10 QUESTIONS TO WILLIAM HUPPERT (FRA 330)
Name: William Huppert
Age: 22 years
Home: Dinard
PWA Results 2017: 8th in Foil
My club, surf school St Malo
1- William, tell us about your daily day as a windsurfer and entrepreneur at Lokefoil. Are you busy?
Yes, I'm very busy this year indeed!
I work full time for LOKEFOIL where I'm responsible for the commercial part, the communication, foil lessons and tests, and involved in the development as well.
Besides that, I run all stages of the PWA cup in slalom/foil, the French cup (AFF in slalom/foil) and local competitions when I am available. So I'm pretty busy!
2- Tell us about your best windsurfing moment?
There's a ton.
I have great memories of a big wave riding session in Fuerteventura, of my junior french champion title in slalom (2012), or my victory on the first official windfoil event, defeating big names like Pierre Le Coq or Alex Cousin (FRA 752).
3 - Who is your main inspiration?
I am very inspired by Pierre Mortefon, who is a good friend of mine and who taught me a lot about the gear, the competition, the mindset, travel and sponsor relationships, especially since we have the same sponsors, it helped a lot.
I owe also a lot to Aurélien le Metayer and Germain Touchais from the surf school St Malo, who were my coaches when I was younger.
William and Pierre Mortefon foiling
4 - Tells us about the Lokefoil adventure.
I first started at Loke as a racer in 2016. I knew very well Kevin (Festocq - one of the founders of Lokefoil) who was sailing in St Malo, and I also met his associate Loig (Peigné).
Then they started to lend me some foils to start competing with. I got hooked very quickly as the product was really great, very easy and powerful at the same time.
I won the Brittany Championship, the light wind trophy on the French AFF cup, then achieved a 5th place on foil at the PWA Sylt race.
They offered me a job when the company really started to grow. I accepted without hesitation, even if some tasks didn’t necessarily match my skills at that time.
To me, this is the best way to combine work life and being a windsurf competitor.
5 - Your biggest hassle?
There has been many!
Broken masts and swimming back to the beach in winter time,…
Recently, I was partcipating at the North / Fanatic photoshoot at Almanarre in the South of France. I was foiling while other had slalom boards. The wind picked up and I had to leave my 7.0 m2 to the slalom guys to take pictures.
As we were located upwind in the bay, I had to come back downwind to the beach with winds of 30 knots, my windfoil and a 9.0 m2! It was so hard to control the sail and the direction.
I finally managed to get back foiling full downwind, with both feet at the rear of the board! It’s easy to laugh now, but it was really a struggle!
6 - Your biggest satisfaction?
To be able to live of my passion!
7 - Where are you at the level of sales in 2017 and your predictions for 2018?
Lokefoil’s worldwide sales for 2017 will be about double than last year. We have now sold 140 foils since the beginning of the year, and have budgeted for 200 in 2017, so we're on track.
For 2018, we plan to sell 300 ENVOL foils, and we're developing a new race model on top.
8 - What do you think of the arrival of many new windfoil brands on the market?
It's really positive, especially when so many brands are produced in France or in Europe. That's really great!
We really start seing a great assortment: Alloy, carbon, powerful, less powerful and wider price range. People are engaged and try new brands, that is fun!
We should just make sure that people do not get lost in the numerous offer.
William foiling in his home spot
9 – What do you think is the future of windfoiling?
For me, a foil will be like an extra fin you have in your windsurf quiver. You add it on your board and it allows you to navigate in less wind, with smaller sails, go upwind easily and do long rides…
Thank you for answering our questions, William and good luck in the future!
