Clement Roseyro

CLEMENT

THE BASQUE DIAMOND ROSEYRO

Hi Clément, we’ve seen you for a few years now on the SUP-surf scene but also in many other watersports in which you also rip, can you remind us of the starting point of your journey?

I started surfing at the age of 6 at ‘’la Côte des Basques’’ beach in Biarritz. I didn’t really have ‘surfing parents’ as we say, but my dad had been doing some surfing for a long time. It quickly became a passion and every day after school I would think about one thing, go have fun in the waves. I was very lucky because instead of taking me to play in the park next door, my mother was picking me up with my surfboard and then drop me off at the beach. At school, I chose a surfing section with special schedules for training in waves almost every day. Over the years I sometimes started to feel a bit of weariness with “shortboard” surfing as I was doing from a very young age, I still love it but felt like I was little bit going in circles. My dad had a longboard and I started borrowing him and discovering an exciting new approach to surfing, I liked it. I also had a friend, Jordan Sevellec, who was riding small boards and seemed to have some really cool times in the waves and in competitions. I figured I had to try this different support so I borrowed a big 9 ‘all-round SUP from the surf club and went surfing with it. It was nice to be able to paddle while been stand up on the deck of this board, ride the waves from far and of course, to feel I was always moving and doing some kind of exercise the whole time.

I suppose you then continue to experiment with smaller boards more suited to the waves?

Yes, it was even a huge gap at first because Jordan told me he was selling one of his boards, a Lokahi 6’8 that was too small for his size. I was taller than him but I absolutely wanted a SUP-surf board so I offered to buy it back. I almost couldn’t stand on it for paddling at first, it was hell but I managed to catch a wave and I was amazed on how it felt when I did a bottom turn with the paddle down water. I immediately thought to myself: this is really what I want to do! It’s so great to have a paddle in your hands to turn. I spent 3-4 months over a whole summer struggling with this board to learn how to hold on and try to get better. Over a 1h30 session, I spent like 1h15 swimming in the water at the beginning, it drove me crazy! [laughs]. Once I got the hang of it I wanted to try to compete to see. I found the atmosphere was amazing, like 1000 times more fun and friendly than what I used to know in the surf.

What has stand up paddle brings to you, compared to surfing?

I like stand up paddle for a lot of reasons starting with the physical side of the discipline. It’s really tough to stand up and paddle on a board, catch a wave, ride it and then get back to the peak while standing and paddling on the board. It is a complete effort that involve the whole body. I have the impression that unlike surfing where you spend a lot of time waiting on your board, you are always in action on a SUP and you are very mobile at the peak. I appreciate the point of view from above that we have in stand up which offers the possibility of seeing the sets coming from afar, to get perfectly in position. I always loved doing big bottom turns in shortboard with my hand in the water but in stand up paddle you can put on more rail in the water and press harder by off-center your body from the board because the paddle is like an extension of your arm.

Have you encountered any refractory behavior while Stand up paddling on some spots around your place? We know that relashionships between surf and SUP are not so easy in the Basque country.

When I arrived at certain spots like Guéthary, the old local surfers told me that I was too young to stand up paddle and that I could not come to the peak. That didn’t stop me from going because I was already shortboarding these surf spots so I couldn’t see why I couldn’t go SUP as long as I was careful not to bother anyone. Some more open-minded surfers were also happy to see a kid who rides something other than just normal shortboard and is doing not too bad at it. Many surfers like when you sit down on your SUP board while waiting for the waves offshore next to them. I can understand that because it’s a form of respect, it avoids creating a dominant position over others. I know there are tensions in the water but honestly I’m lucky not to have been too much of it. My father told me 2-3 stories he had while stand up surfing at St Jean de Luz break. Some longboarders riding without a leash were telling him he was too dangerous, it was ridiculous.

When I started to go SUP in Guéthary in 2016, I was watching Peyo Lizarazu a lot. He’s really impressive with his very unusual powerfull bottom turn and he’s a goofy like me so he rides the wave on his backhand. I looked carefully at his style, his solid turns and also his boards. There was also Pierre Rollet with whom I have had a few good sessions in the past and inspired me. Today when I go to the water in SUP in the area, I often meet Philippe Liveneau (Leny Artist), he is riding stand up paddle for a while now and surfs all the classical reefs since many years. He is very respected by the surfers and really committed. I like surfing with him, he’s a very nice guy.

Do you feel deeply inspired by the region and its surf culture that has been built there since the first surfers arrived there in Europe in 1956?

Yes, I like my region very much, that has obviously an influence on my practice and my approach to surfing in a general way. There are an impressive number of good spots from the border at Hendaye to la Barre, the last beach in Anglet before Adour. We are living in a region with a very strong surf identity and a lifestyle turned towards the ocean, that fits perfectly with my vision. There are a lot of people in the water but several generations of surfers are linked and some real values are passed on.

