Mathieu Crépel
Mathieu Crépel can't say no. "I'm a hyperactive person, with an insatiable desire for new experiences," he perceptively summarises. Meet the most successful French freestyle snowboarder in history. Nothing less.
Born in Tarbes at the foot of the Pyrenees, Mathieu Crépel has been “extremely fortunate", he confides, to spend all his winters in the mountains, face to face with the Pic du Midi. There are even rumours that he was seen sliding before he could even walk. These early habits and a family environment with a passion for nature have led to an exemplary international career in snowboarding. The results? Four world championship titles and a few dozen medals still lying around at his parents’ house. From his competing years, Mathieu remembers the rigour of the training that he has kept as his legacy.
"The goal was clear; I had a framework and a well-paced schedule. "It wasn’t really about beating the others, but this period allowed me to be better. When I won, everyone was happy. When I lost, I worked harder. There is little room for discovery or even creativity. For the past few years, I have been trying to reinvent my profession."
"The former snowboarding champion, now a committed adventurer, combines a relentless need for adrenaline with a quest for meaning."
Mathieu Crépel has become an all-terrain adventurer and now devotes himself to both human and sporting adventures that are in line with his environmental priorities. He can be seen climbing steep snowy slopes and then having to come down from them. He has been seen surfing in 8°C water and kayaking to the Gulf of Alaska. He can be seen harnessed to his paraglider, flying over rocky cliffs or even boarding a precarious packraft on the Petrohue river in Chile without any particular whitewater skills other than a constant ability to listen to his senses in the face of the elements. He can be found in the far north of Norway in the middle of an Arctic winter, unable to choose between his snowboard and his surfboard, and ending up riding beneath the Northern Lights. Mathieu also dedicated two whole years to intensive training with the sole aim of surfing Jaws in Hawaii, known to be the most powerful wave in the world. There he met the legend Gerry Lopez and made a film about it; Shaka. In short, Mathieu Crépel only has two ideas in mind: to challenge himself and to tell beautiful stories, all accompanied by minds who share his demanding appetite. "I need to be surrounded by people who I can rely on, who have experience and expertise. I want to be able to feed off inspiring people and in return share my experience and energy with them. I don't think I'm cut out for solo travel; for me, adventure takes on its full flavour when it is shared."
Curious, observant, and amazed by the beauty of the great outdoors, with a passion for challenges and an eagerness to experience them intensely, Mathieu Crépel ticks all the boxes for a perfect partnership. This is probably what convinced the sailor Stan Thuret to invite him aboard his boat for one of the most ambitious crossings he has ever undertaken: the 2021 edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre. A real dive into the heart of the element that has stuck with him since he was a kid. “Water soothes me in all its forms. It's where I feel most comfortable.”
Through his expedition projects, the former world champion snowboarder, and now committed adventurer, combines an endless need for adrenaline with a quest for meaning. Today, he uses his fame to raise awareness of environmental issues among the younger generation. “As surfers and snowboarders, we have the chance to express ourselves in wonderful places, but which are in danger. What motivates me today is understanding how our playgrounds, which are the guarantors of the planet's global balance and sources of life, are changing.” Ambassador of the Water Family, multidisciplinary athlete and connoisseur of natural environments, Mathieu wishes to mobilise the general public around the issue of environmental protection through his favourite field: outdoor sports. “I am interested in the melting of glaciers and am currently working on an upcoming sailing expedition to Greenland. I want to try and understand what the melting will do to the water cycle, locally and then for the planet as a whole, to the ocean currents. I am aware that we will have to adapt and change our behaviour.” Connecting the dots, conveying and sharing, the enthusiastic Pyrenean never stops, and it’s for the best.
