From January 29th to February 1st, the beautiful island of Saint Barth in the French West Indies hosted the Saint Barth Fun Cup. Now in its fourth edition, the Saint Barth Fun Cup attracts top ranked riders from all over the world to compete in its turquoise blue waters for a long distance downwind slalom.

After three years of domination from event organizer and Starboard Dream Team rider Antoine Questel, Taty Frans from Bonaire has managed to climb the highest step of the podium, showing his versatility and blistering speed once more. Antoine Questel and Cyril Moussilmani completed the podium in the Men's while Delphine Cousin claimed it in the Women's for an all-Staboard podium.

First, we caught up with Taty Frans, the winner of the 2015 St Barth Fun Cup.

Starboard: Hi Taty, you've won the St-Barth Fun Cup after attending for 4 years. Congrats! How does it feel to win it, now that a lot of PWA guys are competing as well?

Taty Frans: Yes, indeed this is the 4th year for me competing in the St Barth Fun Cup and finishing in 2nd place for the last 3 years was kind of nice but with all my friends and fans telling me: "This year you need to win it because the 2nd places are enough. This time you MUST win.", it was a bit frustrating to hear everyday. But I am so happy to have finally ended the chase and got that 1st place. I feel amazingly good and especially this year that there were even better top PWA competitors competing. Crazy but good feeling to win it.

Starboard: The fight for 1st place was very rough, with Cyril Moussilmani, Antoine Questel, Pierre Mortefon and yourself within two points of each other. This time, it seems you were faster than them. Why do you think that is and can we expect the same on the PWA Slalom Tour this year?

TT : I was feeling confident, excited and ready to sail on the new iSonics and even though I was a bit in doubt with my new Gaastra Sails as I haven't had enough time on them on the water. But I knew the boards were fast because I tested them in New Caledonia a few months ago with Rémi Vila [Starboard R&D Manager and iSonic designer].

I didn't really expect to be that fast as I knew Cyril [Moussilmani], AQ [Antoine Questel], Pascal [Toselli], Pierre [Mortefon] and Björn are all top PWA ranked slalom sailors and seeing their size, I was really not expecting to be so fast. I believe the combination of gear I have, being so relaxed and in control made me fast enough. I surprised myself with the speed I had during the race but it's a great feeling.

Starboard: What were you riding in St Barth? How are your new sails complimenting the 2015 iSonics? Which fins were you using?

TT : In my first race I was on the iSonic 120 with a 44cm Z SL S- fin and my Vapor 7.9m² but felt the board was a bit too big in the big swells. In the second, third and fourth race, I stepped down to the iSonic 107 with a 38cm Z SF S- fin and kept my Vapor 7.9m².

It was the first time I was using a 7.0m²+ size sail on the iSonic 107 and it is a great combination. It's such a great feeling to know my Gaastra Vapor sails are working super good with my iSonics. And now that I can finally use the 7.9m² on the iSonic 107, it will be interesting to how much more I will use this combination during this season.

Starboard: Can you give us one tip to go faster in slalom?

TT : I guess I am one of the weirdest guy in slalom. I use a big board and small sail combination while competing on the Tour. Hahahaha! Maybe that's my secret to go fast! Hahhaha!

I believe that being in control of your gear will make you go faster.

Starboard: You brought your 2015 Flare to St-Barth and put on a little show. Will be doing the full PWA Freestyle Tour this year? When will we see you on the PWA Waves tour again?

TT : I love windsurfing and I really hope that the PWA can give me a price or honor me in some way for such involvement in two completely different discipline... That would be amazing! :)

And yes, I will be doing the whole Freestyle and Slalom tours. As far as the PWA calendar is right now, I will only miss Korea but I will be at all the rest of the slalom and freestyle PWA events. Wavesailing is not my best discipline but I can sure do a lot of the wave jumps and my wave riding is not that bad...

Starboard: What are your immediate plans now? Where are you off to? More training?

