Bernd, How does it feel to be a part of Infinity SUP?
I was first introduced to Dave Boehne on my first year on tour with APP. I was 17 years old and just cruising around Huntington Beach for the summer. When I first saw the brand, the boards, the team, I recognized a special kind of groove Dave Boehne was carving out in this new world. I wanted to be a part of it. However, at that time, I just wasn't ready to make a bold leap. So,I waited. 2020 was a perfect year for me to make radical changes. I had a lot of time to sit with myself and figure out what I really wanted in life. More than anything I wanted this: to stop feeling trapped by my perception of safety and conservativity and to really lean into my feelings, and cultivate my will to create. Now I'm riding twin fins and asymmetrical boards, drawing new lines and thinking about this sport differently. Culturally speaking, the Infinity brand is the driving force of paddle surfing, keeping it fresh, stylistic, and inspiring. Change is good. With the right creative people around you, change is certain.
Can you tell us your input on shapes, design and performance?
I just started riding for the team, but all of Dave's boards ride with a lot of soul. I think that SUP has found its place and is comfortable being the bluesy brother to shortboarding with less flash and more...rhythm. I think a good paddleboard makes surfing look easy. It makes catching and riding a wave, or even just standing on the water, a kind of smooth expression of comfort in the ocean. Our founders, Laird and Dave Kalama, both thought of SUP as the bicycle of watersports. They believed in its fun factor regardless of where you were doing it, from Peahi to the Potomac.
There's a lot of intention behind the flow of volume in Infinity’s paddle surfboards. They're beautiful to surf and to paddle. That's something a lot of other manufacturers can't really get right. Then, on the custom end, Dave can literally create anything. I ride asymmetrical boards that are V2/RNB models sandwiched together. Either side of the stringer presents a completely different ride experience, so you could get carried away conceptualizing all these radical combinations in form and how they relate to the unique force of different wave energies.
I ride 7'2", generally, as my prefered length. Those boards usually come 23" wide, with 70ish liters of volume. But the dims and specs are subjective to a degree when you think about the massive variance in shape and distribution. That's why it makes such a huge difference to have an actual artisan you can talk to about your surfing, and where you want it to go with the next respective board. Because he's gonna know. He's gonna build a relationship with you that helps you sing out there.
Trying to narrow down what your best board will be, just by comparing dimensions, it's horoscopic. Brands know that too, which is why the production board industry makes such a big deal out of the three or four numbers printed on each board. It's a way to fit something generic to the unique individual. A way to fit as many people as possible into a box, so the manufacturer can make the decision for the consumer. Sometimes it can be helpful, but as you learn and grow, try to base your next boards off the builder that's willing to listen to you when you describe what you want to feel. And as a customer, try to also listen to your tailor, instead of just plugging your preferred dimensions into a shaper's outline!
PULL QUOTE: That's why it makes such a huge difference to have an actual artisan you can talk to about your surfing, and where you want it to go with the next respective board. Because he's gonna know. He's gonna build a relationship with you that helps you sing out there.
Any goals or a water wish list of items ahead for 2021? Adventures planned, competitions you're eyeing and/or personal goals?
I'm going to curb my enthusiasm for 2021. I'm very happy to be doing what I'm doing now. Having said that, if the APP World Tour manages to get permission to run in our scheduled locations: Tahiti, Portugal, and Gran Canaria, I'm gonna be so excited! Obviously, it'll mean that Dave has a plethora of boards to shape for those beautiful waves, so we can do them justice together!
What is one skill in either flatwater paddling or SUP surfing that you are currently working on? Can you give us the specifics about how you are supporting that development?
I think that the first few years we had on the APP World Tour while competing at Sunset Beach were the most important for the development of SUP surfing. Not just because it was such a high profile event, but more so because it provided a vision for the sport. As was showcased at that particular wave, the world began to see SUP surfing has something stylistically original and unique about it.
Sunset proved to all of us that SUP surfing needn't compete for legitimacy in the shortboard arena, but it could create its own identity outside that world. We should be very grateful for Sunset Beach being the wave that it is, and love it accordingly. SUP can be the rhythm n' blues of surfing. It can be another instrument in the band, so to speak. Competitive SUP surfing drives the sport into shortboard-esque states of snap/flare/break motions, where I believe most of us appreciate a paddleboard for its ability to "ride". So, to contrast snap/flare/break, we could think of ride/warmth/power. To me, that's the ideal. I don't want my riding to force the issue on how good I am. I want it to highlight how great the waves are.
