Lüderitz Speed Challenge: Jenna Gibson on the Lüderitz Speed Challenge and her world record
SURF Redaktion
· 21.02.2025
It was only two months before the Lüderitz Speed Challenge that my friend Simon and I decided to do everything we could to get to Namibia this year. There was so much to plan and organise and we had no idea where to start. But luckily we got lots of tips and advice from some friends on what equipment to take, which truck to hire, which route to take, where to stop along the way, and many more.
Speed surfing is definitely a completely different discipline to slalom. When I arrived at the channel, I knew that I had to start from scratch with my equipment set-up, my technique and my inner attitude. Above all, I had to work on my attitude of always wanting to be faster without being directly pushed by my competitors on the slalom course. In speed surfing, you only compete against yourself, and that was the hardest thing for me to accept.
Intimidated by the speed channel
When we arrived, we were very intimidated by the narrow width of the channel and the short run-out zone. Fortunately, weaker winds were forecast for the first week. However, lighter winds in Lüderitz are still 25 knots, and we spent the first day at Diaz Point where the wind is stronger and was around 35 knots. What a beautiful spot, 15 minutes from the channel, super flat, open water, a dream speed spot. Day one started with a bang because I broke my previous top speed, even though I hadn't even been on the channel yet - a dream start.
A few days later the wind picked up a bit, so we switched to the canal for a few days of training. However, as there were no record-breaking conditions, we were able to do lots of runs on the channel to build our confidence and familiarise ourselves with the larger, 45 centimetre wide speedboards before switching to the smaller boards (which we had never used before) when the wind picked up. When that happened, I just saw it as "another day on the water". I knew I just had to do my best and progress from there. When I switched to the small boards, everything was new again, but I enjoyed it.
With each run, I got a little better at using the Slingshot (Acceleration phase during the transition from half to full sheet course - E's note.) around the corner. It was so much fun to try out different variations and to watch Antoine (Albeau) and Gunnar (Asmussen) and see which line they took on their runs. I quickly pulverised my own records over and over again.
The head shouts "Stop, stop, stop!"
On the fourth day on the canal, the wind really picked up. Now the training days with light winds proved to be a great help. The jump starts onto the board were crucial. It was important to get to the corner with full control in the harness and to build up as much speed as possible in the slingshot in order to pass the first camera and the start of the official 500 metre course with as much speed as possible. I'm not going to lie, the starts weren't easy as the wind in the start box was very strong. Everyone is watching you as they wait behind you for their cue, sometimes you jump on the board and it sinks like a stone as the wind drops and you scrape the ground with the fin. That can be super frustrating. But when everything fell into place, it was an incredible rush, you jump forwards, land on the board, somehow it's already picked up speed, you get your feet into the straps as quickly as possible and head towards the turn at full speed.
When you come round the corner, the board accelerates like nothing I've ever felt before, it's incredible. In front of you is the fastest and narrowest piece of water on the planet. You pray for the perfect gust, surf as close as you can to the wall of sandbags upwind and let the board fly. Around 20 seconds later, before you even have a chance to get comfortable, you're already at the end of the channel and you have to put the sail on water and carve the board as hard as you can to try and slow down before you reach the end of the finish box. It's really quite difficult to surf past the finish camera at full throttle as the finish box is so short that your head is shouting at you, "Stop, stop, stop!" But you have to keep going as long as you can to get the best and fastest time possible. It took me a long time to realise that I was slowing down too soon.
Little things are crucial in speed surfing
When I broke Heidi Ulrich's record (47.06 knots) for the first time, my GPS showed a speed of 47.17 knots. That sounds good, but the record is not set by the GPS, but by the video timing. Manfred, the timekeeper, therefore has to check the video footage and determine the official speed. Often the speed is slower than the GPS time, so we waited nervously to find out the official speed. We stopped briefly to celebrate a little, but I just had to keep going to try and increase the gap to the old record, just in case. My run was corrected to 47.08 knots, just fractions over Heidi's world record. Luckily we had the conditions to keep going and I was able to improve my speed later in the day and on the following days.
In preparation for the Lüderitz adventure, I had been trying to improve my GPS speeds on my slalom equipment in Portland harbour, where I had already found some different settings and body positions that helped me to go faster in these conditions. Even little things like setting the base plate back and shorter harness lines led to big changes. Strangely enough, this didn't necessarily translate to the speed channel in Lüderitz. For example, I switched back to my longer slalom harness lines to get faster on the canal.
Another world record for the finale
In addition to smaller boards, asymmetrical fins were another novelty for us. We are very lucky to have F-Hot as a sponsor for our fins. Every single fin made by Steve (Cook) is a work of art. Every time I broke the record it felt special and everyone celebrated with me.
However, the final felt the most surreal on the water. The wind had dropped and the heats were slowing down, most riders were taking a break, but I decided to keep surfing as there was still a lot to learn and I was having a lot of fun even without record-breaking conditions. With less wind, the water had become smoother, with fewer rolling waves on the channel. As always, I had to wait for a strong enough gust to get going. From then on everything went perfectly, it wasn't super windy but I had a constant gust that carried me all the way round the course without slowing down. I was super excited when I saw a 500 metre average of 48 knots and a 2 second top speed of over 50 knots on the GPS. I couldn't wait to get back to the start to show Simon as I knew he would be just as happy as I was. It was a truly unique experience. The drive to Lüderitz to the canal and Diaz Point alone would have been worth it, but the fantastic conditions on the canal were unreal and I really hope I can be there again this autumn.
Text: Jenna Gibson
