What’s up? Boujmaa Guilloul

Relaxed on Tahiti

C7: Boujmaa, you were on Tahiti a few weeks ago? How was it?
Boujmaa: Yes, I was in Teahupoo recently, just got back from there to Morocco. It was good fun, watching some guys getting some bombs on paddle surf, and finally got my first biggest bomb, barrel of my life, towed in by my friend Baptiste Gossein. It was super good fun. The main reason, why I was there, was windsurfing and we scored some good conditions.

Watch Boujmaa getting a lemon treatment after crashing on the reef at Teahupoo.

C7: We missed you at the PWA wave events this year. What happened?
Boujmaa: I hurt my ankle earlier this year and missed the first main event. I couldn´t manage to get my foot strong and ready for Denmark and have not sailed enough for it. So I ended up by traveling to be able to finish our movie “Don’t Let Go” with Florian Jung, Robby Swift and Camille Juban while my foot was recovering.

Boujmaa at the PWA Tenerife event at El Cabez in 2011 (Pic: Carter/PWA).

C7: Which injury was it?
Boujmaa: It was a lisfranck injury , which is one of the worst for windsurfers. Robby Swift had also a bad experience with this one, too and missed almost 6 months of sailing, I was lucky that I didn´t need a surgery, a cast for 8 weeks was enough and about one month for rehab. Then I slowly started windsurfing again, could not surf with the wrong foot in the back, so I just jumped, but mostly small jumps. 

C7: You are Moroccan and you always have to organize visas before your trips, right?
Boujmaa: Yes. It’s not very exciting to get up at 7 in the morning after a 5 or 6 hour drive the whole night to the capital city to apply for a visa to Europe, UK or Japan. It’s very annoying when you want to travel last minute, and the regulations are mostly extreme, for example for the Aussie visa I have to apply in Egypt by sending all the papers there. This is really annoying and it pushes me to think about an alternative way to make all this easier. Maybe getting a different nationality probably.

C7: What are the most difficult countries getting a visa for?
Boujmaa: I need visas for almost everywhere, and some places are so complicated, you have to go to the nearest country with an embassy for that country. It´s so  difficult to plan a last minute trip. But I can go to Maui easier now, to Europe for the next 2 years, Indo, Cabo Verde (luckily) and to a few other places.

On a wave with Antoine Albeau and Kai Lenny (Pic: Carter/PWA).

C7: Are there any beaches you would love to visit, but it is hard to get a visa?
Boujmaa: I would love to go to Fiji, but there is no embassy for it in Morocco. I might have to apply for it in France or UK. I just need to check online and sometimes they impose some ridiculous papers that I can´t really present.

C7: You were a part in the making of the new DVD production “Don´t let go”. What can we expect of that movie?
Boujmaa: It is basically the first movie I am kind of closely involved in or more like a main rider, together with other talented windsurfers, Camille Juban, Flo Jung and Robby Swift. It is pretty exciting as well as it is a lot of work for the producer Flo. A lot of struggles and hard to get support to make the best we want, but it is almost done. We hope to release it around X-mas, and keep your fingers crossed that everything goes like we are planning.

Boujmaa the actor.

C7: Will you have an own part in the movie?
Boujmaa: We´ve been filming quite a while now, at least twice in Morocco, and there is a Moroccan part in it which I might be the main guy. I as well participate in a cinema production, called Land the movie. I just had to act on the previous days on and off the water and as well to sail in front of the camera.

C7: A long break in competition and windsurfing gives you time to think about your goals, dreams and plans! How important is winning and losing for you? You had great results on the tour already, but you are more known as a crazy photoshoot guy. Are you fully focused to have a comeback on the PWA tour in 2013 or are your plans going in a different way?
Boujmaa: I am still hoping to go back to competition. With my mind full of projects, I think about preparing for the next season, while I am traveling around the world, which is my main goal, looking for some strong winds and good waves, hopefully I can also get back my confidence to go for some insanity in my mind, but I believe Maui at the end is the perfect place to try all the crazy new tricks in my head.

C7: Do you miss to compete on the PWA worldtour?
Boujmaa: Yes I do, it’s a lot of fun, all the preparations and being with the friends on tour, it’s a super cool tour. I wish we had more diversified spots and conditions.

Pozo action (Pic: Carter/PWA).

C7: We are sure you have watched the last events via the live stream. What are your impressions? Can you still keep up with the top guys?
Boujmaa: The top 16 guys are all super super good, and especially Philip got it all sorted and he knows how to control almost every single trick, in surfing and especially jumping, but I always believed, that Thomas Traversa had the greatest talent and he is a candidate for the world title, if the tour would not see only onshore porttack spots, but there are a lot of other guys on the list. My windsurfing is good in free sailing, but I know it takes more than that to be a good competitor.

C7: What means windsurfing to you, even in times you can´t make it on the water and what would you miss most, if you would not be able to do the sport anymore?
Boujmaa: I think windsurfing and the oceans in general took a HUGE part of my life, and it is what drives me every day waking up for a new “windsurfing” day. If I lose that, there will be a huge piece of my life gone. I don´t think about it. I just enjoy what I got now, because we never know what comes next. No matter how much you plan it, so better make the most out of it now.

C7: Thanks for the interview and we hope to see some crazy windsurfing shots from Teahupoo soon.

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