Benoit Carpentier: a French pro surfer born on February 15, 1996, grew up in a small seaside village in French Brittany. Benoit spent most of his time playing in the ocean, leading him at the age of twelve, to fall in love completely with surfing and paddle boarding. Not long after, Ben began to travel the world as a major competitor on the World Tour for stand up paddling. In 2019, Ben achieved his lifelong dream and is the current reigning world champion of the ISA SUP and Paddleboard Surfing World Championships.

2020. What an incredible year!

After being crowned ISA World Champion at the end of 2019, my expectations to get back on tour and begin traveling and training again were over the moon. My first trip in 2020 was to Bali, Indonesia. This is a place I’ve explored a few times already. It is undeniably one of the greatest destinations for water athletes to train and spend time in the water while getting ready for the professional sports season during the upcoming winter months.

When I left my home in Plougonvelin, France on March 12, 2020, I never imagined the world would take such a dramatic turn. I was scheduled to be in Bali for ten days for the 2021 Starboard SUP, longboard, and foil equipment photoshoot, plus additional 2022 board design R&D. Then there was the Longboard SUP Revolution, an event taking place in Sanur, a seaside town in the southeast of Bali, after which I planned to fly back to Europe and attend the WSL Longboard Tour’s first event in Portugal. Following this, I was going to continue with my usual tour calendar of traveling and competing.

COVID 19: The Beginning

When I arrived in Bali on March 12th for the 2021 equipment photoshoot, I quickly found out that many on the Starboard crew didn’t make it. Most of the team were not even allowed to leave their home countries, others decided not to fly due to developing quarantine restrictions. This was my introduction to the COVID19 epidemic. The only Starboard team riders who made it all the way to Bali were Zane Kekoa Schweitzer, Riki Horikoshi, Daniel Hasulyo and myself.

ZANE QUOTE: (Jeff, not sure how you want to insert this: sidebar or within the larger text. We have some sweet pix of Zane it would be epic to include!)

Talk about a stressful journey! The day before taking off from Hawaii, all my loved ones were already calling, telling me not to go because there were some weird things happening abroad. But I’m a man of my word and like to honor my commitments, so I wanted to follow through with this trip.

Upon arrival in LA after my first leg of travel from Hawaii, the entire airplane seemed to move toward a state of panic as cell phones turned back on and overwhelming government warnings, calls and texts flooded in about the pandemic sweeping the globe. I, too, had state of emergency warnings, including voicemails and text messages through the roof, telling me to get home. I started wondering what the heck was going on and whether I had made the wrong choice, but as I was already on my way I figured I would take it one day at a time.

By the time I landed in Bali, the competition I was there for had been cancelled and multiple countries around the world were locking down for home quarantine and state of emergency procedures. Since the photographers and Starboard crew were already there, together with a few team riders from Starboard including Benoit, Ollie and Riki, we decided to stay busy on the water and be productive by testing a handful of 2021 surfboards, SUP boards and foils that were there for the 2021 STB R&D/Testing.” - Zane Kekoa Schweitzer

Pressing forward: Surf, Swells & Photoshoots

In the end, Starboard had a lot of work to do with just us four international team riders. We were scheduled to shoot the new Pro surf models for both Longboard SUP and SUP Surf models, the Hypernuts, Hyper Foils, a new Foil Surf v2, the Wide Ride SUP range (including the Pocket Rocket and Whopper) plus the new Wedge and the entire range of inflatable boards!

The entire Research & Development team had spent the last two years working together with team athletes like Zane Schweitzer, product manager & shaper Ollie O’Reilly and chief innovator Svein Rasmussen to design and improve each board in the Starboard quiver. There was a lot of equipment to shoot in a few short days and we didn’t know what was going to happen from one day to the next.

Each morning we checked the news. It seemed the pandemic was intensifying rapidly, so we made the most of each session on the water in case we weren’t able to continue the photoshoot the following day. Team athletes spent all day on the water, switching boards frequently to get it all done.

Rocio Tarodo organized the shoot with help from Jonni Deaker of Rip Curl Surf School, who arranged for boats and drivers to take our team to the best waves and locations around Bali.

