Meet Alex and Cindy: In Search of "Perfect Spots and Freedom"

The Outdoor Journal had the chance to catch up with Alex and Cindy and ask them a few questions. But before then, if you haven't met this awesome couple before, make sure you check out their own little video intro below: [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNWxAeCRFuQ[/embed]

How did this happen? How did a guy and girl from France end up living the lives that you do? What led you to this amazing adventure?

It was quite natural in fact, we had a van, and like many people we used to go away for weekends or our holidays. Alex participated in quite a few kitesurfing competitions and we also used the van for that. And then we had done a lot of seasons on the southwest coast of France to escape the winter. This often transformed into a trip of 3 to 6 months. Living this part of the year in our van, the return was sometimes difficult :) So, why not try a full year? We let go of our apartment, and more or less overnight, we did it.

It's now been more than 4 years since we’ve been living in our Van and it’s rather nice…

Describe kitesurfing, what does it mean to you when you’re out on the water?

Kitesurfing is possibly, for us, the perfect equation between sport and adventure. Most athletes often train around the same spots, or along a sandbank to achieve their tricks, without ever considering that they have, between their hands, an incredible tool of exploration. We can travel at good speeds serious distances, and go where boats cannot. We can also fly, and that's magic. So what does this mean? Freedom, maybe, a great tool to escape.

What has been the highlight of your adventure so far?

We try to tell ourselves that we still have time to arrive at the culmination of all this. However, perhaps in secret, the goal is to never reach it, but to always find new things to discover or imagine. However, to try and answer the question, when we find places like the Mauritanian desert, right next to a world class kite spot, there we told ourselves that we found a little piece of paradise. “Sure, there must be another place even better just a little further, so let’s go, to the next stage ", and off we go! :)

If you could let yourself dream, which places would you travel to over the next year?

We have a couple of projects in our minds, maybe many. We would like particularly to find virgin places, not necessarily that no-one is aware of, at the very least that no-one has really explored fully. That's why nothing is ever 100% defined, but we would like to explore European coasts. Around Greece of course, but also Nordic countries which make us dream, their wild coasts full of history. That’s why, at the end of June, we’ll change the entire setup of our small home on wheels, to be best prepared for all conditions.

What plans do you have for the future? Is this a pursuit that you will follow forever?

Honestly, we only plan for the short term, because almost anything can happen. We work a little bit in the kite world, as riders for a brand called Zeeko-kites, but, budgets are small in this industry, so we continue little by little. Apart from this financial aspect, our plans made for always evolving, which we explore based on our ideas.

What advice would you give to people who live the rat race? Who work from 9 till 5 day in, day out, but dream of doing something different and following their dreams like you have done?

If I were to tell everyone to give up everything and just go for it, that would be far too radical and would certainly stop the vast majority of people. But at least try to detach oneself from all these “needs” and these "rules" from time to time would be a good thing. To live a little more simply reveals itself to be an easy and rewarding thing, we find in it many advantages, we see life in another way, people, and all that is around us.

We do not tell anyone to cut themselves off from the world, we would be poorly placed ourselves. One of our goals is to film, photograph, and share our journey on the internet and be followed. But in any case, the less we attach ourselves to things that seem in the beginning indispensable, the more we are better off.

So, we have chosen to live like this, we do not regret it at all, we see new things every day, do not believe in politicians who sell dreams on television, they will certainly not change our lives, the only ones who can, are you and us.

You can watch all of Alex and Cindy's videos on The Outdoor Journal YouTube Page. You can also follow them on Instagram and Facebook.