Ever wondered what it’s like to have a 20-metre high wave come hurtling towards you with just a surfboard at your disposal to tame it? We have, and luckily Matthias Dandois’s latest podcast guest Justine Dupont can reveal all. 1. “There’s no noise, like a bubble almost, like flying, it’s awesome”
Asked by an awe-struck Dandois what it feels like when “there’s a goddam seven-storey building moving towards you”, Dupont tells him all about her emotions when she’s on the edge of surfing waves above 20m high.
2. “Surfing for me is a team sport now”
We get introduced to her boyfriend Fred David, the former world bodysurfing champion, who’s also her key support and “guardian angel” as he flies about in support on his jetski amid a team who are helping her reach new heights.
3. “There’s a kind of magic about Nazaré. It’s weird, kind of scary. It can be like paradise – and evil”
Dupont tells us all about her base on Portugal’s Atlantic coast while revealing the wonderful vibe among their little community of surfers who’ve all moved there in search of the ultimate waves and who all take care of one another in this most precarious of sports.
1 minJustine Dupont surfs a huge wave in NazaréSee Justine Dupont pushing the limits in Nazaré.
4. “Everyone’s looking at you because you’re going red – and then more red!”
If you see a couple on the metro in Paris looking as if they might be struggling between each stop, Dupont tells us not to worry; it’s probably only her and Fred practising another of the innovative breath-holding exercises designed to aid her when she’s engulfed by the ocean.
5. “I could feel an explosion in my body… I didn’t like that 30 minutes of my life”
She understates the terrifying nature of a huge crash during the final of the 2018 Jaws Challenge in Hawaii when she had to remain calm with bad knee and shoulder injuries while waiting be rescued after being hit by not just one but two giant waves.
6. “There are no men and women surfers – there are only surfers”
Dupont doesn’t compare herself with her female surfing contemporaries. As Fred explains, she’s just as good as the best male big wave surfers out there – and, indeed, in some technical areas, she’s even better.
7. “Maybe I could surf a 100ft wave one day – there are no limits, for sure”
Where does surfing go from here? Dupont looks at the future of a sport that will make its Olympic debut in Tokyo and while outlining her own surfing dreams, she ponders if a sport that’s “going everywhere” will in a decade’s time be a star attraction in cities all around the world.
Tune into Decoding Athletes to find out more about Justine Dupont.