Metamorphosis: SUP to Alaia!

French stud uses SUP and manservant to whip into stand-up tubes on his homemade alaia!

The things that occur to people! Most of my surfing times are spent remembering to crouch (ass to board not ass to mouth, as one famous surf coach told me), shimmy my front foot off the back third of the board and, simultaneously, swinging hips, dutifully bobbing up and down and waving arms and so forth.

I never, ever, think to express my bona fides with outrageous behaviour.

Unlike Fred Compagnon, whom we’ve seen before being towed into waves on what appeared to be a snowboard. Here, in this short, we see the full metamorphosis, from SUP, which is handily collected by Fred’s manservant Remi Arauzo, to wooden alaia to high-style tube.

“Two of us are on it,” Fred told GrindTV (What, I’m going to eat up international minutes on filler?). “The one on the back is lying down paddling and kicking with flippers, the one on the front is standing up and already strapped into the alai, paddling with the paddle. This gives you have a lot of speed and you can get into the wave really early. This is crucial because it gives you different options to start your line, optimizing all the benefits of the board to surf the waves.”

Fred, who is forty years old but as agile as an eight year old child bride, learned to shape the alaias eight years ago when the Australian aficionado David Rastovich, visited France.

And, now, with SUP, and straps, he can conquer very good Hossegor. There are several waves contained within the video that give me pangs of genuine pleasure.

And doesn’t Mr Campagon look tremendously pleased with his contraptions!

Here’s what it looks like from the camera stick.

And here’s the little board. “I build board for barrel,” says Fred.