William Aliotti And Ryan Lovelace Test Drive Kanduis

“The aim was to surf Kandui Lefts, that is the test track for Ryan’s asymmetrical shapes,” William Aliotti told SURFER, beaming in from a palm-fringed Mentawai lunch bar, mid-banana pancake refuel. “Then the wind changed, and we ended surfing Rifles. Six-foot, really fun. You can’t complain.”

No, you really can’t. The 30-year-old surfer from the Caribbean Island of Saint Martin was deep into another month at Kandui Resort. He is an unofficial ambassador for the Mentawai lux camp and spends a lunar cycle each winter creating project-based content with the owners.

Two seasons ago they came up with the film How Far Can You Push a Twin Fin. While not an exactly catchy title sure does what it says on the tin. The project had Jon Pyzel, Britt Merrick, Matt Biolos and Chris Christenson each shape William a 2-board twin fin quiver specifically made for his surfing in Mentawai perfection.

It was an underrated gem. And, spoiler alert, the answer to the title is; pretty fucking far. After his 2022 opus Just Like Heaven, it was another example of how quietly, and impressively, the goofy-footer has become an influential and underrated outlier in the surfing world.

Maybe that is because he’s hard to pin down and difficult to define. He’s an alternative craft test pilot, performance surfer, progressive aerialist, slab specialist and big wave charger. His defining characteristic however is that he invariably is the the surfer who has the biggest smile on his dial.

Or as the journalist Alex Dick-Read wrote of him in TSJ. “The supernatural air man and vortex shaman remained, but now there he was, riding unconventional designs in unexpected places and doing unbelievably radical things while making them look fun and almost doable."

His latest Youtube offering PSYLOW that just dropped, is a trippy, mushroom-infused slice of his surfing taken from Europe earlier this year. From Mundaka to Portugal and Hossegor it is another weird slice of Will’s magic.

In Kandui this year, he is making another documentary, this time based on around his relationship with his shaper Ryan Lovelace and his asymmetrical creations. Lovelace has come out to the Ments as the pair push what is already one of the most creative and entertaining partnerships in surfing.

He is adamant that Ryan’s offset twin asymmetricals have changed his surfing and life. “You generate so much speed on the quicker, straighter toe side after the first pump. The rounder, softer heel side is then shaped to take all the speed and harness it,” he said. “They have release, control and speed. Oh, and they are amazing in the tube. It’s all and everything, I need.”

Aliotti has been riding the SateLite model for the past year, surfing the same 5’8” twin at Arica in Chile, El Quamao in The Canaries, Skeleton Bay, big Mundaka and much, much bigger Nazare. One, unsuccessful, aerial attempt at Nazare has to be the highest any traditional surfer has ever been attached to his surfboard without straps.

“I’ve never travelled with Ryan before, so to have ten days with him in the best surf playground in the world has been incredible,” said Will. “It's going to be fun to get his real-time perspective and see what we can cook up in the future. Already we are buzzing with new ideas.”

The plan is to release a 30-minute documentary film of the process and the results. He will initially get a cinema tour later in the year, before going online. In the meantime, he’s provided a few of the highlights on Insta so far in what has been another exception run of swell in the Ments.

However, I could see him veering his gaze from our call, and into the distant line-up. The wind had swung again, and the Kandui Left test track was again open for laps. Alloiti downed his fresh juice, bid adieu and went to do some high-speed riding on his magic carpets. The bastard.

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