This summer, “20 Minutes” is going to meet surfer girls who are passionate about thrills and blue immensities.
Sporting feats, surpassing oneself, thirst for adventure… All of them have dedicated their lives to the waves and tried to push back the limits of body and mind.
The last episode of the series is devoted to Vahine Fierro, rising star of French surfing.
If you linger on the Instagram account of this 21-year-old Polynesian girl, you will quickly understand the extent of her talent. It is full of videos and photos all more impressive than the others where she slips down with agility and style gargantuan waves, or rushes into the hollow of perfect tubes, all smiles despite the crystalline threat that overhangs her. Mesmerizing images, a bit demoralizing when you are already struggling to take a foam. (If you're low on vitamin D, these snaps aren't for you either.)
For Vahine Fierro, it must be said that sliding on the oceans is second nature. “When I surf I feel like I'm exactly where I need to be!” She exclaims over the phone from across the globe. When I am in the water or on my board, when I am connected to the element that I love the most, I have no other thoughts. I am free to be able to do what I want, to be able to express myself as I want, without judgment. It's freedom. »A passion which she has made her profession, and which she has practiced almost since she knows how to walk.
This summer,
20 Minutes
is going to meet surfer girls who are passionate about thrills and blue immensities.
After big wave surfer Justine Dupont, free surfer Léa Brassy and pioneer Marie-Christine Delanne, the last episode of this series is devoted to Vahine Fierro, rising star of French surfing.
A connection to the sea since childhood
It is in Huahine in French Polynesia, in the heart of the Pacific, that Vahine Fierro discovers the joys of surfing from a very young age. Her parents, a Tahitian and an American keen on the discipline, very early on introduced her and her two little sisters to the pleasures of skiing. “It was kind of our daily activity after school to go surfing and let off steam in the water,” she says. For us it's a passion that we adore and that we will never be able to do without. Now installed near the mythical Teahupoo wave in Tahiti, she never misses an opportunity to return to surf with her family between two competitions.
Because for almost eight years, Vahine Fierro has been doing competitions, the classic course for any professional surfer.
First in Tahiti from the age of 14, then in Europe, encouraged by her sponsors to improve her technique.
The challenge ?
Rubbing shoulders with less favorable weather conditions and other seabed.
“I have been asked to come and participate in competitions in France so that I can progress in beach conditions and that I get used to the wetsuits.
We don't wear it in Tahiti, and it's much heavier, she says.
The same goes for the waves, we have perfect waves so I had to leave here to discover others.
"
Top world goal
A training session crowned in 2018 with a victory as beautiful as it was unexpected: the coronation of the world junior champion (an event of the World Surf League, the organizer of the pro world circuit). A title that had not been obtained by a Frenchwoman for almost eight years, and a huge surprise for the surfer. Passing her baccalaureate the same year, Vahine Fierro could not qualify for the final. But in view of his results in other competitions, the WSL finally granted him a valuable
wildcard
, a sesame that the league offers to three competitors each year (two men and one woman), to access it. “Little by little, I managed to pass my series and I ended up winning. Nobody expected it because I wasn't even supposed to be in it. This is my best result yet and it remains one of my fondest memories! », She believes.
Despite promising results, not everything is written in advance for the young woman. In early June, the Polynesian notably failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. Competition is tough in surfing, the discipline particularly demanding, especially since you can't control the elements. “I think you lose a lot more than you win. There are times when the frustrations are very strong but if you are passionate you manage to overcome them and use them as motivation to progress ”, assures Vahine Fierro. Its room for improvement? Gain power, speed and mentality. And perhaps one day she will mark the history of the discipline in the image of her models, the Australian Stéphanie Gilmore, the Hawaiian John-John Florence or the American Kelly Slater.
In the meantime, the surfer's objective is to integrate the world top at the end of the year and in the longer term, to represent France at the Olympics in 2024. “I think it's the dream of all athletes, it's also mine, in addition it is at home so I will do everything to participate ”, she assures.
French surfing has a bright future ahead of it.
Sport
Surf: "I use more the potential that there is around my home", affirms Léa Brassy
Sport
Surfing: "It is exceptional to be able to say that we were among the first", rejoices Marie-Christine Delanne, pioneer of the discipline in France.
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