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Death, the sea, surfing, life ... the aquatic fate of Ludovic Dulou

2021-05-04T13:21:06.183Z


Thanks to board sports, Ludovic Dulou has rebuilt himself after the death of his partner, who died of cancer in 2005. He reveals this


It's a water story.

Of life.

Of death.

Survival.

Ludovic Dulou, 49, is a waterman.

A being who anchors his existence in the aquatic environment, whatever the board (surf, bodysurf, foil, stand-up paddle…) who writes his destiny.

This former water polo player, lifeguard at sea, sports teacher, foam tamer, protean aquatic “animal”, is the subject of a documentary released recently and called “the Albatross”. A bird whose flight is sometimes difficult but which swallows distances once launched. Subtle metaphor in this opus from which emerges the deep fault on which the Girondin exiled on the Basque coast has been surfing for sixteen years: the death of his companion Karen, who died of breast cancer, on February 5, 2005.

An intimate pain carefully hidden but which has surfaced according to the complicity between the athlete and the director and explains a perpetual quest to surpass oneself and freedom.

“The Albatross” goes beyond the beautiful images of wide open spaces and the arabesques of its atypical hero, a bit of a poet and philosopher of the waves.

And above all resilient in the storm ...

"I saw death in the face"

"I had trouble," breathes the talkative marine adventurer.

Above all, I didn't want to make you feel sorry.

It also reopened a lot of things to confide in me.

I talk a lot but I am an introvert.

There, things are better but before the release of the film, I did not even dare to go surfing.

I was afraid of people's eyes, of judgment, especially since surfing is a very hard environment.

"

After having pushed his body to the extreme for a long time to empty his head, Dulou felt like he was going through a second therapy in front of the camera. “What is dramatic, unfair, is that she wanted everything but to die,” he confides. Cancer at 70 or 80, we accept it. Not at 30. We just both braved this stranger where everyone lets go of you and you have to resist. We had this deal. I support you in illness and you support me in sport. We fed on each other. She lasted six years while the doctors gave her one. And then came that day in February when I saw death in the face after having accompanied so much pain, changing features… At the age when everyone was building their life, everything was falling apart. My appetite for skiing and the ocean has intensified,an outlet to get out of suffering and incomprehension. "

To find oneself like a man overboard. To rebuild oneself on an ocean of ruins.

Honor a promise, like going to the limit on Molokai 2 Oahu Hawaii, the ultimate paddleboard race for lifeguards.

“Life has so many facets that we manage to rise to something dramatic,” he observes.

Our weaknesses are our strengths.

It's initiatory but I had underestimated the return of it all after the fact.

It was violent and difficult.

But I also say to myself lucky.

I love life.

I never wanted to go too far.

My father is a doctor, and so is my current companion.

My body is sacred.

"

"What matters is the trip ..."

Even though he was born in the middle of the land, Dulou is a fish.

And not just because he was born in extremis under this astrological sign.

“Water is a medium,” smiles the 40-year-old, his skin tanned by the sun and the spray.

It has brought me peace and serenity since I was little.

I clicked when I was 7 when I learned to swim.

In this world of meditation, something happened.

Under the water there is another field of consciousness.

"

Ludovic Dulou flies on the water.

Eric BRUNA

A real daily need. In all its forms. “Sea, fresh water, lake, stream, above, below, walking alongside is vital,” he says. Yesterday, I immersed myself in a 13 degree river after my training trail. "Five-time paddleboard world champion, the first man to have surfed a tidal bore in a foil or record holder and winner of the longest paddleboard race in the world (65 km), the native of Langon exiled in Bidart had the recognition of the competition. He aspires more today to mold his own challenges.

“I want to go wherever I want in the ocean,” explains this wine enthusiast, Cellar Master… in Entre-Deux-Mers. I have trained all my life and I know myself, I practice all disciplines, I am an ocean guide as there are in high mountains. I don't pretend to teach any life lessons but I know that what matters is the journey, not the destination. Everyone has their own path. "Whatever the past, the wings of this albatross do not prevent it from continuing to fly ...

Source: leparis

All sports articles on 2021-05-04

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