Ronny Kiaulhen

Your father is also Stand up paddling, do you share a lot of great moments together in or out of the water?

We are very close and we share some great time in the water together, for sure ! He also accompanies me a lot on the competitions. He was surfing and bodysurfing when he was young and then he got into stand up when I started doing a lot of it.

He’s having a lot of fun the water and he get better slowly, every year he reduces the size of his boards a bit by 200, 180, 160, and now 130L. He pushed me on my first waves on a bodyboard, bought me my first surfboard and now I’m giving him some advices. He likes going to Ste Barbe in SUP and I like to go with him with my foil, just to go around him and drive him crazy [laughs].

Do you train in SUP-surfing with a specific program or do you rather try to surf as often as possible?

I try to spend a lot of time in the water and do a lot of video analysis when my dad is filming me. I analyze my mistakes and try to progress in this way. Sometimes I call on a few high level surfing friends who can help me unlock a movement or figure out a problem I see in a video, which is very helpful. In terms of external physical preparation, I don’t have a specific program but I try to do other sports on the side. We recently got really into tennis with a few friends, we’re having a lot of fun and it makes us run a lot and work our legs. I also did a lot of Pala (traditional Basque sport with a racket) when I was younger. I was doing a lot of swimming and life savings before I was 18 and did freediving training for 4 years to get ready for the big wave sessions. In winter in Fuerteventura, every morning we do 30 minutes of physical preparation with “kettle bells”, versatile weights that allow to work the body in a fairly global way.

You are one of the leaders of the young generation of French SUP-riders, how would you describe this scene, which is a little scattered geographically?

We have a lot of talents in the French stand up scene, the Bouyer Brothers, Alexis Deniel and of course Ben Carpentier, have long represented France in the biggest world events just like Antoine Delpero or Peyo (Lizarazu) did a few years before. All these riders really paved the way and we have seen other younger riders like me, have come to competitions a little more recently, such as Alex Bicrel, Antonin Salaverria or Arthur le Menn.. to name a few. I find it very positive that we are a generation of riders also open minded to other disciplines in addition to shortboarding, we have a global approach to all watersports.

Is this multidisciplinary approach the most relevant for you?

Yes, apart from the top level shortboarders who only have to do that to train and be on top of the competitive scene, sticking to one support for other surfers, is really a big mistake I believe. I really encourage people to open up their mind to other supports to feel other sensations but also to be able to adapt according to the crowd that we have sometimes on certain spots or according to the different kind of waves. The main goal is really to have fun as much as possible, to have a smile when you get out of the water whether it’s longboard, sup, foil, kite, wing or surf. This last one obviously remains the basis of all the other disciplines that I like. The many hours I have spent shortboarding have helped me a lot to quickly progress in all the other disciplines, they are all linked in the end.

In fact I often saw kite-surfers passing in front of me when I was surfing at La Madrague (Anglet) in the afternoon when there was a thermal breeze. Unlike most of the other surfers who were with me in the water and complained about their presence, I was fascinated to watch them ride in the waves. I was starring at them, telling myself that I would like to be in their place. So I had to try it at once. For 3 years I watched videos and asked every kiter I met if they could give me a try. No one has ever brought me to kite and one day we went on vacation to the Canaries in Fuerteventura and I asked my dad to do a kite course together. That’s how I met Tommy, a kite instructor who taught me the discipline very rigorously for 5 days and it worked out, I was hooked. As in stand up paddle, I like the dynamic and physical aspect of the kite, we are always moving in the water, we are not bored for a second.

With the arrival of foiling, you added another weapon to your arsenal, tell us what has it changed in your approach?

Again, I saw a few guys surf-foiling and SUP-foiling around my place when there were no real waves. At first it didn’t make me dream when I saw them, I knew that the gear was very expensive too. Little by little, I met a lot of guys who told me that I had to get started because it was great feeling and it would suit me well. Then I saw riders like Kai Lenny connecting 3-4 waves in a row and that kept me interested more and more until the day I decided to go for it. It was a revelation especially as the equipment evolved quickly, which allowed us to progress quickly. It’s so intense to connect the waves while pumping that in 30 minutes session, I can be stocked and tired as if I have done 2 hours of surfing. Foiling has opened up a lot of new doors for me to have fun in almost crappy conditions.

I directly think about Wing when you say that, it’s a discipline in which you seem particularly involed for a year now, how would you describe this other side of your game?

