Thomas Debierre gives us a tour of Guadeloupe
Place : Guadeloupe, France
Time : December
Thomas Debierre
Thomas Debierre – Guadeloupe – Video
Thomas Debierre to give us a tour of his island through his last video.
Spending his time watching waves from his house, Thomas Debierre agreed to tell us how he feels about the lockdown and all the beyond-the-scenes of his last video.
He was starting his second year on the QS tour and unfortunately, it’s been slightly shortened. His goal is still the same : being qualified for the world tour, within the next two to three years.
“It’s a bit of a blow to morale knowing that all the competitions are cancelled. For the moment they say it’s going to last until the end of May, but I think it’s going to last a little longer. When you prepare yourself for a long time and everything is cancelled all at once, it’s frustrating.”
How’s the lockdown in Guadeloupe ?
I’m not to be pitied because I live in a house with a large garden, sea view and a large space downstairs to go to the gym. I’m not in a small apartment, that’s the positive side. I see the waves every day and it’s always impossible to go there, so it’s frustrating.
How do you compensate the training?
I train hard, I try every day to go for a run, to do sports, to keep in shape ! Especially when you’re used to doing sports every day, if you stop all of a sudden it’s not good for your mood.
How do you feel about the fact that the beaches are closed for surfers in France ?
” Honestly, I think it’s a bad thing. In the end any other kind of sports activity is accepted. Down from my house there is a big field by the sea and every evening between 5 and 7 pm you have hundreds of people doing sports, who are close to each other. I don’t see why surfing would be forbidden more than the others activities. I hope that the State will let us go surfing again at the end of this confinement.
I saw that in St. Barths they already have the possibility to go surfing. So I hope that we can follow the example of Australia, which considers surfing to be an authorised sporting activity.”
How was your start of the season ?
“I started the first competition with a knee injury. It was not a very serious injury but it prevented me from surfing the first competition in Morocco. After this competition I lost quite quickly, so I took the advantage to rest my knee.
In the Canary Islands, I was still not at 100% but I was better than before. I took the third place on a 1,500. It gave me a nice boost of self-confidence after the injury to carry on. Then I went to Australia to train with Vincent Primel (team manager Soöruz). I trained a lot, I progressed a lot and learned a lot. But unfortunately, it all ended with the virus”.
“The purpose of the video was not only filming surf in Guadeloupe”
How’s surfing in Guadeloupe ?
“Surfing in Guadeloupe is a real pleasure, because, first of all, you’re at home. You know everyone in the water.
It’s all about fun and sharing, so it’s really good to surf in Guadeloupe! »
Where have you shot the video?
“We shot the video in Guadeloupe during December. We had a great winter. It was one of the best years we’ve had in terms of wave and swell quality.
Unfortunately we couldn’t get all the sessions filmed but we still managed to get some great footage. »
A surfing video, but not only…
“The purpose of the video was not just to film surfing in Guadeloupe. It was also to show the island by trying to discover different aspects: through the river, the tropical forest … and then the other side of the island which is more surfing with cliffs, beautiful seaside landscapes. We tried to make a tour of Guadeloupe in landscape and not only surfing.
There was a session at “abattoir”, it’s probably one of the best waves we have on the island but it rarely works. During this month of December we had a session where I think I spent 6 hours in the water non-stop with 4 or 5 friends and really stocking ourselves, it’s really cool.
Photo & vidéo credit : Ben Callard, Simon Levalois, 360 Productions
