Bruno Sroka broke the record for crossing the English Channel by kitesurf and became the first kiteboarder that reached the Olympic Games city!



http://www.brunosroka.com

100 nautical miles or 186km I made it in 5hours.

I left the beach at about 9.30 a.m. thursday morning 2012 may 17 from Saint Brieuc bay in Brittany (France) the port that is called Saint Quay Portrieux and took the direction towards the Brehat island from where I have started my 100 nautical miles across the English channel crossing. For the first 20 miles I decided to warm up my muscles and get adjusted to the conditions. Already then my speed was 22knots. I chose 13m kite because it was quite difficult to estimate the strength of the wind all the way through the crossing. After checking the weatehr for the last three months I was assuming that 13m kite could be a golden medium. The first difficulty that I run into was a seaweeds. I was trying to spot them as early as I could and avoid them. I knew that if the fins will catch the seaweed I will fall off the board.

The official departure line was Brehat island. Right after I left the island I have been greeted by unwelcomed surprise: the channel turned into the boiling, lively water. The only way I could pass it was to go as fast as I can and do not fall. As we were moving forwards the channel was getting rougher and tougher. The wind got stronger and right about then I decided to change the boards. So from the race board I switched to the speed crossing board that I have developed specialy for this crossing.

Once we were coming closer to the middle of the channel the conditions were getting tougher and tougher. The security boat that was accompanying me was passing through 3m swell. Even if the boat was specialy equiped and ready to cross the open seas, over there it was facing the real sea adventures. As we were obliged to maintain the speed the boat was going at about 27 knots, surfing the waves and then at the botom of the wave crashing into it and slowing down, trying to do not tip over. I would like to say many thanks to my team (Yannick, Olivier, Maxime, Nicolas) for coming along with me! Without you the crossing would be impssoble.

I was expecting to cross a few shipping tankers in the middle of the channel but unfortunately I saw them only in a far distance. They were going at about 25 knots and that was impossible to catch any of them.

Meanwhile right about then my legs were getting terribly tired. I have been kiting on one leg in the same position for about 2hours. And after, as it seemed to me endless time, I noticed the birds flying, and then I knew that I am aproaching the land. There were few times when I confused the shipping tankers with an islands and thought that the finish line is not that far. I have been anounced that I have another 1h30min to go and when I was getting to the end of the crossing and had 35 miles left I started to accelerate even faster maintaining the avarage of 23 knots speed with the highest peaks at 27knots of speed. I was feeling tired and my legs were sore but I didn’ allow myself to think about it and was concentrating on not falling down. You could only imagine the joy that I felt when the team told me that there is only 2 miles left. I accelerated and felt the big energy boost.

And here it is, the finish line! The team shouts out loud: you beat the record, you beat the record! It is still quite hard to show my emotions since I was freezing, sore and tired but once I climb up to the boat I was taken by the joy and emotions of my team!

I was starting to realise that all this hard work that I did to cross the channel and the crossing itself is now a new record. I am feeling thrilled as well to know that I am the first kitesurfer that reached the Olympic Games city in London. Kitesurf officialy is intergrated in the Olympic games of 2016 in Rio!

Official new record for 100 nautical miles is 5h.