Titouan Galea Wing Foil Interview- Blue Planet Show Episode #12

Aloha friends, it's Robert Stehlik, welcome to another episode of the Blue Planet show.  On this show, I interview wing foil athletes, designers, and thought leaders and ask them in-depth questions about Wingfoil equipment and technique. I'm also trying to get to know my guests a little bit better, their background, how they got into water sports, what inspires them, and how they live their best life.

I'm a visual learner, so I'm adding visual content that you can watch on YouTube, but you can also listen to it as a podcast on your favorite podcast app

Today's interview is with the very first wing foil world champion, Titouan Galea from new Caledonia. If you're into wing foiling as much as I am, you've probably already seen the videos of him doing crazy moves on jumps, back flips on the face of the wave, big airs, riding big waves in New Caledonia and other places. Really impressive stuff. And of course also being able to pull these moves off under pressure during competition and winning the last couple of world championship events.  Titouan breaks down some of the most advanced moves for us, Step by step. We also talk about his background, how he grew up in new Caledonia and now lives in France and about his board, foils, wings and what the future holds for him.

So without further ado, please welcome the talented Titouan Galea.

All right. Titouan, thanks so much for making some time to be on the Blue Planet show. How are you doing today?

Great, thank you for inviting me.

Yeah. Awesome. So here in Hawaii, it's it's 10 o'clock in the morning and for you it's evening, right? Eight o'clock or something like that?  And you're in Montpellier France. Is that right?

Yes

Okay. But originally you grew up in new Caledonia. So can you tell us a little bit about, your background, how you grew up and how you got into water sports?

Yeah. Born in new Caledonia and my father was doing windsurfing and kiting, yeah. Maybe around 2000. So yeah, he teach me when, so thinking like surfing when I was about like eight or nine and yeah, I've been projects learning where mainly and some other places yeah, since.

Maybe I was 12. I started doing it quite often.  Studying wave kite surfing mostly. And then what else I've done? Yeah. Foiling came like maybe six years before. Maybe seven. I started with kite foiling on my own when I was about 18 years old and yeah, just one year after I moved to France and I joined the French team of kite foiling.

So I've been doing lots of wind sports and yeah. Then the wing for the game. So two years ago, and now I'm doing a few other sports most of the time. Pretty much. Yeah.

Awesome. Congratulations on being number one in the world right now in the rankings. That's pretty impressive.

How old are you now? 24

actually, I actually had to look up new Caledonia. I've never been there, but just for people to know where it is. So this is New Calidonia and Australia and Hawaii is here. And then this is new Caledonia, right?

There's a place nearby, which is very famous. Is Fiji.  exactly the same swell, like Cloudbreak receives So yeah, we have same waves as other spots, so yeah, it's really nice space. And actually it's much more like it's windier in New Calidonia then. Yeah. Most of the time it's yeah. When you're in New Cal. So what's the prevailing wind direction.

So what is the prevailing wind?

So yeah, Southeast is like this way, right along the coast. For the surf, is it better on the south shore? On the north shore? Both?

Yeah, cause it's windy almost everyday. It's tricky. Sometimes a winter and a bit north is so we have good surf on the west coast.

Now we surf manly on the west coast. All disposed comes from south is south. Yeah. From depression, south hemisphere. So all this welcomes between a New Zealand and Australia and they, most of them come from south Southwest. So it's all all the stuff sports on the west coast. And so I guess the best ways are probably in the, in, in the winter there, which is summer in the Northern hemisphere.

Is that right? Yeah. That's where we get you as big as well, like June, July, but actually there's way happening. Pretty much all the alarm really it's like entireties is have good swell too in. Pretty much all year long. They receive also no swell. We're not receiving the really, we can have like very good session and increased in may.

Not really, but yes, there's a main season. Yeah. June, July, August. That's where exit peak of swell is where we get the biggest swells. All right. And then, so you've been out on the water windsurfing and kiting and so on since you're you said nine years old or something like that long time before I was pretty much sailing on small boats, like I don't know, optimist and stuff where I started  when I was nine.

And do you have a early childhood memory that where you just realize