3 questions for Pierre Mortefon

13/04/2023

Pierre Mortefon was present at the recent French team training camp in Hyères in the south of France and had the opportunity to prepare for the 2023 season. For Windsurfjournal.com, he looks back on this important sequence of the start of the season and on the foil discipline, which is becoming more and more present...

Windsurfjournal.com : You have just taken part in the training course organised by the FFVoile in Hyères, always an important moment before the start of the season?
Pierre Mortefon : Yes, it's a great meeting that we have thanks to the federation. It's one of the few events we can benefit from. So it's always good to take part and we generally have good conditions. We've been doing it in Hyères for at least three years, before that it was in Tarifa. Hyères is a good place to be at this time of year because it's a bit warmer than elsewhere. The best thing is that you can have an east wind with a flat water surface and a west wind with a rougher sea. It's also a place where a lot of racers base themselves, so it makes for a bigger fleet. What I particularly appreciate is that instead of spending 3 months in Tenerife in the Canaries, as some do, with conditions that are always more or less the same, I find it makes a change to be in France and sail in good conditions and not necessarily with all the direct opponents.

WJ: According to Stéphane Krause, who was in charge of the course, the foil has improved a lot. This is also the opinion of many of the participants. What does this mean for training, but also for competition in the near future?
PM: To put it simply, today I do 90% of my foil and 10% of my fin! Forced or not forced, that's not the question. Foil is a new medium, there is still a lot to learn. We're light years ahead of where we were at the same time, whether it's speed, control, the ability to sail in strong winds or difficult conditions. More and more we realise that it is an efficient medium, not necessarily faster, but it is there all the time. If the wind changes by 5°, it doesn't matter, if there's a chop, a swell or if you meet another competitor, it's the same. All this leads to a lot of training on this support. Afterwards, I'm always keen to do the fin again. Even if it's in very strong conditions, these are the ones I like the most and they are the most fun to sail. And don't forget, it's the essence of windsurfing!

WJ: You jokingly admitted recently that the foil haunts your nights... When you are at the highest level as you are, has this medium come to bring even more uncertainty and questioning than in the past?
PM: That's the question indeed! I've had a lot of questions in the last three years, at all levels. There is a lot of questioning, uncertainty about my choices, about the direction things are going and especially about sport... Is it right, is it wrong? It's not easy and at the same time we are at a turning point in practice. No one has the right answer. It's all happening little by little and if it's happening, it has to happen. It's part of the normal evolution of things. Having said that, it's certainly a lot of work for me. All the years of investment between 2010 and 2015 to win a world title, today you have to put in at least the same amount of work to stay at the top. On the other hand, and this is something I have noticed recently, we had a generation of competitors who stayed for a long time because they needed a lot of experience. Now the foil has reshuffled the cards, we have young people coming in who are not necessarily at a disadvantage compared to the older generation, because there is everything to learn and discover for everyone at the same time. It's both exhausting and exciting to be at the beginning of this new era and to be part of it.