Francisco Lufinha did it again! On July 7th, 2015, Francisco set a new world record of 874 Km for “the longest journey kitesurfing without stops”, while attempting to connect Lisbon to Madeira Island in the MINI Kitesurf Odyssey 2015. Lufinha rode his kiteboard non-stop for 47 hours and 37 minutes on the open ocean.
This challenge was marked not only by a physical strength, but also by a great psychological effort to overcome the many hallucinations that Lufinha was struck with during the last 24 hours of the odyssey. Besides the body fatigue that set in from lack of sleep and time on kite, there were also two episodes where Lufinha struggled to complete the record.
The first episode happened early on the first night, with zero visibility, when Lufinha had a big crash and lost his board as well as communication with the support boat. He had to activate a very-light to be spotted and was reached by boat 20 minutes later with a new board to continue his course. On the second night, a second episode occurred when Lufinha fell asleep while kitesurfing at full speed and crashed against the support boat. He was run over by the boat, passing completely under it and between the engines. Luckily, the skipper’s experience allowed this situation to end in best way possible. With only a small scratch and a big adrenaline injection, Lufinha was able to stay awake and kitesurfing for the rest of the night.
Lufinha departed from one of Lisbon’s main squares, Terreiro do Paço, on July 5th, followed by hundreds of fans, watching on the shore as well as by boat, windsurf and kitesurf at the Tagus river. He arrived at Madeira Island to a festive environment where hundreds of people were waiting to congratulate him. What a feet Lufinha as well as for distance kiteboarding. We can only wait to see the record he sets at next year’s Mini Kitesurf Odyssey 2016!