Living The Dream

Alex Grand-Guillot (Fanatic / NorthSails) is one of the aspiring, young promising pros making their way into the world of windsurfing. The 20-year-old finished 2017 ranked joint 32nd, but has a lot of ambition to become one of the world’s elite.

Grand-Guillot attended the recent PWA Qualifier in Morocco, where he not only competed, but also spent some time telling his story to some of the youth’s from Morocco…

Alex Grand-Guillot: “I had the honour of being invited by the Southern Source Foundation, for three days of meetings in colleges with the children of South Morocco.

This meeting was organised within the framework of La Caravane du Livre, this mobile cultural space furrows for years from the villages of Morocco, addressed specifically to the colleges. The aim is to promote books and culture, giving young people the opportunity to express themselves using different tools to acquire knowledge. This discussion forum, bringing together young people, authors, athletes, artists, social actors and journalists, facilitates the contact between several people, inviting them to share their ideas on a theme and to think how to arrive at developing our cultural environment through dialogue.

So I arrived on Tuesday 17th April, for the first conference with children on Wednesday and a second on Thursday in two different schools.

At first, I presented myself, I presented what I was doing, how I started windsurfing and why this sport became more than just a passion. I talked about my career, competitions, the stages to reach the high level and especially the motivation to continue to advance when one is young and that one hesitates on our way of perceiving things and that one does not know what tomorrow will bring.  After that, a 5 minute film was made so that they can see real images of Windsurf.

The message I wanted to convey was clear:

Since childhood my dream has always been to do what I love and become a professional windsurfer. I have lived many things, visited wonderful places, new countries, meet wonderful people and all thanks to the dream I have. I grew up with this dream, I share this dream, I train with this dream and it's what helps me build and flourish, and that's the beginning!

So if I live my dream, they can do it too! They have their entire lives in front of them and they are master of their choices so "go there! Go for it !! It is now and if you do not do it, someone else will do it for you. ". These were highlights with these young people, a real dialogue was in place at the end of my speech and it was nice to see them as ambitious and motivated!

It was an unforgettable experience and very rewarding with many images in my mind, it is sure that it will be with great pleasure to relive this experience and to help or inspire other people.

Now back at home, for training, more motivated than ever.”