Ce mois ci Riptide sort son numéro #194 avec le projet Experiment7, un trip aux Iles Mentawai avec 8 des meilleurs bodyboarders mondiaux, Isabella Sousa / Player / Winchester / Specker / Finlay / PLC / Houston, et le plus jeune de l'équipe: l'australien Lewy Finnegan. A en juger ses références et son talent, il mérite sa place dans ce trip ainsi que sa couv dans le premier opus de cloak and dagger mag ou toutes ses autres parutions depuis 3 ans. On a échangé quelques mails la semaine passée:
hi Lewy, that is what i know about you, tell me if i make mistakes:
you are a 18 or 19 yo bodyboarder from ocean reef in Western Australia, you began riding with your older brother 10 years ago; some of your home spots are not more than are Mandurah wedge or the box, and one of your most dominant influence since the begening in riding style has been legend ryan hardy; different medias in boogie used to talk about you as a The "Future of Australian bodyboarding" with your younger friend Davis Blackwell;
hi Lewy, that is what i know about you, tell me if i make mistakes:
you are a 18 or 19 yo bodyboarder from ocean reef in Western Australia, you began riding with your older brother 10 years ago; some of your home spots are not more than are Mandurah wedge or the box, and one of your most dominant influence since the begening in riding style has been legend ryan hardy; different medias in boogie used to talk about you as a The "Future of Australian bodyboarding" with your younger friend Davis Blackwell;
I am actually 18 years old and i live in Ocean reef which is about a 1 hour drive from mandurah wedge and 3 hours from box, i surf there a lot but my local waves are little fun waves around the perth metro area.
Where are you a this moment?
I just got home from a week down south in Gracetown which was really fun. We got a lot of waves within about 5 days of being down there.
You just have won SunSmart WA Bodyboard Titles in open division 3 weeks ago, congrats for that; how was it? funny waves?
Thanks man, yeh the waves were pretty small and fun for the whole competition especially in the final at a sucky little bowl called 'baby box' in yallingup
At the end of november you did injured your neck while surfing your local wedge mandurah;
how were the waves this day? most accidents arrive sometimes in waves we don't expect for that, do you think you have been specially unlucky?
how do you feel 6 months after?
The swell period was very big that day so mandurah wedge was a lot heavier than normal, but i'd still surfed it like that a lot of times beforehand. On my first wave i got slammed head first into the bottom and hurt my neck really bad which was really annoying, haha. 6 months later i am almost completely better and I am slowly getting back into surfing bigger waves.
And about mandurah wedge, it seems to be a great spot for bodyboarding and like every wedge it is a little bit particular to surf, do you think it is one of the best wave with the box you have at home to progress?
Where are you a this moment?
I just got home from a week down south in Gracetown which was really fun. We got a lot of waves within about 5 days of being down there.
You just have won SunSmart WA Bodyboard Titles in open division 3 weeks ago, congrats for that; how was it? funny waves?
Thanks man, yeh the waves were pretty small and fun for the whole competition especially in the final at a sucky little bowl called 'baby box' in yallingup
At the end of november you did injured your neck while surfing your local wedge mandurah;
how were the waves this day? most accidents arrive sometimes in waves we don't expect for that, do you think you have been specially unlucky?
how do you feel 6 months after?
The swell period was very big that day so mandurah wedge was a lot heavier than normal, but i'd still surfed it like that a lot of times beforehand. On my first wave i got slammed head first into the bottom and hurt my neck really bad which was really annoying, haha. 6 months later i am almost completely better and I am slowly getting back into surfing bigger waves.
And about mandurah wedge, it seems to be a great spot for bodyboarding and like every wedge it is a little bit particular to surf, do you think it is one of the best wave with the box you have at home to progress?
Yeh i think mandurah wedge is an amazing wave for practising your airs on rights. It is a perfect air bowl and breaks almost every day when it has a bank. It's super fun surfing out there with george and davis because we just push each other to do bigger and better things.
