50.57 knots...

Exactly one month ago, a barrier went down, while nobody really noticed. Well, OK, I can understand that the world economical crisis is more important in people's mind right now than this kind of announcement. Whatever.

In Lüderitz, Namibia, took place the Luderitz Speed Challenge 2008, an annual speed sailing contest, validated by the very uncompromising WSSRC (World Sailing Speed Record Council)...
And that's where occured that new record, and not the least one, as the mythical 50 knots frontier was breached! And for the sailing people, this was like the sound barrier! Plus, not only its a KiteBoard that performed this amazing speed (and I do like kiteboarding!), opening a new era after decades of Windsurf hegemony, but it's a French who did it!

So, on October 3rd, Sébastien Cattelan reaches 50.26 knots, writing his name in history books as the first one ever making "one small step for man" above the 50 knots... Two days later, Alexandre Caizergues (yet another frenchy) takes the record back at an outstanding 50.57 knots, i.e. 92.6 km/h or 81.38 mph (1 knot = 1,852 km/h).

And that fast, on water, standing on a small board, that's huge... Here's a video of Caizergues' run for you to make up your mind.

Next step : 100 km/h... It took 10 years to the windsurfers to get from 30 to 40 knots ; kiteboarding being quite a young sport, in constant evolution, some think the 60 knots could be reached in the next years...

It's high time I go to Mauritius...