We don’t get too many messages Russian surfers, even less from surfers who spent their grom hood mainly in Siberia! In fact Nikita Avdeev is the only one. So we had to find out more.
How did you become a surfer coming from inland Siberia… It’s not your usual route!
My dad was one of pioneers of windsurfing and kitesurfing and I was lucky to travel with him. I saw surfing in one of his magazines and it was like “Wow. that’s what I wanna do.” So we went to Vietnam and I saw waves first time in my life. I body surfed them and my parents saw my passion. Then we went to Bali for two weeks. I tried surfing and fully fell in love. After that the would take me twice a year for surf trip like a two weeks or so somewhere. The rest of thee time I was stuck at school .
And then I won first Russian junior championship and went to ISA games, which was first time a surfer shad cemented there in Russian history. I got some support from Russian friends and companies. After I grew up I got some wins in the Open competition in Russia and start competing a lot. I got to top 10 in Europe Junior Championships 2018 and now represents Russia trying to qualify for Olympics.
Was it tough?
The worst thing for me was time wasting at home. Since I started to surf around 8 till 17 years old I was spending 8-11 months at home with no waves and I could only some skate if there was no snow outside. And when I was competing I was going crazy because I had to stay inland with no waves while others had waves all time, almost every day. I was stuck in Siberia. That was the heaviest part, but now I realised that it was good to be hungry for the waves and be working out how to spend your time in the ocean smartly in.
There are quite a few Russian surfers now. Do you all surf at home or mainly travelling?
I am super stoked to tell you we have some guys who never went out of Russia or who fully learn how to surf in Russia. One of those guys is Anton Morozov. He is based in Kamchatka and he learned everything he knows by himself! But most of our surfers leaving Bali or Portugal and are travelling a lot .
What are the main areas in Russia you can you surf?
You may see over 100 people in at Saints Petersburg if it is ok swell and if it good it get super crowded. Same in Sochi (the Black Sea), the West part of Russia (Vladivostok , Sakhalin , Kamchatka ) is less crowded (almost empty) but still a lot more surfers than a 5-10 years ago and surf schools and surf shops !
The biggest problem is swell which may come once a month or more often once every two weeks. The only place where you may surf all year almost every day is Kamchatka where I am now, and it is like Hossegor or Supertubos, but only you and your friends. Also you can surf on the Arctic side of Russia but again you need some luck to get a good swell.
Is your government supporting you with training programmes or anything for the Olympics? They have had really big programmes in the past with other sports.
We have got some support for the team, at least we have now a coach who is going to Europe and ISA with us. And you can even have a salary as an Olympic athlete, but of course it is tiny compare to hockey, soccer or anything like that and there is no real a base for team training. But more and more non governmental company’s are getting in surfing in Russia. It is getting more popular and more mainstream, which is probably more good than bad.
