To make known the sport of swimming on floats
Guillaume Turbec is 44 years old and started scuba diving at the age of 10, designing his first board at 14. Having run a dive shop in Brittany for many years, he is now a commercial agent and product designer for a diving company. At the same time, he has created his own company - Elva Sport - and is developing 3 boards for water hiking and web hiking.
These boards intended for the general public are generally used for the sporting practice of swimming on floats. It is a microsection which depends on the French Federation of Scuba Diving still little known to the general public. Until now, athletes used foams that they made themselves (like hydrospeed).
The Finboard
However, it allows to swim quickly (between 4 and 5 km/h) over long distances (Guillaume can travel up to 30 km) without getting tired "My production board is 20% more efficient than the artisanal one thanks to its hull." guillaume explains. It is for this reason that Guillaume tries to develop the practice with a wider public. He is also on tour in the south of France where his product has received great interest "I'm at the same stage as the Stand Up Paddle 10 years ago and I'm trying to develop the Finboard, but also to promote the activity" explains Guillaume.
The Finboard
Three boards for 3 different uses
The Finboard Visio is a board that allows you to palm and see the bottom at the same time thanks to its integrated porthole. Intended for the general public and rental parks, its design will have to change, but it will be designed rotomoulded polyethylene like kayaks.
A junior model should also be developed, capable of clipping onto the adult board so that in a family and educational spirit parents can introduce children to the seabed and the swimming board
Price: 259 ?
The Finboard is a swimming board with fin on float, intended for leisure or competition. Presented as the best performing board available on the market by its designer, it has a V-shaped hull for fast swimming. A handle at the front and anti-slip straps keep the swimmer in place while a hatch at the front allows for sheltered storage.
The latter will be manufactured like a boat - in moulded fibreglass or carbon - and will start production at the end of September. To produce it, Guillaume uses participative financing (you try your board and if you are convinced you pay it in advance with more interesting price conditions).
Price: 690 ? (for the first 20 numbered boards limited edition) otherwise 860 ?
The Finsail allows you to mix sailing and swimming. It has trimaran plans with a drift plan and a 2.50 m carbon mast which allows the use of a specifically developed spinnaker of 2.20 m2 "Under good conditions, you can reach 5 knots. It gives new sensations, but also an impression of speed "Guillaume explains.
It will be necessary to wait until 2017 to benefit from the Finsail since the previous ones will be the first boards developed and marketed in series.
Price: 1560 ? for the first 20 numbered boards limited edition
An ingenious engineer who develops his own products
For more than 20 years in the trade, Guillaume knows the market very well and makes his prototypes himself thanks to his technical industrial training which gives him a level of engineer "I can think a product, design it, shape it, prototype it, anticipate prostheses and shapes to make it fit... I do everything from A to Z."
The Finsail
A well-established philosophy
Elva Sport is based on 3 main principles, important for Guillaume:
- Innovative products to provide access to the maritime environment
- Defence of the local economy and image (products are designed in Brittany or France)
- Respect for the environment
But these 3 boards are not Guillaume's only projects. Indeed, the latter works on safety products on apnea, on a handisport boat for tandem sailing and has more than a dozen projects in its drawers with always in line with innovation.
