Rou Chater chats to Titouan Galea on his move to Cabrinha and much more.

You might have heard some rather big news recently, arguably one of the best riders in the world has left F-ONE and joined Cabrinha. There has been a lot of speculation about this…but you no longer have to wait. Rou Chater sits down with Titouan in Mexico to find out all the details.

I'm sat down with a very talented young man by the name of Titouan Galea. He is from New Caledonia. Originally a kite surfer who was into foil racing and then, when wings sports came along, he totally embraced that. This was an interesting angle to take because a lot of young people weren't really interested but he embraced it 100% and has won three world championships for wingfoiling - which is a serious accolade. 

You grew up in New Caledonia, right? How did you get into watersports over there?

Hey Rou. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm originally from New Caledonia. I was born there in '97 and I've been raised pretty much my whole time there until I was 18. But I actually learned kitesurfing in Mauritius. I was there in 2006 & 2007 and went to school there when my dad moved there for a job offer. He was a professional diver back in the day and so we lived there for two years. So yeah, that's where I started to kitesurf.

You then turned your skills to kite racing and became a professional in that discipline. Did you initially have time to try wingfoiling and fit it in amongst your training? Or did you just see it and have to have a go?

In 2019, I was already SUP downwinding and was offered the chance to try the F-ONE Swing in March of that year. Initially, I wasn't sure how fun it would be or if it was for the masses. But then in June, we did a team trip to Madagascar and by then I could use a smaller board & foil for the waves. That was when I realised it could be great. By October of that year, I had done my last professional kite race and had switched to winging full-time!

Kitefoil racing is pretty intense in terms of your skills on the foil. When you're tacking and gybing, everything is done really really fast & at super high speeds. Your footwork has to be spot-on. That must have been a big advantage when switching over to the wing.

Yeah for sure. It helped me, definitely. Sometimes, I think I should do more kite racing because it's so much harder. You're going 30 to 45 knots and you're gybing at 30 knots. Winging just isn't that fast yet so it's easier, if you can get used to the wing that is. 

Yeah, you've already got the foiling skills that’s for sure. We're here in Mexico. You've just recently moved to Cabrinha, how did that come about?

Well, I'll maybe not go into all the details. But yeah, I was with F-ONE for seven years. It was really fantastic and I have a lot of respect for Raph and the team there. Now the market is having a bit of a tough time and they wanted to reduce some of my contract. I still want to do the world tour this year and the year after maybe, and we have 10 to 13 events this year. Obviously, it costs a lot of money and the offer wasn’t enough to get me to all the events this year. I'd wanted a brand that will support me for racing because that's what I was doing well at. Last year, I still had a title for racing, and I know I can do well due to my experience in the kite days, so that's why I'm gonna keep racing a bit. It's been an incredible journey with F-ONE, with a really good team, we parted on good terms. I'm happy to be working with Cabrinha and exploring new opportunities with a new team. It's been great to meet the rest of the Cabrinha team and the people behind the brand. I feel more motivated to push myself a bit more for a couple more years.

You're known as one of the best wing foilers on the planet. You probably could have picked any brands you want to kind of work with. But you chose Cabrinha, what was the reason behind that?

Well, I don't know if I could have picked any brand. I think I could have gone to a few of them. I wanted a brand that does it all, wings, foils, boards, accessories and Cabrinha and Dakine offer that, just like F-ONE and Manera did. For me it’s quite a similar set up. I’m sure I could earn more by having different sponsors for each area, wings, boards, foils etc, but then it’s a lot more hassle and I really want a one stop relationship that allows me to concentrate on my riding. In this regard the choices were limited, I can't go into too many details but some brands had a team that was too large or I didn't like the gear. I have to enjoy the gear that I'm riding!

F-ONE are known for making really great equipment, they just pretty mucn swept the readers awards! However as a rider, it's not just about who's going to offer you the most money, you've got to spend all day riding that kit, right?

Yeah, it's weird. I saw some comments the other day on Facebook, some people saying it was all about money. And I can tell you the truth, like, last year, I had offers that were almost double F-ONE. But I didn't leave because I didn't trust the brand. It's not all about money. I mean, maybe for some, but not for me. And yeah, it's not overnight.

I may have better offers from another brand, but then I won’t have such good gear, or I won't have such a good team or I won’t have such good support. 

With Cabrinha, we can develop some prototypes together to improve the brand, I'm excited about that. Yeah, there are a lot of different factors, the choice was kind of easy for me. It's been interesting this week to see the amount of effort Cabrinha are putting into the sport and the amount that goes on behind the scenes. What they're putting in both financially and in development, it's quite exciting to see.

I've already seen you're chatting to Lars Moltrup and some of the design team. It seems like you're fitting right in and already helping in terms of looking at the product.

Yeah, for sure. Well, I've always been interested in developing gear. That was also a big part of my job with F-ONE, and that's going to be part of my journey with Cabrinha now. Also, due to my knowledge of kite foiling I can assist in the wing racing department. So that's maybe why I'm so close to the R&D team already here.

You're known for really big wave-riding videos with your wing. You make it look super impressive. Was that always a focus for you to try and take the sport to a different level?

Well, I don't know if I want to take it to a different level, but I just really enjoy it. I love wing foiling in big swell, it's rarely crowded when it's that big. That's probably what I enjoy the most about winging.

You grew up in New Caledonia, but also spend a lot of time in Mauritius. It's a pretty scary place, and very unforgiving. Do you feel at home there? Because you spent so much time there over the years? 

Yeah, I spend a lot of time there, it's a bit of a weird place though because, sadly, they don't allow jet skis. When it's seriously big, the channel kind of closes over the reef so they cannot put the boat out. If something happens, you have to swim back, that's a bit of a problem and adds to the challenge. If I injure myself on the reef, I know if I ended up there I don't think I will die, I know where to swim, but you are very much on your own unless someone comes to help. A few people have disappeared in the past, unfortunately. I have been campaigning to the government to change this rule but have had no luck.

So where's next for you? We're leaving Mexico today, where are you off to? 

As you said I'm from New Caledonia. Most people know about it, but it's between New Zealand and Australia. So there are not many flights going there, so I don’t get to go very often. I really like to go over to be with my family, my close friends and it's my home. I really feel good to be home, especially the last couple of years I haven't been there so much. I'm heading there, though I'm gonna do a stop in Tahiti on the way. This way I get to stop at some of my friend's places, I'm going to stop in Tahiti for five days. And then I’ll go back to New Caledonia, for two and a half weeks. After that, I've just booked my flights for 1st March, to fly out to New Zealand for the first stop of the world tour.

Look out for the full version of this conversation in Rou Chater’s 'Intriguing Beings’ Podcast, coming soon.

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Vive Más Mexico Meeting
By Rou Chater
Rou Chater has been kitesurfing for over twenty years, paddleboarding for the last six years, and was there testing the first wingsurfer from Naish in Tarifa when it arrived on the continent. He is passionate about riding waves and exploring new places. As the publishing editor, he oversees everything at Tonic but also our sister magazines IKSURFMAG and IMB. He's been on the water since he was born and has never looked back, in the winter you'll find him chasing swells in the Caribbean and during the summer he can be found all over Europe at various SUP, Kitesurf and Mountain Bike events getting features for the magazines.

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