Surf champs!

After nine days of world-class competition in the Azores, 

Team France emerged victorious at the 2016 VISSLA ISA World Junior Surfing Championship. 

The Team Gold Medal is the first for France in the history of the ISA World Junior Surfing Championship and the first in the Olympic Surfing era. French Team received 3 individual medals, Thomas Debierre world champion in under 16 men division, Colin Doyer 3rd in under 18 men division and Juliette Brice 4th in under 18 women division. Team France overtook Australia in the overall team rankings on the penultimate day of competition and didn’t let go on the Final Day. Team Australia finished with the Silver Medal, Team Hawaii with the Bronze Medal and Team Japan with the Copper Medal.

Juliette Brice TS

My 24 hours of Le Mans karting

I arrived on the circuit on Thursday morning when I met my team-mates and the staff of the team. We made the technical checks of the kart and I began my free trials by 4 pm and I finished at about 11 pm.

Friday was like Thursday except that at the end the day, we made the timed tries and we finished at the 20st place which allowed us to have a nice place on the starting grid .

Saturday was the big day, starting time was at 3 pm. Then began the hardest race that I had ever participated before !

But who's this champ?

Indeed, the night was very hard, we broke an engine and we lost many places but we did not give up until the end of the race and we finished on Sunday at 3 pm at the 6th place of our category and 14th of general classification of the 24 hours of Le Mans and the world championships of endurance karting.

S. H. from ES

Surboarding in Portugal

One week in the year there is a competition in Sintra, Portugal (APB tour)

It's a competition for the world championship. I did the competition which is located at Sintra, Portugal.

The Pro Junior combined the best bodyboarders of the world.

Me and my friend Txomin Lopez lost in 1/3 final and finished in 9th position.

During this contest I could meet my sponsors Hubbord again. I saw the best bodyboarders of the world.

It was very funny because I saw my friends and the waves were hard but cool so I'm very happy to have gone througt this competition. It s was a good experience.

Sintra is a Portuguese city located 25 km in the North-West of Lisbon. The population of the town is 33 000. Sintra is the second "município 'most populous in Portugal and its territory includes 20" parishes "which is the most populated of Algueirão-Mem Martins with 66 250 inhabitants.

Noah Capdeville 2ndeB

The Frenchies in the USA

The second week was a little different than the first. We went to Miami for a Professional golf tournament, the Honda classic to see the best player in the world, Rory Mcilroy the number one and also to watch many other players. These professional players are inspiration for me and my friends because they know all you need to know to play great golf.
We saw the practice round and the first tournament round. During the practice round the players are very sociable and relaxed thus we can talk with them, we took pictures with them together, we got autographs from our favorite players. For me that was Rickie Fowler and Ernie Els, the new and old genration.



But we didn't only see golf, we played it. We played two wonderfull golf courses, the first one was in Melbourne (Florida), Suntree golf club, a private golf club which we played thanks to our coach who knows the pro of the club (he played with him many years ago on the PGA tour).



 The second and the last course we played in Miami was Atlantis country club. This one we played with old friends of my coach. This course was difficult because of the wind. After the course we had a barbecue at the house of one friend of our coach Mike.

Thursday was the last day in Miami, we went to see the round 1 of the Honda Golf Classic. We represented France by carrying the french flag during the day. We encouraged our favorite players, we screamed for great shots, we ran after our players and we had a very good day.

The end of the second week was more relaxed, we played three courses, Victoria Hills, Rio Pinar and New Smyrna beach. When we played the second course (Rio Pinar) a heavy rain storm poured down on us, we were dead after the course.

The USA, an other world

Whouah ! I'm in Florida for the third time and this is as incredible as the first time, I don't know where I can begin because my trip began wonderfully. I  went to Florida with 11 of friends, my coach and two fathers of two of my friends.

The USA is in another world, everything we  see is different, cars, shops that you will never see in France or others european country's. The first week of our trip was fantastic because we waited so long, months, days and hours. These three weeks are the best weeks in the year for us.

 

The first day of our trip where a bit complicated because of the jetlag, everybody was tired but after one or two days everybody was ready to play good  golf.

The first course we played was Venitian Bay, a wonderful golf course and the weather was perfect to play this day. On the first tee we were all excited to begin this course, for the people who went to Florida the last years this is a liberation and for the others like a discovery.

The others courses were as incredible as Venitian Bay but the weather was not there. One course the LPGA we had perfect weather and when we looked at everything around us during the 18 holes, wonderfull landscapes can be observed.

