A SUP in six to feet La Graviere is in itself a fairly nonsensical proposition, even one managed by a skilled rider. Yet at least I could wrap my tiny little brain around it. I didn’t like it, but at least I could understand it.
However when I was trapped inside and saw the rider jump off his SUP and onto another board, and to be fair, then get tubed off his nut, shit, well, shit got surreal. Initially I couldn’t process the information, although that could have been due to the fact that I was trying to avoid both a six foot lip, a pilotless 10’6” and paddle blade all from lodging in my cranium.
Over many subsequent sessions, I again had to dodge flying SUP’s and spinning blades as the the crazy Frenchie went about his genetically modified way of surfing. When he moved on to finless surfboards and alaias, a design called the Duo Tao that comes with footstraps , it made perfect sense. When all the rules of engagement are being pissed on from a great height, when the laws of physics are being inverted, when you see a man strapped into a one inch thick piece of plywood having been launched into by a oversized kayak paddle, well who the fuck know what is up and what is down, what is wrong and what is right?
Turns out his name is Fred Compagnon and that he wants to take this bastard son of SUP and alaia to to Jaws. Another fine idea and probably just stupid enough to work. So what do you reckon folks. Is this the future of surfing, or the end of it? Having seen it in the flesh, and now in this clip, I am no less confused.
