Strapless freestyle on pure flatwater? Camille Delannoy uses his time in isolation to see life - and kiting - from a different perspective. Read the article to find out more about his journey into the natural wonderland of Brazil.

A journey into the natural environment of Brazil, where dunes and lagoons meet the Atlantic Ocean. Camille Delannoy uses his time in isolation to see his life from a different perspective.

I’ve always wanted to go to Lençóis. For those who have never heard of this place, take your mind to Brazil’s North Atlantic Coast, with steady wind and sandy beaches. Parque Nacional dos Lençóis Maranhenses is a protected zone, home to endless white sand dunes with rainwater lagoons adding splashes of blue to the otherwise pristine landscape.

This is a kitesurfer’s paradise. This beautiful landscape has been explored by the freestylers, who have laid claim to the butter flat lagoons. From what I had heard, it is one of the most beautiful places in the world. With the rise of strapless freestyle, I was excited to be one of the first strapless riders to explore these immaculate waters.

Living in Preá, Brazil allows me to be on the water nearly every day, either competing, shooting,  or training. I had never found time to visit this ecological wonder. Due to the pandemic, the pace of my life, like most, has come to a grinding halt. Trips were cancelled, competitions struck from the calendar, and photoshoots postponed. It was an opportunity to slow down and do something different.

I knew I was lucky to be able to go in the water and train when most of the world was in lockdown. I had to make the most of my time. Knowing I wouldn't have any competitions for a while left me with plenty of time to try new things. I didn’t only want to learn tricks that would score well in competitions, I wanted to do things in strapless freestyle that no one has seen or thought about before. I wanted to bring a new approach to this side of the sport, and find my own style of riding. After six months of hard work on the water, I couldn’t be happier with where I am today. It was the right time to take a break and finally explore Lençóis.

It was a mission to get there. The first part of the journey was an eight-hour drive. On the way, we stopped in the Parnaíba Delta, where the water flows through a mangrove rich area on its way to the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the biggest rivers in northern Brazil, and worth a visit if you find yourself on a similar adventure.

Our guide explained that the many sandbanks in this area are a result of water leaving travelling through the delta and carrying sand out to sea. They say that these sandbanks have created spots where perfect waves break for hundreds of metres. I will have to come back to discover if these rumours are true.

Eight hours into the drive, we loaded our 100kg of gear onto a tiny boat. After 30 minutes, we landed in Atins where we spent the night. Our journey continued the following morning with only a few hours of driving through extremely bumpy dunes. This place was so remote and difficult to reach, we spent the last part of the journey in restless anticipation, knowing that we would have earned our time in this special spot. Finally, we had arrived.

Here, only 500km from the busy beach of Preá, there is silence. My first thought was how unbelievably beautiful this place is. It is as if you are dreaming. With hundreds of dunes and lagoons, the vastness of Lençóis took my breath away.

This is the sort of trip that I normally like to do with friends, but the travel situation meant that no one could share this experience with me. The thought of being alone on this adventure felt strange, but this feeling quickly faded away.

Looking in every direction, as far as the eye can see, it was apparent that we were completely alone. It felt crazy to be so isolated from everything and everyone. It was the kind of place that you could imagine getting completely lost in.

It is an interesting phenomenon, the way these lagoons are formed. Rivers bring the sand from far inland out to sea, where the strong wind picks it up and blows it back onto the shore. There is 50km of heaping sand dunes that are created in this way. The dips and valleys between these dunes fill with water in the rainy season, and this water cannot drain because there is a layer of rock beneath the surface. After the rainy season, the water evaporates bit by bit, only for the cycle to begin anew the following season.

Because there are so many lagoons, there are countless spots to ride. Not every lagoon can support kiting, with the highest dunes disrupting the wind flow and creating impossibly gusty conditions. To find the right spots, you have to search. This became our next challenge.

We wanted to document our time in this otherworldly landscape, and we would need to find the ideal lagoons to do so. We needed strong, steady wind where I could kite and play worry-free. We had a lot of fun searching and exploring these different lagoons, and we finally found the best ones. Once we had discovered the most desirable pockets of water, I had some of the best sessions I’ve ever had.

For the first session, I launched my 10m North Carve with the Navigator Control System. The 5’0 Comp surfboard was the choice for these flatwater conditions. Once I stepped into the water, all of the apprehension of being alone on this trip disappeared. It might sound a bit selfish, but I was actually happy to have the entire place for myself.

We were really lucky with the conditions, and I had a lot of fun jumping from the dunes into the lagoons, riding down them and kiting from one body of water to another. I rode most of the time without fins so that I could explore every inch of these sometimes shallow spaces. It is a true kitesurfing playground. I felt like a child in an amusement park!

Climbing the dunes with my kite in the sky was awe-inspiring. Coming over the ridge to see that there is nobody else sharing this vast space made me feel very small and humbled. The silence and stillness were interrupted only by the sound of the board cutting through the water, and the spray of fresh rainwater off the tail that followed as I drew lines through the landscape.

Standing atop the dune and looking over Lençóis, I took a moment to pause. It was a different kind of peaceful. It felt like being on another planet. I felt so lucky to be there, especially amidst the confusion outside of this perfect place. I was humbled by the beauty of our playground.

There is a message in all the craziness of this year. Sometimes, when we are forced to do things differently, we have the potential to find beauty in the unexpected.

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Isolé with Camille Delannoy
By Camille Delannoy

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