Wing, I’ll admit that I didn’t believe in it at the beginning of the story. I didn’t necessarily have a very good feeling the first time I tried it, I found it a bit slow compared to the kite. Then the wings quickly evolved same as the foils which became even more efficient but more generally I would say that the practice of the sport himself evolve so fast so that I realized that it was great in fact. I got into it a lot more invested in the last year and I’m really having fun with it. It can be done in all kind of wind and water conditions. Today if the ocean is flat, I like going winging, I can go for a ride sidewind and then come back in a cool downwinder, surfing the bumps. This sport gives us an incredible liberty of movement. It’s really very complementary with the other disciplines I practice.

How was your learning process? Did you feel a great help from your kite and foil background?

Of course my experience of foiling in the waves, kiteboarding but also windsurfing, which I practiced when I was younger, made it easier for me to learn wing-foil. But Honestly I find that it remains a relatively easy access discipline compared to some other ones. It’s not that complicated if you give yourself the means to learn in the right conditions and not skip every steps. For fun, I often compare the wing to a big parasol that you hold in your hands and place where the wind is, in the end you quickly understand how it works. It is much more intuitive and less dangerous than learning kite, which remains a practice that can lead to serious accidents. In wing we mainly have the danger caused by the foil but we manage to control it after a few sessions.

I don’t do too much wing in the Basque country but it can happens more when I go north around Hossegor for the day. We can surf in the morning and in the afternoon when the thermal wind picks up, we get back to the same wave but with a wing this time. We can do big jumps going afar from the beach and then surf the waves on our way back. I also do a lot of wing sessions in the Canaries, in Fuerteventura, there is often a nice 12-15 knots wind in the afternoon, we start into a crystal clear lagoon and we go offshore to look for waves breaking on outside reefs . Every wing session I feel like I’m learning new things, it’s really exciting.

Tom Court

For winging I mainly use the fanatic Sky wing 5’0 which is 75L, it is really efficient, super stable and bullet proof with a reinforced construction. For the foils I take the Fanatic Aero 1250cm2 high aspect with aluminum mast and fuselage. I recently received the new full carbon models, which are really not bad at all! I also use the thinner and lighter Duotone foil models with 950, 700 and 560 cm2 front wings. I also use the latest Duotone Slick wing in 3.5 and 4.5m2 with the carbon boom, it’s impressive the weight gain compared to the aluminum model, I couldn’t believe it, it’s more playful, you have the impression of having a super light wing with handles. I know that opinions differ but personally I love the boom, I find it super intuitive and super practical to quickly hang on at the end of the wave when you’re unbalanced, rather than looking for the handles for example.

Far from the micro waves that are so exciting for foiling, you have are also reknown for several seasons in very big wave surfing where you have now made a name for yourself among the best chargers in the Basque Country, tell us about this adventure?

When I was a young teenager, I wasn’t necessarily comfortable in big waves. I saw young surfers like Pierre Rollet going alone in the water in enormous conditions in Anglet, that impressed me because I didn’t want to hurt myself. I’ve always been careful, my nickname was even ‘little corones’ [laughs] when I was early teenager. I went there very gradually and around the age of 15, I started going to more and more committed sessions in Guéthary and I saw the few former locals of the spot who had bothered me a little at start. Seeing that I liked to ride bigger waves, a lot of older guys helped me a bit, took me to ride other waves in different places. Ludo Dulou explained a lot to me about the waves but also the safety aspect that accompanies this practice, I owe him a lot. Apart from the thrills, what I appreciate in big game surfing is the very friendly, even fraternal atmosphere that reigns between the riders who go in these conditions. It’s like in kite where we see a lot of mutual help between the riders to take off or put down the big wings. Big surfing is the same, we all watch each other, we are ready to help each other if there is a problem. I share a lot of sessions with my mate Cornelius and every time he leaves I take a look to see if he comes out of the wave or comes back to the surface after a fall. We encourage each other and pull each other up until we go to Nazaré in Portugal where we surfed psycho waves. These are incredible experiences and memories that will last a lifetime.

You go to Fuerteventura very regularly every winter, it has become a bit of your second home, tell us about your connection with this unique place?

As I told you earlier I learned to kite in Fuerte with Tommy 4 years ago and he told me at the end that he loved to go in big waves to tow in with his jetski, he was looking for a teammate. I told him I was interested in doing some with him and I came back to see him the following winter with my father to surf and kite, then the following year I came solo to his home. We became friends, he taught me a lot of things, we had fabulous tow in sessions on the big wave spots on the island. We also do foiling sessions on spots where there is nobody, we are in the middle of nowhere, the water is turquoise, it’s really great place.

What about stand up paddle, this is also an island with a lot of potential, do you train a lot there too?

Yes of course there are many spots that are perfect for SUP, I had some of the best sessions of my life there, hollow and massive lefts where I even managed to get a few barrels. I also met Iballa Moreno there who was taking great waves in SUP, she was very impressive. I love stand up surfing the spots on the island, there are really different types of waves and sometimes very solid conditions. This is an excellent training to progress on your supports and to work on your commitment.

