friends on dinghies. The sea was the playground, the wind was the fuel.

Then came kitesurfing, and now wingfoiling. While some people complain about the wind blowing sand across the beach, turning their umbrellas inside out or cooling the air, like all windsurfers, kitesurfers and wingfoilers, I'm just worried about whether I'll be able to get out on the water to enjoy these conditions.

And then, after travelling to windy spots such as Tarifa, Leucate and Essaouira, I became interested in wind turbines which, as my daughter delicately put it, ‘decorate the landscape’. My environmental convictions and my studies led me to get involved in the development of wind power projects, first in mainland France and then in the Caribbean.

Finally, 2023, the start of this wingfoil and windsurfing club project that drives me and excites me !

Seven

Two stories intertwine. The personal sphere connects with the universal.

Let's start with the symbol. This number is often considered lucky. It is present in our imagination because it is associated with many historical, geographical, cultural and fictional concepts : the wonders of the world, the seas, the continents, crystal balls, Snow White's dwarfs, the days of the week, the deadly sins, the arts, musical notes, mercenaries or samurai, the last digit of a famous spy, lives, aligned planets, the colours of the rainbow. And speaking of the heaven, we rarely talk about the first six...

From a more personal perspective, my year of birth, 1977, my height, 1.77 meters, and my race number, 477, are the origin. But there are many other references that validate this choice: the starting 7 in handball, a sport I played for twenty years; the seven islands or archipelagos of New Caledonia (Grande-Terre, Lifou, Maré, Ouvéa, Tiga, Île des Pins, and the Bélep Islands), and the seven islands or archipelagos of Guadeloupe (Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, La Désirade, Petite-Terre, Marie-Galante, Terre-de-Haut, and Terre-de-Bas), where I lived. It is also the 7^th time that I have taken a different path in my life. And in another sport of values, it is that of a try that I hope to convert.

Seven Winds

With these two words together, one might wonder which winds are being referred to. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands ? It is tricky to choose just seven.

First the winds from here, next from my adopted lands, then from my travels, and finally a poetic touch : Mistral, Tramontana, Marin, Trade winds, Poniente, Levante and Zephyr.

My daughter was born on the first of nine consecutive days of Mistral wind. Having participated in ten editions of the Défi Wind in Gruissan, the Tramontana, one of the strongest winds in the world, gave me some very powerful sensations. The Marin, a south-easterly wind, often brings clouds and rain, but also beautiful waves in the Gulf of Aigues-Mortes. Having had the chance to live for almost five years in the tropics, first in New Caledonia and then in Guadeloupe, I enjoyed many gentle sessions rocked by the trade winds. As a student, Tarifa was my 1^st windsurfing trip ; I have since returned four times to find those two enemy brothers, the Levante, a powerful east wind, and the Poniente, a more moderate west wind, in the Strait of Gibraltar. Finally, Zephyr, the Greek god of the west wind and messenger of spring, is also the hero of a touching poem by Louis Vanot.