3 questions to Jules Denel

04/03/2023

Frenchman Jules Denel, one of the top 10/15 waveriders on the PWA World Tour for many years, will be absent from the first event of the new PWA IWT Unified Wave Tour in Omaezaki, Japan, in 2 weeks' time. The reason, a beautiful world tour not really in line with the budgets of many professional waveriders... After expressing his opinion publicly on his social networks, he comes back to Windsurfjournal.com on this unprecedented situation.

Windsurfjournal.com: How did the recent merger between the PWA and IWT and the publication of the 2023 calendar a few days later inspire you?
Jules Denel: It's good news for the sport because it will put the wave discipline in the spotlight. We'll have some great events and we'll be able to race in different conditions. However, I think the transition is quite brutal because we are going from a tour with 3 or 4 events to a circuit with 5 or 6 5-star events and 2 or 3 4-star events. It is a transition that is not necessarily in line with the riders' budgets at the moment and what the windsurfing market can offer. Some of them manage to find partners outside windsurfing, but it's not easy to find them. We will have to look for new partners outside windsurfing to finance these trips. It's good news for the sport and it's up to us to adapt to find the means to travel to these competitions and continue to be professional in our sport, so that it doesn't become a circuit exclusively for those who can afford to travel...

WJ: This new wave circuit looks idyllic, but from a financial point of view it puts a strain on the riders' budgets, which were already a bit tight to complete a full season. What are the main problems you are facing at the moment?
JL: The tour is great in itself, but the economic reality of windsurfing is that a top 10 or 12 rider in the world like myself has the financial means, through sponsorship of boards, sails, clothing, wetsuits, etc., to finance half of the 5 star events on the PWA IWT Unified Wave Tour calendar, and even then it is only the cheapest ones.... Now we have to find the money to run all these events. It's a bit brutal because you go from a tour that costs 10 to 12,000 euros to 40,000 euros to be competitive and be in the general ranking. You have to adapt very quickly, there is no choice, you have to move forward!

WJ: It seems that many riders between the top 10 and top 20 are in the same situation as you, why did you decide to express yourself publicly on social networks?
JD: I decided to express myself on social networks so that everyone understands the economic reality of a professional rider like me, who has been doing the World Cup for 15 years. There has been a radical change, with the prize money sometimes divided by 3, while the tour now costs 4 times as much, and I thought it was important for people to realise this. I am 32 years old now and throughout my career I have earned my living and windsurfing is my profession. Nowadays you can imagine the budget a young rider has to find to make his dream come true. This circuit is great for the sport, but the best riders in the world, which I think I am, have to have the ability and the means to compete with the other best waveriders on the tour. It shouldn't be those who have the money who can travel. In this sense, I wanted to express myself and I did it through social networks to launch an appeal, not a call for help, but also to call on partners or people interested in following my project and helping me as a top 3 French rider and top 10 world rider in waves for many years. And then I wanted people to be aware of the current situation...