The Défi Wind starts at Gruissan

In 2001 about a hundred windsurfers lined up at Gruissan, on the Mediterranean coast of France, for the first Défi Wind.

The event grew year after year. In 2026 more than 1,350 windsurfers took part, aged from 13 to 76, and together with the Défi Wing and the Défi Kite the défis drew well over 2,000 participants. The organisers call it the largest board sports event in the world, and the town’s tourist office calls the défis the biggest windsurfing events anywhere.

Its size says something that results lists do not. Long after the boom of the eighties, windsurfing still had a large community of amateur sailors, of every age, willing to travel to race.