TT : I am now back on Bonaire to keep on training and tuning my new quivers. Rémi Vila promised me some Drake SL DW fins, which I will most likely use on the PWA Slalom events this season, with my iSonic 87 in particular. I believe that the Drake SL DW fins are fast and competitive enough to use on the PWA. And of course, my intense training in the gym will start this week so there will be no breaks.

Starboard: Great to hear and thanks for the answers. Good luck for the 2015 season!

Next up, we spoke to Antoine Questel, organizer of the St-Barth Fun Cup and 3 x winner.

Starboard: Hi Antoine. You've managed to organize yet another very successful St-Barth Fun Cup. How do you feel? Tired? Happy?

Antoine Questel: I feel good but a bit tired because of the pressure which finally went down. I was really happy that the wind was there on the last day of the event. It was a long day with 4 races. But every racer went home with a smile on their faces! That's a good point for me!

Starboard: After 3 wins in 3 years, you finish this edition in 2nd place. Is the level higher and competition tougher?

AQ: This year, the level was quite high: 8 riders from the PWA Top 20 were there. For me it was a good moment to try my new gear: GA Sails and my new iSonics.

Starboard: That's what we wanted to ask. You've recently switched to GA Sails. How are they going with your 2015 iSonics? What were you using during the event?

AQ: All day, I used my Vapor 8.6m² and my iSonic 107 for the first time. I felt good from the first race. I tried many different settings during the day and I found mine very quickly. The course is a long distance downwind slalom with wind between 13 and 20 knots and my choice of equipment was perfect!

Starboard: What are you up to now, before the PWA Tour starts? And when can we start signing up for the 2016 St-Barth Fun Cup?

AQ: Now I will start discussions with the sponsors of the Saint Barth Fun Cup. I will stay in St-Barth one more month for training and being in the gym and then one month in Tarifa, just before the first PWA event in Korea.

Starboard: Thanks and good luck!

Finally, we caught up with Cyril Moussilmani who attended the St-Barth Fun Cup for the first time this year and secured a promising third place, beaten by Antoine Questel in the tie-break as the two sailors finished with equal points.

Starboard: First time attending the St-Barth Fun Cup. How was it? What were your impressions? How different is it from a normal PWA Slalom event?

Cyril Moussilmani: Yes, it was my first time in St Barth and I enjoyed a lot the spirit there, everybody was friendly, relaxed and ready to race. You can't compare a PWA Slalom event where there is always so much to do and where I am always very focused all week long, with a Fun Cup where you go to meet people and spend some good times all together. In St Barth, I enjoyed meeting the kids, the SUP team competition where we mixed up the women with the amateurs, kids and the pros.

Starboard: The fight for first place was very tough. It seems like you were on bigger gear than the others, do you think that cost you the win? What gear were you on?

CM: It was not a goal to win in St Barth, it was just a training. I chose to try and train with a gear combination I never use in the PWA. For the four races, I was on the Starboard iSonic 130 with the Severne Reflex6 9.5m² in the first race and the Reflex6 8.6m² for the three after that. The board was not the best option but at the end of the day, I manage to tune a setup I've never used before and my speed was very good. So it was my choice but for sure with smaller gear I will be faster.

Starboard: Will you be attending similar events in 2015? Maybe the Défi Wind in May? Will we see you at the St-Barth Fun Cup 2016?

CM: Probably! Concerning the Defi Wind in Gruissan, it all depend of the organizers. So we will see.

Starboard: Last year the Slalom title came down to the last elimination in the last event, is it that hard to beat Antoine Albeau? Did you change anything in your training this year?

CM: For me, it was the first time that I was challenging Antoine for the PWA Slalom title. We already challenged each other in the past for the French Slalom Championships and I beat him. So it is possible. We will see in 2015 how it turns out.

Starboard: Thanks Cyril. We're impatient to see how 2015 turns out too.

- Pictures are courtesy of Marc van Swoll (Younieq Experiences), Alain 971 Photographie et Pierre Bouras -