Today you ride for pride, Grand Flavour and BSC; do you have "professional status" in bodyboarding, do you earn enough money to live from that?
I also ride for Reeflex wetsuits. No i don't think i have a professional status yet, hopefully in a few more years i can be travelling the world and living off the sport i love but for now i am living at home and getting heaps of waves around WA.
A technical question i used to ask to everyone on spit97 (haha) : wich type of template do you ride, the same that is commercialised by pride or a custom? do you change that when waves are really small or in big waves? wich core do you use in cold water, in hawaii?
how many boards do you have in your "quiver" for a year?
I have rode the same template for about 2 years now which is shaped by Dan Sivess, It is quite a narrow board with a low wide point so it goes really well in bigger waves and still goes good in smaller waves. I don't like changing boards for every surf so i normally just stick to the same boar for a few months at a time. When i'm at Home i use a 3D core with stringer and Mesh which i love but if i'm in hot water i would us a PP stringer. I would probably go through 6 boards a year.
Do you plane to follow some iba event this year or focus more on free surfing?
I am still focussing on my free surfing and trying to get as good as i can before i go for the world tour but i will be going to the canary islands at the end of the year for the IBA event.
Wich regard do you have on bodyboarding scene in WA today? do you think it is more difficult with economic crisis for bodyboarding companies to still exist (like Ebb)?
The bodyboarding scene in WA is so small right now. Chad Jackson and Brad Hughes, who really kept the sport alive here have both got a family to take care of now and don't surf as often which means less shots are coming out of WA. I think it would be important for someone to open up another bodyboarding store in Perth like EBB did.
Is there in WA today a younger generation with potential for the future?
Today you ride for pride, Grand Flavour and BSC; do you have "professional status" in bodyboarding, do you earn enough money to live from that?
I also ride for Reeflex wetsuits. No i don't think i have a professional status yet, hopefully in a few more years i can be travelling the world and living off the sport i love but for now i am living at home and getting heaps of waves around WA.
A technical question i used to ask to everyone on spit97 (haha) : wich type of template do you ride, the same that is commercialised by pride or a custom? do you change that when waves are really small or in big waves? wich core do you use in cold water, in hawaii?
how many boards do you have in your "quiver" for a year?
I have rode the same template for about 2 years now which is shaped by Dan Sivess, It is quite a narrow board with a low wide point so it goes really well in bigger waves and still goes good in smaller waves. I don't like changing boards for every surf so i normally just stick to the same boar for a few months at a time. When i'm at Home i use a 3D core with stringer and Mesh which i love but if i'm in hot water i would us a PP stringer. I would probably go through 6 boards a year.
Do you plane to follow some iba event this year or focus more on free surfing?
I am still focussing on my free surfing and trying to get as good as i can before i go for the world tour but i will be going to the canary islands at the end of the year for the IBA event.
Wich regard do you have on bodyboarding scene in WA today? do you think it is more difficult with economic crisis for bodyboarding companies to still exist (like Ebb)?
The bodyboarding scene in WA is so small right now. Chad Jackson and Brad Hughes, who really kept the sport alive here have both got a family to take care of now and don't surf as often which means less shots are coming out of WA. I think it would be important for someone to open up another bodyboarding store in Perth like EBB did.
Is there in WA today a younger generation with potential for the future?
I know a few groms that are surfing pretty well. Nathan Hutchins and Daniel Steel are both surfing good but i think they need to start stepping it up in bigger waves to really push the future of bodyboarding.
Thing you hate the most?
Haha, probably when people snore really loud or eat with their mouth open, i hate it! haha
Thanks very much lewy, a last word to say? tell what you want;
No worries mate, thanks for giving me this opportunity! yeww
Thing you hate the most?
Haha, probably when people snore really loud or eat with their mouth open, i hate it! haha
Thanks very much lewy, a last word to say? tell what you want;
No worries mate, thanks for giving me this opportunity! yeww
Teaser Experiment 7 for Riptide #194
https://www.grandflavour.com/
http://www.pridebodyboards.com/
