My name is François Cremer, I am from Aylmer, Quebec, Canada. I discovered windsurfing about 3 years ago, and it has been on my mind non-stop ever since. I have been into dinghy sailing for quite some time, and windsurfing always seemed very interesting, but the local community has been shrinking steadily at the Aylmer beach, and there wasn’t really anyone who could introduce me to the sport. So it was on a trip, in beautiful little St-Martin, in the Caribbean, that I got to uphaul my first sail. I knew right away it was the sport for me. When I got back home, I started looking for gear, quite confident of my abilities (I was sailing on a very large Starboard Start in St-Martin) and I bought the first kit I found, which was a 98 F2 Axxis 103l and a Fanatic Boa 80l, as well as a full quiver of mid-90s cambered sails. I quickly realized it was quite a bit harder to sail with that kind of equipment, but didn’t give up. Every single day, that summer, you could see me struggling to uphaul my sail. All the hard work paid off, as I ended up figuring out how to waterstart and get in the straps in a few months.
The following summer, I made the step up to instructor, and met Dominique Vallée, who was the first to actually teach me how to windsurf, transforming my approach to the sport. Seeing some potential in me, she invited me to train in Cocoa Beach, Florida, the following winter and introduced me to quite a few different aspects of the sport : Olympic sailing, formula sailing, long-board sailing, and (most importantly) wave sailing. Even though all those types of sailing and incredibly fun, it was really the last one that was special for me. The very last day of my stay in Cocoa Beach, we were blessed with some amazing down-the-line conditions (which is really rare for Cocoa Beach) and I got my first real wave experience, and I knew right away that it was the one thing that I wanted to do, the one type of sailing that I wanted to excel in and that I wanted to dedicate my life to.
Back in Canada, I spent a lot of time getting as fit as I could, getting ready for the summer, but mostly for my upcoming trip. Even though I got a few occasions to wave-sail this summer, in Cape Hatteras, in New Brunswick and in Sandbanks, on lake Ontario, I need to travel to find some real waves. So in just 6 short days, I will be leaving for an actual world tour to find the best wind and waves, stopping in Maui, New Zealand, Western Australia, Indonesia and the Canary Islands. This blog will tell you all about my travels, the conditions I sail in, the people I meet, the experiences I live and so on.
Cheers,
– F.
WOW….. Bravo François, je me réjouis de te suivre dans tes découvertes des vagues ….
reallly cool frank….honestly. i’ll be following avidly.
YeAh! 🙂
Blog lol.
Magnifique ce blog Francois! Je viens tout juste de le découvrir et j’adore. Dorénavant, je suivrai de très près toutes tes entrées.
Bonne chance et bon voyage !!!
Amuse-toi 🙂