Windsurfing: 40th anniversary of the Mahé-Praslin Crossing 33 surfboarders on the starting line |20 August 2022

The surfers in a souvenir photo with Vice-President Afif, PS Jean-Louis, and the sponsors

•         57 minutes 51.62 seconds is the 20-year old record to beat

A total of 33 surfboarders have registered for today’s traditional Mahé-Praslin crossing which will feature windsurfing and kitesurfing, which is commemorating 40 years since the first crossing took place in 1982.

The record to beat today is 57 minutes 51.62 seconds set by Stephen Stravens in 2002.

This year’s event was officially launched yesterday by Vice-President Ahmed Afif, during a small ceremony at the Olympic House at Roche Caïman, in the presence of principal secretary for Youth and Sports Ralph Jean-Louis, president of the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga) Antonio Gopal, commercial manager of cable TV within Cable and Wireless Nigel Rosette, commercial director of Airtel Seychelles Saadatou Chekou Kore, chairman of the Seychelles Yachting Association (SYA) Michel Bristol, surfers and sponsors.

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the crossing, a series of windsurfing and kite-surfing has been programmed to take place on Praslin .

The Airtel Praslin Slalom – one week slalom on Praslin with a number of races –has been sponsored by local telecommunication company Airtel Seychelles and, along with the crossing will gather 30 surfers, including three from Reunion and three from Mauritius, with four junior surfers from Praslin having also confirmed their participation.

The first crossing took place in 1982, with a total of six participants, namely Patrick Lablache, Gerard Lafortune, Jimmy Mein, Evans Calva, Marc Magnan and Bernard Sanders.

The last crossing was in 2020 where Bertrand De Charmoy Lablache almost clocked a new record in the windsurfing category with a time of 57 minutes 59.79 seconds, only a few seconds shy off Straven’s record.

Roland Duval