OLLIE QUOTE:

The photoshoot was great as we got to explore a number of spots. With a convoy of boats, 2 photographers and all the riders on board, we explored the best spots and got some amazing content. It was an awesome time with the team, both in and off the water, and the perfect distraction during this mad time of the virus. - Ollie O’Reilly

Global Pandemic vs. Bali’s Empty Lineups

After three intensive days, it appeared that the global pandemic was escalating rapidly. Flights were being cancelled. Events were postponed. France’s rate of infection was climbing daily. My friends and family back home in Plougonvelin reported that there was a rumor going around that surfing would be forbidden by the government within a few days. All I could think about was how to keep my training going for the next several weeks. I was in Bali with unreal conditions, and I had no idea how long it would take to get back to “usual life”.

After consulting with my family, we decided the best thing for me to do would be to stay in Indonesia and make the most of it. This was an opportunity to train on some of the best waves on the planet and explore Balinese places without any crowds. I am lucky to have such a supportive family.

Empty Waves + Perfect Quiver = A Lifetime of Memories

It was decided. My crazy friend Alexis took the last flight out from France to join me for the “Balinese lockdown”. Fortunately, we met another group of French travelers who had booked a huge villa in Canguu. Lodging prices were low with so many tourists leaving due to the pandemic. We discovered delicious Balinese restaurants offering 50 % off their menus. I almost felt guilty for our good fortune.

No tourists also meant empty lineups. Nobody on perfect waves that kept peeling in towards the shore. My head almost exploded.

I had arrived in Bali with only a backpack full of t-shirts and board shorts. I was lucky enough to borrow some boards from the photoshoot. Svein Rasmussen wanted me to make the most of the conditions during my time in Bali, so in the end I had three SUP surf boards including the 9.0 SUP Longboard, 6.8 Pro SUP Surf and 6.4 Hyper Foil. I also had the Starboard Longboard 9.1, a shortboard 6.0 and new Starboard surf foil 4.3.

They also left us with the new Starboard Freewing and a good Starboard foil set up. It was like heaven to have that quiver in Indonesia during the lockdown. Not too bad for someone who left France with only a backpack, oui?

Indonesian Lockdown: Riding out the Pandemic

Alexis and I decided that during our stay we would surf all the famous spots around Bali. Every day we were on a mission to find the most optimal surf for that day, although we were based in Canguu and had some amazing waves nearby. Batu Bolong, Echo Beach, Brawa Beach were our main surf targets in the morning before the wind picked up at midday. Uluwatu and Sanur were not very far and there was no traffic on the island as almost everybody except the locals had left.

Sanur was the perfect location to foil. Alexis and I had an opportunity to share several memorable tow foil sessions at Oka point. As there was no one else around, we caught thirty waves by the hour with a few lucky expats, and at the end of each day my legs were so sore from riding. I couldn’t do anything in the afternoons but rest and recover.

On the big days, my eyes looked straight at the Bukit peninsula. From there, you can see Uluwatu, Padang Padang, Impossible, and other world class waves. One day, I surfed alone at Padang Padang. It was like a dream. Poor me. I know, right?

One final highlight of this lockdown trip was when Alexis and I went on an adventure by ferry, with our motorbikes, to Lombok Island. I had always dreamed about going there, especially to surf the wave called Desert Point. DP is supposed to be one of the best left-hander waves in the world. It is a veritable tube machine and a place every surfer dreams about. In regular times this legendary wave is packed. On the day we went, there were only a few guys out, maybe twenty surfers at most! It was incredible.

Perspective: Right Place, Right Time with Endless Waves on Tap

Reflecting on this quarantine in Indo with my buddy Alexis, I am grateful for how lucky I was to be able to stay there during the global lockdown. People I met along my journey, especially locals, told me that we were experiencing a Bali that existed twenty or more years ago, before the impact of tourism.

Now at home I feel blessed that my family is healthy as are my friends. After sharing my adventures with them, I understand even more just how lucky Alexis and I had been to live out this period in global history while in Indo. On the island, we had a freedom that was lost in most parts of the world. In Bali, we were able to select remote locations on the map and go to explore on our motorbikes, while in France citizens were forbidden to walk, ride or drive more than 1km from their homes for over two months.

All I can say is a huge thank you to my sponsors and partners including Starboard, RSPRO, Maritime Khun, Swell Addiction, Rip Curl Brest, Tout Commence En Finistere, Tikio and Minou Surf Club. In addition, a special thanks to the Starboard crew who brought me over to Bali in the first place and provided me with the best quiver and equipment to experience those waves on lockdown. I was lucky enough to leave home with a backpack and, once in Indo, provided with top performance gear for a specialized adventure. I returned home months later with a 30 KG boardbag and my head full of many barrel visions! It was simply surreal.