This training has visibly paid off since Just before the Covid-19 pandemic, you had a very prolific end of the 2019 season with very big results, can you tell how this very active period happens?

In 2018, I had a semi-final in the French SUP championship which gave me a little confidence, I was surprised to find myself in the top French level. I realized that I was able to get good scores and why not try to beat the champions of the discipline one day. The following year, towards the end of October, I once again found the best French SUP-riders in the national championship in Hossegor. I was happy to manage to reach the Final and then win the precious title against Ben Carpentier, Alexis Deniel and Julien Bouyer. The waves were great and I was able to really express my surfing, I was really surprised to be able to beat such strong and experienced guys.

This result helps you to secure your place in the French Team to go to the ISA World Championship in El Salvador a few weeks later, another awesome adventure?

I knew the competition was going to be on a long righthand pointbreak so I trained really hard just before setting off on these types of waves. My buddy Philippe Liveneau has already surfed the contest spot in El Salvador so I surfed with him in order to get as much advice as possible. Once I was in Salvador, I was immediately confronted with the top level of the world with all the Brazilians who put very radical maneuvers in freesurf, I was very impressed because I had only seen them on video until then. I learned a lot with the coaches but also with Benoit (Carpentier) who gave me a lot of advices during the video analyzes and gradually gave me confidence. Even though I could have hoped to go further, I managed to have a good contest journey and finished with a 9th place which is still great. I was really lucky to have had such an experienced and amazing rider as a teammate. It comes as no surprise that he himself ended up winning the world title after a flawless run on this wave which suited his surf perfectly. With France’s team victory, it was truly an event that will remain in my memory for a long time.

Just back from El Salvador, you were heading back to Gran Canaria in December, for the final event of the APP professional circuit where you made a strong impression there again, tell us how you lived that?

It was really great to be able to move on quickly and meet again with the world’s beast riders on a spot located only 3 hours by plane from home. The organization was top-notch and we had incredible conditions on a worldclass spot that offered a long wall to place several big maneuvers. This wave suited both Backside and Frontside surfing, everyone got to surf at their best, it was a real show. I’m happy with my run, I really managed to find my pace and put out some good scores to go to the quarterfinals of this other super high level event. I feel like I’ve improved a lot and taken a step forward in my confidence that will help me get more succesfull in these kinds of big competions.

Unfortunately, the plans were a bit different because like many other disciplines, the Pandemic has put almost all SUPsurfing competitions on Stand-by, how did you personally experience this very complicated period?

After 3 months spent in Fuerteventura, I got back home the day before France Lockdown in March 2020 and like everyone else, I spent 2 months at home without be able to go in the water. It hadn’t happened to me since I was 9 and I admit it wasn’t easy to deal with this frustration. I didn’t look at the forecast anymore, I tried not to watch the ocean too much when I went for a run to keep myself active and in shape. I really got into the editing of my Canary Islands video with the whole stock images I had. Then I got back into waves in mid-May and enjoyed every session I did at the max. With a very unusual moment like the one we have all experienced last spring, it puts a few things back in place and gives more flavor to what we usually do without thinking.

The 2020 season has not been completely blank since you had the chance to participate in Brittany at the end of October at the ‘’Wave Games’’, a combined SUP / surf / windsurf / kite / wing competition format, what memories do you have of that?

I loved the multi watersport concept, it is really perfect event that brings together all the disciplines that I love. If I had to keep just one contest, it would probably be this one. This is the kind of format that all events should look like. On a personal level, I was just a little disappointed not to have done a very good performance in surf and SUP but it may be related to a lack of competitions, I was probably not in the right rhythm, I didn’t know a lot the place but I really enjoyed myself all week. I thought it was great to see wind of champions like Thomas Traversa, Antoine Martin, Jules Denel or Antoine Albeau taking part in events in other disciplines.

We feel that the surfing competitions are starting to resume after such a complicated start of the year and SUP will follow too, I still remain confident. During the spring I had the chance to participate to a very nice event in Hossegor, “La Nord challenge”, a competition of big waves opened to surfing and SUPs. I competed in both disciplines, the waves were wonderful, the weather super sunny and the atmosphere really friendly. I did a final in surf and for SUP I finished 2nd, it was cool. I was starting to seriously feel the fatigue from the 2 previous series that I did in a surf gun and I also could see the limits of my usual 7’0 x 24 ‘’ x (70L) and 7’6 x 25.5 ‘Pro wave boards. ‘(80L) in these unusual big wave conditions, I have to order myself a SUP-gun.

What can we wish you the best for the future?

To keep been passionate with all these watersports, have fun and that competitions start again as before, in order to meet everyone back and compete in a great atmosphere.

Ronny Kiaulhen