“I love you my canoeist, I love you,” writes Thierry Schmidlin in a poignant message published on social networks. On Wednesday March 27 around 3:30 p.m., Guillaume, his 26-year-old son, tried to cross the Maumusson sluice in a canoe separating the Arvert peninsula from the island of Oléron, in Charente-Maritime. The twenty-year-old has since disappeared at sea and has not been found despite intense searches. Only a few personal effects were discovered on Gatseau beach, in Oléron.
“A seasoned sportsman”
Having left Escaudes, in Gironde, on March 15, Guillaume Schmidlin intended to go to Brittany on his own to follow a martial arts course. A “seasoned sportsman”, he walked up to 20 kilometers per day while pulling his canoe used to cross or descend waterways such as the Garonne River. “Initially, Guillaume was not supposed to go to the island of Oléron but he heard about a ukulele festival in Saint-Trojan-les-Bains. He was also a musician, playing the flute, guitar and saxophone. Facing the sluice, at low tide, he thought it was playable,” says his father.
Guillaume my son, 26 ½ years old, driven by his thirst for adventure and his need for challenge, faced the ocean on Wednesday March 27...
Published by Thierry Schmidlin on Saturday March 30, 2024
According to Thierry Schmidlin, his son was “driven by his thirst for adventure and his need for challenge”, “in excellent physical condition”. A few days before his disappearance, the young man had already crossed the Gironde estuary by canoe, from Saint-Estèphe to the port of Vitrezay located in Saint-Sorlin-de-Conac, in Charente-Maritime. Introduced by his father, Guillaume Schmidlin had practiced tai chi chuan since childhood and had since trained in kung fu. Unfortunately, “he did not know” the Maumusson sluice, one of the most dangerous passes in Europe where there are significant currents and whirlpools. “His magnificent canoe, created by himself and built with his own hands, was not at all suitable for this sea crossing,” wrote his father.
Searches stopped
Landscaper, Guillaume Schmidlin also trained as a shipwright and built three canoes. Once a bus driver, this “intrepid” young man first wanted to gain “life experience” before settling down somewhere, details his father who evokes “a humanist, emphatic, appreciated young man”.
The emergency services stopped their search on Friday March 29, in the middle of the day. “They were impeccable, I salute their work,” underlines Thierry Schmidlin who was planning a canoe trip with Guillaume on his return. In his testimony, this Gironde psychotherapist still evokes his son's “very sensitive soul”. Guillaume “will accompany us as long as our memory remembers him. He was magnificent; we all loved him, he loved us all,” writes Thierry Schmidlin, “so proud” to be his father.