"It seems like summer came back a bit last week and we get some sweet windy and sunny days in Hungary. Loft team rider Gabor Varga won his 5^th Hungarian slalom title this year, then decided to windsurf across Lake Balaton lengthwise when a south-southwest wind was forecasted. His target was to set a new record across the lake, and to be the first windsurfer completing this journey.

The established way to complete the lake crossing is to start from the train station at Keszthely with a station stamp and the current time. Then run down to the beach set and off to sail across the lake- 90km! Then arrive to the other port and run again to the train station and stamp the paper with the arrival time. There is a minus 30minutes bonus for the land runs, and the counted time is the formal time. Anyone can complete the race with any craft moved by wind power.

Two sailors died 6 years ago while attempting a new record. Lake Balaton is one of the most dangerous inland waters in Europe because of the north strong winds that come from behind the hills and hit suddenly with 40-60 knots- from nothing in just 20 minutes.

Gabor completed the crossing and set a new record with his Loft Blade 8.5 and RRD X-fire 115l, with a time of 4 hours 2 minutes (minus 30min.) which is 9 minutes faster than the old record set in 2007 with an Asso class sailboat.

From Gabor:
"I started in 6-8 knots breeze so I was basically just floating the first one and a half hours with a fully sunk board under me. I was thinking about giving up. Then the wind picked up- sometimes more than 30knots gusts with heavy rain made my run even harder- but faster! I got the wind from behind, so I was surfing 135km instead of 90km… I was totally crashed out at the end, but I did it… I relied on my 8.5 Blade and it worked perfectly and helped me out in the tough situations.

Best regards and peace,
Gabor Varga"