I “caraibi corsi” e cioè le trasparenti acque di Piantarella (aho, ci ho imparato a saltare… cavolo che ricordi!)  sono stati degno scenario del primo Windsurf Poker Party della storia! Foto © Alexis Fernet and Jean Souville
The first images with a podcast powered by Pertusato Films :
https://vimeo.com/44016820

The 1st Windsurf Poker Party of History
The windsurfers invited on this 3rd edition of the Freestyle Project still had the poker game of the last evening in mind, ready to take their revenge. At the 1st skippers’ meeting Cristelle Baud – the organizer of this incredible game – unveiled the official rules.
Same as in a Poker game, the players bet on a combination of moves (given by their cards) that they will have to realize right after on the water. Each card of the game matches with a Freestyle move, which value increases proportionally to the difficulty of the move. For example, Queen of hearts matches with the landing of a Culo while the 2 of clubs means the realization of a Donkey Jibe. The game goes on like a Texas Hold’em one. The players place a bet on some combination, follow, raise the bidding and bluff one after another. At the end of the round, once the cards of the last players still in the game have been unveiled, the riders have to transform their shot on the water by landing the move. The player who lands the best combination card/move simply wins the round. Today the game can begin. The riders are about to play their first Windsurf Poker round ever on the beach.  Then they will meet on the water to try their moves and keep on playing for a ten rounds game. Some of the riders are getting wealthier whereas some of them are losing everything, but, on the water bluffing is impossible!
From the 3rd round the game is getting more intense whereas the two last players still in the contest have to show their cards. And this is at this very moment that Steven throws a pair of Kings with two technical moves to make : a Flaka Shaka and a Puneta Burner. It is Adrien’s turn. He unveiled a pair of 6 and will have to land a Puneta and a Gozzada. Steven is the first to go on the water but the tricky combination he has to do is not that easy. He used his 3 Jokers to have more tries but never succeeded. Steven is out. Finally Adrien is the winner of this 1st set, ahead of Anthony and Thomas who got the right cards and managed to land properly nearly all  their combination. A cheerful spirit is in the air during this first water-poker game ever launched and all the players who were eliminated during the sets went riding in the « Looser’s Bay » in front of the astonished photographers.
Man to man session
In the afternoon an elimination ladders has been set up  - you can find it enclosed ; )
Each duel of people gets a card in order to know who is going to start. The first rider on the water has to land the move of its own choice and the second one has to do it as well, better if possible.  If he succeeds, then it’s his turn to choose a move and so on.  The riders are really into the game and try their best to choose not the most difficult moves. In the first semi-finale, Manu the hot local takes advantage of his knowledge of the spot and the choppy conditions to put Anthony in danger by landing forgotten moves such as a Willy Skipper 540. And it worked. In the second semi-finale, the fight between Steven and Adrien is endless and the escalation becomes harder and harder to follow. Here we are in the finale where Steven kicked out Manu thanks to a huge and beautiful Shaka one hand. Little by little the wind is getting lighter, and riders are getting tired : it is time to enjoy a last photo shoot session at the bottom of the Island before meeting for the typical « apéro » and watching the images of the day. Colours are beautiful, riders are playful and the images looks just perfect, you should keep an eye on them!
And then… what?
The Bay of Piantarella was quiet this morning everybody just needed to rest. Corsica time: not too fast! In the afternoon all the riders were invited to a Safari shooting on the water, visiting the most unknown secret spots of the south Corsican coast.
In progression: the “tow-in by night” Show of Saturday night, under the lights, is not to be missed such as the many activities we imagined for kids and older Saturday afternoon.