 

 

Indigo lakes was the last course we played and during the 18 holes we could hear the Daytona 500 this is a nascar race -a kind of car that can roll over 300km/h- This is the most spectacular event in Florida and for nascar in the USA.

UNSS

One Wednesday morning in Malraux

while some are stuying... 
others are skiing!

 Happy new year from the snowy Pyrenees!

Person of the year 2014

Kailash Satyarthi

Kailash Satyarthi was born in Vidisha (India) in 1954. He’s a human rights activist leading the movement to end child slavery and exploitative child labor.

He began militating in 1980 when he stopped working as an electrical engineer and he’s inspired by buddishm.

He thinks child labor issue is a human rights issue, not just a charitable cause. According to him, child slavery contributes to poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and other issues.

He founded and led several organizations such as Global March Against Child Labor or Global Campaign for Education. Moreover, he’s a member of a High Level Group formed by UNESCO on Education for All.

He organized marches against child slavery that inspired and mobilized many people, brought attention on the media and generated political debates. The longest march he organized covered  80,000 km across 103 countries in 1998. Furthermore, he also wrote several books about child labor and human rights.

Here’s a quote from Mr Satyarthi  showing the action of Global March Against Child Labor :

“The Global March Against Child Labour is a movement to mobilize worldwide efforts to protect and promote the rights of all children, especially the right to receive a free, meaningful education and to be free from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be harmful to the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.”

The work of Kailash Satyarthi has been the subject of several documentaries and films and Satyarthi's contribution has been recognized through several international awards. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, and it helped him to be known by the media and the Indian people.

To my mind, Kailash Satyarthi is a hero for several reasons. First, he’s not worldwide known but he never hesitates to take risks to help children, like when he was attacked in 2011. Then, he had a career as an electrical engineer and decided to stop it suddenly to dedicate his life to others. Finally, he never gives up his fight, uses every way to promote human rights and does his best to offer an education to every child. 

Ugo Hirigoyen – Classe de 1re SC

 

Person of the year 2014

MALALA YOUSAFZAI

Malala Yousafzai was born July 12, 1997 in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Since her childhood, she is an activist. Her father is himself a defender of the right to education. He founded a school, which was  renamed with the name of the girl. But the Taliban arrived in the village and imposed Sharia. Music, movies, and all symbols of freedom and emancipation for women are prohibited. Malala's family tried to resist...

It was at the age of 11 that Malala became very famous. When she went with her father to a press conference, she denounced the violence of the Taliban who, after taking control of the Swat Valley in 2007, burnt schools for girls and murded their opponents.

She continued in this direction under the pseudonym of Gul Makai, in a blog published by the BBC entitled "Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl."

When the Taliban arrived in Swat, her family left the region and the members of the family separated. They united again in July 2009, after the Second Battle of Swat.

 In october 9, 2012, Malala was targeted by an attack. She writes in her biography: « The day where everything changed was Tuesday, October 9 » 

This day, Malala, who was 15 years old, is a victim of an attack by the Taliban: While she was going to school, the school bus stopped abruptly. Masked men got on the bus and they asked : « Who is Malala ? "and  they shot her in the head.

With the mediatization of her story, the teenager became a heroine and a fighting icon for the right to education.

Since 2011, she received numerous awards for her commitment: the international price of children for peace, Simone de Beauvoir prize for women's freedom, Anna Politkovskaïa  price and the Sakharov Price of the European Parliament.

On December 10, 2012, UNESCO and Pakistan created the Malala Fund which aims to register in school all children of the world by 2015.

In April 2012, the American weekly Time revealed Malala in its list of  the hundred most influential personalities in the world.

 On July 12, 2013, the day of her 16th birthday, at the United Nations she launched, a strong appeal for "education for all children". «Our books and pens are our most powerful weapons. A teacher, a book, a pen can change the world ». She was warmly applauded by the assembly.

In October 10, 2014, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Malala and Kailash Satyarthi for their fight against the oppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Malala is now beginning a political career to "change the future" of Pakistan. «I’ll be a politician later. I want to change the future of my country and make education compulsory ".

DARRIGUES, Maeva 1SB

European surf championships

Hey everyone,

I just came back from the European championship on the Azores.

The waves were really bad for the first days of competition but I managed to win my first three heats and got to the small final. Sadly I lost in the small final so I ended up getting 5th. I was a bit disappointed but it's still not to bad for my first time at the EuropeAn champs. I visited the island of San Miguel too, there are loads of cows and horses and the forests are amazing. 

On my way back to France I made a quick stop in Portugal, Ericeira to have a filming and photo session for a new magazine add. Here you can see some pictures from my trip.

Have a nice day!

Jonas 1èreES