REUNION: CHASING WAVES IN THE INDIAN OCEAN

Take two of the most radical wave sailors on the planet, one slightly older and one slightly younger and send them out at an uncrowded point break in the Indian Ocean to see how they influence each other’s riding on the water. What you will most likely get is a crossover of styles and some explosive action. Well, this is what happened when Thomas Traversa and Antoine Martin both had their eye on a mission to Reunion Island and their paths unexpectedly crossed and they hit the island for the same forecast.

Words: Thomas Traversa and Antoine Martin.

Photos: Armand Dayde and Francois Kling.

THOMAS TRAVERSA

I was looking to go to Reunion in August 2023, so my plan was to go as soon as I saw a decent looking forecast. Antoine saw the same swell coming and called me to see what I thought it would be like. He was super motivated, the forecast was good, but I was not really 100 percent sure. So, in the end, I thought it would be perfect to go with him and have somebody to sail with as on the the last two occasions I have been there by myself. I thought it would be nice to have another pro joining me and Antoine was the one who was pushing to go, which made it an easy decision to pull the trigger in the end.

INFLUENCE

For sure Antoine was influencing my sailing a lot. I saw seeing him really mixing things up on the wave – especially compared to what I am usually doing. Normally in these types of waves I never try any tricks, whereas Antoine was performing goiters and trying 360’s and backloops off the lip. On the second day I tried an aerial backloop which I had never tried before, not even once, so he definitely made me push myself. I kind of landed one and I felt really motivated to have someone else pushing it.

It wasn’t crowded, so just between the two of us, it wasn’t really a problem to catch all the waves that I wanted. There was a great vibe on the water and in some ways there was a little bit of pressure, but in a healthy way. Usually in Reunion, I am sailing alone and just doing my own thing, but there I was thinking: “This guy is sailing good, I have to step it up a little bit more.”. For Antoine it was also nice because I knew which spots would be working and when they would be best. Essentially, I was the guide, so he didn’t have to think too much or make any decisions. It worked out well overall.

EASY LOGISTICS

I live in Marseille, which is a great advantage for me when looking to book last minute trips on a forecast to Reunion as there is a direct flight, which only takes eleven hours. You catch a red eye flight in the evening and by the next morning you are already on the island. There is no jet lag and it is easy for me once I’m there as it is French and I also know people there now, which makes things even easier. We stayed with friends and we didn’t even have to rent a car. It is how I wish Maui would be!

PERFECT GETAWAY

Reunion is the perfect place for me to go. I was there for six days and I sailed all six of them. The first day I was on a 4.2m and the rest of the week I was on my 4m. Every day it was head high to a bit over mast on the biggest day. I just love it there. There are not so many guys windsurfing there, so when we were there, they organised a dinner for us all. After almost every session we would have an icy cold beer at a little shack on the beach. Beer, delicious food, going to the beach in the morning, sailing, eating and just repeating that process. What more could you want?

Basically, that was the perfect windsurfing holiday for me. In the perfect world I would stay longer and bring the family as the island is simply amazing. There is so much to see and do. While we were there this time it was whale season and there were whales breaching everywhere. It was crazy. Antoine even went swimming with them. One of my short-term goals is to bring the family for a month. In the event that I don’t go to Pozo in July, I will go there for a month instead!

ANTOINE MARTIN

A NEW ADVENTURE

This was my first time travelling to Reunion. I almost travelled there for the Reunion Wave Classic when they used to organise this event back in 2011-2012. However, I could not afford to go as I was too young. More recently they shut down water access due the shark situation, so personally, I just put it out of my mind as a place to consider going. However, now things are open again a few years later, so I decided it was time to visit. I met a guy from Reunion in Guadeloupe last winter and we talked about the place and the sailing and he reassured me that it is fine to go in the water again now. He told me that all the windsurfers were sailing again and that the situation was much better than before. This conversation piqued my interest in Reunion again and reminded me that I had always wanted to go there – it had been on my bucket list for a while. When I was checking the forecast my friend told me that there was a solid swell on the horizon, so that made my mind up right there and then.

Of course, I mentioned to Thomas that I was going as I wanted to sail with a friend and it did not take that long to persuade him to join as he was already planning to go at some point again anyway.

EMBRACING THE FEAR

I call Reunion the lost paradise! It truly is one of the best waves in the world and also it was really easy to windsurf. It is quite powerful, but there is a channel. It is not like Cloudbreak in Fiji where if you fall, you end up on the reef and it is hard to make it back out, or sometimes you even have to wait for the tide to drop to be able to retrieve your gear. In Reunion you can do everything by yourself. As long as the waves are clean and peeling then I am not really scared of big waves. I don’t really care about the size of the wave. Of course I have fear, but I use this fear as a motivation rather than an inhibitor. On the big days you just have to have the right mental setup and focus. Everyone experiences fear… it’ just a matter of how you digest and use it during the session.

I usually think about everything that could go wrong before D-day. However, on the day itself, I am solely focused on sailing and everything in my mind is clear. I don’t have time to stress about anything else. I just ride the waves and whatever happens, happens! If you are well trained and you are used to sailing in solid conditions quite often, then the fear should not be a problem.

SPURRING EACH OTHER ON

This was my first proper trip sailing with Thomas. I was really happy because it was a dream to sail with him. I think we were making a good combination of style. Of course, I would see him going for some big air and turn combos with super nice flow. I really loved the way he was sailing, so I was trying to emulate some of his style. Obviously, he started to try some of the moves I was doing. I think I saw him go for a backloop off the lip, which was crazy. Both of us were laughing because we could see that we were pushing each other on certain waves.

RED CARPET TREATMENT

Since I am competing on all the events on the unified PWA and IWT Tours, I feel I have had no time for a trip like this. I used to go away with Camille Juban a lot, but it has been a while since I went on a pure windsurfing holiday. To be able to do this again felt so good. You are still training, but it felt like vacation. The locals were super nice with us. It seemed like their world stopped for ten years since the shark problem. Now when they saw pros on the island, they were super happy to see us and welcomed us with open arms. There was a great vibe on the island and they were so helpful.  We were given the red-carpet treatment for the entire trip.

BACK TO NORMAL

There are shark nets in a lot of places, but where we sail there were no nets. However, it’s important to note that there haven’t been any shark attacks in the last four years. I don’t feel too vulnerable windsurfing as you don’t fall too often, and even when you do, it’s usually not too far to swim for your gear. We made sure we didn’t sail too early or stay out on the water until dark, so we were still sensible and slightly cautious. We sailed between 9am and 4pm most of the time and we took bigger boards, so that we could float!

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